Labor unions have a long and colorful history in the United States. A union is an organized group of workers who work together and use their strength to have a voice in the workplace. As a union, workers are able to have an impact on benefits, hours, safety and many other work-related issues. Many Americans involved in unions have an understanding of the process and what exactly it does, although those who are not, have some idea but not a complete understanding. The unionization of Registered Nurses has been an ongoing debate for years. In the United States many nurses, doctors and hospitals have unionized. As with all other labor issues, there are pros and cons to this issue. In the following, the positives and negatives of being a part of a union will be addressed as it pertains to Nurses. Having one voice in the workplace to fight for specific rights can only go so far, but the voice of many can have a dramatic impact on issues of safety, wages and hours to name a few. These are a few of the reasons many nurses have turned to joining a union. As a nurse, the number one c...
Unions have always been a pain in employers’ sides. From today to the 1910s, workers have tried to unionize for better conditions in their jobs. Today, people try to opt out of being in unions, avoiding the union’s dues but still reaping the rewards. That’s a long way away from what people experienced in the 1910s. During that time period, people were struggling to even be apart of a union. Some people would even risk their jobs to do it. In fact, the first worker’s strike was was during the the West Virginia Coal Wars. Coal Miners went on strike to advocate for better working conditions and better pay. At the helm was Mary Harris Jones, or Mother Jones as she was known. She fought for coal miner workers’ rights and helped them unionize by
There is a shortage of all health care professions throughout the United States. One shortage in particular that society should be very concerned about is the shortage of Registered Nurses. Registered Nurses make up the single largest healthcare profession in the United States. A registered nurse is a vital healthcare professional that has earned a two or four year degree and has the upper-most responsibility in providing direct patient care and staff management in a hospital or other treatment facilities (Registered Nurse (RN) Degree and Career Overview., 2009). This shortage issue is imperative because RN's affect everyone sometime in their lifetime. Nurses serve groups, families and individuals to foster health and prevent disease.
History shows that there has been conflict of power within the workforce between union and management. This essay will discuss if management should have the right to determine whether a union should operate within their workplace. It is necessary first to discuss the roles of unions and management in the workplace and discuss both points of view on the power distribution between unions and management in the workplace.
Union efforts to improve the lives of workers consistently met with resistance, oftentimes violent, from businesses, police and the government throughout their turbulent history; and yet unions have persevered and were able to improve working conditions. The National Labor...
The phrase politics of nursing or even politics in nursing has so much meaning to the individual nurse. In nature politics have a dichotomy nature, and depending on who you talk to, their individual slant is unique. This makes the discussion of politics a very complicated issue. Agreement is the basis for the efforts that arise from politics, yet with every issue there are two sides who have to compromise something to get a bit of what they want. So what happens when a nurses are so busy they cannot advocate for themselves? Who will advocate for nurses when they can no longer bridge their essential needs in a health care environment? Unions are a modern option for nurses who struggle with voicing their needs and patient needs in an outdated bureaucratic twenty first century capitalist world of health care. The purpose of this paper is to look into the contributions of Unions on nurses, patient care, and the way health care facilities address issues that limit a collaborative approach to health care.
Factories were known for their ill treatment of their employees, long hours and dirty and unsafe conditions. In 1866, unions started to form to improve working conditions for the workers. A fundamental problem faced by democratic societies is as long as people live their lives individually and go their separate ways and be selfish individuals, they are unlikely to meet collectively to resolve issues. There needs to be meaningful unity among people to alleviate this problem to get people obliged to one another, so there is a willingness to sacrifice for shared goals. Bonding of its citizens creates a democracy. Unions seemed to offer the middle class a chance to become a crucial part of fostering institutions of constitutional democracy. The unions have went through several transitions, but have always worked for the working force. I will discuss the history of the various unions, their wins and losses, and the struggle of the employee to achieve democracy in the workplace.
Many times nurse aren’t included in bargaining for wage increases, benefits, staffing ratios, and therefore need to have unions represent them in these types of negotiations with management (Huston, 2010, p. 291). When issues where brought up to management by...
Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).
Labor unions were established as a way for workers’ needs and grievances to be heard by management. According to Fossum (2012), “forming a union creates a collective voice to influence change at work” (p. 7). The collective voice of workers in a union holds much more power than any single employee’s voice. It can loudly draw attention to mistreatment or abuse of workers. The organized collective voice of workers demands to be treated in a fair way by its management in terms of wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.
Several other causes have been attributed to the nursing shortage. An increase in the number of nurses is needed. Sadly, there is little increase in compensation for nurses. In addition to no growth in pay, the level of stress, responsibility, and demand nurses is increasing. Unfortunately, patients are the ones who suffer. When a hospital does not have the proper nursing staff to care for patients, it results in poor patient safety and patient outcomes (Buerhaus, Donelan, Ulrich, Norman, DesRoches, & Dittus, 2007). Nursing salaries compared to other professions has remained stagnant. For example, a registered
Stohr, Greg. “Union Fees Debated in Supreme Court Case Over Labor Power.” Bloomberg.com. 21 January 2014. Web. 17 April 2014.
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).
Tolich, P., & Harcourt, M. (1999). Why do people join unions? A case study of the New Zealand engineering, printing and manufacturing union. New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 24(1), 63-73.
To briefly summarize, the report acts to identify nurses as an important faction in enabling access to high quality, affordable health care. This was supported by the development of four fundamental recommend...