Unions

Nurses Union

Published

  1. Are you a member of a nursing union?

    • 57
      Yes, and proud of it
    • 10
      Yes, but I hide the fact
    • 123
      No

190 members have participated

I was just wondering peoples views on Unions, from reading other posts I got the inpression that unions are not a standard thing. One of my lectures this semester was two of the big nursing unions came in and gave us informations, so we could join. They are even willing to cover us as students.

What does everyone else think about unions?

I am truly shocked....:( I am also a nurse in texas.... and when I graduated 10+ years ago they told us there will never be unions in the state of texas because they are illegal according to our nurse practice act....... All things considered... unionization would be a good idea.... maybe then the management would stop recycling the same old "game plans" under new titles... you know the "new idea that's going to make life a whole lot easier for everyone"... yeah right Now, if you know of an area in texas that has unionized nurses... please tell me where.. I am looking into making a change in the near future... that might be the place to go ;)

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December, can you say "poor or lack of leadership" on the part of the ANA. This will answer much of what you have stated.

Have you read my post about the pending legislation that the ANA is strongly pushing for? It is titled "What do you think a CEO or AHA think about pending legislation?".

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12422

Here are a couple more posts for you to look at as well. "Double Talk" https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12321

And "non-union, union, and a national nursing organization, does this make sense?"

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12130

The reality of poor or lack of leadership is what has led nurses to look to alternatives such as unions in the first place. It is also one of the main reasons why the overwhelming majority (92 -93%) of nurses in the U.S. do not belong to the ANA. Strong leadership with a logical and focused direction dedicated solely to the people it claims to represent will promote fellowship in and of it's self. The ANA has a long history of falling to focus on the needs of the biggest majority of nurses in the profession. That would be nurses working at the bedside. If you read the posts I included, then you will see that it continues.

fergus51, one of the things I remember that happened in a province of Canada this last year was the government not working with the union and how when nurses suddenly began turning in individual resignations in mass that things changed. This is the power of a group in action and not under a formal union versus management action. These nurses had by the government backed up into a corner and could have demanded anything they wanted. I do not know how it has all played out though. My guess is that these nurses settled for a lot less than what they could have actually received. Maybe you can fill us in as to how it all ended and if they are still using the leverage to change things.

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I must say that the threat of a union coming into our facility prompted our 19% payraise!! Two days before we voted in the union the administrators presented us with this fantastic raise and "bought" enough NO votes to keep the union out. We cancelled the vote, and can bring it back in six months. Believe me, it isn't just about the money for most of us. Fair and adequate staffing, being able to use our sick leave from the first day, inproved environment and working conditions are all a part of what we needed to improve upon. During the union campaining we saw our administrators in our ER at least 2 times a day, checking in with us, smiling, asking if everything was OK. We see them now about twice a month, and the smiles have all but stopped. We are once again just "staff", not worthy of their time. So, when the six month lapse is up, we will begin our efforts to get the union in. The union is ONLY as good as it's members. It won't "fix" the problems, only give you a louder voice, and better options. I have seen the goods and bads of a union..we must think.."are we better off WITH or WITHOUT it", and give honest answers. Emotions shouldn't play into it.:)

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Originally posted by wildtime88

fergus51, one of the things I remember that happened in a province of Canada this last year was the government not working with the union and how when nurses suddenly began turning in individual resignations in mass that things changed. This is the power of a group in action and not under a formal union versus management action. These nurses had by the government backed up into a corner and could have demanded anything they wanted. I do not know how it has all played out though. My guess is that these nurses settled for a lot less than what they could have actually received. Maybe you can fill us in as to how it all ended and if they are still using the leverage to change things.

You've been misinformed. That was in my province (British Columbia) and the mass resignation campaign was organised by the union not by individual nurses. Individual nurses were given the choice of giving their resignation or not TO THE UNION, and they were never handed in as the government termed that an illegal strike, although they did make sure to let individual nurses they were within their rights to quit. It was the same when the gov't outlawed our OT refusal. The union informed individual nurses they could still refuse OT and most did. We DID make a lot of demands. But in the end we were legislated back to work. I do not consider it settling when the gov't makes our acceptance of the contract irrelevant. It's one of the main reasons I am considering going back to the States to work. I am sick of politicians telling nurses that we need to tighten our belts when they keep giving themselves raises (apparently money is needed to attract good people to politics, but not to nursing). I believe in voting with my feet.

We have the same contract that we voted 96% against accepting. It has a lot of gains including upping the top nurses' salaries to 30$ an hour CDN by the end of the contract, which would make us the highest paid nurses in Canada, except for the fact that Alberta and Ontario's contracts will come up before ours so they'll get the bigger bucks. It also changed our seniority pay scale so it now takes 9 years to get the top wage instead of six. On the up side hospitals now take into account years worked in other facilities so some nurses moved up in the pay scale. We did not have to deal with mandatory OT as it doesn't exist here. Designated days off for part-timers have been changed. This was a big issue because they used to have to pay part-timers a lot of OT, but now they don't so they can keep hiring nurses as PT, work them as FT but give them no benefits. The contract changes are all available at the unions website, http://www.bcnu.org . Despite my bitterness a lot of nurses are quite happy with the contract and the union has had a lot of inquiries from nurses wanting to come back to work in the province. We even got 2 Americans to come here!!!:eek: Will wonders never cease.;)

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Oh and the union is still working to bring about change. They even had to take legal action to force a few employers to pay their nurses what they were owed. There are newslinks on the website. The big issue right now is the restructuring of the health boards accross the province.

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fergus51, you can correct me if I am wrong, but in your case if the individual nurses would have went through with handing in their resignations in mass as a non-union group, then you would have actually seen results. These nurses would not have been guilty of breaking any laws either. In fact, nurses acting independently of a formal labor union could have brought about more changes in one week then the union will bring about in the next 5 years to come.

As you said earlier, any group non-union or union has to stick together and be willing to go through with what it says in order to accomplish something. In the end, your government/employer won due to an empty treat on the nurses' part.

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Yes, it would have been illegal to hand in resignations en masse though each individual nurse could have done so. No, it would not have effetuated change as it should be noted it was only about a quarter of nurses who were willing to do it in the first place and since the contract has been imposed we have seen more nurses come to the province, they aren't leaving as much.

The union did engage in illegal walkouts and such, but individual nurses are not willing to put it all on the line by resigning en masse. I firmly believe the union would've handed them in had it not been declared illegal (it wasn't an empty threat). It's the individuals that don't have the guts to go through with things here. It's why I am planning on leaving in the next year or so.

Individual nurses here can not effectuate change outside of the union as our contract is negotiated with the union, not with individual nurses. It is like jt said: The employer doesn't have to negotiate with a group, they do have to negotiate with the union (here anyways).

If individuals had negotiating power we would be working in a sh*thole I am sure because I don't believe individual nurses are able to work together in bargaining without some sort of organisation. I have not seen any evidence that individual nurses can get together, set common goals and go about getting them. Put a group of nurses in a room and your lucky if they can agree on what color the walls are. I can't emphasize this enough. For those here who complain about the contract I ask them if they even submitted their resignations in the first place. More often than not they say no. This is the apathy I see in individual nurses. There are those who are willing to risk it all, but they are few and far between. It's the union that got nurses to refuse OT, to participate in walkouts and to submit resignations in the first place, NOT individual nurses.

Our gov't won because they legislated us to accept the contract. They can do the same to individual nurses or union nurses. They control ALL the hospitals in the province. In the end it was a take it or leave it situation. Like I said, a lot of nurses are happy with the gains made. I don't see a "group of individuals" doing any better than the union. I have never seen a group do that.

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Wow that wa unclear! Here's another go. The reason individual nurses couldn't have done better is because they couldn't organise a mass resignation campaign either as it would be illegal for them as a group to do it, just like it was illegal for the union as a group to do it. The only way it would be legal is for a nurse like me to just go in and quit WITHOUT getting other people to or making sure that they are. In other words, no organisation at all thus no real power.

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Originally posted by shanzah

I am truly shocked....:( I am also a nurse in texas.... and when I graduated 10+ years ago they told us there will never be unions in the state of texas because they are illegal according to our nurse practice act....... All things considered... unionization would be a good idea.... maybe then the management would stop recycling the same old "game plans" under new titles... you know the "new idea that's going to make life a whole lot easier for everyone"... yeah right Now, if you know of an area in texas that has unionized nurses... please tell me where.. I am looking into making a change in the near future... that might be the place to go ;)

OKAY....THERE IT IS AGAIN...MY USERNAME, BUT NOT MY POST. ARE THERE 2 OF US?:confused: Shanzah in Memphis

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Maybe it's a Texas nurse who doesn't want anyone to know she is in a union!:D

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Originally posted by shanzah

OKAY....THERE IT IS AGAIN...MY USERNAME, BUT NOT MY POST. ARE THERE 2 OF US?:confused: Shanzah in Memphis

okay, finally... sorry shanzah.. I posted this the other nite, along with some others that were credited to you... some kind of screw up in the system.. I actually had to re-register in order to respond:eek: :confused: :rolleyes: Please let it be known that Shanza's name is not taken in vain... and I am not a nurse in texas hiding to avoid folks knowing I am in a union... I know of no unions in texas, but am interested in learning about them. I don't know if they are the answer, but mayhap they will provide a clue;)

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Originally posted by crystalhawk

okay, finally... sorry shanzah.. I posted this the other nite, along with some others that were credited to you... some kind of screw up in the system.. I actually had to re-register in order to respond:eek: :confused: :rolleyes: Please let it be known that Shanza's name is not taken in vain... and I am not a nurse in texas hiding to avoid folks knowing I am in a union... I know of no unions in texas, but am interested in learning about them. I don't know if they are the answer, but mayhap they will provide a clue;)

Thanks for the clarification! and for the record I'm not in a Union either;)

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