Posted on 06/10/2010 9:56:33 AM PDT by day21221
12,000 Minnesota nurses launch 1-day walkout MINNEAPOLIS -- Outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital, what was called the largest nurses strike in U.S. history began Thursday to the sounds of "Amazing Grace" played on Michael Redmond's bagpipe. The 50-year-old nurse, wearing a red Minnesota Nurses Association T-shirt and green plaid kilt, said he picked the song because of its history as an old abolitionist rallying cry.
He played as night-shift nurses walked off the job early Thursday. BuzzHe said he sees a connection between the old fight against slavery and the strike by 12,000 Minnesota nurses. "The rally cry is that we're standing up for patient care and we're standing up for ourselves," he said. A key issue in the dispute was the nurses' demand for strict nurse-to-patient ratios, rejected by hospitals as inflexible and unnecessary. Sue Stamness, a cardiology nurse at Abbott for 24 years, said patient safety was the nurses' top concern.
"Nobody is listening to what we are saying," Stamness said. The nurses began their one-day strike at 7 a.m. at 14 hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Organizers said nurses would walk picket lines in three eight-hour shifts and by the end of the day nearly all 12,000 would participate. called the largest nurses' strike in U.S. history by both the union and the hospitals, the immediate effect was expected to be minimal. Hospitals hired 2,800 replacement nurses, called in extra non-unionized staff, reduced patient levels and some hospitals rescheduled elective surgeries.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Ok bye. Fire ‘em. Hire someone else.
Oh, and by the way. Any patient or patient’s family that suffers injury or loss because of this, PERSONALLY SUE the nurse that walked out and the union. PERSONALLY SUE.
Your friend going part-time?
I know many nurses.....
Some are over-worked no doubt about it....but they put up with it.
I also know many nurses that have great hours...and make good money.
fwiw-
I spent 7 years as a critical care nurse before finishing my Master’s and becoming a nurse anesthetist. Bedside nursing is one of the toughest jobs for a whole host of reasons. However, as I said, unions are not the answer to nursing’s woes.
Lot's depends on where you work..and who you work for.
Congrats on your degree....
Good luck!!
The vigil was organized by SEIU, a union representing other workers and health care providers in Twin Cities hospitals. "What's the greater sin?" asked Tee McClenty, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. "Speaking out for patient care (and leaving the bedside) or staying quiet while the problem festers?"
http://www.twincities.com/ci_15264284?nclick_check=1
ER.....fun in the middle of the night ;)
Bless you for your years of caring. Sometimes it’s rewarding, other times it’s trying, but it’s always for the love of our fellow human beings.
I’ve been a CRNA now for 5 years. I love it! And I have immense respect for our collegues @ the bedside saddled with enormous patient assignments. I hope we find a way to advance our profession while increasing the quality of care for our patients. Unfortuantely, I do believe with Obamacare, tough times are ahead for us all, both patients and providers.
During my long working life=over 53 years total=I have had to join 5 different unions. Some of that work was blue collar, most of it was white collar.
I found that those of us who had incentive & motivation, got taken aside & told to stop working so hard. “We were messing up the expectations of the company which the union had worked hard to hold down in individual production”.
I once worked for a fairly large So Calif grocery chain which no longer exists. They had 72 stores, & I worked in the office with 21 others, processing what was then called “DSD”-direct store delivery. Bread, milk, & other perishables were sent directly to the stores, & we processed the invoices on a 5 day a week basis for the 7 days a week of these deliveries.
Of those 72 stores, I personally did the 7 largest stores, with the most volume. The other 21 processed the paperwork for the remaining 65 stores.
I got ‘talked to’ 3 different times in the bathroom by the ‘union steward’. I was stunned. This was against everything I had ever been taught about doing the best I could do. Finally, the union applied enough pressure to the company that I was fired on Friday, Nov 11, 1966. I was told it was because I was being ‘too disruptive’. I was 27.
That was a hard lesson.
After that- I shunned jobs that were union. By the time I was 37, I went out on my own & have been self-employed ever since.
Unions have lost their original purpose.
They now don’t protect the worker so much as they break the back of the employer.
Some day, people are going to figure out that more people might have jobs in the first place if the unions were not involved.
all of the liberal and leftist students are furious to find out they will still have to buy health care insurance.”
Payback is a beeeaatch.
Agree. Here’s another health-care related question to all nurses out there: if you work in a unionized hospital and are compelled to participate in an abortion, do you honestly believe the SEIU would defend your rights? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! As I mentioned, I’ve workd in two hospitals where nurses belonged to a union & they had ZERO protection from anything - mandatory OT, huge nurse:patient ratios, unfair scheduling practices, blah blah blah. All the damn union did was siphon cash from their paychecks! WAKE UP!
I've seen just about everything...I'd guess. The best of times the worst of times.....
The best unit I have worked is an NICU, in SoCal....Loved it, and I was good at it.
I work in a LTAC now, in OK.....A good job. Low stress, good company.
I might have the program name wrong.
Sounds more like an RN program.........
Union-backed marchers present lawmakers with $40 billion budget proposal
Public employee-union backed marchers arrived at the Capitol this week after 48 days on the road from Bakersfield, presenting lawmakers with their state budget recommendations Thursday – $40 billion in tax increases and loophole closures they said will avoid service cuts and balance the budget for years to come.
(Excerpt)
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/23/v-print/2700162/the-buzz-union-backed-marchers.html
California’s $500-billion pension time bomb (The staggering amount of unfunded debt)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-crane6-2010apr06,0,6247734.story
One of the best sites around for news about CA inpending pension-driven doom:
http://www.pensiontsunami.com/public.php
VIDEO: SEIU Official Says Reforming Immigration Could Add 8 Million Democratic Votes
“We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”
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