Are there professions that should not have the option of going on strike?
Posted at 5:00 AM on June 1, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(73 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Health
Twin Cities nurses plan to stage a one-day strike on June 10. Today's Question: Are there professions that should not have the option of going on strike?
Comments (73)
Nobody ever GAVE the working man anything. All of the benefits that most of us now enjoy are the results of courageous men and women who unionized and fought for fair wages, better working conditions, and benefits. Everyone should have the right to unionize and strike it necessary.
Steven G.: There's a difference between a "viable business" and profiteering, which is what some health care CEOs salaries look like. I don't begrudge anyone fair payment for their labor, but I have to wonder whether a CEO (in any business) who receives $millions in "compensation" has actually added $millions worth of value to the well-being of humanity. Have they actually earned it, or is that just what they've been able to shrewdly extract from the system?
So, I wonder if those that believe nurses should be "professional", would have us hand them a bill for every service we provide. As your advocate I am looking at what is best for you. If I were to start billing per task where would that lead. I am there to protect you from the doctors or pharmacy mistakes. And, I am there to not make mistakes but to provide the best care with the given resources. As a patient advocate I push for the highest standard of care possible in my community. Our job is not just for the hospital but for our community. This is about utilizing what we feel is the best solution. So, yes we should protest, advocate, write legislative bills, and vote with our feet.
I can think of one group of professionals that should not be allowed to strike. That would be professional athletes. Even the least paid pro athelete can make more in a seson than my family makes in a year.
With that go nurses!
"Management seems to care mainly about the bottom line." - Steve the Cynic
you think? Someone has to make sure there will be a viable business for the future that will be able to continue to employ and possibly add jobs.
Even if the nurses' strike is all about the money, I still think they should be free to strike. At least, that is, until the CEOs agree to run the hospitals out of the goodness of their hearts and forego their obscenely large salaries. At least the nurses care about patients. Management seems to care mainly about the bottom line.
Of course, we could render this entire conflict moot by simply nationalizing health care and removing the profit motive altogether, but I'm not holding my breath. As long as we have a health care system that's based on profiteering from sick people, nurses deserve their cut.
Jane...do tell...which of the 14 hospitals do you work at where all areas are staffed so well?
Have you ever seen the UAW strike over car safety for consumers?
How about the IAW walking out on Boeing because planes are no longer safe to fly on?
Let's be honest, this is about money and more importantly, strategic positioning for future negotiations (which nobody knows how they will go depending on healthcare reform) and the build-up of a National Nurses "Super Union" (NNU's words).
On a side note, this sounds like an opportunity for a FOR-PROFIT healthcare organization like Tenet to come into town.
Jane I agree with you 100%. Now I'm expected to make not only to make my patients suffer but my family as well for a pension that I may never see. To me between the union and the hospital it's about money and power and it is really sad
Who are we kidding? It's all about the money. If it were about patient care we should drop the pension and benefit requests. I am a nurse and I can honestly say that I feel I am treated fairly and have a good working environment. We are well staffed at my hospital. When MNA dropped out of ANA (American Nurses Association) we went from a professional organization to strickly a bargaining organization. How sad.
I believe that nurses have the right to strike especially when it comes to patient care, but as a nurse I work with nurses on a daily basis and I have not heard one nurse mention patient care as their reason for going on a strike. It's all about the pension. I'm sorry, I enjoy what I do. I became a nurse to care for people. I'm a single parent with two children to take care of. If nurses cared so much about people and I'm not talking about all nurses then I wouldn't get criticized for my decision to work on the 10th. I would be supported by my fellow nurses who put patient's first. But I will get treated badly. A few years ago I had no job and now I'm a Nurse and I'm dedicated to my work. I feel that I can handle my job, I'm not over worked. At times I'm put in danger but that's the risk I took when I became a Nurse. So I put patients before pension
I believe nurses have the right to strike, and MN nurses are striking for the betterment of their patients and their profession. While it is not easy for nurses to imagine their patients being cared for by a nurse who has been thrown into a situation where they are not familiar with (TC hospitals offering 8 hr orientation, most of it I'm assuming is learning our electronic medical record program), it is in the long run better we stand up for our patients by not being there for one day.
I also think it is absurd what the hospitals are offering replacement workers for one day's work (Latest posting: $2,224 for One Day + 8 Hours Orientation. Paid Licensure Provided. FREE Travel & Housing. Travel 6/7 and 6/8. Start 6/10. End 6/11). It would be much easier to really start negotiating, which means looking at BOTH side's proposals. I am hoping that negotiations on June 2nd and June 4th are productive, and an agreement can be made to avoid the June 10th strike. I observe in my daily practice that the hospital has turned their focus to profits, and are not hearing the concerns that nurses are trying desperately to convey. If the nurses do not stand up for patient care now, they will not be doing a service for their patients. That is why I'm one of the thousands of nurses who could not accept the contract that the TC hospitals proposed.
If you act like a factory work, you become one. There is nothing about this strike that relates to patient care, it is all about the MNA and RN's economics. Drop the salary increase and pension, focus on staffing ratios and the media proclamations might be believed. How can nurses call themselves professionals and create this type of a situation in "today's economy"?
I have been a Nurse for 17 years. I have been employed at the same hospital (in Robbinsdale, MN) for 14 years. I have done so many different things in my career, it is hard to keep track of them all, but I will attempt to so here...
I have helped new parents to give their brand new baby his first bath. I have held the hand of an octegenarian veteran while he took his last breath. I have done CPR on more patients than I can count; some have made it, some haven't. I have stuck my hand into someone's bleeding abdominal wound after the stiches let go, so that he could make it to surgery with his intestines still in his belly. I have been hit, kicked, spit on, cursed at (by both families and patients), and had my hair pulled. I have had urine & feces thrown at me, I have been bled on, and vomited on. I have held a patient's wife in my arms so she could have a good cry after finding out that he husband of 50 years was dying. I have been stuck with a contaminated needle, twice. I have been exposed to TB, HIV, Hepatitis A, B, C, D & E, MRSA, VRE, and a veritible alphabet of contagion. I have recovered patient's from surgery, I have managed chest tubes, foley catheters, continuous bladder irrigation, chest pain (cardiac & non-cardiac). I have cared for patients after open heart surgery, after having their prostate removed, after having a heart attack, and after a stroke. I have sat with patient's suffering with dementia and have answered the same questions from them for hours on end.
Despite all of this, I LOVE WHAT I DO! I have never wanted to be ANYTHING else since I was a child. I am "living the dream". I am a caregiver; I love my patient's and their families.
This is why I voted to go on strike. My patient's and their families deserve to have a nurse that is knows what she/ he are doing. they also deserve to have someone there when everything is going wrong. Unfortunately, the hospital administrators that are involved in the "negotiations" care less about the quality of care of the patient's than their own bottom line.
We live in the United States of America - though sometimes I wonder about this - we must have the freedom to take a stand for what is right - The nurses should be hailed as HERO's! Don't ever think it is easy. Far from it!
The nurses have been forced into this, we need to protect our patients and the public in general. The powers that be within the hospitals are only concerned about profits and are willing to make cuts to the point of others safety.
I am ashamed of my employer's behavior. I am appalled at how they are treating 12000+ working people, and thousands more of the ailing, weak, scared human beings that we care for every day, who trust us with their lives. I have first hand experience dealing with these execs and they are running a 'business'. Not a healthcare organization, or a healing facility. It's all about making that profit. Even in this economy healthcare is a very lucrative business... you will never run out of customers. So what if they create policy that puts people's lives at risk if it's profitable? So what if they take that risk over and over every day until one person dies. 50/50 chance the family will sue, and even if they win the hospital still profited. It shouldn't even be a debate whether or not these nurses, or any other employee for that matter, should have the right to strike. As long as we have these greedy pigs in positions of power over all of our lives we need to have the ability to attempt to balance the situation. THANK YOU NURSES FOR FIGHTING FOR ME AND MY FAMILY!
All professions should have the right to strike. Especially as long as money rules in our health care systems we need to be able to push back in a meaningful way. It looks like hospitals are willing to sacrifice good care for increased profits. Who will stand up for the patients?
Where is it written that "professionals don't strike"? Unions were formed to give labor a level playing field when dealing with management. Anyone who works for a wage (as nurses do), whether what they do is labeled a "profession" or not, should be able to join a union and threaten a strike if management treats them unfairly. If "professional" ball players can have unions and go on strike, why shouldn't nurses have recourse to collective bargaining?
Of course RNs should be able to strike. It isn't about the money, it's about staffing to ensure the safety of both the patients and the caregivers. While management gets bonuses, we had education for lift equipment stopped because of the budget. How many of us were work injured because we couldn't use new equipment? Spend a dollar to save a dime... I wish anyone who thinks this is about the money could spend a day watching what we do. Also, I did not vote to strike just to 'make history' as the hospital spokeswoman implied. Her comment just shows how totally clueless they are.
Well if nursing wants to be considered a profession than nurses need to act professional. Professional don't strike. Unions were developed to protect Blue Collar Workers. I guess that is what we should consider the nurses.
YES, Politicians... then we can put some scabs in place and get something done.
DTOM
Nobody should have the right to strike. Corportations should be able to snuff out insigificant disgruntled workers lives at will and have absolute power. Praise be to the almighty American dollar.
Absolutely, and specifically in the case of MNA RN's yes, I believe professionals have the right to strike. 75% of eligible nurses voted by a 9-1 margin to reject the contract proposed by the Twin Cities Hospitals. To have that high of a percentage of nurses from 6 corporations in 14 different hospitals vote by that great of a margin is a staggering testimony to how widespread the issues are and how strongly nurses feel about them. Despite that loud of a collective statement,the hospitals have still not addressed staffing proposals and nurses are unfortunately having to exercise their option to strike in order to be heard .
Some public safety professionals don't have the right to strike for obvious reasons. Nurses are different though. We rely on them so much and if they are not getting their due, they have every right to strike.
NO! Just because we are caring and professional, does not mean we have to be doormats and/or be taken advantage of because of our caring nature. I am not afraid to work hard; that's my job and what I get paid for. I am afraid to work in unsafe conditions; that's my license and possibly someone's life!
If there are, nursing jobs are not among them. The hospitals have the money and the power, in total, unless nurses can threaten them with financial and prestige loss by a strike threat.
I am amused by the commenters, here and elsewhere, who equate striking with non-professionals. EMPLOYEES strike. It's the one power that they have over their employers. Especially when Minnesota, as most states, is an employment at will state, meaning that you can be fired, on any day at any time with no notice, no explanation, and no extension of any pay or benefits beyond the last day that you worked.
Take a look at any contract within our union's facilities. The biggest focus is on Professional Practice, establishes boards to address practice issues, Pt safety issues, Safety committees, The appropriate approach to orient new nurses and new grads into the acute care setting because the hospitals would want to do the least amount.
When all this in the interest of promoting profit is patronized by a boardroom of execs that think acutely ill people are just widgets in the world of a market driven Healthcare environment---then you better believe we have to be able to strike---your life depends on it!
Not allowed to strike? To me that says you have to invest all of your time, money, blood, sweat, and tears into a career you truly believe in but you have absolutely no control over how you are treated, staffed, or compensated.
That's ridiculous, and I work in sales.
Why is it that teachers, nurses, cops, fire fighters, and other public servants are expected to keep quiet and NOT fight for the same stable and rewarding work environment that the private sector demands.
The public is always holding these professions to a higher standard, and so they should, but when these professionals seek fair treatment for the duties they perform, right under the bus they are thrown. It's a double-standard and it's wrong.
Not only that, but these nurses are fighting for OUR safety! They want to make sure they are staffed well enough by the right nurses (not someone who has floated from an unrelated unit and knows little about your condition).
America has been taken advantage of by banks and corporations for the past several years and now these hospitals, under the same veil of the "failing" economy, are willing to risk the health and lives of patients for their own greed.
If we the public want to get mad and point a finger at someone, let's focus on the hospitals' corporate officers who make big $$$,$$$ annually and are only looking to add to their bottom-line!
"Are there professions that should not have the option of going on strike?"
No. But they should be aware that their employers likewise have the option of locking the doors, or hiring replacements.
Gary F asks
"With the lower reimbursements called for under Obamacare, how will hospitals handle the reduction in revenue with the nurses demanding more?"
Maybe they'll pay the doctors less.
I am one of the 12000 RNs in this situation. If you take away the ability to strike, you take away any bargaining ability.
Do I think that all of the proposals from MNA are appropriate? No, but I think the contract the Hospitals are offering is laughable. Unfortunately, I was FORCED to vote strike due to the contract they put forth.
It is normal for both sides in negotiations to start with unatainable requests, but through negotiation, usually meet in the middle. Unfortunately, there isnt much negotiation going on.
I dont know of one nurse that wants to go on strike, but we will if they cant come to an agreement that is safe and fair.
NO, WE SHOULD JUST EAT THE RICH.
Yes, especially when they are clearly being steamrolled by business oriented machine. In order to keep the humanity in the care of ill people who are not able to care for themselves at the very basic level. These professional nurses must stand up for themselves and most of all for the patients they have vowed to take care of.
No one should ever have to strike. If management didn't take advantage of the powerless peons no striking would be necessary. Striking is like war, it hurts everyone and if people would be calm, reasonable, cooperative and humane there would be no war or strikes.
READ YOUR HISTORY. no one ever wants to strike. If there were a better system of POWER SHARING no one would need this TOOL. People who have the power keep the power, that is HUMAN NATURE. Administrators will never willingly give anything away. It is a sad comment on our human society that there is not better power sharing.
This is a good question, I am glad you posted this because it just makes me think of more questions!
1. Should hospital leadership give themselves a bonus when they lay off workers and continue to take in more patients, even when there is not enough nursing staff?
2. When nurses say "I feel unsafe working here sometimes" should we all sit down and tell those stories so we can come to some sort of understanding about what is going on? Should hospital leadership at the very least,listen to those stories?
3. Should people who have been away from bedside care make decisions about how many patients a nurse should have?
4. How many nurses does it take to care for your mother with dementia?
5. How many nurses does it take to care for an active child on a ventilator?
6. Should hospital workers just let decisions be made without weighing in on the outcomes?
7.Eventhough there is evidence that staffing safely saves lives, should we ignore it?
8. When you think of going to a hospital do you wonder what those "greedy nurses" are up to or are you happy with the time they have to spend with your loved one?
9. Do you take into consideration the nurse to patient ratio when you are choosing a healthcare facility? Do you make that choice as carefully as you do when you select a M.D.?
10. Do you want the nurse who is working with you to have specific training in that area?
11.Do you want the staffing at your hospital to be as good on the night shift as the day shift? Is your family member less sick on nights?
12. Do nurses have to be nice all the time? Or can they get a little agitated when you tell them that what they are experiencing is not true?
All Occupations Can Strike
A strike is one of the less damaging forms of protest against unfair work conditions. If strikes are not legal than people will find other, less transparent ways to protest and everyone will lose.
that is easy - YES!
I find it ironic that, while the hospitals are saying they lack the money to offer nurses good wages and their patients good staffing, many are expanding their facilities and their CEOs get paid (for example) $36,000 to play golf.
The contract given to the nursing union (MNA) is a prime example of profit over people. Let them strike.
NO. Service professionals know what is best for those they are committing their life to SERVING. In order to adequately fight for them, professionals need the ultimate option to stand up.
There should be no such thing as a public sector union. If you are employed by the government you should not have the option to hold the taxpayers hostage to make more money. Because then you are infringing on our (the taxpayers) right to keep more of the fruits of our labors. By definition one right can't infringe on another.
I support the nurses in their fight for a decent contract because I know that an injury to one is an injury to all. Never was a statement more true than in this case. Anyone who has been in a hospital or had a loved one there lately knows that the staffing levels are inadequate. The nurses are fighting for all of us and I am ready to walk the line with them.
This shouldn't be up for debate. All workers have the right to collectively organize and strike. No one goes on strike unless they have no other option.
Last time I checked, the bosses still had the "right" to lay workers off and enforce pay cuts. Let's debate *that*.
If Management bargained in good faith, there would be no reason to strike. they want to take back contract language that keeps patients safe. It is all about safe staffing and being fair. Why should a CEO make over a million dolars a year? plus bonuses and expect staff to take cutbacks
There are no profesions that shouldnt have the right to go on strike. As an American esp in service professions it is our job to take care of people in a legal, safe and ethical manner. When just cause elevates an issue of patient/product safety to a high enough level, we need to shed light on the issue to the people we are taking care of so they can help affect neccesary policy changes that we as workers are powerless to affect without them. A strike is saying, this place is operating dangerously, and we refuse to take part in its operation and we think you need to know about their bad behavior and help us to make it a better safer place.
The lack of union support on this comment board is disturbing at best! Who is one of the biggest non-union employers? Wal-Mart. Do you really want your kids to be taught, or your hospital care, or your whatever to be provided by people without benefits, without job security who are getting paid poverty wages?
All workers, regardless of profession, should have the right to strike. Compelling someone to work against their will--isn't that called slavery>
If we entrust a part of the economy the free market, the businesses that offer to sell us those goods and services should have to deal with unions and the threat of strikes. Any work that's so critical to society that the workers can't be allowed to strike is too critical to entrust to the whims of the free market (i.e., the amoral pursuit of profit) and should be a responsibility of government. If you think nursing is so critical that nurses should be forbidden to strike, you're effectively arguing for socialized medicine.
why is this a question? Nurses pay fees to belong to a union which protects their rights as a group. I question the media - why hasn't the media investigated ceo pay, media members benefiting from hospitals, etc. I remember taking a journalism class in college and i was told to "follow the money." The nurses have paid dues and are a bargaining unit - end of story.
No. Having worked for 14 years with nurses in hospital, I know that the vast majority got into the profession because they truly wanted to make a positive difference in their patients' lives -- they just never realized that they were going to have 3 times more patients and much more back-breaking work (all the while smiling) than they could have ever imagined. Management knows that nurses are the perfect people to take advantage of without challenge. It's time for that challenge.
No. Having worked for 14 years with nurses in hospital, I know that the vast majority got into the profession because they truly wanted to make a positive difference in their patients' lives -- they just never realized that they were going to have 3 times more patients and much more back-breaking work (all the while smiling) than they could have ever imagined. Management knows that nurses are the perfect people to take advantage of without challenge. It's time for that challenge.
Absolutely. How else can nurses stand up to unsafe conditions and make change. Listen to the hospital spokesperson double talk and state business slogans to protect the status quo. The hospital has chosen not to negotiate in good faith. Nurses have given them an ultimatum. Now the hospitals choose if they want to spend money on the high price replacements. The threat of a strike holds business accountable. Otherwise we are all sheep.
If we tell any group of workers that they cannot, by law, strike, then we legally sanction their exploitation.
In response to the person who said ...
"If you don't like your job look for something else. Right now there is a line of people that will take your job. Life is short...your job should be something you enjoy."
Hey. Let me go on record today to say that we are not striking because we "don't like our jobs."
Most of us who are nurses acually LOVE our jobs and are dedicated to our jobs. We are willing to go on strike because we believe what we are striking for is PATIENT SAFETY.
We are not just doing this for us, but for everyone who may end up as a patient or with a loved one as a patient. We want to be able to provide good, safe and proper care to all our patients and feel everyone deserves it.
If our employers, Twin Cities Hospitals, engaged in true neotiations, the professional group would have a new contract, and strike would be a non- issue.
The Nurses who take care of the patients need to have the ability to say when it isn't safe and have this responded to. It isn't about not caring enough to take care of the patients, quite the opposite. Without nurses taking a stance there will be dire results for all patients. Unions are in existence to create a safe working environment. Look at mine safety- profits yes - safety not so much. Nurses care for you by being strong, and standing up for you. HJ
Nurses are professionals, but have not been treated as such by the facilities that employ them. I have been exposed to HIV and tuberculosis due to insufficient safety measures by a hospital. Insufficient supplies and volatile working conditions are an everyday occurrence for nurses, yet they show up for work everyday, for the sake of those who are ill. Should I have no protection whatsoever, and be completely at the mercy of the hospital, which only seeks to save money?
All of this set aside, a nursing strike is focused less on the nurses and more on the patients. Any nurse will tell you it is unsafe to float to a specialty area for which one is untrained. Yes, nurses learn about all types of patients while in school, as do physicians. But no one would ask a gastroenterologist to perform cardiac surgery. One simply must consider a situation in which a loved one is in the hospital, and the care that one would hope that person to receive. It can be safe and thorough care administered by a nurse caring for only a few patients, or it can be a patient lying in their own feces for 3 hours, and not getting a medication administered for several hours after it was ordered, simply because the hospital didn't want to pay for a sufficient number of nurses. The public needs to step up and speak up for the nurses, who are at the frontline of heath care.
If the nurses strike, putting patients in danger, that is on the hospital's hands, not on the hands of the nurses. If they truly believe nurses are so indispensable, they need to see what happens when they are gone. The danger of a day or two of a nursing strike is far less severe than the danger of an entire future of insufficient nursing numbers.
i see a lot of comments from people saying no the nurses should not be allowed to go on strike. I also see that they have no clue what they are talking about. Yes there are non union hospitals in the Twin Cities. If you dont like unions go to them. But I also happen to know that the nurses that work at that non union hospital enjoy the same benefits of the union hospitals because of the union. and to whoever said no they shouldnt strike because if they dont like their job then do something else, get a clue. They arent striking because they dont like their job, they are striking because the CEO's of many of these hospitals just got paid huge multi million dollar bonuses, and now are trying to slash the hell out of the nurses pensions. and they are also trying to put clauses in their contracts to slash working hours for them and move them to unfamiliar areas. something that is essentially a safety issue for patients.
Any union should be able to strike regardless of profession. In the case of the pending nursing strike, the money is less than a secondary issue. The main thrust of this problem is nurse to patient ratio and management types deciding what makes a patient high need or low need as far as nursing care. I would prefer to have a nursing staff that is NOT stretched so thin that patient care suffers.
Do you not find it amazing that the hospitals are crying too expensive and yet are willing to offer nurses $1600/day to fill in during the one day strike? Previous to the anouncement of the one day strike, they were offering $5000/wk + air fare+lodging for replacement nurses. Curious.
I am not a nurse.. But i do think they work so hard to keep patients safe. when they are expressing the safety of patients.. Management needs to listen. They are only looking out for the patients. Nurses are a gift from GOD. They are there to make sure we are safe and not in pain. We need to remember that nurses are working hard to get us better. They work long hours in stressful situations... We need to listen to what they are asking for...
I don't think anyone should strike. If you don't like your job look for something else. Right now there is a line of people that will take your job. Life is short...your job should be something you enjoy.
No.
The unattractive truth is this: If you label a job as too critical to allow workers in that job to strike, that's the same as saying to management "you have our collective permission to under-compensate these people."
Companies exist to make money. Everything else is baloney. Companies view workers as an expense to be limited, so for companies it's an us-vs.-them situation.
Most workers just want a job that allows them to live.
That's two different mind-sets in an unequal playing field.
As a RN I will never leave my patients. I have a duty that has nothing to do with a bunch of CEO types or a bunch of MNA types arguing in a room somewhere.
I am a NURSE. People need us to take care of them. I choose this profession for that reason... I will not ever leave my patients until my body isn't able to handle the job any longer.
If RNs want to claim that they are essential to patient care... then a stike is just irresponsible!
I would scab for a patient in a minute... that could be my family memeber... one that needs a RN that is from that hospital to care for them.
Figure it out without leaving the patients in danger... No Nurses should NOT strike...
Want to know about the nurses strike? Information that the media sources don't want you to hear?
Go to Facebook. All parties involved have pages.
How about Air Traffic Controllers? Theirs was the infamous strike in 1981 whose breakup up by President Reagan marked the beginning of the end for private sector unions in America.
Why shouldn't all unions be allowed to strike? Whether they are professional or laborer (and where does that line end? which side to police/firefighters fall on?), it doesn't matter. The purpose of the union is to allow for collective bargaining.
While I am worried about a potential nurses strike (and I'm fairly anti-union), I don't think that the media has been reporting all the facts, only what the hospital association and nurses union want reported in their "PR" soundbites. I'd like someone to actually do some investigation and find out what is really going on (admittedly, I trust the hospitals less than I trust the nurses).
My mom and many of my friends are nurses. They are worried about the strike, and they really don't want to strike. But they also know that the hospitals have not been negotiating. Compromise is required, and it takes two to get this done. A lesson for the hospital corporations as well as our government.
No striking for critical safety workers: police, fire, ambulance, trauma centers, city/municipal infrastructure workers - sanitation etc.
Striking permissible for non - life - endangering workers including: teachers, non- emergency medical personnel, building inspectors, meter maids, garbage collectors . . .
Arbitratiors and mediation meetings are mandatory - 18 hours a day, 6 days a week. If any persons "leave the table" for other than life-threatening emergencies, they lose the right to return. If one side loses the ability to function effectively (as determined by the independent arbitrators) then labor or management must accept the last offer from the opposition.
No one should be required to work without just compensation. That's what the abolition of slavery was about. Other than the military and a very few other truly critical government services, any group of workers that's subject to unfair treatment by employers should be allowed to form a union and go on strike. Certainly, no private-sector employer should be exempt from having to deal with unions. There's an old saying I learned recently: Management gets the union it deserves.
Anybody should be allowed to go on strike, isn't that part of Capitalism? Limiting the right of workers to strike sounds like Socialism to me. Even professionals can be treated poorly by their employers.
With the lower reimbursements called for under Obamacare, how will hospitals handle the reduction in revenue with the nurses demanding more?
It's coming folks, like it or not.
Government workers, police and fire, services that support our military.
These unions are in "non-competitive" industires. I can have a non-union plumber fix my house if I don't agree with the union. It's called "choice". Pro-choice is good, right?
With the government monopolizing such services as permits and licences, police and fire, I can't go anywhere else to get my permit or call if my house is on fire.
When the pipefitters when on strike a few years ago, they were forced to make service calls for people who's A/C was down.
I'm not sure if all hospitals in town are union or represented by the same union for nurses, but if they have a monopoly, they have no abiltiy to strike.
All workers should have the option to strike. If employers or society fears a strike by a certain group of workers, that means two things: (1) it's time to reexamine working conditions for that group, and (2) it's also time for better backup planning.
Professionals do not go on strike. Laborers go on strike. In one way or the other, this is a sad comment on Nursing.
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Sound Learning
Looking for ways to ensure your students are doing quality research from credible sources? Sound Learning is a launching point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. -
The Current Music Blog
Your daily note for good music, news and pop culture. With attempted jokes.
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