Nurses ready to fight back after NLRB ruling!

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/storyPreview.cms?articleId=41853&archive=N

Written by Melanie Evans
Nurses ready to fight back
Ruling that full-time charge nurses can't belong to unions has labor leaders determined to work for ways around it
Story posted October 09, 2006 12:00 AM EDT
Healthcare employers facing aggressive organizing scored a victory last week with a federal labor ruling that blocks certain nurses from joining the rank-and-file.

For hospitals and health systems, the new ground rules will likely emerge as a flash point in organizing campaigns and contract talks -- creating new headaches and legal challenges for employers already grappling with organized labor.

Unions, which anticipated a ruling unfavorable to labor, staged protests in the months leading up to the decision, vowed to make union eligibility an issue in upcoming elections and threatened strikes should employers seek to oust or bar nurses from organized labor.

The long-awaited ruling is considered a win for healthcare employers.

[NC_Nurse]

1. That's bullshit.

Most charge nurses are working alongside the rest of the staff nurses and on many units the charge position rotates among staff members. They are in no way part of the administration. The nurse managers
are part of the management - thus the title.
I wish we had unions for nurses here in NC. :-(

[Omaha Steve]

2. AFSCME has a nurses unit if you want a contract!

AFSCME has over 60,000 nurses.

http://www.afscme.org/workers/68.cfm

[NC_Nurse]

3. I work at the state hospital

I don't think we can do that...
I know the nurses at Duke had a union coming and then Duke bribed them out of it.
NC is not very union-friendly.

[Warpy]

6. We tried to get AFSCME into the hospital I worked in about 10

years ago. 90% of night nurses signed union cards. Only about 15% of day stsff did so, and we lost the bid. The hospital spent many millions on professional union busters and managed to intimidate the day staff, as well as convince them that ladies didn't belong to unions, those were for sweaty guys in wife beater shirts. It was a hard lesson for us.

However, half the RNs in this country have left the profession due to brutal working conditions, myself included. This ruling and the expansion to all nurses as "supervisors" because CRNAs and LVN/LPNs are theoretically subordinate should start to take care of the other half as it allows management to work nurses 60 hours a week without the compensation of overtime.

I think it might become easier to unionize day staff when hospitals start to do this garbage. The were the primary industry behind the change in overtime rules and the reclassification of "professional" employees as exempt from overtime rules.

[Bluzmann57]

4. Now if ever there was a group of people who need Union

representation, it's nurses. They are some of the hardest working people alive, as well as (mostly) being among the most dedicated. We must support our sisters and brothers in the nursing profession to allow them to be represented by Labor Unions so that they can get paid what they are worth, as well as have all benefits they deserve.

[blondeatlast]

5. Go nurses! Lety's see you revive the labor movembnet, so sorely overdue!

As someone who has been constantly under several doctor's care and frequently in the hospital, no one appreciates nurses more than I do.

Union, YES!

[leesa]

7. Well, if they are suddenly 'management' because they are pulling charge

shifts, which virtually every nurse has to do, then they should also be pulling down management pay and accruing management benefits like vacation, retirement, perks, etc. What? They AREN'T management?!?

[MGD]

8. In the new service industry oriented America, unionizing health care

employees will be a pivotal battle in the ongoing labor/management war. I'm an RN and I'm pretty sure that my employer would fire anybody who started to organize. Fear is their primary tool. I think agency nursing is the answer to decreased competitiveness among the various health care employers.