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National Union Threatens Five Hospitals with Nurses Week Strike
Puts National Agenda Ahead of Patient Care Across the Country
National Nurses United has now issued strike notices during National Nurses Week at five hospitals across the country including generic hospitals across the country.
?The irony of the timing of this organized strike effort is not lost on us,? adds CEO RN, GENERIC HOSPITAL president and CEO. ?During a week where we are to be honoring nurses and their commitment to their patients, we find ourselves replacing them during a demonstration of their commitment to their union.?
This concerted effort to strike multiple hospitals during the same week makes it harder for hospitals to secure the replacement nurses needed to continue providing uninterrupted patient care. ?The fact that GENERIC HOSPITAL?s employees, patients, and their families endured a strike at the hands of National Nurses United in November was inexcusable. The fact that this same union is now targeting patients, and the hospitals that care for them, across the country with a coordinated strike is nothing short of disgraceful,? says administrator RN, vice president of Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer.
National Nurses United has criticized hospitals for the financial cost of bringing in replacement nurses. However, it?s clear these hospitals have not been left with many options. ?We have a responsibility to provide care to patients not only at our hospital, but to hospitals across the region,? adds admin. ?This is a responsibility we take very seriously, and we are not prepared to abandon it by closing our doors in the face of a strike.?
Managers were informed earlier today that the strike and subsequent work stoppage will span five days; staring Thursday, May 5 and continuing through Monday, May 9. As with the first strike in November, GENERIC HOSPITAL is contractually obligated to pay the staffing agency three days pay for each replacement nurse. The other hospitals affected by the coordinated strike are offering replacement nurses five days of work, and in order to ensure GENERIC HOSPITAL's ability to effectively recruit during this time, it is necessary to secure our replacement nurses for five days as well. We will be distributing instructions for employees working during a strike in the near future.
An Issue Update
April 26, 2011

It is so frustrating that nurses can have unions and strike but doctors can't.

And nurses are probably frustrated that the average nurse earns less than a third of the compensation of the average family practitioner.

FNP = Average of $40.00/hour

Nurse = Average of $28.00/hour

This is 5 to 9 years experience

That is hardly less than 1/3. Plus, should nurses make more than 1/3 of what a FNP makes?The FNP worked to get his or her RN and then worked usually 2 years at $28.00 an hour before he or she went back to school. The amount of school needed is generally one to two years, although most go two years. During this time, they are making no income unless they work while in FNP school, so they acquire loan debt. FNP pay can be structured different ways, but most work for a salary. It is difficult to work extra hours and make time and a half.

RNs, on the other hand, can work three 12 hour shifts and are off four days. It is easy (I am not saying not taxing or difficult) for them to pick up extra hours at overtime pay.

The nurses striking here are striking over patient assignments. So, I am not really sure what the comparison to FNPs has to do with the article.

The article I posted was not about whether they had a good reason to strike, just that they are able to unionize and have the ability to strike.

I always say, if you want the pay of someone who has a higher education and training than you, then go get that education. I've know alot of techs that were frustrated that their pay wasn't the same as engineers. Well.....uh...engineering degree.

Well said.

This concept of nursing unionization is totally unfair. Physicians are not allowed to unionize. The federal government made it illegal. Why can nurses have unions but doctors can't?

I know some RN's that work 3x12hour shifts per week in the ICU who make equal pay to what I make as FP. But I have to work 60 hours or more most weeks. They can log in 36.

1/2 to 1/3 the educational time spent, 1/2-3/4 the hours spent working per week, and making the same amount of money. I'm sure someone will criticize my words, but nursing unions just doesn't seem fair to me. They make good money for the training they endured.

But I don't regret being underpaid and without a voice. I am glad that I am a physician, and glad that I make a huge impact on patient's lives. I'm glad that I have all the responsibility and the blame if something goes wrong. And I don't mind that nurses make good money, they should.

But it's wrong that some healthcare providers can form unions, and others cannot. I think if doctors nationwide went on strike for 60 minutes of a single day, congress and the president would convene to fix medicare immediately.

I know that the concept of a union often evokes a negative response in many people because of the confrontational nature of a strike, but the actual focus is much more benign. Unions provide workers with a single, powerful voice to express their interests & needs. As such, they are an essential counterbalance to private companies and government, who most physicians will agree have usually had an abusive and dominating attitude toward physicians.

The abysmal state of the health care system has been in large part created by the present dominance of government & the healthcare industry, compounded by ineffectiveness and outright pandering by our national physician organizations. It will take potent physicians' union to get the focus back where it belongs, on a fair wage for delivery of effective care to one patient at a time.

Well said, which was exactly my point. FYI: the strike is over for at least one more year.

It got off track with the second post.