To Unionize or Not To Unionize: Questions that every nurse should ask themselves

nicurn001 · May 30, 2008

If you wish to be a small cog in a large organization , look into SEIU .If you hope to have a more effective voice indirecting your Union look into CNA/NNOC.

I don't know if there are anymore options in Florida , maybe some of the local posters will respond to your enquiry.

Ludlow · May 30, 2008

I am a former Hospital HR Director and my wife is an RN. In the area in which we live, all the hospitals are owned by one system. Thus, no competion and all power is with the administration. And, believe me, they use it! I would like to gain information as to which unions are best for nurses to consider electing these days, as I would like to help them organize here. We live in Florida. Thanks for any help you may give and for being the wonderful caregivers you are. People don't fully appreciate the work nurses do!

Where did you work as the HR director? I'm glad you're thinking union protection is valuable and you are so right. We live in a world that sees the patient as a dollar sign. RNs have a moral, ethical and at least in California, legal duty to advocate for their patients. They are individuals to us who need our care and protection from the greedy health care system.

Unions and union contracts can help make hospitals do right by their patients.

I strongly suggest NNOC/CNA. We have the best contracts in the country with the most patient-protective language. We just won in a hospital in Texas, maybe the most union-phobic state in the nation. If Florida nurses have half the spunk of the Texas nurses they'll be fine bringing in NNOC. Check out http://www.calnurses.org for info. You'll find stuff about RN to Patient Ratios that we California Nurses love and stories about how nurses in Chicago and Houston joined up.

Good luck and I hope to see you at some NNOC function some day!

RN4MERCY · May 31, 2008

I am a former Hospital HR Director and my wife is an RN. In the area in which we live, all the hospitals are owned by one system. Thus, no competion and all power is with the administration. And, believe me, they use it! I would like to gain information as to which unions are best for nurses to consider electing these days, as I would like to help them organize here. We live in Florida. Thanks for any help you may give and for being the wonderful caregivers you are. People don't fully appreciate the work nurses do!

Absolutely, your wife and her colleagues will not find a more righteous social, professional, and patient advocacy organization than the National Nurses Organizing Committee, founded by the California Nurses Association!

WE STAND TOGETHER

We pledge to act in solidarity with our colleagues, NNOC members and other direct care nurses, who choose to act in conscience as collective patient advocates.

WE BELIEVE

All patients derserve a high quality single standard of care.

Registered Nurses are the essential care providers to ensure that all patients receive this standard of care.

Nurses have an obligation to use their collective power to advocate for their patients' interests-- and their own.

WE STAND FOR OUR RIGHT TO ACT COLLECTIVELY, taking direct action on behalf of our patients.

AS PATIENT ADVOCATES, for those under our care and their families.

AS A GROUP TO IMPROVE our conditions, wages, benefits and respect for our profession at our facility and in our nation.

SOCIALLY, to further the goal of universal health care and a healthy life for all.

WE PLEDGE OUR SOLIDARITY TO SUPPORT RNs IN COLLECTIVE PATIENT ADVOCACY

To speak and act on behalf of our patients.

To unite against actions by a health care facility, government agency or private interest group that infringe upon our obligations as RNs.

To unite against actions that interfere with RNs' right to form their own organization, take action in their own name and improve conditions for all nurses. :up:

http://www.calnurses.org/nnoc/join-nnoc.html

forrester · Jun 3, 2008

I am a former Hospital HR Director and my wife is an RN. In the area in which we live, all the hospitals are owned by one system. Thus, no competion and all power is with the administration. And, believe me, they use it! I would like to gain information as to which unions are best for nurses to consider electing these days, as I would like to help them organize here. We live in Florida. Thanks for any help you may give and for being the wonderful caregivers you are. People don't fully appreciate the work nurses do!

The CNA/NNOC is our best hope here in Florida.

The FNA is pitiful, representing less than 4% of the nurses in Florida.

Very un-original thinking, and oriented to a conservative political agenda.

I don't consider myself a "service worker", or a cook.

The most successful union in Florida is at Jackson Memorial in Miami, and it's success is at least partly due to the terms of their unionization, which allowed the membership of some administrative nurses.

Florida nurses are beat up, skittish. Had too many promises broken, too many administrative schemes shoved down their throats.

Too many acute patients in a shift, too little support staff.

Florida nurses are skeptical, and don't really believe anyone cares, or can do anything about it even if they do.

Florida nurses are paranoid. Too many stories of terminations if you even look like the "organizing" type.

But I've worked in a few states, and there are some great nurses here in Florida.

If any state NEEDS a labor movement for nurses, it's Florida.

C'mon down CNA/NNOC, let's talk. But mums the word (SH SH)

mobilsurgrn · Jun 3, 2008

The CNA/NNOC is our best hope here in Florida.
C'mon down CNA/NNOC, let's talk. But mums the word (SH SH)

They will be there soon. Get out your checkbook....

If CNA is your best hope- move.

Ludlow · Jun 3, 2008

They will be there soon. Get out your checkbook....
If CNA is your best hope- move.

Au CONTRAIRE!!!

Get ready to stand together for the benefit of your patients and your profession. Get ready for manageable care assignments. Get ready for being able to ACTUALLY take your mandated-by-law lunch and break time! (surely Florida acknowledges that workers need lunch and break time away from the floor) Get ready for managers as well as law makers paying attention to what you know and what you say!!

It's a boon to our professionalism and a blessing for our patients to have the power of NNOC/CNA nurses speaking up and working together for them.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Jun 3, 2008

I am a former Hospital HR Director and my wife is an RN. In the area in which we live, all the hospitals are owned by one system. Thus, no competion and all power is with the administration. And, believe me, they use it! I would like to gain information as to which unions are best for nurses to consider electing these days, as I would like to help them organize here. We live in Florida. Thanks for any help you may give and for being the wonderful caregivers you are. People don't fully appreciate the work nurses do!

CNA/NNOC are quite active....

There are 2 legislative changes needed.

1. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act at the federal level

2. Repeal Florida's Right to Work for less laws...

In Solidarity

mdfog10 · Jun 3, 2008

Nurses united and working together can change our healthcare system. Nothing gets accomplished without action. Be part of the solution !:redbeathe

HM2VikingRN, RN · Jun 7, 2008

Julia RN · Jun 7, 2008

There are 2 legislative changes needed.
1. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act at the federal level
2. Repeal Florida's Right to Work for less laws...
In Solidarity

So Right- these laws are what has hampered organizing efforts there.

I know some excellent, courageous, union nurses in Florida that are represented by the UAN- a national union of and by RNs, also part of the AFL.

See: http://www.uannurse.org/organize/union.html

Psychtrish39, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2008

I am basically anti-union. I see unions as more middle management trying to secure their jobs and livilihood in the union. So far I doubt that a meat packers union or an electricaians union know a rats a## about nursing and therefore could not properly represent nurses. Having said that, I am not opposed to a professional nurses union for nurses only with only a nursing
agenda. I have not been impressed with ANA to join and am kind of ticked off having gone for a BS degree because I was lied to years ago by being told that in a few years there would not be any AD nurses. Maybe something new and fresh with a goal and plan and leadership by people with a vision on where nursing could and should be going would be worth a union.

Well I was in a AFGE union and had missed time at work a total of two weeks and I had doctor's notes but my manager considered me AWOL it was a federal job and in my two year probationary period and the president sat there and watched me being told I would be terminated but until the paperwork came through I needed to still keep coming to work until the papers were filtered down to me. I went home wrote a letter of resignation turned my keys in at the advice of self same president of union and so I don't know what help they are and so far as keeping your job. I do believe they help with wages and benefits but at the VA my manager had final say on how my absences were recorded . She could have given me leave without pay, let me use annual leave I have or AWOL. I think she choose AWOL to be punitive . I wanted to keep working . I know life and nursing is not fair but I really don't know what to think about anyone anymore in the healthcare field . :crying2:

RN4MERCY · Aug 20, 2008

Well I was in a AFGE union and had missed time at work a total of two weeks and I had doctor's notes but my manager considered me AWOL it was a federal job and in my two year probationary period and the president sat there and watched me being told I would be terminated but until the paperwork came through I needed to still keep coming to work until the papers were filtered down to me. I went home wrote a letter of resignation turned my keys in at the advice of self same president of union and so I don't know what help they are and so far as keeping your job. I do believe they help with wages and benefits but at the VA my manager had final say on how my absences were recorded . She could have given me leave without pay, let me use annual leave I have or AWOL. I think she choose AWOL to be punitive . I wanted to keep working . I know life and nursing is not fair but I really don't know what to think about anyone anymore in the healthcare field .

Something just doesn't sound right about this and if you could provide some clarification regarding "two year probationary period;" re: was this "probation" because you were a new hire, or was it as a result of a prior disciplinary warning/counselling? There are differences in unions, however the most important benefit of belonging to a union is the fact that you have Weingarten Rights. The union has the duty of fair representation, the ability to investigate and enforce contract provisions related to wages, hours, and working conditions; however the employer has affirmative duties under the law with regards to disability due to illness/injury, and in the application of the FMLA law. There are eligibility, documentation, and "reasonable notice" requirements for the use of medical leave, and your eligibility may be based on number of hours worked and whether or not the paperwork you submitted complied with the law. Hospital policies must be grounded in the law. You stated, "she could have given" you leave, or, "let you use" your annual leave, but was this something you applied for in advance? If not, your manager may have some discretion, depending on the type of "probation" status you were under.

As one of the nurse reps/(a.k.a. stewards in other unions), in our union, I know some of these issues can be complicated. Sometimes the best answer is to advise the nurse to find a "better fit" and perhaps, a "letter of resignation" could have been good advice too, depending on the circumstances. A resignation is better than being terminated for cause. Do you still have access to healthcare?

Please consider joining the fight for a national health care plan. And, if you're unable to work due to illness or injury, or unable to afford COBRA, or have been denied insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions, get more information and consider telling your story at:

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org