Trying to Bust a Strike

Town & Country · Oct 29, 2004

Thanks.

This is why nurses get treated like you know what by the administration. They know that for every nurse who will stand up for what is right and fair, there will be plenty more who will accuse them of bieng selfish and "abandoning" the patient.

That is so very true, and very sad.....

talaxandra · Oct 30, 2004

Historically, nurses find it difficult to take any kind of industrial action, let alone withdrawing labour. In 1986 there was a nurses strike in Victoria, which lasted 50 days - in no small part because the nurses who continued to work enabled the government to drag out negotiations as long as possible, fraying morale and causing divisions that have not wholly subsided, eighteen years later.

This is not to say that I don't support the right on nurses to not strike if they object - that's not my point. The problem is that this kind of planning (as described in the OP) so undermines those nurses who do take action that they lose credibility, power, and often are reluctant to take further industrial action.

What happens when management undermine uindustrial action

(My memory is a little dim on a few points, so NZ nurses, feel free to correct me)

In the late 1990's, NZ nurses in the public sector, fighting a government determined to reduce parity across the country, decided to withdraw labout for a weekend. Because they were concerned about reducing the impact on patients they gave plenty of notice - allowing cancellation of electives and education of the public ("this is not the weekend to come to ED with that sore back you've had for eighteen months"). They organised for night staffing levels, so that inpatients had adequate - if not optimal - care over the weekend.

The government recruited nurses from Australia - flew them over and back, paid for their accomodation, and paid them well over award wages.

Taking this kind of industrial action was difficult for many of the nurses - to take the action, with all the angst that entails, to no effect, broke the back of the movement, resulting in no consistancy in nursing conditions.

The only upside is that we in Victoria were about to embark on our own industrial action, and this sequence of events allowed the iron to wenter our souls, with the result that Victorian nurses managed to improve conditions under the dreaded Kennett government. I suspect this was little consolation for our colleagues to the East.

mattsmom81 · Oct 30, 2004

Yeah I got a travelnurse email trying to recruit me to new Jersey too...no way could I undermine my fellow nurses striking to better their working conditions for themselves and their patients.

Town & Country · Oct 30, 2004

They day I cross a Nursing picket line is the day I'd turn in my nursing license.

Never.

NurseGuy_in_06 · Oct 30, 2004

Only when Nurses realize that management believes that care of sick people is a BUSINESS will ALL nurses realize that crossing a picket line to work UNDERMINES ALL nurses. Patients deserve the best care they can get but NOT at the expense of the nursing profession. Don't cross the picket line to work at a hospital where the nurses are striking. Trust the nurses working at that facility to determine how to get the best care for their patients. If the nurses are striking there is a good reason. Crossing a picket line puts nurse against nurse.

Jamesdotter · Oct 30, 2004

Not ife the RN's go on strike. I cant see how a patients are supposed to fend for them selves while the nurses go on strike, are they supposed to go to another facility? If so what makes them think they will come back again?

The reason that the strikers give enough notice ("will be needed Nov 14") is so that patients CAN be transferred to another facility. Of course, I've never seen a facility that did transfer; they always hire strikebreakers and pay them huge amounts. If they'd negotiate in good faith, they could avoid all the nastiness, and probably as the poster pointed out, avoid losing their "clients" to other facilities.

explorer · Oct 30, 2004

Not ife the RN's go on strike. I cant see how a patients are supposed to fend for them selves while the nurses go on strike, are they supposed to go to another facility? If so what makes them think they will come back again?

If management would enter into negotiations in good faith there wouldn't be a strike. Also an arbitratior could be brought in to help settle the problem!

:balloons: :rotfl:

AnneDNP · Oct 31, 2004

This is why nurses get treated like you know what by the administration. They know that for every nurse who will stand up for what is right and fair, there will be plenty more who will accuse them of bieng selfish and "abandoning" the patient.

:) Very well said CrunchRN

mattsmom81 · Oct 31, 2004

While I could never cross picket lines myself, I also could never be abusive to a nurse who does...I agree 'someone' must care for the few patients/emergencies that occur while we strike. I would rather the nurse be an outside /agency nurse coming in to provide a bare bones coverage, rather than nurse from our own facility...for solidarity reasons. Then again, strikebreakers slow the negotiation process so I understand the anger at 'scabs' too.

I admit it troubles me when some nurses in this forum have posted that they love working strikes...make great $$$ etc...its kind of an in-your-face response that I don't see as helpful to those of us who are trying to improve conditions. Management loves this kind of divisiveness.

I remember a post here where a nurse took a travel assignment that she found to be a strike....she stayed (really needed the $$$ for her family at the time) ..but that she DID believe in what the striking nurses were doing as well. I would like to think this is possible. Maybe I'm naive...LOL!!

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2004

US Nursing (and its friend, Fastaff) frequently supply nurses to strikes. They also tend to contact a lot of established travelers...fishing for the money hungry among us.

I do not work strikes, nor work for an agency that makes money from staffing strikes. A previous agency (no names but frequently known as the "Evil empire"), was notorious for saying that they don't staff strikes, but frequently sent "nonstrike" nurses to facilities that were well acknowledged to be facing strikes. The traveler would be stuck, fulfilling their contract getting regular travel pay, but having to cross picket lines and working with much more highly paid scabs.

I stopped working for them, after I caught them several lies as well, as late paychecks.

fab4fan · Oct 31, 2004

It is my understanding that "strikebreaker" funds don't come out of the hospital's coffers...they're paid by the public (that would be us).

I'm glad someone else brought up the point that hospitals are given plenty of notice in the event of a strike so that pts. can be moved to another facility. The "What about the poor pts.?" wailing just is not valid. I want no part of helping a facility that treats its nurses badly; in all likelihood, that hospital's administration is just as indifferent about the quality of pt. care it delivers.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Nov 1, 2004

We had a recent huge strike, both docs and nurses! Oh man did the media play heavy on how horrid docs and nurses were for denying patients treatments..that we are somehow supose to take whever is given to us, bow poliety and say "thank you sir may I have another" because we NEED to think of the patient first and foremost! UHGGGGGG!!!!!

I wasn't anywhere near that strike, and I got severly chewed out for them! My residents yelled and screamed at us nurses saying we were all alike and don't care about patients anymore! I just smirked and said "gee...wonder why that would be...with sweet folks like you yelling at me for something I didn't do...it just boggles the mind!". Think they kinda got my point after that...the yelling did hit a end.

I hate the idea of having to strike, but I know our profession does not take that lightly! There is a reason that goes beyond paychecks, but towards patients being cared for properly as stake as well! To bad the media hates to show that side...just doesn't get the emotional response that sells their airtime I suppose.

I also would NEVER work across a picket line! If the nurses are striking...they have my support and best wishes for a quick settlement in their best interests...because long strikes hurt their families, the patients, and all of us other nurses too!