Working union strikes, disasters, etc

NedRN · Dec 12, 2020

There are zero reputable companies in the strike game. After all, their business model is to undercut nurses. And all the companies involved have a despicable history with past owners being felons.

That answers the political part of your inquiry but doesn't answer the who question. Healthsource Global and Fastaff are the two biggest names for healthcare strike staffing, but there are always others popping up landing contracts with hospitals about to go on strike. One person with prior strike experience and the logistical know how (which is the most interesting part of strikes to me) is all it takes to land such contracts.

Scab dot org (no kidding) was a site existing for many years for strike nursing with an extensive forum to keep up with strike companies. The forums were full of non payment complaints and broken promises for every single strike company and made for fascinating reading about how strike companies work and the world view of strike workers. That site changed its name to mobilern dot com but is currently not operating.

A shame in several ways, but you might be able to view their forums through archive.org I can only guess that current discussions between strikeworkers are now on facebook.

A final practical issue: most potential strikes never happen. The usual strike worker is a staff nurse in the South who makes crap wages and even a 3 day strike (taking time off from work) represents a lot of extra money. If a traveler misses a contract waiting for a strike, you will likely end up down in revenue for the year versus working steadily. Especially for the next year where you can land really well paid contracts for hospitals who are in critical need - not union disputes. Just a word to the wise. Long term strikes where you can work 84 hours a week for a year are really rare, but currently there are a lot of crisis assignments where you can do this. (And feel good about yourself).

noahj1102 · Dec 12, 2020

40 minutes ago, NedRN said:

There are zero reputable companies in the strike game. After all, their business model is to undercut nurses. And all the companies involved have a despicable history with past owners being felons.

That answers the political part of your inquiry but doesn't answer the who question. Healthsource Global and Fastaff are the two biggest names for healthcare strike staffing, but there are always others popping up landing contracts with hospitals about to go on strike. One person with prior strike experience and the logistical know how (which is the most interesting part of strikes to me) is all it takes to land such contracts.

Scab dot org (no kidding) was a site existing for many years for strike nursing with an extensive forum to keep up with strike companies. The forums were full of non payment complaints and broken promises for every single strike company and made for fascinating reading about how strike companies work and the world view of strike workers. That site changed its name to mobilern dot com but is currently not operating.

A shame in several ways, but you might be able to view their forums through archive.org I can only guess that current discussions between strikeworkers are now on facebook.

A final practical issue: most potential strikes never happen. The usual strike worker is a staff nurse in the South who makes crap wages and even a 3 day strike (taking time off from work) represents a lot of extra money. If a traveler misses a contract waiting for a strike, you will likely end up down in revenue for the year versus working steadily. Especially for the next year where you can land really well paid contracts for hospitals who are in critical need - not union disputes. Just a word to the wise. Long term strikes where you can work 84 hours a week for a year are really rare, but currently there are a lot of crisis assignments where you can do this. (And feel good about yourself).

Thank you for the information. My current deployment is 6 days on, 1 off. It's tough, but I'm enjoying helping and making a difference and the pay is hard to turn down.

I'll look at those companies and keep an eye out, but take it with a grain of salt as well. I'll most likely be in my position now for a couple more months or however long my body can hold out.