Question for nurses/union members.

[ErikJ]

I got this email from a relative who's an RN and RW Christian. She responded to my email how unions keep pay higher for their members. I have never been in a union have little experience with them. Is this accurate at all? Any idea how to respond? She seems to think that unions cause inflation so higher pay wouldnt be needed if it werent for unions.
Ultimately, I know that before ther were unions in the late 1800's, 95% of workers lived in poverty asnd had to work 12 hour days 6 days a week.
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A smaller paycheck..... yes......that's what YOU want for the wealthy, Erik, right? .... Unions are the chief cause of increases in the cost of living. I bet you can't hire someone, legally, for less than $8.75 hr. Right? Thank you, unions. They keep driving the cost of everything up. Exactly. Guess who benefits the most from these unions........BIG wealthy beaurocrats. They're similar to the mafia......if you don't comply they send someone to make things HELL for you. The other bad thing, which you haven't had to deal with, is that employers can't fire "bad" workers. Look at the schools. Plenty of bad teachers get to stay while excellent younger teachers get the boot. This happens with union nurses as well. I was working primarily in IV therapy and an old nurse pushed her way into the department with zero experience cuz her position had been eliminated in another dept. Totally unfair......but the union made a way for her. She is totally unsafe and not a critical thinker......now they're trying to teach her how to do PICCs.......which i am trained to do.......but, even tho they know she cannot learn how to do them, they have to waste everyones time and $$$ to satisfy the ONA contract. If it weren't for unions we could all still be working for $4 hr and saving. A candy bar might still be 5 cents and gas 25c. a gal. The more we make the more the union thugs can take from us. That's theyre motivation....not to help us.... but to line their own pockets. So Erik, be careful what YOU wish for. You just might have to start hiring people who belong to a union......then watch out. Cant get rid of them and they quickly have more rights than you as an employer. You have to provide health care, long term disability, SAIF.....etc. Unions are scary.... i know. I used to be an ONA delegate. I saw and heard it all.

[Chan790]

1. I doubt this is going to surprise you.

She's 100% full of shit. In fact, a primary cause of wage-stagnation since 1980 is the systemic effort by Republicans and Centrist Democrats (including (but not limited to) the Blue Dogs, DLC, 3rd-way) to roll-back union participation and their support of management demands for givebacks. This is why, despite the fact it gets me in trouble, I will not back down on my argument that we should be ejecting them from the Democratic Party and using labor-support as a litmus test.

Unions increase wages, benefits and workplace protections for labor and decrease the % of profits that typically go into the pockets of ownership. That is why Republicans and those cowards in our tent that we should be ejecting are so very very anti-union. It's bad for their monied masters...it's bad for their ability to garner huge payouts from Wall St. and the ultra-wealthy.

The primary driver of inflation is the massive expansion of wealth at the very top of the economic ladder. In fact, that's the only place wealth has expanded in a decade.

Unionization benefits the 99% and even small-business in some senses at the expense of the extremely-wealthy.

Unionize everything. Unionize now. Scare the fatcats.

[ErikJ]

2. Unions good for economy.

They put more money in the pockets of consumers and 70% of our economy is consumer driven.
Better them than the rich who just put it in the Wall street casino or their Swiss accounts.

[Sherman A1]

5. I would add something here, but

you have said it all so eloquently!

[Brickbat]

10. This response represents the end of the thread, because there's nothing more to be said.

[Zalatix]

3. Management can organize, but not workers? Eff that idiot that you're arguing with.

If she wants to be paid under $8 an hour she can move to China.

That's what I would tell her.

[Sherman A1]

4. Well Said

[Icicle]

6. Erik, she's deluded

The whole concept of having a union is that workers band together (strength in numbers) to negotiate a contract with the management. Management vs. a single worker means a take-it-or-leave-it proposition for the worker, instead of a negotiation.
Ever since Reagan got into it with the air traffic controllers unions have been on the decline (well maybe a little bit before that). The ownership class loves nothing better than to pay their slaves a pittance with no benefits.
That email you got is a bunch of bullcrap.
With the benefit of union representation you'll get a much better wage and good benefits. (insurance, pension, annuity)
And in communities where there are active unions, the wages they get set a community standard and as a result, people who work in non-unionised jobs will see their wages rise too.

[Mc Mike]

7. The bosses control wages, and the workers can't control prices.

Collective bargaining is the only way to try to squeeze a living wage out of the ownership class. Your aunt is getting her talking points from repug 'christians', who get them from Ralph Reed and Rove, who get them from their rich masters.

The cost drivers for her industry are the for-profit hospital system, the parasitic insurance industry, and big Pharma. The costs for health care have gone up hundreds of percentage points, and most of the health care workers make beans. There's no profit sharing.

Even a 'non-profit' like U Pitt Med Center made $600 mil in profits in one year, while paying no taxes. They hid the profits in subsequent years by buying up local hospitals (the competition) and shutting them down; buying foreign hospitals; undertaking unnecessary building and renovation projects at their many hospitals; purchasing supplies and services from industry insiders via sweetheart contracts, with kickbacks to administrators. The unionized and non-union hospital workers still get none of the money generated by the UPMC system.

UPMC bought Children's Hospital, then built an (unnecessary) new Children's Hospital complex, causing the total amount of property in Pgh that is non-taxable because it's owned by 'non-profits' to top 40%. That means the tax-paying workers pay more taxes, and get less services to boot.

It's funny how the teabag repugs scream and cry about taxing the rich, saying 'you can't punish success, Americans want shared prosperity, not shared sacrifice.' Then the teabags scream and cry about a unionized worker making almost a living wage, saying 'how dare they make so much money, they're too prosperous, the economy is bad and we need shared sacrifice.' While Wall St and the rich are making more money than ever before. Heads-repugs win, tails-America loses.

I guess you love your aunt, and are trying to reach her with reason. Good luck, Erik.

[lunatica]

8. Just copy and paste the responses you've gotten here and send them to her.

[Starry Messenger]

9. "A candy bar might still be 5 cents and gas 25c."

Man, it's a good thing union members have special cheap candy bars and gas that cost less than two bits.

[riverwalker]

11. union nurse here, Erik

There are a million ways to eliminate nurses who do not meet standards. It is blatently untrue thet "you can't get rid of them". Most of the contract language has to do with protecting the patient and maintaining standards.
She is full of crap.

[cap]

12. Tell her to go work as a nurse

On contract in a non unionized shop if she doesn't like the unions so much.

So much crap goes on there, that my RW in-law who was a head nurse finally said she was ready to hand out the union cards.

If she does take you up on that offer, tell her you won't be picking up any slack if she doesn't have the money for her healthcare or retirement.

Bring her a pair of bootstraps, and tell her to figure them out.