union pro or con

does your hospital have a union for the nurses? if so has it helped or not?

why do nurses constantly eat each other rather than say have a more powerful labor voice when dealing with all these health care systems or merged hospitals which really means big corporations concerned with one thing there bottom line not your wages.

Don't you think it is sad that in most places in the USA a RN makes less than a dental hygenist....

heck in upstate NY my Hygenist makes over 30 bucks a hour and she started at 29 dollars a hour far more than what a starting RN will make here.

Hiya Mark,

where in upstate NY are you? I WISH my hospital was union. They keep outvoting the union rep. But I don't remember getting a vote!!

Chloe

Hiya Mark,

where in upstate NY are you? I WISH my hospital was union. They keep outvoting the union rep. But I don't remember getting a vote!!

Chloe

hey chloe I am working in Buffalo but am Rochester raised.

hey chloe I am working in Buffalo but am Rochester raised.

Dang Mark,

sure wish you were closer! How is it going in nursing Buffalo world for you? What's your nursing specialty? Union/non-union? Preference?

Chloe

does your hospital have a union for the nurses? if so has it helped or not?

I am now working at my first non-union hospital in my eight year career and it is the most pleasant and patient-centered working environment I have ever been in.

why do nurses constantly eat each other rather than say have a more powerful labor voice when dealing with all these health care systems or merged hospitals which really means big corporations concerned with one thing there bottom line not your wages.

Selfish and uncaring people do not make good nurses. Generous and selfless people do not make good Union members. Last year, the current President of the National Education Association (teachers union) was asked his opinion on the fact that teachers salaries were getting so high in some schools that they are having to shut down band, choir, and art programs just to keep up with payroll requirements, and he said he would start worrying about their interests when they join his Union.

Unionizing will not result in all the things you think it will and should. If working conditions at your hospital are absolutely intolerable, THEN QUIT! Maybe you haven't heard, but there are more nursing jobs then nurses right now, so it's not like that place is the only job you can ever have. If enough people start quitting, it will force the hospital to make the changes they need to make to keep people. It's called a free-market employment system and it is hated by Union leaders everywhere.

Don't you think it is sad that in most places in the USA a RN makes less than a dental hygenist...

Sorry, that is simply not true. Maybe in your hometown they do, but there are many places in the country where nurses can make more than physicians.

Here is something to keep in mind. It's what Union leaders don't want you to think about and will tell you that you shouldn't care about, but if you're a nurse, then you are generous and caring by your very nature, so you won't be able to ignore it:

If you live in an area with a low cost of living, such as upstate NY, then you are going to get paid less than someone who lives and works in Boston or Chicago. To unionize your nurses and strong-arm your hospital in to paying you a wage that is on a par with what nurses in those other cities make, then you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. If the salaries of all the nurses go up, then hospital bills are going to skyrocket as well. One thing that Unions are good at is promoting mediocrity: you know that crappy nurse who just got fired for being absolutely incompetent and almost killing a few of her patients? If you had a Union, she'd literally have to kill someone before the hospital could get rid of her.

I'm not saying don't unionize. I'm saying think about what it means for everyone involved; think about what it means for your patients, not just for you.

I am very pro unions if they are doing it for the right reasons.

I was a union rep in Australia when they started the Enterprise Bargaining. I believe it to be a win/ win situation for both hospitals and employees although it does get picky at times.

Both, in the end, have to give up a little bit for the common good.

It was done every 3 years with a wage scale set for those 3 years.

I have not lived back in Australia now for 8 years so it may well be different now.

Dang Mark,

sure wish you were closer! How is it going in nursing Buffalo world for you? What's your nursing specialty? Union/non-union? Preference?

Chloe

hey chloe

I am on a cardiac floor So I suppose tele- cardio is my area but have lots of general med pts also.

I would love to be a surgical nurse but that seems harder to get into for whatever reason.

If I can't do that in a while then I will eventually look for a non hospital nursing job I think

hey chloe

I am on a cardiac floor So I suppose tele- cardio is my area but have lots of general med pts also.

I would love to be a surgical nurse but that seems harder to get into for whatever reason.

If I can't do that in a while then I will eventually look for a non hospital nursing job I think

Mark,

you have my respect! I couldn't do that cardio stuff. No talent for the cardio life. I honestly thought OB would be a bit slower paced, but not at all!!! There's a lot to nursing world that keeps us on our toes. But to stay within the scope of this thread, I wonder if being unionized wouldn't better allow me to do my job than worry half the time if I'm going to get written up or fired much of the time for one little error. It seems like management has nothing better to do! Why does it seem like they really aren't watching out for us, but rather out to destroy us? Is this just breaking in the new kid on the block, or is my facility ripe for the union rep?

Good gosh, I cannot type. Must go crash now. Back to back 14 hour nights, then home to Benadryl and must go back again tonight, and tomorrow...

Happy Tuesday (?) y'all!

Chloe

My sister is a Nurse Practitioner in a large hospital chain in the midwest. She works 60-70 hours a week with no overtime since she's considered salaried "management." Her level of skill is equal or above many of the doctors who often consult her with difficult cases. Her hourly pay is much less than some of the idiots teaching in our school system who managed to get advanced degrees that are a joke while alienating many of their students rather than teaching them something useful

That's bad enough but all the BS she has to put up with from stupid management personnel above her and ridiculous policies, primarily designed to improve the profits so the execs who see no patients can get bigger salaries, are driving her crazy.

Unions can do much good but often abuse their power with corrupt managers of their own and impose stupid rules like requiring filing a grievance when you have a problem with your boss that should be discussed one-on-one before grieving as a last resort.

Competent nurses are certainly exploited and subject to politics, nepotism and favoritism and often not rewarded based on competency. Let's face it, most nurses are dedicated, competent, caring, kind people who treat patients, family and co workers very well. However, there is a small percentage who are just the opposite and keep their jobs by politics or friendship with someone important. Unions just add to the difficulty of removing such people before they cause even greater problems or serious harm.

I'm retired and widowed and live in a right to work state but might even consider working as a union recruiter if I knew that the union did not have the typical problems including those mentioned above. Why do we go from one extreme to another so often in this country?

I used to teach Management in a University Business College and was always amazed at how people totally lacking in management skills managed to rise in organizations and cause problems rather than solving existing problems and improving the organization. Those kinds of managers provide cause for the entrance of a union. However I did encounter situations where competent management and competent union officials worked harmoniously for everyone's benefit, often skirting union and management "rules" for better outcomes. Too bad such situations are too rare.

We NEED a voice to speak out for us. For too long, nurses have been shamed into silence, accepting whatever hospital administration dishes out, as if asking for fairness in the workplace somehow means you care less about your patients.

It never fails to amaze me that the executives cut vital departments to the bone (ie housekeeping) and expect nurses to pick up the slack. Some even make snide remarks about how they had to make sacrifices to be able to pay the nurses. (Everyone knows that NURSES make the money, not Executives!)

I'm sick of it. But I guess that's how it is here in the US..... Executives make lots of money and when they're too corrupt to keep, you give them a really big severance package!!

So what's the answer? Is there a "fair" union for nurses that stands up for worker rights but doesn't allow the typical union abuses? Maybe it's time to form one.

So what's the answer? Is there a "fair" union for nurses that stands up for worker rights but doesn't allow the typical union abuses? Maybe it's time to form one.

I'm convinced that most of the state nurses organizations that do collective bargaining fit that description exactly - CNA, Mass. Nurses Assn, New york State Nurses Assn, etc. (Many state nurses assns don't do collective bargaining) That's not to say they are all equally effective, but I think they are all honest and generally committed to what is best for nurses and patients. In CNA we have a strong believe that what is best for nurses - adequate salary, adequate staffing, control over our practice, etc also makes for good patient care. It's sad that the abdication from collective bargaining by nurses assns. has allowed so many non-nurse unions to come in and fill the vacuum, since they generally don't have the nursing perspective.

I support unionizing if it's done for the right reasons. For instance, I believe that staffing ratios and bans on mandatory overtime should be set in a union contract. I'd like to see unions support national health care (I think SEIU does). I'd like to see them speak out about lack of health care.

I did a clinical at a hospital that voted to strike a year ago. They settled things before the walkout happened. It seemed to be about everything but the patients. From what I heard (and there were posters all over the nurses' lounge), the strike was about the cost of parking, a 1% pay raise, and having to pay 10% of their health insurance premium. Never mind that no one parks for free (it's on a bunch of bus routes and the subway), or that other employees pay 50% of their health insurance premiums. Frankly, if the union wants its members to have free health insurance, they should pay for it. They talked a lot about being disrespected, but didn't specify how they were being disrespected.