Woot! - Houston Nurses Vote For Union

[Breeze54]

Houston Nurses Vote For Union

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/31/houston-nurses-first-in-state-to-have-collective-bargaining

by James Parks, Mar 31, 2008


Nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston
celebrate winning the first private sector nurses’ union
in Texas. Photo credit: CNA/NNOC


While most Texans are mourning the Texas Longhorns’ loss in the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday, nearly 300 nurses in Houston are celebrating their own enormous victory. The registered nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center are the first private sector nurses in the Lone Star State to win collective bargaining rights. They gained their voice on the job March 27 and 28 by voting for the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) Texas, an affiliate of California Nurses Association/NNOC.

Says Josie Jupio, an RN at the hospital:

Finally our voice will be heard. This victory of the nurses’ unity will bring a change for the better, impacting patient care, improving the benefits and assuring an open door policy that is fair to all.

CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro says the “stunning victory”

changes the face of healthcare in Texas and will send shockwaves across the country, especially in states where no or only a few RNs are represented. It sends a clarion message to those RNs, a hope that they too can overcome the odds and band together to improve the quality of care at the bedside and change forever the standards for themselves and their colleagues.

Texas RNs have crossed a historic bridge and will never look back.

CNA/NNOC leaders say the nurses at Cypress Fairbanks, part of the Tenet Healthcare system, will inspire other nurses to seek a union. NNOC Texas already is helping workers in at least five other Texas cities form a union.

The Texas win comes as 4,000 CNA/NNOC members are on a 10-day strike at hospitals owned by Sutter Health in the Bay Area, seeking safe staffing levels. The nurse-patient ratio is a key concern of the Houston nurses as well. Says Cypress Fairbanks RN Purita Reyes:

Union means unity for the good of all, especially our patients who are the cause we are here for.

More.........


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:woohoo: :woohoo: :toast:

[MercutioATC]

1. Yes!

Hopefully, this is another step in the reunionization of this nation's workers.

[Breeze54]

2. These Houston nurses have needed a Union for a long time!

My friend is a nurse in Houston and the abuse of them as workers has been abominal!

Yeah for them!! :toast:

[MercutioATC]

3. ALL workers are better off being unionized!

Yes, unions have made some missteps...any any group has.

That doesn't change the fact that we're stronger when we work together and, especially in this climate, we need to watch each other's backs.

[Breeze54]

4. Relax.... I was happy for my friend.

;)

[MercutioATC]

5. Maybe I came across too "rah-rah"....

I am, too :)

[tankbob]

6. Why?

Just wondering about the rationale that all workers are better off unionized. I think if they want to be, great. If the company wants to fire them all and start fresh, so be it. What is wrong with that?
Thanks

[Omaha Steve]

7. The majority of Americans would join a union IF they could according to several polls

But the number nationwide in unions is in the low teens. Because labor laws in the US favor the employer. People are afraid of being fired should they join or organize in a non union shop. I should know. It happened to me in 1980. Three & 1/2 years later, I won my job and back pay and benefits. Today it can take 7-12 years. At times like today when there is less than three members on the NLRB board, things don't move at all.

[MercutioATC]

8. Exactly. Management holds all of the power. Workers need to organize to prevent abuse.

The bottom line is that business is profit-driven. Nearly all businesses will squeeze every dime they can out of an operation, often at employees' expense (low wages, poor or dangerous working conditions, long hours, etc). Being unionized gives employees a voice.