Strike breaking agency recruiting nurses

lindarn · Apr 24, 2012

I submitted the above thread. Sorry that my name did not make it in.

This was E mailed to me this afternoon.

Anyway, it really burns my *** when I see stuff like this. Using the poor economy to recruit nurses to back stab nurses who are trying to make changes in their work enviroment.

The hospitals can always find enough money to pay top dollar to strike breakers, but pull the empty pockets routine at new contract time!

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

amoLucia · Apr 24, 2012

SO TRUE! It hurts me when I drive by a facility that has its nurses on strike outside. Everybody keeps on driving in like business as usual. Why don't the unionized delivery truck drivers honor the picket line?!? Oh well, it's only women nurses! NOTE: I'm being sarcastic! Don't get me started on my soapbox with nursing as a female occupation!

amoLucia · Apr 24, 2012

SO TRUE!! It hurts me when I drive by a facility and see its nurses outside and everybody is driving in like business as usual. Why don't unionized delivery truck drivers honor the picket? Oh well, it's only women nurses!! NOTE: I'm being sarcastic. Don't get me started on my 'nursing as female occupation' soapbox!

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Apr 24, 2012

I understand CEOs who try to stiff employees.

I understand nurses who strike.

What I can't understand is a nurse who sells out a fellow nurse over money.

nicurn001 · Apr 24, 2012

They do it for the patients ! NOT , the money of course .

RhinoRocketRN · Apr 24, 2012

Those truck drivers need $$ too... just like the RNs that, too need to work and cross the picket lines that already work at a striking facility.

nicurn001 · Apr 24, 2012

This thread is futile and has been covered many times before and probably many times in the future . But to those that are thimking about strike breaking , for the pay mentioned you are selling yourself cheap , I recieve more in my regular salary than this , as do many of my coworkers . We get paid these rates due to the area in which we work ( north California ) and because we worked , collectively to attain these rates . So rather than work against us to reduce us to your pay levels , why not put the same effort in as we did to raise your self to our levels of pay .

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Apr 26, 2012

This one has always has me torn. If my union votes to go on strike, I'll go on strike. But I know that nurses will have to be hired to care for patients during the strike and I'll have no ill feelings toward them.

ctnjason · Apr 26, 2012

I hate to inform you but a temp / travel / per diem / whatever nurse making $$ is not backstabbing other nurses. Call it what you want, drama it up, use loaded words like "back stabbing" or whatever you want, but the truth hurts. I AM IN A UNION and i get so aggravated at the union jumping to use loaded tirades like "the hospital doesnt care about safety" and things like that whenever the rumor of temp nurses come into play during a strike or crisis.

The purpose of a union is to fight for better wages / rights. Once said contract is agreed on by both sides, then both sides have to honor that. I understand that. Once the contract is up, the facility has EVERY right to do whatever it needs to do. This is rather your union likes it or not. It amazes me once negotiations start and theres any hint of strike, it immediately begins with "the crazy greedy hospital that cares nothing about the patients hires temporary back stabbing nurses that will create a hell hole cesspool of scariness and its ALL the hospitals fault!" Working for a union is great BUT i know good and well that i am still replaceable if and when that time comes. It would not have hurt my feelings at all to see every teacher in wisconsin get replaced last year..... all their drama stirring about how the state doesnt care about "the kids". "The patient" is the nurses claim when things dont go their way.

nicurn001 · Apr 26, 2012

ctnjason you are correct in that both sides in a negotiation have various courses of action they can choose ,however when a strike is called ( after those who will be going on strike have voted for it ) then there are 10 days in which to ensure any patients at the effected facility are adequately cared for.

The problem of the "abandoned" patient comes about because of managements choice to keep their facility open while their regular staff are unavailable , BOTH sides will portray the other in as poor a light as they can .

Why does management keep its facility open , while there is a strike there ? , because if they closed it would make the strike appear effective and reduce their income .

Why do strikers have a negative opinion of strike breakers , because it makes the strike less effective and reduces pressure upon the employer to negotiate .

As I said earlier , if you have to leave the area in which you live to strike break in order to gain an adequate income , why don't you work to get better pay and conditions at home rather than come here to help employers in there race to the bottom of the pay scales .

I believe the golden years of this country were when the great generation came home from WW2 , they were educated due to the GI bill , used the vote in their economic interest ( not more concerned abou what is happening in somebody elses bedroom ) , bargained collectively for better pay and conditions through these actions a prosperous , vibrant middle class created a country in which all benefitted from the wealth created. Now the middle class is shrinking and we have a race to the bottom because all those things that created the middle class have been either taken away from us or we simply gave them up ourselves .

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Apr 26, 2012

As I said earlier , if you have to leave the area in which you live to strike break in order to gain an adequate income , why don't you work to get better pay and conditions at home rather than come here to help employers in there race to the bottom of the pay scales .

The above borders on childish.

Closing down hospitals in response to RN strikes is simply not feasible. Someone has to take care of patients during a strike - they aren't factory tools - and even though someone does take care of them, strikes are still very effective.

You have a very rose colored view of post WW2 era labor relations as they relate to middle class prosperity. The US was the world's ultimate and utterly unchallenged military, economic, and manufacturing superpower. It isn't difficult to have a thriving middle class in the postwar 1940s. (As long as you were white).