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Taylor has the details :
Late this afternoon, SEIU filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of their nurses at Desert Spring and Valley Hospitals.
Take a listen to Chris Moore. You'll hear the passion in his voice. These Valley Hospital nurses want what's best for their patients. It's not about money. It's about caring for sick people.
Universal Health Services seems to want to spread nurses out so they don't have to hire the nurses needed to properly staff their hospitals. UHS also wants to be able to force overtime, as well as float nurses to areas where they have little or no expertise.
You can hear Taylor's podcasts with Chris Moore here and here.
Building bridges between progressive netroots and labor is a very powerful thing, so please show them we can show up for them and sign the petition here to tell UHF to adopt safe staffing levels.
Extra bonus: it will scare the crap out of DC establishment types to think the netroots are working together with labor. S'true.
Update: Stoller concurs:
A genuine alliance alliance between labor and the netroots should be a terrifying prospect to reactionary insiders, because labor brings scale and resources and we bring innovation and speed. I'm not sure what such an alliance would look like, but I'm curious to watch over the next few years.
This is very much something we would like to be a part of.
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SEIU!
Jane!
Everyone zed nurses rock!
oh no!
Good, caring and smart nurses are our safety net.
Thank you Jane and Jordan and Taylor.
Parallel play!
kirk murphy!
Ahnuld learned not to mess with nurses in CA.
What’s with these idiots?
Petition signed.
I feel numb– this action by UHS is insane. I never did join a union, because I always thought I would cross a picket line just to care for my patients.
This is crazy and wrong to disenfranchise the caregivers who desperately desire to just give great care and are forced to work in dangerous conditions.
If this crap stands, nobody is safe here in America.
oops – got a little carried away with my zed quest, Jane – sorry about that.
but the seven straight zed shall be mine, all mine…
bwahahaha!
[everyone should have a goal - one day I’ll find a useful one…]
This a perfect example of corporate abuse of sick people. Netroots should take this situation and run with it hard. Seems like labor is becoming a force again. Just think of the resources and energy we could put into the issue of medical care.
I signed the petition. It strikes me that the trucking industry is heavily regulated. Federal law requires all truck drivers to maintain accurate log books and are limited to hours of service.
Are there no such regulations for medical professionals? I read a lot about long hours put in by health care workers. Isn’t that like dangerous and risky? I would look to that before tort reform. Tired people tend to flub up.
I’m really tired of reading about people getting rich off of sick people, driving up the cost of health care, and blaming it all on lawyers. I had this conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
What has happened with the change or proposed change in Federal Labor law that re-classified RNs as supervisors? This would nullify nursing unions. I have visited one hospital where one RN was taking care of six premature babies, some on ventilators. From my experience, management talks about quality care but they really don’t give a shit until it’s them in the bed.
Kirk, you need to get out more!
And since you are the boss Jane, I have done your bidding as instructed. My wife is in nursing school, and I am all about quality care and so is she.
Finally, Christy, this got EPU’d but go to http://www.lightkeeperpro.com, they have a bulb tester at Lowes that should fix your problems. It did ours.
Did I mention I hate the BCS? Even more than Republicans?
angie @
8
Thanks, angie and well said.
Mary McCurnin @
10
Mary I believe we will be doing this.
Mary McCurnin @
10
From your keyboad to the netroots’ monitors, Mary -
that match will set progressives ablaze!
Ayup.
Pachacutec @ 17
Coalition of the pissed.
Any idea where the new Majority leader of the Senate comes down on this? After all, it is happening in his state.
neurophius @ 38
ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner…..
There’s a good chance LA teachers will be going out on strike early next year. There are lots of opportunites for treating critical labor groups decently.
I beg your pardon: I’m not drunk!
Are we drinking? It’s only Monday night!
A union is the ultimate democracy. A corporation hires you and says do this and that for this much money, if you don’t, you’re fired.
Not very democratic.
A union lets you organize and vote on a list to bargain with the employer. You are not alone.
Very democratic.
Conservatives firmly believe in the right to band together and form corporations, but firmly oppose the banding together to form unions.
This is how I see the basics.
This is so beyond the pale. Teachers and nurses maligned, while big pharma, docs, and lawyers are so gently railed against in the CM.
All the thugs and the corporatists do is scream about poor Terry Schiavo, blastocysts and tort reform…
puh- leeze!
I have a ton of experience with the medical industry on many different levels. I want to use this knowledge to help solve this massive problem. Seems that solving this would lead to the solution of many other ills. (pun intended) If people know there are forces working to help them then they will show up to participate. After the rout of the repugs I see a huge opening in the culture for change and expression. People have been so beaten down by low wages, bad education, no health insurance that they have been uninspired and depressed. Netroots is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thank you for this post.
If hospitals would treat nurses fairly; not attempt to break up their unions; and/or prevent them from forming one, they’d save huge amounts. They would retain staff, save money on training and on the very expensive travelling nurses—who by the way have very restrictive policies about floating, in my experience with them, anyway.
Nursing staff works short-staffed so often, and then some member of the hospital board gets admitted. “Take special care of Mr. So-and-so,” the staff is told at report. Fuck that! The care you give someone’s mother should be just as good as some board member.
Signed with Mad Dogs fervor!
Though the nursing profession is no longer exclusively female, the XX gender is still the preponderance of its population.
That said, in this day and age, how is it still possible to deny these caregivers their equality in rights, pay and respect?
Does anyone else find it particularly galling that our society takes the most generous, kind-hearted, and caring of us all, and ruthlessly takes every possible advantage of their virtues?
Reminds me of something like Rush Limbaugh taking food out of the hands of a starving child.
“Take that you ungrateful brat! Us piggies come first, doncha know?”
Oilfieldguy @ 24
That is about as well put as I’ve ever seen! Good on ya!
Do these nurses currently have a contract- or are they just now trying to organize?
Mad Dogs @ 28
That kind-heartedness is always used as a cudgel. Don’t you care about your patients? Don’t you care about the children? It’s sick. Nurses, teachers, janitors – these are ideals professions to support.
Margot– I used to just say, “huh” or “excuse me”?
“You did not mean to say that someone should get better care than I offer to all, did you?”
sorta blew the CEO away when I sorta (figuratively) stuck my fingers in my ears and said “lalalalala”.
they always looked very nervous, but seemed to respect me.
angie, I don’t think I said anything.
I mean…moi, say something? ;-)
From a story linked at Taylor’s site—sounds like there’s a bit more to this than patient/nurse ratios:
In addition to Valley and Desert Springs hospitals, the company owns Summerlin Hospital Medical Center and Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas. The union doesn’t represent nurses at Summerlin and Spring Valley, and they’re not involved in the contract dispute.
Universal also is building Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center in northwest Las Vegas. The hospital is scheduled to open in 2007.
The SEIU has labor agreements with St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, which owns three area hospitals, and HCA, which operates Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Sunrise Children’s Hospital, MountainView Hospital, and Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center.
The union and Valley Health disagree on staffing levels, job benefits and union access to hospitals.
Valley Health managers spent the weekend training and orienting contingency nurses and technicians from U.S. Nursing Corp., which provides temporary medical workers during labor disputes.
Only SOME of the nurses agreed to strike and only they are being laid off..
This sounds like a war to organize the other hospitals.
I very much support the nurses right to bargain with management through their union. Unsafe RN to patient ratios threaten the patient’s life. From what I gather from the links it is 1 RN to 10 patients. It is not addressed how much support staff is assigned. I would expect LPN/LVN,(licensed practical/vocational nurses) CNA’s (certified nursing assistants) or HCT”s (health care technicians) to be assigned to this group of patients. I do not know how/what the assignments are at these facilities.
This level of staffing is unfortunately not unheard of in other parts of the country. ( I am from Louisiana). In the not so distant past, (approximately 3 years ago, I would have a team of 12-13 patients with an LPN for medication administration, 2-3 CNA for direct patient care. I was responsible for admissions, orders, discharges, Chemotherapy, blood transfustions, etc. Believe me this is a mind blowing high stress arrangement. Suffice it to say, I willingly found a transfer to a less chaotic area to work in. Safe RN to patient ratios should not be arbitrarily assigned but based on patient acuity.
I stand in unity with these nurses. The management’s decision to bring in highly paid agency nurses seem to be a gambit to force out the union IMHO>
Sorry for such a long rambling, but it really makes me sick that profit comes before patient care and safety.
Labor cost-profits disconnect.
Most people assume labor has an effect on price of goods. It does, but a soft effect, not a hard one.
For example, if Nike made shoes in America, (they never did, but play along for a minute) and paid the minimum wage, the price of shoes would be “X”.
If they moved overseas and paid Chinese prisoners 12 cents a month to make the shoes, the price would still be “X”.
Profits would increase, but the price would remain the same.
The market determines the price, labor determines the profit.
Hence the big ‘ol fight.
Maybe some of the nurses involved in this dispute could be invited to come onto FDL and tell their stories.
triciawrites– I have worked (not so long ago) with 20 acutely ill patients with 2 aides on Med/Surg and have had as many as 5 critically ill patients in ICU/CCU all alone, by myself.
Don’t even ask what happened in my ER or Psych wards.
Good grief.
Horrible and my back, neck, and shoulders will never be the same.
Nite pups.
Coz has romantic news, either back at the EPU line or forward into LateNite.
(((((LOVE)))))
Sounds as if the company already had the scabs lined up- and probably paid for- so they figured they had nothing to lose with the lockout..
Interesting that there’s a scab COMPANY- in the business of providing scabs—I had no idea!
I’ve visited the SEIU site and a bit on Google. It’s a bit early in the game for all of the details to come out, but I was struck by this in one of Taylor’s links:
“A union official says they wanted to honor a call for a 30-day cooling-off period to continue contract talks and avoid a job action. But he says the hospital owner — Universal Health Services Incorporated of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania — rejected that idea.”
In addtion to the staff/patient ratio, I’m guessing one aspect of this is a collision between the contractual laguage regarding pay/overtime and the recent DOL ruling disqualifying many nurses from OT.
UHS had to pay OT until the contract expired. Since UHS refused to accept the cooling off period (and paying OT as per the contract during that period), I’m guessing OT just went by-bye.
maaaaaahhds….
(said in my best six year old voice….)
the server thingy is puling my comments upstairs again…
a response (mine) to 8:22 posted at 7:41…
sigh…
[pouts and folds arms….]
G’nite OFG –
sleep well – and thanks for the heat!
Merry Christmas!
[resumes pouting…]
diogenes- could be- but overtime isn’t mentioned as an issue- what’re mentioned are Staffing levels, benefits, and UNION ACCESS TO HOSPITALS (plural). My bet is that the last item is the big one.
angie @ 39
I understand all to well.
RX-
backrub and lots of rest and good thoughts go your way.
rwcole @ 42
Ohh yeah, that’s a growth industry.
When the airlines furlough long-term employees, many contract carriers like Mesa (who provide aircraft, crews, and ground personnel as needed) pick up the slack.
When US Airways furloughed 31 stations a few years ago, contract carriers began operations the very next day.
Corporate execs would rather eat their children that let labor disrupt cash flow.
rwcole @ 46
Concur.
This is the first few days, and ratio, benes and access are vital.
I’m speculating going forward UHS either isn’t, or shortly won’t be paying o/t (which impacts staffing – many organizations say to hell with staffing for budget purposes)now that the contract has expired.
Plus, management just has to be aching to try the new toy the Bush Admin. gave them.
More loot for bonuses.
27 and 36. Like you said.
I stand with the medical personel streached to science-fiction like expections. Compromising the health and safty of caregivers is unforgiveable. (These people do often, duty above and beyond, everytime there is a sick call, an accident, a weather incident, expecting them to perform at emergency pace on a daily basis is death defying).There are standards on these issues.
This company may have bought the hospital in question and inherited a contract that it doesn’t want- so now it’s involved in union busting…
The first step was to separate those willing to strike from those who were not willing- and lay off only those who were willing…pretty crafty union busting technique—we need to know how many employees are actually being laid off and how many are in bed with the company.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/l…..13035.html
Link to the more detailed story.
rwcole,
Corporations stick with the classics, and ‘divide and conquer’ is Mgmt. 101.
US Airways hired a union-busting firm just prior to entry into BK. The airline shredded contracts and dumped hundreds of millions of pension obligation dollars onto the PBGC.
Free and clear of legal obligations, US Airways exited BK and soon thereafter, offered $8 billion to buy Delta.
Argggghhhhhh!
What UHS is doing is hardly new, but hooray for the nurses who are willing to stand up to them!
My mom was a pulmonary nurse for 16 years, as an LPN. When she started at the local teaching hospital, the ratio on the floor was 6 to 1. By the time she left nursing for good, the ratio was 18 to 1. The hospital counted the floor manager and the shift managers (all RNs) as bodies, even when neither worked with a single patient.
During her nursing years, she was assaulted three times by patients – once with a night-check flashlight left on a combative patient’s nightstand. After experiencing chest pain during her shift, she was sent back to work by an Employee Health doc who diagnosed indigestion. 3 hours later, she collapsed. Heart attack. Thankfully, she recovered. The final straw, however, was the hospital’s adoption of the “Bath in a Bag” – a set of eight baby-wipe-type cloths that patients were supposed to wash themselves with. Why? Because nurses had were overwhelmed (because of a lack of staff) and the hospital decided to alleviate the problem by cutting the time spent bathing patients.
I’ve signed the petition.
Jane (and everyone): SEIU is a terrific union – and very active (my spouse is a member). But equally importantly in this context, they did a fabulous job in the last election in Mass in the Deval Patrick for Governor campaign. That -the Patrick campaign itself – and the role of the SEIU and the Netroots in it would make a great subject of future discussion here.
Please hie thee to my Universal Health blog to bone up on professional nursing demographics, history and issues.
This particular situation highlights fundamental issues which will only worsen as the national nursing shortage intensifies.
I’ll be happy to field questions and provide references for further reading.
broadlane? never heard of them.
money is more important than people. people who are sick, or people who are working in an altruistic profession don’t matter. case closed.
if you’re not greedy and cynical, get out of our way and take what we give you.
pathetic.
The U.S. Nursing Shortage Universal Health @ 59
Thank you for providing a link to your blogspot. I have read extensively your posts and will add it to my favorites.
Can you imagine being tired and making a mistake at work and killing somebody. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep prior to going in and then have to work another shift. If you don’t get paid overtime you are mad too. Dangerous situation with human lives at stake. I remember a couple of years ago there was a big push in the senate to stop overtime for the police, firemen and nurses. When the senate couldn’t get the votes. Sec. Chow or Cho whichever you prefer made it law. I remember seeing Arlen Spectre asking her if RN’s were covered in her new law. She said she didn’t know.He asked her to find out. Older nurses are being forced out to save money. Younger ones have to learn from the older ones…so there is no one to teach. Over all hospitals are a dangerous place to be. If you have to go, have someone with you to watch meds., treatments and simple hand washing by staff.
Signed the petition and passed it on to others.
BTW. I’ve been told by someone in the mental health profession that suicides have occurred
partly due to staffing shortages at least one of our state mental health facilities. Thank our ex-gov. in handcuffs for that one.