Teach me about the National Right to Work Committee

Sherwood · Aug 18, 2005

Uh ... this doesn't make much sense By your own account, and according to your own website, CNA got you more money than you would on your own.
http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm
So ... how did CNA fail to negotiate better wages? According to your website, they did.

Sorry Liz,

You have things a little out of context here. Please read the threads between spacenurse and I. She pointed out that the CNA, voted in at Whittier Hospital under the illegal neutrality agreement was UNABLE to negotiate a contract before they were finally removed from Whittier Hospital. No contract, no wage adjustments, no benefits package of any kind. So the CNA did not get the nurses anything other than a lesson in how not to negotiate a contract legal or otherwise.

The NLRB and administrative memos announcing the illegal contract made by the CNA are available to be read at www.stopunions.com. A silmilar agreement between the SEIU and Tenet was also made and at that time and the CNA predicted it too would be found illegal. This has yet to be tested in court.

If any nurse is working at a Tenet or former Tenet hospital and the CNA or SEIU were voted in as a result of negotions made under a neutrality agreement and they would like to remove the union because the neutrality agreement was ruled "unfair assisstance to the union" by the NLRB, I am sure that the National Right to Work would help you in your case. I would first visit them at www.NRTW.org.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to voice my opinions and giving me the informative and educational feedback. I always welcome the chance to listen (or read) the opinons of those with an opposing view. Education is the key here and we must always listen to both sides of any story. Any efforts by a person or group to muzzle those with an opposing view must be suspect.

Sherwood

Nancy2 · Aug 18, 2005

CNA does not collect dues for representation at a facility until the represented nursesapprove a contract by a majority vote.
I check out the CNA web site often. I believe if there had been a contract at Whittier it would have been posted.

With the Tenet peace accord all the contracts were "pre-negotiated" for the most part with only certain items left to individual hoapitals, the election resulted in an "automatic" contract which enabled CNA to start collecting dues from day one.

Just an FYI.

And for Lizz: Western Medical Center Santa Ana did not elect CNA to represent them. You continually say that http://www.stopunions.com admits to getting a better pay raise with CNA. Actually Western Medical Santa Ana got a better raise than they would have with CNA because they got the 8% that the "model conract" called for without the dues deduction and the KEPT their merit pay increases on top of that. So I don't understand your claims.

Sheri257 · Aug 18, 2005

And for Lizz: Western Medical Center Santa Ana did not elect CNA to represent them. You continually say that http://www.stopunions.com admits to getting a better pay raise with CNA. Actually Western Medical Santa Ana got a better raise than they would have with CNA because they got the 8% that the "model conract" called for without the dues deduction and the KEPT their merit pay increases on top of that. So I don't understand your claims.

What don't you understand? Look at the bottom of the page:

http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm

It clearly states that RN's would make $1,447 more a year with CNA than without.

Total Net CNA: $60,300.10

Total Net WMC: $58,951.53

It's all there on the website. Unless you're saying that Sherwood got it wrong.

:rolleyes:

pickledpepperRN · Aug 18, 2005

I THINK there is a link for every fact here. I think it is good to know as much as possible about a nationawide organization that seems to have taken such an interest in nursing in California.

No link but I think that possibly they have spent a LOT of money on the decertifications being posted about here.

National Right to Work Committee. - http://www.nrtw.org/

Seems this group defies court orders to divulge where their funding comes from.

The Walton Family Foundation gave RTW $15,000 a year from 2000 to 2002. They received $3.64 million in grants from 1991 to 2003 from a variety of sources-primarily the John M. Olin Foundation Inc (largest manufacturer of ammunition in the U.S.A.)., which gave $1,985,000, according to http://www.mediatransparency.org .

But that is a small amount compared to the $15 million a year budget made possible by secret corporate backers.

Most disturbing for us in California is Michael Grebe of the Bradley Foundation. He was CEO of the Hospital Association (CHA) which has fought against safe staffing since 1976 when we, the CNA, lobbied for and won critical care ratios of two or fewer patients per nurse at all times in critical care units. In addition to spending money and effort to fight against safe staffing the CHA opposed the Whistleblower protection law, and opposed the law that requires a telephone advice nurse to be licensed.

Bradley funded the author of the "Bell Curve". Remember that book claiming minorities are inherently inferior?

Then there was the NRTWC accusing firefighters and paramedic unions of "presenting a clear and present danger to the security of the United States"

http://www.leadershipdirectories.com/fmnsyb5.htm

Foundation Executive Previous Position

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Michael W. Grebe

President (Beginning July 2002) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Foley & Lardner(Until July 2002)

http://www.calhealth.org/public/chpac/pres.html

CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

Corporate Donors

Foley & Lardner LLP

http://www.foley.com

California Hospital Association Files Appeal Seeking to Overturn Nurse Ratio Ruling - March 17, 2005 (pdf) - http://www.calhealth.org/public/pre...e%20 31605.pdf

Harry Bradley

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.ph...dley_Foundation

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, according to The Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, was giving away more than $30 million per year. (http://www.mediatransparency.org/fu....php?funderID=1 )

"The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. -- and the world -- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business"...

http://www.mediatransparency.org/fu....php?funderID=1

Bradley is also a heavy funder of University of California Regent Ward Connerly and his American Civil Rights Institute. Connerly was a leading figure in the anti-affirmative action campaign in California. He also tried to prevent listing race in medical statistics for research purposes in the name of "racial privacy"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...MNGENASPGV1.DTL

http://www.apha.org/Journal/editorials/edsept.htm

http://www.annonline.com/interviews.../biography.html

Charles Murray is the Bradley Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In 1994, he and the late Richard J. Herrnstein published The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, one of the most widely debated works of social science in recent decades.

http://www.srv.net/~msdata/bell.html

http://www.calhealth.org/public/chpac/index.html

http://www.calhealth.org/public/pre...e%20 31605.pdf

http://www.calhealth.org/public/pre...030,%202003.pdf

http://www.uaw.org/solidarity/05/0605/feature06.cfm

Oh, i didn't say or imply that I know what happened at Whittier. I just stated that NO DUES are collected for union representation by CNA unless there is a contract.

I am VERY glad for our contract.

Patients are alive because of it. We have enough nurses because of it.

Nancy2 · Aug 19, 2005

What don't you understand? Look at the bottom of the page:
http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm
It clearly states that RN's would make $1,447 more a year with CNA than without.
Total Net CNA: $60,300.10
Total Net WMC: $58,951.53
It's all there on the website. Unless you're saying that Sherwood got it wrong.

Yes the page you refer to was done prior to the election at WMC. Using the typical raise that nurses were used to getting.

After the vote the nurses did not elect CNA, they got the 8% that had been "pre-negotiated", :) AND they got to keep their 4% merit pay increases, which wound up being much better than what CNA would have gotten or did get in other facilities and they paid NO DUES

If you look at some of the other pages on the website that occur after the election, you can see this. :)

Sheri257 · Aug 19, 2005

Sorry Liz,
You have things a little out of context here. Please read the threads between spacenurse and I. She pointed out that the CNA, voted in at Whittier Hospital under the illegal neutrality agreement was UNABLE to negotiate a contract before they were finally removed from Whittier Hospital. No contract, no wage adjustments, no benefits package of any kind. So the CNA did not get the nurses anything other than a lesson in how not to negotiate a contract legal or otherwise.

Well ... if anything is out of context, then it's your own website. Why is this not explained on this page?

http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm

Again ... It clearly states that RN's would make $1,447 more a year with CNA than without. Unless you're now saying your own website is wrong. :rolleyes:

And ... just because CNA didn't get a contract because of the NLRB decision ... doesn't mean they didn't help nurses get raises. Management often gives in on raises to try to keep the troops happy and convince them to vote against the union. I've seen this first hand many times, not just at hospitals where unions are trying to organize but at neighboring hospitals where management is trying to discourage the union from coming into their facilities as well.

The presence of union activity can provoke better pay raises for nurses in the entire region. That doesn't mean the union doesn't deserve credit for the raises because, without that union activity, those raises never would have occurred.

:coollook:

Sherwood · Aug 23, 2005

Well ... if anything is out of context, then it's your own website. Why is this not explained on this page?
http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm
Again ... It clearly states that RN's would make $1,447 more a year with CNA than without. Unless you're now saying your own website is wrong.
And ... just because CNA didn't get a contract because of the NLRB decision ... doesn't mean they didn't help nurses get raises. Management often gives in on raises to try to keep the troops happy and convince them to vote against the union. I've seen this first hand many times, not just at hospitals where unions are trying to organize but at neighboring hospitals where management is trying to discourage the union from coming into their facilities as well.
The presence of union activity can provoke better pay raises for nurses in the entire region. That doesn't mean the union doesn't deserve credit for the raises because, without that union activity, those raises never would have occurred.

Once again I am appreciative of this forum.

Thank you for reminding me that I have to update that page on my website. It was originally created for my hospital only, when we were fighting to keep the CNA out. It served its purpose and we did beat them.

I believe if you look at the big picture unionizations costs far outweigh any benefit. Because of unions, prices for goods and services must increase to offset the costs of pensions, unreasonable pay demands and of course all that litigation.

What I also refuse to support is the political ideas of most of the unions. It is not democratic. Many unions the CNA included border on pure socialism. I refuse to support socialized medicine. Do you want to be taxed like Canada or the European countries? Pay union dues on top of a 50% or more tax bracket? No thank you! Do you support the Green Party? Ralph Nader?

What about the fact that unions, the CNA and SEIU included do not support merit pay for employees who's performance is above and beyond expectations? the mediocre employee who punches in, does just enough of his or her job well enough to keep from getting fired gets the same pay as you or I who truly takes pride in our work and has to support the slackers. This system costs out weighs its benefit.

This is why we need organizations like the NRTW and their free legal assisstance.To help employees in their efforts to avoid unionization or remove a union. The unions will provide for employees who support them. Look at the salaries the unions pay the nurses who go to other hospitals and promote the union. See the Scripps page on www.stopunions.com/scripps.htm. The employers cannot do the same for employees who are against the union. We have to do it on our own with our own money like I do with www.stopunions.com. If my employer provided financial support for my efforts it would be illegal. The unions on the other hand can pay for you to fly accross the country and put you up in a nice hotel if they wanted to. Your dues pay for it.