April's CR Diary

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May 6, 2007

Can They Do That?

Whenever management does something illegal (or just immoral but actually legal) people always ask, "Can they do that?"

The answer is, of course, "They just did."

Employees have very few rights under American labor law. My friends from Canada and Europe are quite shocked at the barbaric nature of the American work place.

However, it actually is illegal for management to fire a nurse for union activity, so they always make up an excuse. In the case I mentioned yesterday, though I don't know all the details yet, it seems pretty obviously motivated by union activity, so I suspect we will actually win a labor charge on it and the nurse will get his job back. However, the intent is to chill the organizing campaign by scaring the other nurses so much that they are afraid to talk to their co-workers. It remains to be seen whether or not this will work.

There are some risks to an employer who pursues such a strategy. One is that even if they win the election because, for example, pro-union nurses were afraid to come out and vote due to management intimidation, with such a long record of unfair labor practices, specifically intimidation, it's quite possible that the election could be overturned. Of course that process takes time, and if they employer if interested in making cuts to workers' salaries or benefits, they can go on ahead with those.

Another risk is damage to the reputation in the community. No employer likes to admit that he would rather break the law, violate workers' rights, and fire good employees rather than see the employes win a voice on the job.

Then there's the permanent mistrust of the employees. While firings scare other employees (who need their jobs, health insurance and benefits, and who also don't want to lose the many years of hard work they've given the institution) they also make other employees very angry. No one likes to see a co-worker fired unfairly, and when it's so blatant that a co-worker is fired for union activity, it sometimes makes those who have been unsure think that management can no longer be trusted.

Meanwhile, the real tragedy is that human beings who've made the choice to stand up for themselves, their co-workers and their patients have to go through the hell of losing a job, trying to figure out how to provide for their families, and the extremely traumatic experience of being treated unfairly and cruelly by the very administrators they have worked with for many years. Nurses give 200% at work, and do so much more every day to make sure that their patients get the care they need, no matter how understaffed the floor is or how hard it is to get proper equipment. Nurses have the highest rate of kidney infections of any profession because they simply can't leave the floor to take bathroom breaks... in a twelve hour shift! They're so busy delivering life-saving care that they don't have time for the basic things a human needs: restroom trips, meal breaks in twelve hours, etc. There's tons of documentation on the incredible toll stress takes on a nurse's health, family life, and long term risk of disease.

Several of the nurses I've worked with have come to me for advice about how to lose weight and eat healthy in spite of having an extremely stressful job and lifestyle. It's fun to be able to combine the two things I love most: helping nurses organize to have a voice at work, and helping people in general get control of their diet and improve their health through nutrition. As everyone knows, it's hard to make your own health a priority when you're a) under a lot of stress b) chronically in situations where you can't eat for hours on end, then you're confronted with an array of unhealthy food choices and very few healthy ones. Your average hospital cafeteria is a nutritional nightmare, not that most nurses ever get a break to go there.

Imagine the stress of running around for 12.5 hours at minimum, often with no breaks to eat, often with barely one break to even go to the bathroom. The entire time, you know that every decision you make, everything you do, is the difference between life and death, between getting better and going home or getting sicker and even dying for several critically ill human beings who are your responsibility, both legally and morally. Families are often hysterical and even abusive; equipment, even basic supplies are often lacking. (I know nurses who bring their own ice packs and band-aids to work cause the hospital fails to provide them on a regular basis!) Staffing is chronically short, not because they hospitals can't find nurses (there are plenty out there, and our organized hospitals have very low vancancy rates because people actually want to work there!) but because hospitals cut costs by cutting nurse staffing. Not all hospitals of course... I once sat at an airport bar next to a hospital administrator from Illinois who was actually trying to improve working conditions for nurses, and he had quite genuinely sought their input and made changes to improve the quality of care and nurse job satisfaction (which for obvious reasons go hand in hand.) But too many hospitals have caved into pressure from the insurance industry, and instead of joining with their health care professionals to fight for quality standards, they've fought the very dedicated professionals who stand up for the patients. We've tried over and over again to enlist hospitals in our legislative efforts to set minimum nurse to patient ratios, which would effectively take staffing out of competition, so that each hospital could provide safe staffing ratios without worrying that hospital x up the street, the competitor, will be able to offer better deals to big insurance because they have fewer nurses and lower costs. The hospitals refuse, and more often than not allign themselves with the insurance companies. It's a sad situation, but one that the nurses themselves have a great deal of power to fight... if they can make it through the organizing phase and win themselves a real voice on the job and in the healthcare system.

Very few people outside the medical field have any idea what nurses do. Media images of sexualized nurses fluffing pillows and flirting with doctors abound. People know that nurses "care," but they don't realize that nurses actively move your healing process forward. Nursing diagnosis and care is different from medical diagnosis and care, but it's the nursing care you receive that makes the difference in your hospital experience. Excellent, well-rested, nurses, and enough of them: you're likely to make it out alive, and even well. For every patient that a nurse has over six on a regular medical surgical floor, your chances of DYING in the bed go up by 30%. Do you want to play those odds? Well, hospitals are willing to gamble with your life. And today there's one fewer nurse at work because one hospital in particular is willing to do anything, illegal or immoral, to prevent its nurses from having a seat at the table where decisions are made.

So is CR my top priority right now? Frankly, no. My top priority is helping these brave women and men get the justice they deserve, and the power that their patients need to have to be true advocates for the weakest, most vulnerable among us, those who are sick in the hospital. Does that mean that CR goes out the window? No. My CR practice has been on medium auto-pilot for so long, eating my quotidian diet mixed with some more elaborate meals I cook when I have time and restaurant eating (ah, the salad with grilled chicken, dressing on the side) when I go out. I need my CR to maintain the energy it takes to do my job, and it definitely helps with emotional strength and mental focus. I've actually had some trouble lately with losing my appetite due to stress, and it's a fight to make sure that when I do eat, I eat only healthy foods so that I get my proper nutrition. But I don't want my life to be cut short by my job, so I do the best I can. And MR is such a help and support... he's used to me waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to go back to sleep because I'm worried about my nurses... he's used to me taking calls at all hours of the day and night, running out the door to meetings, and being home rarely.

It's going to be a rough two weeks until the election, then I'm directly onto another, where the person who has been the primary organizer on the campaign is going out for three weeks of leave when his wife has their first baby. So I'll be taking over the day after I win this election, and my co-worker will be remaining to help these nurses win their first contract. These days there are so many nurses who want to organize that we are running around like crazy trying to help them, and though I've hired new staff, it takes awhile to train them. No vacation this year either for me, but I think you can see why I feel like it's worth the sacrifice of my time, energy, and large portions of my sanity to help nurses get a voice on the job.

When I think about the people in my life who are alive today only thanks to the hard work of dedicated nurses who could have done anything with their careers but who chose to take on the responsibility of saving others' lives, I have no doubt, no doubt whatsoever, that it's worth it.

Posted by april at May 6, 2007 5:25 AM

Comments

Posted by: Hilary at May 2, 2007 6:31 AM

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Posted by: Rachel at May 2, 2007 3:33 PM

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Posted by: Dad at May 7, 2007 8:44 PM

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