Trying to Bust a Strike

NurseGuy_in_06 · Jan 13, 2005

I dont work for that when crossing a strike line, I get a whole lot more. I usually get 70 to 75 an hour.That isnt a fortune either but its damn nice in anyones view

I will ask again. Why do you not support the nurses that are striking at a particular hospital by not working strikes?

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 14, 2005

the answer is obvious nurseguy. There is MONEY to be made. That is what it comes down w/people who bust strikes.

stevierae · Jan 14, 2005

I cannot afford a 30 day wait for a new insurance plan to kick in ... and CAN"T travel with three school age kids for the sake of work or personal ethics. I'm not alone in this. There are many single parents ... nurses with spouses who just can't up and travel and few options to work... This is a REAL barrier to those who would love to support a strike yet lack the resources to do so.
Now our local circumstances may not reflect the majority of the country yet my circumstances are not completely rare.

I've been there. Most CA nurses have been there. When we were striking for safe staffing levels and better working conditions back in the early '80s, my kids were small--my youngest was born in '85. You just do the best you can--my parents were dead, so there was no safety net, just my husband and myself--I don't think we, as adults, would have felt comfortable asking for help even if they were alive. One also gets used to SAVING a little bit of money--whatever one can--to fall back on in the event of a future strike.

So you cut back; you don't go out to eat; you live on lentils and beans and rice if you have to--but you support your fellow RNs. My daughters had to give up ballet, tap and jazz and gymnastics lessons. Luckily they were still able to attend Catholic school, because we went, explained the situation, and got reduced tuition for the duration of the strike. Same thing with our mortgage company--we asked for more liberal terms for the duration of the strike, and got them. We shopped for clothes, both our own and the kids', at the thrift shop, and didn't rent videos--in fact, for a couple of years we didn't even have a TV--couldn't afford to replace the old one that broke. For entertainment, I got them books from the library.

You can't expect your co-workers to go out on the strike line while you cross it every day--at least that's the ethic my CNA colleagues and I subscribed to and continue to subscribe to. I can remember a friend of mine selling her car, her wedding silver (having gotten married at the courthouse, I had none to sell, LOL!) etc. in order to stay afloat and out there, in solidarity.

I don't judge the work ethic of others or the logic or morals that dictate their decisions or priority setting. Sometimes, though, I have to laugh at nurses--I am not referring to you personally, here, but to others I've met in my day--who say "I could never afford to go on strike--" and, yet, every morning they walk in with their Starbucks' latte, or, in the summer, Frappucino; they buy breakfast AND lunch at work, and they get $60 haircuts and have their hair professionally colored; their kids always have numerous Nike shoes and team jerseys, as well as every video game and electronic gadget known to man .

They have expensive sound systems, buy expensive clothes, and drive SUVs. It always amazes me the things they consider necessary in their lives--and the fact that they don't realize that, had we not been out there striking in the '80s, they might be working under truly abysmal conditions today, and not even be able to afford one latte a week, let alone an SUV.

They don't want to continue to fight the fight--and there will ALWAYS be a fight, as there will always be middle mangement and administrators who think that suboptimal patient care and less than a living wage are things that we must "put up & shut up" with.

During a strike, you just have to make a few sacrifices in the name of solidarity and the common good--and that means everyone has to spend some time out on the strike line in support of the cause--not just down the line reap the benefits and take for granted, as a "gimme," without a second thought or even a "thank you" the better working conditions, salary, benefits, and improved patient care conditions that your co-workers went out and fought for, once the strike is over. I can remember taking my baby out on the strike line, and I was not the only one--there were plenty of moms and dads with babies, toddlers, and also their teenagers, who supported the cause and were proud of their moms and dads standing up for what they believed in.

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Jan 14, 2005

If you don't support them - do not whine and moan about the working conditions you face. Not supporting each other is what allows the administration to "keep on keeing on".

lee1 · Jan 15, 2005

from the american nurse sept/oct 2000 issue

op/ed: "as i see it"

scabs betray nursing profession and patients

http://www.nursingworld.org/tan/sepoct00/asiseeit.htm

by julie semente, rn

many nurses across the country have secured protections for themselves and their patients by making the difficult and courageous decision to strike. their victories have been victories for us all, for they put hospitals nationwide on notice that unsafe workplace and unfair labor practices are unacceptable.

that victory is bittersweet, however, because many other nurses have been thwarted in their attempts to secure similar protections by strikebreaking nurses. these "scabs" sweep into a hospital during a strike and take away from the nurses the one bargaining tool that could force hospital administrators to negotiate fairly.

what most scab nurses don't see is that their very existence as strikebreakers is a detriment to the entire nursing profession. in an attempt to justify their actions, some have said, "the first set of nurses initiated the strike -- the second set of nurses is taking care of patients while the first set is choosing, for its own selfish reasons, to strike."

these nurses are dead wrong.

hospitals initiate strikes by creating workplaces that strip nurses of their basic rights and endanger patient care. registered nurses try to avoid it, but when pushed against the wall, they walk both to fight for their jobs and to protect their patients and licenses.

in addition, most strikebreakers don't know that the hospital's actions that led to the strike are often found to be illegal by the national labor relations board, which subsequently fines the hospital for unfair labor practices.

to be forced to strike is extremely difficult for rns. what makes it truly agonizing is to watch members of our own profession crossing our lines, helping the hospital prolong the strike. by hiring scabs, the facility can continue "business as usual" and has no incentive to come back to negotiate fairly with its own nurses. the hospital can just wait until its rns can't afford to be on strike anymore and give in.

particularly reprehensible is the fact that many scabs are nothing more than "ambulance chasers" who stalk and pounce on rn strike lines for the exorbitant fees to be had. in fact, a website (www.parishputer.com/scab/index2.htm) exults scab nurses and provides information about where strikes are brewing and how nurses can quickly get licensed in states in which strikes are taking place. these scabs are undermining the efforts of the striking rns ð their own professional colleagues ð who are trying to improve their own working conditions, earn a decent salary and support their families.

what's ironic is that some of these strikebreakers say they are "scabbing" for the extraordinary salaries being paid so they can feed their families, as they cannot afford to live on the meager salaries that they earn in their own states. these same nurses even complain that in their own hospitals at home, they too continue to face such unsafe working conditions as short staffing and mandatory overtime.

how will we ever hope to have any improvement in working conditions, salaries and health benefits for all rns in this country if some nurses keep sabotaging their own colleagues who are leading the fight? how much is a fair wage for selling out your colleagues and defeating their attempts to make the workplace better for all of us? striking rns are standing up for themselves and their patients. scabs help the hospital push them back down, ultimately hurting the profession and, in the long run, patient care.

unable to comprehend how so many rns can justify their back-stabbing behavior given the common difficulties all rns are now facing across the country, unionized rns wonder why these scabs don't just instead tackle the health care corporations in their own state by doing the same thing we are. if these rns followed our lead, they might not have the horrendous working conditions and low salaries that they have now and would not have to prostitute themselves across state lines merely to provide a decent living for their families. in fact, maybe we could gain some kind of national industry standards related to staffing, workplace conditions, wages and other compensation.

scabs can put up all the smoke-screens they want: calling themselves "replacements" and saying they are doing it "for the patients," or they "feel sorry for the hospital being held hostage by its rns." the bottom line is that all this rationalization and justification doesn't change anything. no amount of money is enough.

we are fighting a daily battle against health care administrators and systems that devalue our contributions, threaten our livelihood, endanger our patients by replacing us with unlicensed personnel or forcing us to work dangerously long hours, and put our own health and safety at risk by not providing safer staffing or appropriate resources such as safer needles devices or lifting equipment. we do not need to have that battle exacerbated by our professional brothers and sisters.

julie semente, a member of the new york state nurses association, is corresponding secretary of her bargaining unit executive council in brooklyn, ny.

James Huffman · Jan 15, 2005

Once again, we are faced with hate-speech about other nurses.

Is this what the American Nurses Association (the publisher of 'American Nurse,' where the above article is from) is all about? Is it any wonder so few nurses join the ANA (in my county, less than 2% of nurses are members) when the ANA has become the purveyor of hateful, intolerant name-calling toward nurses?

Jim Huffman, RN

stevierae · Jan 15, 2005

Once again, we are faced with hate-speech about other nurses.
Is this what the American Nurses Association (the publisher of 'American Nurse,' where the above article is from) is all about? Is it any wonder so few nurses join the ANA (in my county, less than 2% of nurses are members) when the ANA has become the purveyor of hateful, intolerant name-calling toward nurses?
Jim Huffman, RN

Jim--I think she (the author) is calling it like it is. I respect her for speaking out in no uncertain terms. Nurses who are not willing to support other nurses in the fight for better patient care and better working conditions need a reality check every once in a while. Sugarcoating it does not work--as she said, those nurses come up with all kinds of rationales to explain their decision to cross strike lines, undermining the fight that the stiking nurses are engaged in, when in reality, bottom line is, it's all about greed.

"You're either for us or ag'in' us. There is no middle ground."

James Huffman · Jan 15, 2005

Let's see...

"Scabs" ...

"sweep into a hospital during a strike and take away from the nurses"

"their very existence as strikebreakers is a detriment to the entire nursing profession"

"scabs are nothing more than "ambulance chasers"

"who stalk and pounce on RN strike lines"

"help the hospital push them back down"

"hurting the profession"

"[hurting] patient care"

"prostitute themselves"

These are the author's own words. I repeat what I said earlier: this is intolerant, mean-spirited hate-speech, pure and simple.

Disagreements can be discussed in a civil manner. For the ANA -- at least by inference -- to call other nurses "prostitutes," "ambulance chasers," and "stalkers" does nothing to bring about understanding in issues such as this.

Jim Huffman, RN

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 15, 2005

if you had viewed the link "as i see it", is part. clarified that this was an op-ed piece as part of title.

many points of view are expressed in the american nurse on issues that affect nursing. just as they are on this bulletin board, as long as not individually addressed/attacking.

here's a link to stories about rn's attempt to imporve working conditions via union organization + new contracts, some including strikes that i just came across yesterday:

http://www.nursingworld.org/uan/archive.htm

read about:

barbara crane, rn, st. catherine of siena medical center (new york)

then see our bb discussions about this facility and strike:

uan nurses on strike in ny

rns on strike

ny rn strike - 2 weeks & counting....

nurses on strike

rns cast a "web" with a powerful new tool - email

ny rns still on strike

the teamsters

survey: would you cross a picket line when rns were striking?

rns demand union action against their own "homegrown" scabs

some nurses disagree with the need for unionization but still desire workplace advocacy.

the center for american nurses (can) is a professional association organized in 2003 and is an associate organizational member of the american nurses association (ana). can has its roots in ana's commission on workplace advocacy which was established by the ana house of delegates in 2000 to address the needs of individual nurses in the workplace not represented by collective bargaining.

workplace advocacy is an array of services, products, and programs that support individual nurses to help them address their workplace challenges through policy research and advocacy, education, and communications.

38 state nurses associations are members of this association.

http://www.nursingworld.org/can/states/index.htm

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2005

Is that straight time, or is that once you are over 8 or even 12 hours? If it's straight time, I could see how it could prove tempting, esp. if after 8 hours it goes to $112.50, and after 12 it goes to $150. That buys a lot of tee times and toys.
I still wouldn't do it, but, then, I don't play golf.

Thats straight time for me

and yes I play a lot of golf

I prefer hospitals on strike that have a decent golf course nearby

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2005

Let's see...
"Scabs" ...
"sweep into a hospital during a strike and take away from the nurses"
"their very existence as strikebreakers is a detriment to the entire nursing profession"
"scabs are nothing more than "ambulance chasers"
"who stalk and pounce on RN strike lines"
"help the hospital push them back down"
"hurting the profession"
"[hurting] patient care"
"prostitute themselves"
These are the author's own words. I repeat what I said earlier: this is intolerant, mean-spirited hate-speech, pure and simple.
Disagreements can be discussed in a civil manner. For the ANA -- at least by inference -- to call other nurses "prostitutes," "ambulance chasers," and "stalkers" does nothing to bring about understanding in issues such as this.
Jim Huffman, RN

I like this

but for my sake you can call me whatever you want

you just cant call me late for a Tee Time

hahahahahahahahahaha

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2005

I will ask again. Why do you not support the nurses that are striking at a particular hospital by not working strikes?

And how do I support them

Do I need to keep them in my prayers or what

I support muself and my seven kids and my golf

I think thats doing the best I can