NOW RECRUITING FOR NEW JERSEY STRIKE October 8, 2004
Dear "x",
....... is now recruiting for a strike in .......on or about November 14, 2004.
This strike is for RN's only and all candidates must currently hold a ....... license as we will not have time to process new licenses. Our client is a major trauma center, level III NICU, kidney transplant center and also maintains a burn unit and Burn ICU. All areas of ICU, NICU and PICU are required, including clinics, dialysis, complete surgical services and just about any area of practice, ensuring a wide variety of opportunities for all.
We pay regular rates for all orientation hours the evening before the strike commences in addition to hours worked. In the event that you travel to the strike and it has been settled, .......pays $500 dollars show up pay for your time and willingness to support this project. Please visit our FAQ Page for answers to most questions. You may also call us at ........or send an email.
As email is our primary method of recruiting, we ask that you register on our webpage so you will be kept informed of all opportunities as they develop.
REGISTER NOW
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You may also email us at X and we will email, fax or mail them to you.
Latest strike info...
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California Strike Pushed to December
California Strike Pushed to December
Regarding other opportunities: We have received an update regarding our contract in the San Francisco Bay Area. This strike has been pushed back to December.
In November we will be returning to the location of our recent one day strike in California except it will be for a minimum of 5 days this time. All candidates who participated last week are given first opportunity to return however the client has indicated doubling the staffing requirements so we will have more openings this time around.
On a personal note I would like to thank each and every professional who came to the recent one day strike for the support, cooperation and outstanding service everyone provided in their job assignment. There was not a single complaint from the client, but rather very good comments regarding the quality of staff and the excellence in service provided by all.
I have never had the pleasure of presenting such an outstanding group of Healthcare Professionals to any other client in the past. Thank you!
With Kindest Regards,
Get advance notice. Register with .......!
In order to receive uninterrupted emails announcing job actions, you MUST register on the .......website.
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.
Our hospital in the 80's did transfer just about everyone out, kept the ED and about 8 beds open, staffed with administrative nurses and only about 5 who crossed the line. No outsiders. The community was solidly behind us, good press, and strike was over in 8 days.
To the public, they portray themselves as "labor," "legal," or "management" consultants. Healthcare administrators know them by the polite title of "union avoidance specialists." But to the labor movement, they're referred to as "union busters."
As their name implies, "union avoidance specialists" are hired by employers to prevent unions from organizing. When a union is already representing employees, the "union avoidance specialist" can be hired to stimulate a decertification campaign. Where there is already a contract, they will advise the employer to make extreme demands in negotiations - such as reducing or eliminating benefits, pay cuts, or detrimental changes in working conditions. These are designed to make union members so angry they will go on strike or lose confidence in their collective strength, placing the blame on the union.
Meanwhile, management covertly hires scabs, preparing for a long strike in order to either break the union or force it into a bad contract.
Most hospital administrators will deny their presence. But with more than 10,000 union-busting firms in business in the nation today, one may be working behind the scenes at your hospital one day-if they haven't already.
Who are they?
Although they tend to do their work in secret when they're on-site, some union-busting firms are quite upfront about what they do in order to compete for business:
- PTI Labor Research of Houston proudly bills itself as: "The nation's leading provider of union avoidance products and services."
- Jackson/Lewis of New York says it "has assisted many employers in winning NLRB elections or in avoiding union elections altogether." They've even written a book on the subject, Winning NLRB Elections: Management's Strategy and Preventive Programs.
- Bond, Schoeneck & King of New York makes this offer: "When a union knocks on your door, we are always prepared to provide immediate and exclusive attention to your needs."
- Drinker Biddle of Philadelphia says it can "advise employees on decertifying unions that no longer serve their members."
- The Burke Group, of Malibu, Calif., contends that "Unions don't always sell truth; and a union contract does not always result in control over working lives and financial gain."
- H. Sanford Rudnick & Associates, of Walnut Creek, Calif., believes: "Management should have the freedom to run their company according to their own best judgment and to maximize the resulting profits."
Most firms that are based in other states also have offices in New York. NYSNA confirmed that another firm, Brent Yessin & Associates, ran the anti-union campaign at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey, while an affiliated firm is currently running a similar campaign against NYSNA at Community Medical Center in Toms River.
Cost doesn't matter.
How much will hospital administrators pay to keep out or get rid of a union? Plenty. Martin J. Levitt, author of Confessions of a Union Buster, who spoke at NYSNA's CNP Networking Conference in May 2002, said Delta Airlines budgeted nearly $150 million. Levitt personally earned more than $200,000 per year before giving up such work to help unions defend themselves. It's estimated that Tenet Health paid more than $5 million to the Burke Group to stop an organizing campaign in California.
Wouldn't all this money be better spent meeting the needs of an employer's workforce?
Employers don't care, says Levitt. "The business was all about control," he wrote in his book. "I realized that control was both the objective and the method in union busting." Having a union in-house means an employer will have to guarantee salary increases, improvements in benefits, and job security. Not only does a union take a significant portion of a hospital's budget permanently out of its control, it takes away control over personnel, too. Some employers believe stopping that is worth the expense.
"Union avoidance specialists" in action -
A "union avoidance specialist's" greatest weapons are fear and manipulation - exploiting employees' fear of the unknown. Since most employees have never been confronted by such a campaign, they'll never suspect what is about to happen.
Once hired by management, a "union avoidance specialist" conducts research to find where a union and the employees it's trying organize can be vulnerable. They collect information on the union through the U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service. They collect personal information on employees - including medical and credit histories - to use against them, even to the point of destroying an employee's personal life and career.
The "union avoidance specialist" will try to play one group of RNs against another and both groups against the union. The union will be portrayed as bullying and corrupt. The tactic is to divide and conquer, with everything scripted and choreographed by the "union avoidance specialist." Examples, based on NYSNA's experience:
- Foot soldiers are recruited - either voluntarily or by force. Managers deliver letters, have informal chats, and make emotional appeals. A committee of employees is created to wear "Vote No" buttons and "stand up" against the union.
Employees are sent numerous letters, describing how much the employer appreciates the work they've been doing.
- Management suddenly hands out larger-than-expected wage increases or improved benefits. Long-standing problems are corrected. Management suddenly is the employees' new pal: "employee participation" committees are formed to prove that a union isn't needed.
- Supervisors call employees in for face-to-face discussions about the union. Remember the personnel file the "union avoidance specialist" created? This is when the information is used to threaten employees.
- Managers will pull nurses from their units, while caring for patients, to attend mandatory meetings. During the meetings, they'll be told lies about the ability of a local bargaining unit to make its own decisions, how union dues are used, and the benefits RNs can win in a NYSNA contract. And the nurses will not be given an opportunity to challenge or question anything.
The biggest lie of all is that the union will force its members to strike. No mention is made of the fact that strikes happen in less than 1% of all contracts negotiated by NYSNA.
Influential employees who support organizing will be fired-some even on election day. And when all else fails, there is the emotional appeal to "give management another chance." Sadly, there isn't much that can be done to prevent such activity. It may take weeks before a union's unfair labor practice complaint will be acted upon by the National Labor Relations Board. The penalties are relatively small and are considered merely a cost of doing business.
What can you do?
Be aware of the "union avoidance specialist's" tactics. Be assertive with your supervisor about respecting your commitment and not harassing you with anti-union propaganda. If you are required to attend an anti-union meeting, understand the biased nature of the material being presented to you. Keep a written record of any transactions.
Work with your union representatives to obtain the LM-10 and LM-20 forms from the U.S. Labor Department-these forms detail how much an employer is spending on "consulting services," and will expose the scam for what it is.
It is all about control-control over your own work life. You have a legal, protected right to join a union and take part in its activities-free from management intimidation. You have a right to make your own decisions. And the way to ensure this right is to stay united and focused and openly support each other.
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i agree with the others ... the nurses would not be striking if patient ratio were such that they could render good care...the 'scabs' do not care about patient care or about fellow nurses..
i agree with the others ... the nurses would not be striking if patient ratio were such that they could render good care...the 'scabs' do not care about patient care or about fellow nurses..
Scabs protect and help heal a wound.
Thats what you are referring to right
Now if you refer to nurses who feel entitled to cross a picket line, you have no real idea what they care fore, so maybe you should learn what they believe in rather than just mouthing prounionistic prattle by calling them scabs.
I don't believe in a strike, but, I don't believe in crossing a picket line to work either. Yeah, contradiction isn't it?
If a strike is inevitable, I'm sure the facility is well aware when it will happen. If they aren't able to recruit agency, then simply DON'T admit patients or transfer existing patients to other facilities. Unfortunately, I'm thinking that's not how it's going to work, is it?
Now if you refer to nurses who feel entitled to cross a picket line, you have no real idea what they care fore, so maybe you should learn what they believe in rather than just mouthing prounionistic prattle by calling them scabs.
Why can't you just admit that the only reason nurses work a strike is for the MONEY. This stuff about "caring for the patients" at a striking hospital is just your way of justification. Are you really such a good nurse that YOU have to be called in to care for the patients better than the nurses already working there? I have a right to my opinion because I have seen first hand how companies cause diversity among the workers. At least be honest: You work strikes FOR THE MONEY.
I am a student and I have to write a paper against striking- I am actually pro union so I am having a hard time with the fiction. Can anyone help with some believable reasons against striking.
I am a student and I have to write a paper against striking- I am actually pro union so I am having a hard time with the fiction. Can anyone help with some believable reasons against striking.
Why in the world would you HAVE to write an anti-strike paper?
The most common issue nurses have with taking industrial action (not just withdrawal of labour) is duty of care - while many nuses who support industrial action argue that taking it is for the long-term good of future patients, those opposed argue that it endangers actual patients.
In my experience, these nurses recognise the long-term issues, but believe that the short-term costs to patient care are too high. There is no question that care is compromised - even with sufficient notice, and minimum staffing levels, patients don't get as good care when there are fewer nurses - if they did they'd be no need to have more of us!
It really boils down to whether you prioritise short- or long-term conditions.
While there are other reasons people have for opposing industrial action (including the idea that industrial action is not professional, or that negotiation is the better option) this is the most prevalent, most documented, and easiest to defend.
Why can't you just admit that the only reason nurses work a strike is for the MONEY. This stuff about "caring for the patients" at a striking hospital is just your way of justification. Are you really such a good nurse that YOU have to be called in to care for the patients better than the nurses already working there? I have a right to my opinion because I have seen first hand how companies cause diversity among the workers. At least be honest: You work strikes FOR THE MONEY.
Your talking to me, Yes I am very highly driven by monetary desires, I fully admit to it.
The more money I earn the more golf I can afford. Very simple equation there.
teeituptom, BSN, RN
4,283 Posts
I love strikes
I love getting strike pay
and I cross strike lines with a smile on my face
as I pocket some of those really big bucks