I'm gonna echo Stephen Breyer's Ice Cream's comment below... May Day is coming up. If you want to throw a little love and solidarity out there, please subscribe or donate a few bucks (buy the book! buy the t-shirt!) to keep Hamilton Nolan on the beat.
What TM makes clear is our strength lies in our numbers, and solidarity. There is no cavalry coming to the rescue. Its on the people to make systemic change. Nurses in Portland Oregon just won a strike settlement against a major nonprofit medical conglomerate, and IMO did it, in part, because they had the support of a community that trusted nurses and those on the front lines. Strike! needs to be heard loud and clear, everywhere.
When will the US labor force begin unionizing on a truly large scale ? The time is now. Everyone can see just how hostile this administration is to unions and to workers . Union or not. If working men and women don’t see that now , they never will.
I'm curious to know if there is a union with a contract operating in any state that is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact? The NLC doesn't prohibit organization per se, but looking at its members you'll see that most of them are also Right To Work states. There are groups in my area that name themselves "unions" but really are more accurately called "professional organizations". While they claim to represent the best interests of nurses anyone can do the slightest amount of research comparing working conditions and patient outcomes for states with only these groups and NLC admission versus states with unions and no compact. I believe that there are a few unions that managed it (the one in this article would be an example) and I'm always glad to see it. I understand who initially suppressed the belief in the right to strong unions for nursing but it is confounding and disturbing to me what part the "professional organizations" play in this mess. When I worked in healthcare a union would have been so fucking helpful for everyone involved, workers and patients. But my coworkers were by and large completely resistant to the idea. Why is this?
I don't know the answer to your first question but the NNU would probably know. The answer to your last question is simply that most people don't know very much at all about unions and what they are told comes primarily from people whose purpose is to ensure that they do not ever unionize.
It's easy to see who the NLC and "right to work" really benefit just by mapping looking at the states with high poverty and lots of preventable illnesses (seems more like the right to work cheap).
I feel like 've been successfully informed on how important unions are to the future of our country. But I guess, naively, I don't know much about what rational arguments there are against them? I know ultimately those who have don't want to give anything more to those who have less, but if someone is/was a leader of a business, what are the arguments they can give employees that aren't just "UNIONS ARE BAD, TRUST US!" that actually make employees not want to unionize?
I'mma do some free work for HamNo here while he's traveling and working on (I'm assuming) a tiny laptop:
This is Good Journalism. Good Journalism costs money. Subscribe, people!
Done, and I'd give more if I could, it's excellent work
I'm gonna echo Stephen Breyer's Ice Cream's comment below... May Day is coming up. If you want to throw a little love and solidarity out there, please subscribe or donate a few bucks (buy the book! buy the t-shirt!) to keep Hamilton Nolan on the beat.
Fight the good fight -- Joel
See you on May Day wearing your “How Things Work” t-shirt!
……….in Atlanta!
What TM makes clear is our strength lies in our numbers, and solidarity. There is no cavalry coming to the rescue. Its on the people to make systemic change. Nurses in Portland Oregon just won a strike settlement against a major nonprofit medical conglomerate, and IMO did it, in part, because they had the support of a community that trusted nurses and those on the front lines. Strike! needs to be heard loud and clear, everywhere.
When will the US labor force begin unionizing on a truly large scale ? The time is now. Everyone can see just how hostile this administration is to unions and to workers . Union or not. If working men and women don’t see that now , they never will.
Absolutely. The time is now.
Healthcare for profit is disgusting and immoral.
Get with the rest of the industrial world.
Universal Healthcare works.
I'm curious to know if there is a union with a contract operating in any state that is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact? The NLC doesn't prohibit organization per se, but looking at its members you'll see that most of them are also Right To Work states. There are groups in my area that name themselves "unions" but really are more accurately called "professional organizations". While they claim to represent the best interests of nurses anyone can do the slightest amount of research comparing working conditions and patient outcomes for states with only these groups and NLC admission versus states with unions and no compact. I believe that there are a few unions that managed it (the one in this article would be an example) and I'm always glad to see it. I understand who initially suppressed the belief in the right to strong unions for nursing but it is confounding and disturbing to me what part the "professional organizations" play in this mess. When I worked in healthcare a union would have been so fucking helpful for everyone involved, workers and patients. But my coworkers were by and large completely resistant to the idea. Why is this?
I don't know the answer to your first question but the NNU would probably know. The answer to your last question is simply that most people don't know very much at all about unions and what they are told comes primarily from people whose purpose is to ensure that they do not ever unionize.
It's easy to see who the NLC and "right to work" really benefit just by mapping looking at the states with high poverty and lots of preventable illnesses (seems more like the right to work cheap).
I feel like 've been successfully informed on how important unions are to the future of our country. But I guess, naively, I don't know much about what rational arguments there are against them? I know ultimately those who have don't want to give anything more to those who have less, but if someone is/was a leader of a business, what are the arguments they can give employees that aren't just "UNIONS ARE BAD, TRUST US!" that actually make employees not want to unionize?