Collective Bargaining Essay

The nurse manager should also be able to convince the union representatives if any, senior nurses and the nurses in the unit about the problems of understaffing in the unit. Empowered nurse managers at all levels who feel supported by their organizations always played an important role in staff nurse retention (Wong, 2012). A satisfied staff is happy and more productive.

As one might predict from the articles reviewed not one eluded that the bedside nurse disagreed with an improved RN to patient ratio. At this point you may be reading this saying; so hospitals need more nurses, why don’t they hire them. The answer is hospitals do, but because of the growing number of patients in the hospitals, nurse burnout, and nurses moving from one department to another or quitting all together, there is a nursing shortage. The problem becomes how hospitals can retain nurses when there are so many opportunities elsewhere. The upper nursing management, often known as the VP of nursing, collaborate with the accountants and CEO’s of the hospitals and have pressure to save money

The changes brought up labor unions in the United States over recent history has brought about a movement. This specific movement has shaped the way that employees and workers are treated in the workforce,and how they maintain their quality of life through this employment. Many people think that the labor unions’ influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In many cases this can be considered true, as there have been countless feuds between management teams and labor unions, especially in recent history. In today’s times, on the one hand, some people believe the existence of unions are a necessity in order to ensure and promote employee freedom; while on the other hand some people view labor unions as just another problem in the line of employee success.

One of the positive aspects of unions in America is their ability to improve the working conditions of most American workers. During the Industrial Revolution, working conditions for employees became

Labor Unions have had an effect of American history as well as world-wide history from the time they became popular. Following WWII Americans were predominantly pro-labor, however, as time went on union’s credibility fell short of perfect. Union strikes proved to be bothersome to both the general public and company. Unions were also suppressing to employees through fraud and lack of worker rights (in earlier years, before Acts were passed). Although Union labor had its shortcomings, this type of labor is noted to be the most productive and economically beneficial. With both sides shown, I feel Unions will again thrive in the future with a few key adjustments made.

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).

Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, Iowa is a unionized hospital, while Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines is a non-union facility. Both facilities strive to give its patients excellent care but the working conditions vary somewhat due to the difference between a union and non-union facility. From Mary Greeley’s I interviewed Mrs. Lorna Hamilton, the Emergency/Security Management Coordinator and from the Iowa Lutheran Hospital I interviewed Mr. Jeffrey L. Bebensee, the Security Manager. Both managers were familiar with the labor unions effect on their workplaces.

Lately in the news, there has been talk about budget and money crises; these problems have been in many states and most recently in Washington D.C and Wisconsin. Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker has decided to address these budget predicaments by sharply curtailing the Wisconsin public sector workers collective bargaining rights. The reaction from people in Wisconsin has been mostly negative. However, Governor Walker was right in making cuts in the pay of public sector workers and taking away their right to collective bargaining to help pay off the budget. The state has a $137 million deficit, so curtailing collective bargaining rights will save the state $30 million in the current budget, which ends June first.

From this perspective, trade union is perceived not necessary and the role of it is creating conflict, and it is seen an unwelcome intrusion into the organization from outside competing with management for the loyalty of employees (Rose, 2004). Trade unions exist either as the result of wickedness or perverseness of individual employees, or because of a failure of management to anticipate and incorporate worker needs and concerns (Bray, Deery, Walsh and Waring, 2005).

I am not a nurse, but on behalf of nurses a “union” is needed from what I have read during my research. However, it was stressed the only reason hospitals are in business is that patients require nursing care and the biggest problem is that nurses are the largest cost center of the hospital. As Jurasheck et al., (2012) stated, “With the growing demand, significant RN workforce shortage is projected to spread across two decades, with more shortage intensifies in the South and the West “(Fried & Fottler, 2015, p.101). As such, when budget time comes around, it is the nursing staff that is the easiest to cut. As a dental hygienist that works for the military, I understand how you can be cut off from sources and overworked if you don’t stand together.

But unionization has not been easy. As membership has grown, so has the “bully on the street” mentality. Some associations do not want to be part of such a large organization and may feel that they will be under represented in specific issues, and not all nurses are for unionization. Many feel that unionization with suppress their opportunities to seek promotions, raises and benefits as funds are watered down to cover many professions covered in the services industry.

Being a part of a group or an association that you pay into as a worker should have benefits that can help you continue to improve their lives. The benefit of having someone speak up for you could be better pay, better health benefits, and being better treated in the work place. Collective bargaining, while not being a guarantee, can help gain these benefits. It is the process of negotiations between representatives of workers and management to determine the conditions of employment. The collectively determined agreement may cover compensation, hiring, practices, layoffs, promotions, working conditions and hours, worker discipline, and benefit programs. So since the discovery of

Though, unions are declining, the role of union have evolved over time. Now, it is more common to view unions’ primary role as collective bargaining, which is the product of the economic decision and making process with unionism of the private sector. A long time ago, Union was seen as the shield that protects American workers against some of the abusive employers. Many public sector employees have unionized. However, the National Labor Relations Act was designed for the private sector. Despite that, union has become a model for most public sector collective bargaining right. Regardless of the success that Unions have with collective bargaining in the private sector, there are still a few who are opposed collective bargaining in the public sector. Of course, there are some differences between the public and private sectors.

Patient’s rights come into play during a strike and the patients care is sure to suffer regardless of what is promise by the hospital administration. Failure to provide adequate healthcare services to a patient would be a breach in the provisions and would affect the rights of the patient’s compensations and cause damage to their health (Allabaugh, 2013). Hospital can hire outside agency to cover for the staff that is on strike like nurses. Factors that come into play with hiring outside agency is that the hospital may end up paying more for the replacement and may cause a series of events like low mortality among staff and patients (Allabaugh, 2013). Another factor is with treatment intensity and lower quality of care for patients and hospital readmission causing a decrease in hospital productivity (Allabaugh, 2013). In hiring from outside agency may not be beneficial because it would like hiring a substitute teacher, they only do the minimum duties because they are not fully trained.

With globalization,many changes have been brought up in the workplaces that are leading towards more flexibility and enrollment of the employees (Tong Fay and Anil Verma,2002). “According to a survey -unionized workers across Canada earned$5- 28/hour more than non-union workers; Women with unions earned more too and got paid more fairly (Why unions? ,2015)”. Thus ,it gives us an idea what changes are being brought about by the unions in comparison to non-union when it comes to the wage sector. The union workplaces give a chance to the members to bargain for their benefits which includes not only social well being but also the say,the right to speak up about their own views therefore giving them the chance to talk about their problems. The union have been progressed to give a fair wage