I work for a "small town" hospital (that continues to expand)
with a few local smaller branches in surrounding areas.
Recently, a large group of nurses have decided to bring the union in. So naturally management has been frantic to make them disappear. I should note that years and years ago this same thing happened and the outcome was a big fail (obviously).
So far we have been pulled to 90-minute-long anti-union meetings (while at work, on the clock) lead by outsiders no one has ever seen before, stopped by coworkers in management who are anti-union to hear them out, and staffing ratios seem strangely generous lately (which management has recently pointed out as well). Not to mention the union reps coming door-to-door to make sure we vote (annoying I know). All leading up to the big vote approaching in the next few weeks.
Years ago the nurses tried bringing a union in but decided to give management a chance with all of their promises/plans for better changes, and the union was no-more. WELL, nothing changed... in fact it got worse. Staffing ratios are the big topic of discussion, as well as others.
It is all so suffocating!! I don't hate my job but I am sick of telling management what our issues are and what we think may help us and then literally NOTHING happening. I also can't stand hearing the hate-speeches from both sides but I don't wanna be a non-voter. I want to be an INFORMED-voter and I want the whole truth. Patient safety is teetering on the edge of danger and doom with the overwhelming demands on top of poor staffing ratios, but trusting management again is hard. Temporary fixes are more of an insult from them anymore.
I just want to know, what am I going expect if the union gets voted in?
and what are the pros/cons both with and without the union?
Basically, where are we as nurses going to find the most benefits for us (and our patients) between the two opposing sides?
Here are some questions to ask yourself about having a Union Contract (essentially a labor contract), a group of Union Representatives, a group of Union Leaders, Union Dues, and the benefits of Collective Bargaining (it's a package deal):
1. Hospital Executives and Hospital Management already have a union. Their union is everyone in the group of execs & managers! Believe this: They stick together like a country club or fraternity. If they belong to a union of hospital execs & management, why shouldn't you belong to a union of Registered Nurses?
2. Hospital Executives already have a Labor Contract**! For management, it is essentially their set of Executive & Management Contracts! If a Labor Contract is good for management and executives, wouldn't a Labor Contract be good for Registered Nurses as well? If management has a labor contract, why wouldn't you want one too?
(** In reality, their labor contract is actually a bunch of smaller, more specific contracts. They have a contract when they hire on. They have a contract if they are terminated. They have a contract for their retirement. They have a contract with how they work with their board of directors. Why so many contracts? There is usually not just one attorney who wrote the contract, there are 2-4 attorneys working on the individual topics: hiring, termination, retirement, management. Can you imagine a study group with four attorneys writing a class paper & all agreeing on the wording? They work separately--they'd kill each other in frustration over sentences & wording if they didn't.)
It comes down to: The fuss is mainly over nurses having a labor contract. Management doesn't want you to have a contract. They got theirs already.
Having a contract means having power in advance of an event. They don't want you to have power. They got their power (their pile of contracts), and they don't want you to have any.
And, I'd like to answer the question, "Why pay union dues?" It will pay for your group of attorneys you all will need to help write your employment (union) contracts on nurse hiring, nurse termination, nurse safety, nurse retirement, patient safety (e.g. safe nurse/pt ratios, safe hours) etc.
And, one final question I'll answer that hasn't been asked:
"Q. The community doesn't seem to be behind the idea of nurses unionizing at the hospital, what do we do to win the community over?"
"A. Make sure that part of your labor contract addresses patient & nurse safety. Who isn't going to be behind increasing patient & nurse safety?" The Mayo Clinic, as well as the entire state of California have reasonable nurse/pt ratio limits. Why should your hospital not have contracted nurse/pt ratios as well?
The community doesn't seem to be behind the idea of nurses unionizing at the hospital, what do we do to win the community over?"
The community I live in was made aware that the largest part of the contract focused on patient safety and we have a "no-strike" clause so they know we care about them. Despite how that may sound the fact that we have that clause does not take the teeth out of the contract. We do have picket lines and we make a lot of noise.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I never liked unions because I didn't like putting my hard-earned money toward causes I disagreed with.
You pay your taxes and you're putting your hard earned money toward causes with which you likely disagree. You might be great with paying for EMS and other first responders but disagree with sending our troops to Afghanistan. You might be in favor of military spending but in total disagreement with Medicaid. Maybe you want to support education and maybe you feel that since you never had children you shouldn't have to. I personally don't like Dominos stand on abortion, Chik-Fil-A's stand on same-sex marriage or Hollywood's pay inequality issues, but I still go to the movies, eat chicken (if there's nothing better around) and if Dominos is the only pizza to be delivered I'll order it.
-Being in a union is like paying for insurance. You don't need it until you need it.
-A union is made up of humans. It's not a magical immediate fix all for problems you have now or in the future. If you have crappy humans in charge of anything, it will fail. If you don't support even the non-crappy union people, it could fail.
-Change takes a long time and one negotiated contract wont fix all your ails.
-Unions can't ever fix an organization that may have crap upper and lower management. If they wont pay you fair market rate have a dangerous work environment and don't ever work towards making things right, they're probably not worth working for. A lot of this is societal. I think things are pretty good in the US and it's going to have to be really bad for unions to get big and accepted again. There is a much larger ongoing discussion about what is fair, how we spend our money and etc. in the US.
-In my experience those who have complained about the union dues have never attended a meeting or know their reps (go ahead, ask them.) One must participate at least on a very basic level to have it all work.
DaisySigma_MBA
2 Posts
Here are some questions to ask yourself about having a Union Contract (essentially a labor contract), a group of Union Representatives, a group of Union Leaders, Union Dues, and the benefits of Collective Bargaining (it's a package deal):
1. Hospital Executives and Hospital Management already have a union. Their union is everyone in the group of execs & managers! Believe this: They stick together like a country club or fraternity. If they belong to a union of hospital execs & management, why shouldn't you belong to a union of Registered Nurses?
2. Hospital Executives already have a Labor Contract**! For management, it is essentially their set of Executive & Management Contracts! If a Labor Contract is good for management and executives, wouldn't a Labor Contract be good for Registered Nurses as well? If management has a labor contract, why wouldn't you want one too?
(** In reality, their labor contract is actually a bunch of smaller, more specific contracts. They have a contract when they hire on. They have a contract if they are terminated. They have a contract for their retirement. They have a contract with how they work with their board of directors. Why so many contracts? There is usually not just one attorney who wrote the contract, there are 2-4 attorneys working on the individual topics: hiring, termination, retirement, management. Can you imagine a study group with four attorneys writing a class paper & all agreeing on the wording? They work separately--they'd kill each other in frustration over sentences & wording if they didn't.)
It comes down to: The fuss is mainly over nurses having a labor contract. Management doesn't want you to have a contract. They got theirs already.
Having a contract means having power in advance of an event. They don't want you to have power. They got their power (their pile of contracts), and they don't want you to have any.
And, I'd like to answer the question, "Why pay union dues?" It will pay for your group of attorneys you all will need to help write your employment (union) contracts on nurse hiring, nurse termination, nurse safety, nurse retirement, patient safety (e.g. safe nurse/pt ratios, safe hours) etc.
And, one final question I'll answer that hasn't been asked:
"Q. The community doesn't seem to be behind the idea of nurses unionizing at the hospital, what do we do to win the community over?"
"A. Make sure that part of your labor contract addresses patient & nurse safety. Who isn't going to be behind increasing patient & nurse safety?" The Mayo Clinic, as well as the entire state of California have reasonable nurse/pt ratio limits. Why should your hospital not have contracted nurse/pt ratios as well?