Still more union nurses in Texas!

PICUPNP · May 22, 2010

I would be interested to see how many nurses in Texas, who are unionized, continue to pay their dues after the first year? If I were a bettin man, I would say that the unions would start losing money after the first few months of drawing those dues out of paychecks when people get tired of not getting anything for their money.

Chico David, BSN, RN · May 22, 2010

I think you have too low an opinion of your fellow Texans. Once they see the benefits first hand, I think they are smart enough and fair-minded enough to want to pay their fair share. They are smart enough to see that a union works best when workers are united and that more members equals better contracts. Making unions work well in "right to work for less" states is harder - which is why not many unions do it successfully. But it can be done, has been done, and if anyone can do it, NNOC can.

allnurses Guide · May 23, 2010

Hospital union movement grows

05/22/2010

EL PASO -- A movement to unionize hospitals appears to be gathering steam in El Paso -- and across Texas.

Nurses, nurses' aides and workers such as custodians at Las Palmas Medical Center have voted 174-131 to join the Service Employees International Union.

The ballots were tallied late Thursday.

Also Thursday, registered nurses voted 151-71 to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, said Terri Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the hospital....

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15137901?source=most_emailed

HM2VikingRN, RN · May 23, 2010

In solidarity

allnurses Guide · Jun 4, 2010

friday, june 4, 2010,

nearly 2,000 texas rns join national nurses' union

[color=#111111]more than 1,900 texas nurses have voted in recent weeks to join the national nurses united union, which is based in large part on the california nurses association's membership and that of affiliated unions. that includes 250 who voted to join thursday night in brownsville.

[color=#111111]

[color=#111111]those rns, at valley regional medical center, capped a two-week streak during which nurses at five texas hospitals voted to be represented by the new union in national labor relations board-supervised tallies, a streak nnu described friday as a "historic sweep that could alter the nation's labor and political landscape."

[color=#111111]the texas facilities will be represented by the national nurses organizing committee-texas, an affiliate of 155,000-member national nurses united, union officials said june 4.

[color=#111111]

[color=#111111]the hospitals include corpus christi medical center in corpus christi, del sol medical center and las palmas medical center in el paso, rio grande regional hospital in mcallen, along with valley regional, all of which are operated by the nation's largest hospital for-profit system, hca....

[color=#111111]...previously, just one private hospital, houston's cypress fairbanks, was previously unionized, according to nnu....

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/05/31/daily63.html

honeycalifornia · Jul 9, 2010

I am curious to see if anyone knows once Del sol and Las palmas become unionized what will RN pay be? I heard union was going to try to get the RNs in El Paso get the same pay like in CA

Chico David, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2010

I am curious to see if anyone knows once Del sol and Las palmas become unionized what will RN pay be? I heard union was going to try to get the RNs in El Paso get the same pay like in CA

It's all a matter of negotiation. Not likely to go clear up to California level wages in one jump, especially in a difficult economy when the nurses have a little less leverage than usual. But the biggest variable is how united and firm the nurses there are. If they act unified and send management a clear message that they are determined to make reasonable gains, then they will. If they are apathetic and the nurses who voted not to unionize work to undercut the bargaining team, then they won't gain as much. I've been on bargaining teams, and the most important part of the process is not actually what happens at the table, but how much support the nurses show - like if the bargaining team asks the nurses to come to a rally to show support on a particular issue and no one shows up, then you will lose on that issue, since management gets the message the nurses don't really care. But if the nurses turn out and send a strong message, then you have a better chance to make gains on that issue.

honeycalifornia · Jul 9, 2010

It's all a matter of negotiation. Not likely to go clear up to California level wages in one jump, especially in a difficult economy when the nurses have a little less leverage than usual. But the biggest variable is how united and firm the nurses there are. If they act unified and send management a clear message that they are determined to make reasonable gains, then they will. If they are apathetic and the nurses who voted not to unionize work to undercut the bargaining team, then they won't gain as much. I've been on bargaining teams, and the most important part of the process is not actually what happens at the table, but how much support the nurses show - like if the bargaining team asks the nurses to come to a rally to show support on a particular issue and no one shows up, then you will lose on that issue, since management gets the message the nurses don't really care. But if the nurses turn out and send a strong message, then you have a better chance to make gains on that issue.

@David-So what is your perception of it? Do you feel that the nurses at del sol and las palmas are united enough and willing to stand up for themselvs and tell the hospital that they finally need recognition, or is this whole thing starting to fade away now? I might be wrong on this one, but I noticed nurses here in El paso are sort of quiet and passive nature and don't seem to object to much (maybe this is cultural component and not in the bed way), so it will be very easy for managment to take advantage of them.

Also Dave, if in fact these hospitals are unionized do you know when would this take effect?

Go El Paso

tnx

Chico David, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2010

@David-So what is your perception of it? Do you feel that the nurses at del sol and las palmas are united enough and willing to stand up for themselvs and tell the hospital that they finally need recognition, or is this whole thing starting to fade away now? I might be wrong on this one, but I noticed nurses here in El paso are sort of quiet and passive nature and don't seem to object to much (maybe this is cultural component and not in the bed way), so it will be very easy for managment to take advantage of them.
Also Dave, if in fact these hospitals are unionized do you know when would this take effect?
Go El Paso
tnx

I don't really know the local conditions well enough to comment on the state of the nurses there or how united they are. I remember the votes as havng been fairly strong, which is a good sign. The nurses there are unionized now, in the sense that they are now officially represented by a union (NNOC). The next big step is the negotiation of a contract. That can easily take several months. The fact that the parent company has contracts with NNOC in other places helps - if the nurses on the bargaining team are satisfied with parts of the language in those existing contracts it can make things go faster than when you have to do everything from scratch. Once a contract is negotiated, then the nurses vote to ratify it and that's the point when the contract begins to govern and the nurses begin to pay dues (those who choose to join, since that's the law in Texas).

SherwoodRN · Jul 12, 2012

The Nurses of Rio Grande Regional Hospital have voted today July 11 2012 to Decertify the NNOC as their bargaining agent. Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen Texas is union free and united once more.

ocankhe · Aug 11, 2012

Having first hand experience in organizing the unionization of my employer and obtaining an initial contract I am not surprised by the length of time involved.Obtaining an initial union contract takes a long time, particularly if the employer wants to continue to resist and fight. Thus hoping their employees will give up and vote out the union thereby negating the original vote. It is even more difficult in the right to work states.

Our first contract took over 18 months to obtain, after the ratifying vote, and although there was resistance to parts of the contract the employer accepted the presence of the union and did not try for desertification.