Posted on 09/20/2011 2:31:13 PM PDT by SmithL
Thousands of nurses at more than 30 Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California will walk off the job Thursday in what union officials say will be the nation's largest-ever nurses' strike.
More than 23,000 nurses represented by the powerful California Nurses Association – including 17,000 from Kaiser hospitals – are expected to honor the walkout, primarily in the Bay Area but also at Kaiser's Sacramento-area hospitals.
Kaiser officials said they are prepared "to provide high-quality health care and service" during the strike.
The massive one-day strike, engineered by the CNA –
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
“I’ll take care of myself thank you. Bargaining is for incompetent whiners.”
Bargaining got you your weekends; we’re starting to see what “American” companies are willing to do when given loopholes. Temps shouldn’t be working for five years as temps, just as “part-time” workers shouldn’t be consistently working 40+ hours per week without any benefits accorded to full-time employees at the same company. Miners used to work six and a half days a week; now many Americans are already up to six (while falling behind due to a combination of stagnant wages and unreported inflation).
I’ll never understand why, in light of the outsourcing and unfettered immigration, Americans pretend that we have any bargaining power left. Can you see what it has gotten us? What do you think is in store for Amerca’s children of today? At least Tunisians & Egyptians did something about their conditions.
I take it you think all sales people are "incompetent whiners."
Sheesh. Most every executive I have ever met negotiates his or her compensation package.
Going on strike would not constitute patient abandonment. In nursing, you could lose your license if you walk off a nursing unit while on your shift.
If you do not show up for work ( like a strike), that is not abandonment. You have not accepted a patient under your care.
It is a touchier situation for the nurses who are working when the strike action is called.
Usually, hospital administration will have arranged for someone to take over the nursing functions.
However, if they cannot find someone, they cannot force you to work unusual long hours while you wait for someone to take over. I think 16 hrs would be the maximum you can be forced to work.Otherwise, you could commit serious errors due to fatigue.
The original poster didn't sound as if he were talking about sales. He was talking about the government. I have nothing against sales people/executive negotiating contracts. But bargaining with the government for our standard of living sounds like socialism to me.
You are absolutely right, VL.
Bargaining for a better living in the real world means being good enough at what you do that others WANT to pay you well.
Methinks kearnyirish has a case of lefty blarney-I-wish.
LOL! I'm a stay at home mom so let me know when the weekends come. And my husband owns his own business and he works M-Saturday. Sunday is the Lord's day. Everyone who works gets to make a choice. Last I knew 'evil corporations' weren't holding a gun to anyone's head to make them 'work'. If enough people said no to working on the weekends then the companies would be closed, but as long as someone is willing for whatever reason, then that is their choice. I'm grateful everyday for the work my husband gets and I'm not about to bite the hand that is providing our income. Your milage may vary.
Thanks and Darn Skippy!
Snip: A total of 68 jobs are in jeopardy at the Roseville hospital, according to Service Employees International Union
My insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last ten years. The quality of medical care provided has not.
Perhaps if the nurses were paid less, and the janitorial staff paid more, helpless patients would contract fewer deadly diseases from hospitals.
American workers of all stripes have been screwing their employers and customers for years, because they bought into a fictitious entitlement mentallity.
God bless the dedicated Certified Nursing Assistants, LPNs and RPNs and PAs who still do their best everyday!
If only they would band together and refuse to tolerate their substandard,unprofessional peers, both their standard of life, and that of their patients, would be greatly enhanced.
Wunnerful idea. Then when you have a chest infection they can hang a little bag of red ants around your neck. Or spray mother's milk into your eyes to cure the pink eye.
Talking with my friends and colleagues I do not see unionization as a consequence of Obamacare, although that may come later. The first thing people will see on the medical side once Obamacare takes effect is mass retirement of seasoned and experienced physicians. It already does not pay to be in medicine compared to the other professions (when one takes into account hours worked, lifestyle, etc). Obamacare will worsen that to the point a lot of us will simply retire. Medicine sadly will no longer be worth the hassle. Physicians are already working harder and longer to make less. The trend cannot continue. And there are also those like me who will not work for the government at any price.
The NLRA needs serious review, particularly removing the anti-trust exemption unions enjoy. Unions should be forced to compete, making the most of every worker instead of treating them as if they were all the same. They're not.
I do agree that there will be large scale physician retirements as older physicians (40% of docs are >55) find working conditions intolerable and reimbursements insulting. Primary care, and specialists to the degree feasible, will feature physicians acting mostly as quality control agents supervising increasing numbers of physician extenders (much like the anesthesiologist/CRNA model).
The problem is that hospital systems are highly inefficient and expensive because of government regulation, state tort laws, and the third party payment system that eschews competition based on price and quality. Medical care in emerging economies reveals that costs can be reduced when free market principles are employed.
If Obamacare is repealed, and free market reforms are instituted, I doubt unionization will occur because entrepreneurs will create demand for high quality and affordable medical care. But if the nation chooses the socialist path in the next election, the government will continue to promote collectivist education and attitudes in every sector. The medical field will not be immune to their coercive influences.
“Bargaining for a better living in the real world means being good enough at what you do that others WANT to pay you well.”
That worked well until American workers actually starting making money according to the supply-and-demand model; since then corporations have found ways (legal or otherwise) to either have the same work done overseas for much less money, or import a much cheaper workforce into this country. Make no mistake: we are all paying for those policies and their effects. Under the original operating model Obama would have NEVER been elected; he got in because enough hard-working Americans watched their standards of living deteriorate. Too many people who played “by the rules” are finding themselves at middle age with nothing; their homes are in foreclosure, and they are looking at a very real prospect of not working again (while their retirement age has been pushed back to 67 or more).
“If enough people said no to working on the weekends then the companies would be closed, but as long as someone is willing for whatever reason, then that is their choice.”
You’re delusional; they’ve moved to Asia already, or imported Asians or Hispanics to do the work here. That is frightening that you think Americans have any leverage at all; I guess it is because you haven’t been in the workforce for a bit. My local bank decided to open on Sundays to compete with a large bank that offered Sunday hours; within a few months any workers that were granted religious exemptions from working Sundays were let go. As someone who works in the industry, my response to anyone praising these expanded branch hours is, “Think of the people that have to work them”. As a Christian I agree Sunday is the Lord’s Day; many workers now find themselves forced to work on Sundays against their consciences.
Corporations aren’t evil; they are legal constructs designed to maximize profits for shareholders while removing accountability from decision-makers (Sarbanes-Oxley has gone some way towards restoring accountability). Anyone familiar with American history knows what companies are willing to squeeze from workers historically; anyone not familiar with our history is getting a firsthand look at how Marxism came about, and the appeal it held for desperate people (hence the election of Obama).
You make good points; I just never thought that the independence-minded folks of Free Republic were opposed to collective bargaining for private-sector employees (while I understand opposing mandatory union membership, I don’t understand banning voluntary organization). I am the worst enemy public-employee unions have on Free Republic, and Chris Christie’s biggest fan here in NJ for battling them - because I am forced to pay them. In terms of the private sector, I have no problem with workers of any kind acting in concert for better pay or conditions; it is supply and demand, which is circumvented by companies by bringing in a constant supply of cheap labor (unskilled, tech, MBA, whatever) to suppress wages and weaken any position of American workers.
I’m puzzled why FReepers automatically assume that the freaks “occupying” Wall Street aren’t acting to some extent in our interests as well; some have rational points on their placards which shouldn’t be ignored. I’m to the right of Pat Buchanan, but understand the contributions the left has gained for Americans over the past century.
While all the talk about making a living on your own merits is commendable, the obvious fact is that “playing fair” has gotten American workers nowhere (and they’re slipping fast). FReepers that persist in ignoring the conditions of working Americans are as detached as Obama is; if he steps aside the Republicans will have a hard time dealing with his replacement because of exactly those conditions.
Yes, you, Obama, and James Hoffa are on precisely the same page in that regard.
Are you going to start talking about “taking out those son-of-a-bitches” next?
Go sell your snivelly union b.s. somewhere else. I’m not buying.
You deserve four more years of Obama; you might get your wish (if you take your head out of the sand to see it).
It is still a choice. Greed drives both sides of this. As a Christian you should know that the heart is wicked above all else. In America no one is forced to work on Sunday, it is a choice. One's decisions may have led one into a place where they may feel they 'have' to work on Sunday, but it is still a choice.
From some of your comments to sarasmom, it sounds as if you are living in NJ or on the East Coast. I'm in flyover country and we've had businesses stop being open on Sunday because they couldn't get anyone to work. Businesses that are committed to hiring only Americans. They seem to be doing fine financially; maybe the Lord is blessing their choice. If you have friends that are violating their conscience maybe they have made bad choices that have painted them into the 'work on Sunday' corner. It is always about choices.
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