Unions and strikes?

daves · Jan 29, 2012

Personally, I'm nobody's scab.

NedRN · Jan 29, 2012

Great question. If you are from the South, there are few unions there and little in the way of union tradition that might lend to balanced opinions. I would suggest going on a site like Wikipedia and looking up the history of unions in this country. They are responsible for almost all of the worker protections and benefits we enjoy. While we take them for granted today, they were hard earned by unions and the willingness of union members to strike for what is right. The things union workers fought for and are now enacted into law include the 40 hour week, minimum wages and overtime, child labor laws, job site safety and much more. California has mandated safe staffing ratios solely due to the nursing unions.

For nurses, union hospitals consistently pay higher (one reason why pay in the South is so bad), and significantly higher. If you look at high union participation states such as California and Massachusetts, the pay is very high. In addition, union work rules in force at every union hospital protects nurses from being fired or penalized unfairly, and address work load and thus patient safety.

Some workers hate unions (kind of like a religious difference versus a rational difference) and will cite various reasons why they are bad or of no real use (completely ignoring history). Among them are rules requiring them to join the union to work at a union hospital, union dues, political contributions unions make (to help elect worker friendly legislators or support worker friendly legislation), pay and nearby non union hospitals being the same (of course, because they have to compete for the same nurses), and anecdotes where they fail to deliver at a particular hospital or for a particular aggrieved nurse.

Worker benefits won by unions are often won by their nuclear option, their ability to go out on strike if management fails to negotiate in good faith. The vital ability to go out on strike are undermined by replacement workers, often called scabs due to their disease like nature on healthy unions. Yes, you will be undermining wages or benefits (benefits are under constant attack due to the increasing cost of healthcare insurance) of nurses locally, and ultimately nationally if you work strikes. In recent years, many strikes have been more about safe patient care, for example the intense work done by the California nurses union to enact safe staffing ratios, than about pay or benefits. For the most part, few nursing strikes have been about hourly pay in the last 10 years.

I believe working strikes is unethical. Strike workers come up with a lot of rationalizations to overcome their own knowledge that they are hurting fellow workers (see above reasons to dislike unions and add that list: greedy unions and helping patients at striking hospitals, and insurance pays for the hospital cost of strikes anyway), but ultimately the only reason to work a strike is for the "big money".

That said, there are different kinds of strikes. Strikes are used as negotiating ploys or tools, and are often misused. The kind of strike I am talking about are one, two, or five day strikes. This serves only to cost the hospital money to try to get them to negotiate in good faith. While these might be effective (I don't know), certainly the union does not intend it to shut down the hospital and force all patients and physicians to go to other hospitals. So in this case, having replacement workers does serve to protect union jobs paradoxically (in my opinion). So it is reasonable to work one of these strikes. But for an open ended strike, you are undermining the union and your fellow nurses without a doubt.

There are lots of emotional arguments on both sides of unions and strikes and I've only touched on some of them. However, here is a financial argument for not working strikes. Yes, if you manage to hit the rare open-ended strike (there was only one I can think of in the last two years), you will make a lot of money. Mostly because you will be working 12 hours shifts 7 days a week. However, if you decide to hang out for strikes, not working, you will miss out of regular work altogether and the money you will make as a traveler. Even working ordinary travel assignments you will be far ahead at the end of the year.

If you really want to make big money, work for a rapid response company such as Fastaff or On Assignment. Those jobs are very similar to strike work in that you are working difficult assignments at troubled hospitals for high pay and up to 7 days a week if you are up for it. But in those assignments, you are supporting the staff with additional help, rather than undermining your fellow nurses.

I hope that helps. There is a good editorial and article that gives a lot more details about working strikes on PanTravelers dot org.

woahmelly · Jan 29, 2012

Thank you for not immediately bashing the OP and offering an well thought out response to the question. I appreciate people who can debate and offer information without automatically ripping the OP to shreds.

NedRN · Jan 30, 2012

I'm actually well known on the other travel nurse forum for ripping rationalizations for working strikes to shreds. The only valid reason for working strikes is money, period. No one would do it for similar or less money than regular travel assignments or staff positions.

When posters say they are doing it for the money, I point out that there are better ways to make better money than working strikes. But it doesn't mean they are monsters, they are often just trying to provide for their family.

I've done a couple of one/two day strikes myself (I have some other reasons - like visiting friends in the area which is why I drove instead of taking the plane, but it was of course really for the money) and I have some insights from talking to the other strike workers (without discussing politics). Except for a few nurses from the local strike area, everyone else I talked to was from the South. And they all were taking a few days off from a staff position, and getting an early flight home was often their biggest concern.

A lot of nurse in the South still make less than $20 an hour or in the low 20's believe it or not, so a quick couple of days adventure grossing $1,500 to $3,00 (typical pay for a short strike) is a really nice bonus.

No doubt there were nurses from other areas that I didn't meet, but I was struck by how many were from Southern states.