Understanding Healthcare Orgainizing: The New Union Strategy

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

april 16 2008: the new union strategy

by richard haugh

turning the community against you

ken robbins had never seen a labor organizing effort like it: instead of a traditional grass-roots drive to recruit members, a union in illinois launched a series of very public attacks to discredit and embarrass a hospital. the goal: to pressure hospital executives to stay out of the way as the union signed up nurses and other employees.

the tactics bewildered robbins, president of the illinois hospital association. wasn't it self-defeating, he asked a union leader, to try to weaken an employer where you already represent a fair number of workers and hope to represent the rest?

"i've known the guy a long time, he's a very solid guy," robbins says. "he just told me, 'ken, i know it doesn't make sense--but it works.' "

the strategy--known as a corporate campaign--is now the linchpin of union organizing drives at hospitals around the nation. unions use public events, political connections, the media and other avenues to bring into question a hospital's quality of care, the level of charity care it provides and, in the case of a not-for-profit hospital, its tax-exempt status. unions often recruit local consumer activists, neighborhood groups, and religious and environmental organizations to ramp up the pressure.

the campaigns might run for months or even years, interfering with a hospital's ability to conduct routine business

and they can get very personal. in some cases, union representatives have shown up in front of hospital executives' homes to picket....

what are corporate campaigns

what are corporate campaigns?

a corporate campaign is a form of

reputational warfare waged through

broadsides, half-truths, innuendo, and a

staccato rhythm of castigation, litigation,

legislation, and regulation. it is fought in

the press and on television, on the internet,

in the halls of government, in the marketplace,

on the trading floor, and in the boardroom.

though waged for a variety of reasons,

corporate campaigns, at their foundation,

attack the essential corporate character

of their targets and challenge the legitimacy

of the corporation as a social

form.

the corporate campaign is designed

to appeal to an underlying distrust of big

business. it is perhaps best understood as

a morality play in which the union or some

other antagonist defines standards of conduct

that reflect its own interests, challenges

the target company to meet these

standards, and then portrays the company

as a social outlaw when it proves unwilling

or unable to do so.

[RN Power Ohio]

Interesting article from the hospital industry perspective.

As with all social problems change occurs when the people become outraged enough to demand it! Involvement of the community to push for reforms is essential. Furhermore, we as RN's have the duty to bring them along for the fight. Patients have the right to know what is really happening in our hospitals.

Nursing has tried many different ways to get hospitals to staff safely- committees, position statements, research, etc. all to no avail.

When hospitals dominate cities and become the primary employer and commodity for a region they have a responsibility to that community. Sheltering under the status of non-profit to avoid tax contributions, unfair labor practices, unchecked growth that provides inequitable service and lack of reporting requirements damage entire comunities.

When an industry goes to extreme lengths to prevent it's workers from having a voice something needs to be done. The deck is stacked in their favor. As a result of millions spent on union avoidance campaigns and lobbying most RN's are now subject to the terms of Kentucky River. Furthermore, in most workplaces RN's who frequently object to unsafe practice are fired and an industry friendly NLRB does not protect them.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

I remember when a union exposed a hospital for allowing un needed heart surgeries.

I certainly wish the illegal and unsafe practices that killed patients at King Drew hospital in Los Angeles and caused much suffering had been exposed earlier.

It has to be true patient harm and not just "fishing" for a scandal.

And other methods should be tried first.

If the management or CEO of a hospital refuses to respect nurses or others regarding patient care (or passively avoids learning the facts) then something needs to be done.

We cannot let policies that harm our patients continue.

I'm not sure what this article is referring to.

I don't have the facts.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

The article is linked in the original post and is worth a look for all of us interested in this sort of thing. CNA/NNOC relies much less on the corporate campaign stuff than SEIU does. We do use those strategies some, but they tend to be around genuine patient care issues than just about pressure for an organizing agreement. When all is said and done, the heart and soul of real union organizing is always going to be in the relationship with the worker. Organizing that focuses on the relationship with the boss is not going to build an effective union.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

By the way - a closer look at the small print at the bottom of the original article reveals that it is 2 years old. Not actually the latest stuff - though it takes a pretty close look to figure that out.

[RN4MERCY]

re: the Corporate Campaign-if hospital corporations truly follow the rules and regulations, and give fair return for their favorable tax status to the community, then I don't suppose there would be any reason for them to sweat the possibility of a corporate campaign.

Think about what happens every time JCAHO and DPH/DHS announces a survey and management throws a fresh coat of paint over all the cracks. Why don't they just do it right all the time? They get to keep the money they "save."

When the money they "save" is being used to fight nurses who are trying to organize, to protect themselves and their patients from all the unconscionable short cuts, the corporations deserve to be exposed!

Especially because nurses know that many short cuts are life threatening, such as cuts in staffing/failure to staff by acuity and ratios, lack of adequate equipment and supplies, cuts in the education departments so that the competency and skills of temporary or agency staff are not being validated, and replacement of RNs with unlicensed assistive personnel.