In my opinion
Hear what nurses and nurse leaders have to say about unionization.
I don’t know if people truly understand what kind of division a union is going to bring into the hospital. I’m afraid we are going to lose that camaraderie, that teamwork because we’re always feeling the need to compete against one another instead of working together as a team to better ourselves, better our departments, better our hospital.
The nurses went on strike. This went on for several weeks. We were told by the union representatives that we were not to cross the line and go back to work. We were told we needed to exhaust our bank accounts before we ever thought of crossing the line to go back to work.
Based on what I know about the unions, and my experiences in the past years, it does create a barrier... I would say to any team member that is considering joining the union to really think about it, to do their homework, to investigate, to make sure this is something that they want in place because it will create a barrier between them and their manager...
I have experience directing a team of nurses that were in the Teamsters union... it hinders the work that we’re trying to get done. We went into nursing to care and take care of patients, and to do it timely. My involvement with the union was like having a cancer diagnosis and waiting to find a treatment. When we as nurses know how to move forward and what we need to do to make change, we had a third party that slowed things down... It just slows down patient care.
I believe Teamsters representation it will cause a divide with leadership. I will no longer be able to collaborate as easily with them, due to having a consistent middle person.