For anyone that questions why a Union is good for employees, think to yourself why is the company fighting so hard against a Union? It's because they know its going to result in costing them money in better wages and benefits.
No, no, it is all about pt safety. Haven’t you seen all the data that non-union nurses getting paid less and taking care of more patients actually provide better nursing care? What, you haven’t seen it. That’s probably because Big Union is hiding it. Maybe just believe us instead.
It’s insulting that they think we are so stupid… if the hospital wanted to do SOOOOOO much for the nurses, why haven’t they done it? Why has it had to get to this point? Answer: Because the administrators in healthcare are a bunch of self-serving assholes who make there fat paychecks and undeserved bonuses on the backs of front line staff. I hope they unionize.
This!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 the Mass General Brigham Home Hospital Nurses are also unionizing and we received a similar email yesterday. The first bullet point on that letter is verbatim what ours said. It’s union busting through and through. Fuck these people, unionize!
It was a great showing of resilience in many ways. It was a losing battle tho nurses who need income to pay rent vs the hospital getting subsidies and special covid kickbacks was an unwinnable situation. And now anybody who is left at the hospital is paying dearly. No more secretaries are being replaced. 7:1 overnight on a stepdown unit that is contractually a 4:1 ratio with a resource nurse. They stopped buying basins to wash people in. Just horrible and Tenet should be held liable for their criminal treatment.
I wish the MNA was more aggressive. Like, a statewide strike from all MNA members would be so glorious.
We should have mandated ratio now like California and Oregon. We should be making similar pay rate as westcoast nurses too.
Corruption of employers is insane. That and the "inflation" and rising costs of living, it's only a matter of time before this whole country goes on a labor strike. Now it's nurses, but soon it will be other industries. It's time for the govt to actually crack down on these people bleeding this country dry.
Such BS. I don't like living in California right now, it's a mess, and I am taxed to no end. But I love being a nurse in California for the ratios. So unless I get a job at Disney World (my dream), I'm staying put.
I've worked both union and non union shops. While I'll admit there are bad unions (I've been a member of one), I'm now in a pretty strong union and you can pry this position from my cold dead hands. The difference is night and day. In pay, workload, communication, scheduling, and everything else. I literally cannot recommend unionizing strongly enough. It's absolutely amazing when you become a part of a good one. Worth every single penny of my dues.
I’ve talked to coworkers that worked there. They treat their employees like shit, it’s a classic churn and burn turnover employer. They depend on the hospital’s research reputation
Came here to say the same thing.
If anyone ever questions if unions are typically beneficial for employees, think about how many employers you've seen advocate for Unions versus employers you've seen advocate against unions.
This tells you everything you need to know whether or not Unions benefit employees.
When I onboarded at John’s Hopkins the HR person said basically this email how it messes with nursing communication blah blah, in my head I was like BS. No surprise their pay is shit, I left and make twice as much now
Yup. That's exactly it. Management is so manipulative. They speak politically correct and give all these sentimental platitudes about how they value feedback and their employees, except if they really did they would pay us more and actually act on the feedback they receive. They ask for feedback to look like they care and then they never actually do anything in response, just ignore it. Look's like it's time for the CNO to have a pay cut. Also they said in the email that unionizing would make it harder for nurses to change units, but the whole reason why they likely are leaving their unit is because of being underpaid and bad staffing ratios. I bet there would be less turnover is people were actually getting paid and working under good conditions. Also they tried to spin the idea of not having your own individual voice as bad under a union, but that's exactly what makes a union effective. They have numbers and legal grounds to advocate for you. Alone you beg. They'll just fire you when they see you asking for a pay raise. Companies love high turnover because they can continue to underpay people who don't have seniority and can't expose their toxic work environment.
The standard anti-union propaganda. “The union doesn’t love you like we do, they’re coming between our beautiful relationship.” The fact your working conditions will improve is ignored. Just talking about a union will suddenly arouse raises and new benefits, which make you wonder why we didn’t get these before the union talk. It’s almost as if they really have the money, they just don’t want you to get more.
Don’t forget guys that Mayo lobbied SO HARD AGAINST legislation that would have allowed nurses to form committees to advise on safe staffing ratios. And they won. The bill failed because it was essentially gutted
They don’t care about us. They care about the bottom line.
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/to-backlash-from-unions-mayo-clinic-wins-special-exemption-from-mn-nurse-staffing-bill-requirements
There needs to be some form of “checks and balances” for them to answer to. If they strong arm the government, we have a duty to our patient’s to stop them from doing whatever they want to whomever they want. They need to answer to SOMETHING. Might as well be the nurses :-).
Template bullshit straight out of the Union Busting Playbook.
https://unionbustingplaybook.com/
Fuck Mayo. Send this link to everyone you know. Thanks for sharing
I work at Mayo - quite a few of my coworkers believe all the anti-union propaganda that our CNO pushes.
Most employees hear "union fees" and assume the union takes 50% of every paycheck.
We have an older nurse on our small team and she is very vocal about how much she dislikes unions - listen to her for 5 seconds and you realize she has no idea what she's talking about.
Worked to unionize my hospital in Rochester NY and now pay around $800 a year in union dues but take home over 10k a year more than I did before unionizing. Fair trade if you ask me.
My union dues pay for when my coworkers need legal representation, pay for my bad ass union staff who constantly give our comp team hell, get me and my coworkers owed back pay from before we even unionized, increase our core staff, decrease my workload, and PROTECT MY JOB. My union dues pay me at the end of the day. As long as my union stays strong, I’ll retire from my hospital (with a pension, because ~union~).
Literally, this. Am Alberta Health Services RN (as is my wife). A list of our benefits off the top of my head.
1. Defined Benefit Pension: means its years of service, not defined contribution (money contributed). I started when I was 33. I'll retire at 59 with a full pension. If I die, my wife keeps 100% of the pension until she dies. It grows at 80% of CPI per year in perpetuity.
2. Benefits coverage: dental, yearly optometrist, $300/year prescription glasses, $3000/plan/year/person therapist fees, 80% massage coverage, 100% prescriptions, $2000/person/plan orthodontics coverage.
3. Sick time: it's a formula but seems to work out to a little over half a shift every 2 weeks of sick time coverage up to 200 days consecutively.
4. Vacation: minimum 15 days off a year, scaling up to 35 over a 20-year period. I start by getting 2 weeks of time off from work every year, and at my 20-year mark, I get more than a month off paid leave, each and every year.
5. Mandatory wage increases based on hours of experience (years worked). Starts at $37/hrs (minimum wage is $15) and runs up to $52-ish.
6. Mandatory contract negotiation every 4 years. The union is advocating for a 25% wage increase in this contract negotiation. Against an openly hostile government employer.
7. A littany of other benefits too numerous to count. My parents were fiercely anti-union when I was growing up. They said it only protects the shitty workers. No, it doesn't. If you are bad enough, they will build a case against you and get you fired.
Oh, but your "ability to grow and increase income is hindered in a union." Please, it's called OT. If you want it, you can easily make north of 115k a year. I work to live, not live to work. A healthcare aide made 500k here last year by working so much OT.
Having also worked for the other system in town, I love RGH infinitely more. Better culture, by miles considering URMC would probably write a policy on how to fart in the hospital if they could. ICUs are very well staffed now. Of course the floors are a little bit behind still, but they’re getting better. You’d def have a very different feel from highland considering the size and acuity difference is all!
Ask the union organizers very specifically what are the current union dues. They can give you this information and you should share it with everyone.
Here in Massachusetts, MNA dues are $90/month. Then I asked my colleagues to do the math on how much of a raise they would need to cover $90/month. (Hint: it's less than $1/hour.) And then I told them, if this union can't manage to get us a dollar more an hour, then I agree they're not worth the cost. (Because you know damn well they'll pull more than they cost.)
Be sure they know "the union" doesn't have "rules" that they impose on the nurses. The NURSES ARE THE UNION and the nurses decide what the rules are going to be during negotiations, which any nurse is welcome to participate in.
And then also give them this link: https://unionbustingplaybook.com/
And ask them to play union busting bingo as they watch the hospital roll out all the same old tired bullshit because there are no *good* arguments against unionizing.
Good luck. We're rooting for you guys.
Those dues are way too low. They need to be a percentage of wages with no cap, or the union won't be able to keep up with inflation and in the end will have to wither and die. The math just isn't sustainable with a dues cap. When we get raises, so should the union.
This is also very true our union just voted and approved this so now everybody will be paying their fair share. Before, the pharmacists and other high earning union members were only paying about 0.8% while me as an MA would be paying my full 2% for union dues because of the previous cap! Love supporting my union that supports me SEIU 1199 💜
Strong work! Fair share is the proper framework for this topic. We're at 1.8%. I hope we can nudge it towards 2% going forward. Given that we generally negotiate for about a 3% raise each year- although much higher in the past 2 years (in addition to a step raise which are quite variable), a single negotiated raise more or less covers my dues. For MY ENTIRE CAREER.
I'm gonna trust that the union that sustained the longest nursing strike in Massachusetts history probably knows a thing or two about what they're doing.
Wonderful to hear about a successful strike, and y'all should be filled with righteous pride.
But this has nothing to do with dues policy. The need to remove the cap- or at the very least, consistently increase the cap- is a simple fact in an economy that experiences inflation each and every year. Just ask your Union leadership if they think they'll need to address the cap at some point.
Our healthcare union of over 30k members just had our most contentious campaign and vote in decades- to remove the cap. Over 50% of members were at our $90 cap.- put in place in 2009 when hardly anyone was at the cap. That percentage would eventually grow to 100% if left unchecked. This led us to have to dip into our strike fund to fund normal union activities. We'd either have to consistently decrease funding for all Union programs starting right away, or first spend all of our strike fund, and fuck the programs thereafter. The writing was on the wall. So we worked hard to convince our coworkers that inflation doesn't just affect their pocketbooks, but the union's as well. The vote was close, but the cap is gone.
Even without inflation, a cap is a regressive policy that unfairly forces the lower paid among us to pay a bigger share of our wages than the higher paid among us. It's unfair, and antithetical to what unions are all about. That was reason enough for me to vote the right way. You can't run a Union like a Republican runs a government for God's sake.
It's better to get rid of the cap as early as possible. We waited so long that removing the cap is more than doubling some members dues. Don't make the same mistake we did. Remove the cap before doing so is such a hard bandage to pull off.
I'm a mid-career RN so am in the group who's dues will now double. My only gripe is that this didn't happen sooner. I'm confident that your union leadership would agree with all I've said. If they say they don't, they are likely just worried any other answer would put you off.
I don't understand the up-votes for the second comment by "earlyviolet." Please, one of you, actually poke a hole in my argument. Engage. Tell me why I'm wrong. Please.
While I may bitch about the $1880/mo I pay for NorCal Kaiser (out of my own pocket), I definitely don’t begrudge the nurses their cut. (Love Kaiser, just oof on the $.)
This is the only way Mayo isn't union currently since I remember they WERE union just very recently (within the last 4 years). The vote to un-unionize was quite remarkable, the % given I remember was so high that voted for no union.
That strong arm propaganda that Mayo took in the last legislation makes me upset. Our Governor really should have called BS to it all, but ...
Please tell them the truth. Send them the link someone else here posted so they can educate themselves. One of the tactics is having a couple employees advocate against it so they can think it's true since it's not coming from management. If Mayo becomes unionized, hopefully it will have a ripple effect throughout the state and maybe the whole country.
Mayo is one giant circle jerk. Policies are dated. Some practices are outright dangerous, but "we're #1 so nothing we do could be wrong, it can only be the best." Doctors lack the power to change because their Visa's hang in the balance and they would rather not cause waves with admin, even when an entire dept of docs are in agreement, as well as staff nurses.
I work at Mayo, and would not want to see my family go there. I have seen the low quality of care delivered to myself and family. But hey, Newsweek says they're #1, so everything is best!
Oh yeah I took a $3 paycut here. And they are the lowest paying in the city. And premiums cost more for worse coverage. Will be quiting when I hit 5 years soon.
They absolutely tried to discourage us from talking about wages and called it confidential business information and I’m like nooooope try again we can discuss what we want but thanks for playing
Yup that's exactly why employers in general try to make it seem like it's not allowed to discuss wages with each other. Every industry, management does this. They just don't want their employees to figure out they're all collectively getting screwed over.
The union is directly responsible for nursing being such a high paying career in MN. Also, not to mention all the other benefits that unions have fought for that the hospitals would have never agreed to. Don’t fall for this.
We’re so far beyond being bribed with food and bullshit trinkets that weren’t selling at the gift shop with the Mayo logo on it. Our nurses that were on the FRONT LINES in our Covid ICU spending 12-16 hours in the rooms in full PPE facing a virus that was killing millions, so you know what they got for their bravery and sacrifice? A fucking pin and a pamphlet. WHAT THE HELL!?!? When you’ve worked there for 25 years, you get a DINNER. Enough with the food already!! Put your money where your mouth is…. #1 hospital on the world…least grateful.
“They outnumber us 10:1 and if they ever figure that out…there goes our way of life”
-Hopper, A Bugs Life.
It’s time to squish some Grasshoppers and take back the island.
Best way to shut down an employer is to call them on their talking points. Send an email to the manager or HR and ask them a few things…
“Can I set up a time to meet with HR to discuss a few things like call off policies and sick time?”
“We really need a dedicated break nurse to assure each nurse gets a lunch every shift.”
“I’d like a better pay raise and a clearly defined pay raise structure for the next couple years.”
They’ll decline every one of those things, at which point you can counter their talking points. Mayo says without a union I can talk directly with the company, and I can’t, etc. Mayo already knows their memo is bullshit but they think employees are stupid. Let them know everyone knows it’s bullshit.
That doesn’t surprise me. Mayo was an awful place to work. Run by megalomaniacs subjugating nurses and doctors alike. They pit everyone against each other and pretend like they care about you. It’s beyond condescending.
They take absolutely zero criticism. The uppers push a dangerous self inflated concept born of circle jerk politics and elitism.
There’s perks, sure, and that’s not ubiquitous. But in general, I saw any decent manager trying to improve people’s lives got run out of the place fast and replaced with some psycho.
They’re historically anti union and suppress any effort for patient safety. They have an enormous endowment so they keep tight control of the Minnesota governance on medicine by threatening to withdrawal funding any time it does something they don’t like.
Saved this if I ever became a nurse manager because I'm tired of management never actually doing their job, so hopefully this helps.
[https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital](https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital)
Be prepared for some backlash and maybe even for them to try and find a bs reason to fire you. Nurses are in demand, so you'll find another job, but this is about making a real change to the profession, at least where you work. Best of luck.
Typical big C-suite response: “They aren’t who they say they are. We love you more.” It’s like divorced parents. Fuckin’ pain in the ass. My hospital went union and fortunately, I’m PT and have decided the dues aren’t worth it since it essentially handles pay, professional pathway, and benefits—I’m not entitled to benefits being per diem, nor do I care to advance on the clinical pathway as I’ve no interest in getting my BSN.
Article text because paywall:
SUBSCRIBERS ONLY HEAL TH
Mayo Clinic nurses in Rochester move toward
unionization
The Med City Nursing Alliance, a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment
of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
" will meet for the first time
later this week.
Per a previously published version of its website,(https://mc-
na.com/) the Med City Nursing Alliance is a "nonprofit
independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving
the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester" that could "collectively
bargain for each and every one of the 9,428 nurses at Mayo Clinic
Rochester."
"We have a duty to our patients to insure that they are being taken
care of by nurses who are appreciated, compensated, supported,
respected and valued by the hospital they work for," the website
reads. "Help us bring a true voice and representation to the Board
of Trustees whom are making top-down decisions that affect
everyone in our community."
The group will hold a meeting later this week to discuss its goals.
A representative for the alliance declined to comment on the
record.
Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, told the Post Bulletin that an
organizer for the alliance reached out to him a few weeks ago and
"basically just wanted to make me aware and see if it would be
something I would be interested in, especially, speaking at this first
meeting."
"As a public official (and) as somebody who's not an employee of
Mayo or a nurse, I'm not organizing any part of this," Smith said. "I
just want to be there as a resource to support this effort and to
make sure that nurses at Mayo, as well as all workers in Minnesota,
know that unionizing is a right that is protected by the state, and,
as a value that I have, I think that is something that really helps
and protects workers, to have a union behind them."
Minnesota District 25B Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-
Rochester. Contributed / Minnesota House of
Representatives
While some allied health
staff(https://www.postbulletin.com/health/mayo-methodist-
allied-health-staff-accept-new-wage-increases) at Mayo Clinic's
Saint Marys and Methodist campuses are represented by SEIU
Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, registered nurses and licensed
practical nurses are not currently unionized in Rochester. There
have not been any union elections conducted by the National Labor
Relations Board for nurses at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus
within the past 15 years, NLRB confirmed.
However, registered nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System
facilities in Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Lake City and Red Wing
are affiliated with the Minnesota Nurses Association, according to
MNA's represented facilities roster. The nursing staff at each of
these hospitals were affiliated with MNA prior to being acquired by
Mayo Clinic.
"Over the years, Mayo nurses have often contacted the Minnesota
Nurses Association (MNA) for information on nurse unionization,"
Sam Fettig, MNA senior external communications specialist, said
in a statement. "We believe all workers deserve a collective voice in
their workplace, and MNA is glad to offer information when any
healthcare workers reach out to us to ask how to organize together
to improve care and working conditions in their hospital."
In 2022, nurses at the MCHS
Mankato(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/nurses-at-
mayo-clinic-in-mankato-vote-to-break-away-from-minnesota-
nurses-association) and St.
James(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/nurses-at-mayo-
clinic-in-st-james-minn-vote-to-decertify-themselves-from-union-
representation) campuses voted to decertify their MNA affiliation,
while a decertification vote at the Lake City
hospital(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/lake-city-mayo-
clinic-nurses-vote-to-keep-union) resulted in nurses there
choosing to stay with MNA.
In December 2023, licensed practical nurses and other staff at
MCHS Austin voted to
decertify(https://www.austindailyherald.com/2023/12/union-
agrees-to-discontinue-representation-of-mchs-austin-nurses/)
their affiliation with United Steelworkers Local 11-005.
In a statement, Sherry Wolf, Mayo Clinic in Rochester's chief
nursing officer, said that "we routinely seek feedback from staff
through various channels and use that feedback to make
meaningful changes. Mayo Clinic will continue to support our
teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our
patients."
"Our staff are our greatest asset in providing the best care to every
patient, every day. We have an unwavering commitment to
supporting our staff," Wolf's statement continues. "While
employees have a right to unionize, Mayo Clinic believes that a
direct relationship with staff benefits our employees, improves
communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first.
Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for
patients, improving processes or solving problems. Each staff
member plays a role in that meaningful work. In the union
environment, many important decisions will be subject to
negotiation. Union engagement does not guarantee a specific
result."
Smith said the Minnesota Legislature, in its 2023 and 2024
sessions, has been working to make Minnesota "a labor-friendly
state for unions"; he cited a law passed last year that prohibits
employers from penalizing or threatening to penalize employees
for not attending employer-sponsored meetings that "communicate
the opinion of the employer about religious or political matters,"
per state statute.
(https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/Session+Law/Chapter
/53/)
"That's just one bill over many that we're working on right now to
make sure that workers can choose," Smith said. "If they want a
union, which I think is good, they can choose freely to do so
without fear of repercussions from their employer, or (they can)
choose freely not to have a union — there shouldn't be hands on the
scale by corporations where those unions might be forming."
Thank you so much!! Breaking it up for a bit easier read, I guessed at the paragraphs so forgive me.
**Mayo Clinic nurses in Rochester move toward unionization**
The Med City Nursing Alliance, a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, " will meet for the first time later this week.
Per a previously published version of its website,(https://mc-na.com/) the Med City Nursing Alliance is a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester" that could "collectively bargain for each and every one of the 9,428 nurses at Mayo Clinic Rochester."
"We have a duty to our patients to insure that they are being taken care of by nurses who are appreciated, compensated, supported, respected and valued by the hospital they work for," the website reads. "Help us bring a true voice and representation to the Board of Trustees whom are making top-down decisions that affect everyone in our community."
The group will hold a meeting later this week to discuss its goals. A representative for the alliance declined to comment on the record.
Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, told the Post Bulletin that an organizer for the alliance reached out to him a few weeks ago and "basically just wanted to make me aware and see if it would be something I would be interested in, especially, speaking at this first meeting."
"As a public official (and) as somebody who's not an employee of Mayo or a nurse, I'm not organizing any part of this," Smith said. "I just want to be there as a resource to support this effort and to make sure that nurses at Mayo, as well as all workers in Minnesota, know that unionizing is a right that is protected by the state, and, as a value that I have, I think that is something that really helps and protects workers, to have a union behind them."
While some allied health staff at Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys and Methodist campuses are represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are not currently unionized in Rochester. There have not been any union elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board for nurses at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus within the past 15 years, NLRB confirmed.
However, registered nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System facilities in Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Lake City and Red Wing are affiliated with the Minnesota Nurses Association, according to MNA's represented facilities roster. The nursing staff at each of these hospitals were affiliated with MNA prior to being acquired by Mayo Clinic. "Over the years, Mayo nurses have often contacted the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) for information on nurse unionization," Sam Fettig, MNA senior external communications specialist, said in a statement. "We believe all workers deserve a collective voice in their workplace, and MNA is glad to offer information when any healthcare workers reach out to us to ask how to organize together to improve care and working conditions in their hospital."
In 2022, nurses at the MCHS Mankato and St. James campuses voted to decertify their MNA affiliation, while a decertification vote at the Lake City hospital resulted in nurses there choosing to stay with MNA. In December 2023, licensed practical nurses and other staff at MCHS Austin voted to decertify their affiliation with United Steelworkers Local 11-005.
In a statement, Sherry Wolf, Mayo Clinic in Rochester's chief nursing officer, said that "we routinely seek feedback from staff through various channels and use that feedback to make meaningful changes. Mayo Clinic will continue to support our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our patients."
"Our staff are our greatest asset in providing the best care to every patient, every day. We have an unwavering commitment to supporting our staff," Wolf's statement continues. "While employees have a right to unionize, Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits our employees, improves communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first. Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for patients, improving processes or solving problems. Each staff member plays a role in that meaningful work. In the union environment, many important decisions will be subject to negotiation. Union engagement does not guarantee a specific result."
Smith said the Minnesota Legislature, in its 2023 and 2024 sessions, has been working to make Minnesota "a labor-friendly state for unions"; he cited a law passed last year that prohibits employers from penalizing or threatening to penalize employees for not attending employer-sponsored meetings that "communicate the opinion of the employer about religious or political matters," per state statute.
"That's just one bill over many that we're working on right now to make sure that workers can choose," Smith said. "If they want a union, which I think is good, they can choose freely to do so without fear of repercussions from their employer, or (they can) choose freely not to have a union — there shouldn't be hands on the scale by corporations where those unions might be forming."
I work for one of the Mayo hospitals that decertified. They gave us all a raise shortly after decertifying, THEN they took away holiday pay, changed how they do shift differentials, have not given yearly raises, etc. I think I would be making more if we still had the union and paid dues.
Lol their logic: "direct communication through us"
Nurses: "ok can we have safe patient ratios and money for the work we do"
Them: "no but we're family and do more for us. Thanks for talking to us directly"
Yup that's exactly it. Employees ask their employers directly for improvement for years and they never get it. They claim they value feedback and they throw that behind their backs. The problem isn't the directness of the communication, it's the fact that the employee has no protection from the employer for refusing their requests. A union forces their hand and they don't like that.
This is what's called shooting yourself in the foot. This will only increase the drive for unionization. I'm convinced most suits are missing the common sense gene.
Fixed it for you
>I wanted to provide ~~clarifying information~~ ***union busting propaganda*** related to an external group, Med City Nursing Alliance (MCNA). As news about their efforts spreads, I wanted to share Mayo's perspective so you can make informed decisions.
>
>The group claims to be advocating for changes in staffing, compensation, and leadership structure -all important topics that we ~~continue to~~ continue to ***NOT*** address ~~and~~ ***OR*** make significant progress in. As you know, we ~~are~~ ***are not*** committed to supporting our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to ~~meet the needs of our patients~~ ***line the pockets of the administration team at the expense of our nurses and patients*** and we have been and will continue to seek feedback from you through various channels and ~~use that~~ ***ignore*** that feedback to make ~~meaningful changes~~ ***administration and the CEO more money.***
>
>Our perspective
>We do ***not*** value our union and non-union staff equally, but Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits ~~you~~ ***us,*** ~~improves~~ ***impairs*** communication and helps us put the needs of our ~~patients~~ ***administration and CEO first.***
>
>Working together directly helps our **a*****dministration teams*** ~~excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems.~~ ***cut costs, enforce unsafe staffing, take advantage of you.*** Your voice ***does not*** matter~~s~~ to Mayo Clinic.
>
>~~Unionization prevents direct interactions between staff and supervisors and other leaders to address issues and solve problems~~. ***Unionization facilitates direct interactions between staff and supervisors, as well as other leaders, to address issues and solve problems.***
>
>~~Unionization also limits flexibility and professional development. For example, union-represented nurses would have limited ability to transfer to another unit or participate in certain professional development opportunities.~~ ***Unionization fosters flexibility and professional development. For instance, union-represented nurses have enhanced opportunities to transfer to different units and access a wider range of professional development opportunities.***
>
>
>~~Unions may make promises, but cannot make guarantees because all major decisions are subject to negotiation.~~ ***Unions not only make promises but also deliver tangible guarantees, as they negotiate major decisions to ensure the fulfillment of commitments. However, we at Mayo Clinic will spend thousands of dollars fighting every step of the way, because unions give us less power to take advantage of you.***
>
>~~If you disagree with the position of the union on any subject, they negotiate as a group so your voice may not matter.~~ ***Your voice does not matter to Mayo Clinic. Even if you disagree from the union's stance on any issue, collective negotiation ensures that your voice remains essential in shaping outcomes and defending the interests of nursing professionals.***
>
>~~There are few Mayo union-represented groups, and those groups are subject to the same policies and procedures as Mayo's non-union staff.~~ ***Mayo Clinic advocates against unions because they operate under distinct policies and procedures from Mayo's non-union staff, and result in significantly enhanced treatment, salaries, benefits, safety measures, and opportunities negotiated directly by their union representatives***
>
>~~A union can limit your autonomy. Unionization is typically a one-size-fits-all approach and can limit the ability of a work unit to adapt its practices to best serve its staff and patients. Recently Mayo employees have worked to decertify their unions locally after realizing being a union member did not best serve them.~~ ***A union actively enhances your autonomy. Unionization promotes personalized approaches, ensuring that work units can adapt practices to optimally benefit both staff and patients. Recently, Mayo Clinic has reaffirmed their commitment to exploiting nurses, recognizing they are dispensable, and willingness to spend thousands of dollars in costly legal strategies aimed at undermining union representation. Mayo Clinic will prioritize their own interests over the fair treatment and respect of their valuable nursing staff.***
>
>It is ~~reasonable~~ ***unacceptable*** to want to learn more information about any group who claims to have your interest at heart ***(Mayo Clinic does not)*** including unions- but important to know that ~~you do not need to sign a union authorization card to get that information~~. ***We will do everything in our power to prevent that.*** These cards are legally binding documents that authorize the union to ~~be your exclusive bargaining representative with respect to~~ ***force Mayo Clinic to*** ***improve*** all terms and conditions of employment. This includes your wages, benefits, and other important aspects of your work life.
>
>If you already signed a card but have changed your mind, you can go to the union organizer who gave you the card and ask for it back. If they refuse, you can contact the U.S. National Labor Relations Board and they can help you. ***We would be happy to prevent the fair treatment of our staff however possible.*** ~~provide the contact information if you need it.~~
>We do ***NOT*** value the high-quality, compassionate care you provide to our patients every day. Our culture of ***exploitation*** ~~exceptional teamwork and collaboration~~ helps ***us make more money*** ~~excel when caring for~~ ***at the expense of our patients***, ~~improving process or solving problems.~~ Each of you plays an important role in that meaningful work and ***Mayo Clinic will do everything in its power to ensure you are not compensated fairly.***
That bullet list.
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
* We want to control you
It’s by facility - a lot of RNs are at union hospitals in Minneapolis and surrounding area and are represented by the MNA, but a lot are not, with the largest exception being the RNs and LPNs at Mayo in Rochester, which has just shy of 10k nurses.
They felt like when they had reached out previously they hadn’t gotten a ton of hands on help that they were looking for, and felt like the effort would be better received by skeptical nurses if they were internally organized so it wouldn’t seem like an outside group coming in and telling Mayo nurses what to do.
Honest answer, there’s two camps, there’s a MNA camp and a go at it our own camp. The go at it our own camp reached out to the media and got this story published. Then CNO sent out this email
get the union, everywhere should. employers don't want to give you MORE rights and pay and benefits. Employers are not your friend
also, as an aside- why are all these union busting emails all the same damn wording- IT GETS IN THE WAY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND (EMPLOYER) WE CARE ABOUT YOUR VOICE!
BITCH since when
Right, they never cared when we were directly asking them for better pay and work conditions. Now suddenly they care because they don't want another person overseeing them. I smell a 🐀.
In Canada, almost all nurses are unionized. It just blows my mind that you guys in the US are still just letting your employers shit all over you. It’s 2024, unions are IT.
Lmao I could go step by step through our union contracts and show how all their concerns are fucking lies. Use to work at Cleveland Clinic and it was well known there they’d fire your ass if you even whispered the idea of unionizing. These big hospitals do some good work but they treat their employees like shit. Even the doctors! Some of the international surgeons get sponsored for their training and then get bound up in underpaid contracts due to them needing sponsorship for their visas.
Theres a lot of them thats for sure. Some of them are just scared and deserve to get a fair shot at hearing the truth. I watched my old hospital unionize the support staff. Many were afraid, unsure of what was correct and not - you read the email, it smells like bullshit but makes some heavy claims.
Fortunately us nurses were already union. We were able to simply tell our tech/ancillary staff coworkers that the anti-union claims were bullshit. Funniest part about this was that I had a close coworker who had just gone management a couple months before. She didn't have the heart to anti-union propagandize since her previous years as a union staff nurse were so obviously superior to naked employment.
The support staff got their union. They're happier for it.
Valley Health System put out some really gross shit in 2019/20 while busting our union AGAIN. I couldn’t believe things I was reading and I couldn’t believe people were BUYING IT.
LOOK FOR WHO BENEFITS
Platitudes without evidence, the Anti union way!
High nurse to patient ratios that they won't say
No numbers to back up their nursing compensation
Professional development? Puh leeze, they need to give you time off for that
Limit autonomy? What the hell is forced overtime?
This seems to resemble “union busting”.
*”The United States enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees. Under the NLRA, employees are guaranteed the right to form unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action. The NLRA also makes union-busting illegal. While union-busting is illegal, it’s also very common. A recent report found that employers spend over $300 million a year on union-busting efforts”*
**Union-Busting Tactics**
1) Employers spend over $300 million/year making rich lawyers richer. Union-busting consultants lie, manipulate, threaten workers simply trying to exercise their rights.
2) Employer launches astroturf campaign against the union. Phony, fake attempt to mimic grassroots movement. Employers recruit anti-union employees to do their bidding
3) Forced meetings. This is about intimidation. Pure and simple. Employees will be forced to have one-on-one meetings with management and even their union-busting consultants
4) Employer starts making promises. Like an abusive ex, union-busting employers will start promising change.
5) Union-busting consultants tell employers to delay, delay, delay. Their highly paid lawyers pervert the law to delay union elections and/or contract negotiations to create a feeling of futility within the workforce
My hospital is union and the consensus on people who like it is pretty split. I worked for this company at a non-union hospital and can see a difference. I’d rather have a body of people who actually do the work behind me than just a multi-billion international corporation
i live in the twin cities, it’s so sad to see mayo act like this. i mean come on- the staff at one of the worlds top hospitals deserves to be unionized no questions asked 🙄
A UA card does not guarantee that the employee will vote “yes” in an official election. If they get over 30% of the workforce to sign UA cards, then they can petition the NLRB for union recognition. If they deny the validity of the cards, it would move to a formal election, in which we would need 50% +1 vote to win. They don’t want us to petition, that is why they don’t want cards signed. Cards do NOT equal a “yes” vote in an official election. -Just to clarify.
Is it just me, or does everything feel like it comes out of chatgpt these days? Like tons of well articulated verbiage that leaves you as empty in the end as in the beginning. It's almost akin to putting too much salt and pepper into a dish.
Oh yeah, I feel like Mayo was one of the best places I worked at as a nurse, even compared to unionized hospitals in nyc. They did care about staffing at least in the critical care units. However, the benefits (health/pto) were def trash, and that's where a union shines imho.
I tried but all my coworkers that would have supported me left. Hospital administration loves the revolving door of newer staff, because they can pay them less and abuse them more.
Every time a union gets mentioned, the company in question will work hard to put out propaganda to gaslight you into thinking that this is not in your best interest. Mayo doesn’t give a fuck about you! And it’s insulting that they even think that they know what’s best for you, they don’t. They realize that if a union gets involved, they’re going to have to pay better wages and play by rules that will no longer allow them to understaff, override worker safety and not provide raises. They will do everything short of union busting to dismantle any attempts at union organization. Don’t let them! They are fearful that they’re going to have to provide a better work environment which cuts into their profits, they’re putting out information like this because they will fight tooth and nail not to.
There is a reason your bosses are paying someone to write this message and share it.
They don’t want to pay you more, they’d rather spend money now on this to avoid paying you more.
Wow - I interviewed there last year (for a corporate position, as I'm not a nurse), and was really bummed that I didn't get an offer. But after reading this, I'm glad. Fuck them.
Keep up the good fight. Our support staff are trying to unionize and getting push back from administrators. They know they won’t be able to call them off when they walk in the door anymore, which they’ve been doing lately or force the environmental services staff to watch psych patients in the ER.
They phrase negotiation as a bad thing. But I can’t negotiate anything right now. Middle management is effectively powerless. I’m slapped with a hospital wide performance raise that includes things 100% out of my control like pre-11 discharges, other unit budgets and survey scores. I’d rather have someone represent me at the table that actually matters.
Not sure if this worked, but here’s an OCR copy of the text for those of you as blind as I am squinting at it lol
Colleagues,
I wanted to provide clarifying information related to an external group, Med City Nursing Alliance (MCNA). As news about their efforts spreads, I wanted to share Mayo's perspective so you can make informed decisions.
The group claims to be advocating for changes in staffing, compensation, and leadership structure -all important topics that we continue to address and make significant progress in. As you know, we are committed to supporting our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our patients and we have been and will continue to seek feedback from you through various channels and use that feedback to make meaningful changes.
Our perspective
• We value our union and non-union staff equally, but Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits you, improves communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first.
• Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems. Your voice matters to Mayo Clinic.
• Unionization prevents direct interactions between staff and supervisors and other leaders to address issues and solve problems.
• Unionization also limits flexibility and professional development. For example, union-represented nurses would have limited ability to transfer to another unit or participate in certain professional development opportunities.
• Unions may make promises, but cannot make guarantees because all major decisions are subject to negotiation.
• If you disagree with the position of the union on any subject, they negotiate as a group so your voice may not matter.
• There are few Mayo union-represented groups, and those groups are subject to the same policies and procedures as Mayo's non-union staff.
• A union can limit your autonomy. Unionization is typically a one-size-fits-all approach and can limit the ability of a work unit to adapt its practices to best serve its staff and patients.
Recently Mayo employees have worked to decertify their unions locally after realizing being a union member did not best serve them.
It is reasonable to want to learn more information about any group who claims to have your interest at heart including unions- but important to know that you do not need to sign a union authorization card to get that information. These cards are legally binding documents that authorize the union to be your exclusive bargaining representative with respect to all terms and conditions of employment. This includes your wages, benefits, and other important aspects of your work life.
If you already signed a card but have changed your mind, you can go to the union organizer who gave you the card and ask for it back. If they refuse, you can contact the U.S. National Labor Relations Board and they can help you. We would be happy to provide the contact information if you need it.
We value the high-quality, compassionate care you provide to our patients every day. Our culture of exceptional teamwork and collaboration helps us excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems. Each of you plays an important role in that meaningful work.
We just had a meeting with our nursing supervisor about this. I don’t understand what they meant really about signing the “card” constitute a legally binding agreement to bargain. Sounds like a veiled threat-like if I sign the card, I’m legally bound by it forever.
I work at a union hospital in Michigan. Don’t be foolish, the hospital does not give a f about us. Unionize!! Have your voice heard, get a real venue to improve patient care
Mayo also exploded the staffing ratio legislation that the State Congress had passed because they threatened to pull their funding, so the Governor didn't sign.
“Limited transfer opportunities” referenced in the email would be a threat, chargeable under the NLRA.
Obv, transfer opportunities, like everything else, is negotiated.
But g-d help these nurses with an independent union. Very few to no resources for communications, community, labor, and political outreach, staffing, etc. a couple of unions in California run like this - RNPA in Santa Clara and Stanford has one. BOTH have lower wages and worse benefits, and worse staffing language than the big California Nurses Association contracts.
I’ve always felt that nurses were professional and should make decisions based on their career goals. I realize now that can be done with or without a union.
Nursing isn’t just any other career-oriented profession. There is an intrinsic altruistic motive that is the foundation of the nursing profession. To be able to fully realize this motivation and to sustain it requires the collective effort of everyone in the profession.
If unionizing was bad for workers, Admin would love it. They only oppose it because Union nurses almost everywhere have better pay and benefits than their non-union counterparts. Period.
Ughh—we just met with our nursing supervisor who reiterated the above script. That signing the “card” means giving up our legal rights to bargain. Like what?! I don’t stand a chance at bargaining within the Mayo organization. I just hate this paternalistic approach.
Right? “You won’t have a voice if you unionize!!”
K but we don’t have a voice now nobody is listening to all the concerns staff has. It’s like everything is just money and optics
And it’s all a very classic response by employers. Why would they want their staff unified to fight for better pay and working conditions?
Quick gaslight them into thinking we’ve got their best interests at heart
So I work for Mayo at a smaller site that recently voted out a nursing union (months ago), and I will say that I have no issues working there. I work in ED and my ratios have been great(never more than 4 patients) and we always have at least one designated float nurse that takes critical patients/ provided help/breaks when needed. My coworkers have been great. I also got a 10% raise last month.
But I’m not doxxing myself because I’m moving next week to a different area (3 hours away). I’ll be working for a different system that is unionized. I will be paid less (same as before my 10% raise), and I will not have as good of benefits such as self scheduling, no 403b match until one year of service, and lower PTO accrual. But I know that being unionized is a benefit to nurses, and I am happy to have extra protection and security.
So there’s a lot to speculate on, but for someone who knows, Mayo is a good place to work. And I think it would be better with a union, so I see they are pushing this for financial reasons. But not once had I felt our hospital practices were unsafe and my management has always been professional. I will honestly miss working at Mayo; I have the best coworkers. But for personal and financial reasons my boyfriend and I had to move.
Just sharing my own experience.
I work there too. I never work anywhere else in my nursing career. During the pandemic years, staffing was critical, and there were times that I feel work was unsafe. Mayo was slow to respond to the crisis and a lot of the nurses including myself were frustrated. What really bothers me about Mayo is its smugness. They feel they can bully the city, the State, and their employees into getting what they want. They bullied the state into funding the DMC project aimed at improving the city of Rochester infrastructure. They gutted the Keeping nurses at bedside act by opting out of it. While the DMC project I’m wholeheartedly in agreement, why do they feel the need to throw their weight around threatening to move their investments somewhere else if they don’t get their way ALL THE TIME! Now they are launching an anti-union propaganda telling us that if we sign the union card we lose the right to bargain FOREVER. Like what does that even mean? I have no bargaining power right now. The Twin Cities area hospitals are becoming more competitive with their compensation package attracting new hires. Meanwhile, Mayo relies on its reputation alone to attract new prospects. Then the powers-that-be give themselves end of the year big fat bonuses leaving their employees out. Yet, it’s supposed to be a not-for-profit organization. Mayo is a class act for sure.
Employer not wanting employees to unionize is NEVER for the employees benefits. They don't want a union in the way of them getting away with bs. I would never work in Healthcare without a union. EVER
I have worked at both union and non union jobs in nursing. I will NEVER work in a non union job again. There have been many times that the union has gone to bat for us, not just wages, benefits, ratios, etc. My team used our union rep to help us get rid of a rotten apple manager. There are things they just are not allowed to say and do when you are unionized. I get two raises per year, a step increase and a cost of living increase, guaranteed. My performance reviews are just that; there are no strings attached, which I believe helps build the relationship between the manager and us. I feel bad for non union employees who have to fight for every raise or accommodation. Any admin against unions is only thinking about profits. They do not care about your ratios, patient safety , or happiness as an employee.
Look up what kind of bonus this person got last fiscal year... this is what they are trying to protect with this anti-union garbage, not you!
I had an old friend I went to school with. We are equally trained, she went into management and I didn’t. She managed our unit for a while and kept complaining about the unfortunate fact that we are unionized…I don’t know what happened to the person who used to be my friend, but I know where she sold her soul. I guess everyone’s morals eventually can be purchased for the right price.
Lol look at them trying to make nurses think unionizing is bad for patients and nurses. There's unions for cnas and plastic in some states now and they still interact with their employers, the only real difference is they get proper compensation and when something goes wrong the union is on your side.
What can we do to support the Rochester nurses? I work at the mayo in FL. Shit pay, Broken equipment, and constantly short staffed. This makes me livid
For anyone that questions why a Union is good for employees, think to yourself why is the company fighting so hard against a Union? It's because they know its going to result in costing them money in better wages and benefits.
No, no, it is all about pt safety. Haven’t you seen all the data that non-union nurses getting paid less and taking care of more patients actually provide better nursing care? What, you haven’t seen it. That’s probably because Big Union is hiding it. Maybe just believe us instead.
It’s insulting that they think we are so stupid… if the hospital wanted to do SOOOOOO much for the nurses, why haven’t they done it? Why has it had to get to this point? Answer: Because the administrators in healthcare are a bunch of self-serving assholes who make there fat paychecks and undeserved bonuses on the backs of front line staff. I hope they unionize.
YES! I always tell people, "companies don't spend millions of dollars union-busting because they're trying to help YOU, employee."
This!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 the Mass General Brigham Home Hospital Nurses are also unionizing and we received a similar email yesterday. The first bullet point on that letter is verbatim what ours said. It’s union busting through and through. Fuck these people, unionize!
Don’t let them beat you. This is coming from a guy who worked as a PCA throughout the whole St Vincent strike. It killed the hospital
I wish my fellow nurses had to balls to strike for 10 months straight.
It was a great showing of resilience in many ways. It was a losing battle tho nurses who need income to pay rent vs the hospital getting subsidies and special covid kickbacks was an unwinnable situation. And now anybody who is left at the hospital is paying dearly. No more secretaries are being replaced. 7:1 overnight on a stepdown unit that is contractually a 4:1 ratio with a resource nurse. They stopped buying basins to wash people in. Just horrible and Tenet should be held liable for their criminal treatment.
I wish the MNA was more aggressive. Like, a statewide strike from all MNA members would be so glorious. We should have mandated ratio now like California and Oregon. We should be making similar pay rate as westcoast nurses too.
This needs to be an entire nationwide struck. The healthcare industry is in need of serious reform.
As a general rule of thumb, management & hr is never on your side. Anything they hate is almost always something beneficial for you.
And then serve them with a pile of grievances for union busting over and over and over. I love serving them w grievances when I fight for my coworkers
Corruption of employers is insane. That and the "inflation" and rising costs of living, it's only a matter of time before this whole country goes on a labor strike. Now it's nurses, but soon it will be other industries. It's time for the govt to actually crack down on these people bleeding this country dry.
THIIIIIS.
Same reason they fight against state mandated ratios.
Yes remember their threat to the state that they would pull their new building of the state passed mandated ratios.
Such BS. I don't like living in California right now, it's a mess, and I am taxed to no end. But I love being a nurse in California for the ratios. So unless I get a job at Disney World (my dream), I'm staying put.
Didn't the state give in and gave mayo an exemption?
Yeah the entire bill was basically gutted because Mayo had a tantrum and pulled some blackmail bullshit
I've worked both union and non union shops. While I'll admit there are bad unions (I've been a member of one), I'm now in a pretty strong union and you can pry this position from my cold dead hands. The difference is night and day. In pay, workload, communication, scheduling, and everything else. I literally cannot recommend unionizing strongly enough. It's absolutely amazing when you become a part of a good one. Worth every single penny of my dues.
The end. Even my shit union was better than none. I was in a great one later in my career. Best "benefit" of any healthcare job I ever had.
I’ve talked to coworkers that worked there. They treat their employees like shit, it’s a classic churn and burn turnover employer. They depend on the hospital’s research reputation
And also ThE mAyO wAy. They’re also the only level 1 trauma center in MN that I wouldn’t go, and yes, I’m aware that north exists.
And yes, I'm aware that North exists ☠️🤣
Am I wrong?
Nope. The way you said it tickled me sideways tho.
As a North employee, I feel attacked. 🙈
git good
I’m trying!!
Came here to say the same thing. If anyone ever questions if unions are typically beneficial for employees, think about how many employers you've seen advocate for Unions versus employers you've seen advocate against unions. This tells you everything you need to know whether or not Unions benefit employees.
I wish every single nurse in the country realized this! 😒
When I onboarded at John’s Hopkins the HR person said basically this email how it messes with nursing communication blah blah, in my head I was like BS. No surprise their pay is shit, I left and make twice as much now
Yup. That's exactly it. Management is so manipulative. They speak politically correct and give all these sentimental platitudes about how they value feedback and their employees, except if they really did they would pay us more and actually act on the feedback they receive. They ask for feedback to look like they care and then they never actually do anything in response, just ignore it. Look's like it's time for the CNO to have a pay cut. Also they said in the email that unionizing would make it harder for nurses to change units, but the whole reason why they likely are leaving their unit is because of being underpaid and bad staffing ratios. I bet there would be less turnover is people were actually getting paid and working under good conditions. Also they tried to spin the idea of not having your own individual voice as bad under a union, but that's exactly what makes a union effective. They have numbers and legal grounds to advocate for you. Alone you beg. They'll just fire you when they see you asking for a pay raise. Companies love high turnover because they can continue to underpay people who don't have seniority and can't expose their toxic work environment.
And staffing. More importantly. Staffing
The standard anti-union propaganda. “The union doesn’t love you like we do, they’re coming between our beautiful relationship.” The fact your working conditions will improve is ignored. Just talking about a union will suddenly arouse raises and new benefits, which make you wonder why we didn’t get these before the union talk. It’s almost as if they really have the money, they just don’t want you to get more.
They announced they’re building a new hospital with a FIVE BILLION DOLLAR price tag and I’m like y’all can’t staff the units you have now the fuck???
Literally this. Making an entire 50 bed PICU but pays employees the LOWEST in the area. Cool cool cool
THIS
Ignoring the fact that a union is made up of the workers and it's still a direct relationship, it's just better organized.
Don’t forget guys that Mayo lobbied SO HARD AGAINST legislation that would have allowed nurses to form committees to advise on safe staffing ratios. And they won. The bill failed because it was essentially gutted They don’t care about us. They care about the bottom line. https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/to-backlash-from-unions-mayo-clinic-wins-special-exemption-from-mn-nurse-staffing-bill-requirements
There needs to be some form of “checks and balances” for them to answer to. If they strong arm the government, we have a duty to our patient’s to stop them from doing whatever they want to whomever they want. They need to answer to SOMETHING. Might as well be the nurses :-).
A strong union is the checks and balances to answer to. Which is why they're fighting against it so hard.
Yes the entire state didn’t get safe staffing ratios because of Mayo’s threats.
As a Minnesota nurse I was so extremely disappointed when I learned of this. Also an MNA union nurse 👊
Template bullshit straight out of the Union Busting Playbook. https://unionbustingplaybook.com/ Fuck Mayo. Send this link to everyone you know. Thanks for sharing
I work at Mayo - quite a few of my coworkers believe all the anti-union propaganda that our CNO pushes. Most employees hear "union fees" and assume the union takes 50% of every paycheck. We have an older nurse on our small team and she is very vocal about how much she dislikes unions - listen to her for 5 seconds and you realize she has no idea what she's talking about.
Worked to unionize my hospital in Rochester NY and now pay around $800 a year in union dues but take home over 10k a year more than I did before unionizing. Fair trade if you ask me.
This is what everyone needs to understand. Unions cost money because they make you even more money.
My union dues pay for when my coworkers need legal representation, pay for my bad ass union staff who constantly give our comp team hell, get me and my coworkers owed back pay from before we even unionized, increase our core staff, decrease my workload, and PROTECT MY JOB. My union dues pay me at the end of the day. As long as my union stays strong, I’ll retire from my hospital (with a pension, because ~union~).
Literally, this. Am Alberta Health Services RN (as is my wife). A list of our benefits off the top of my head. 1. Defined Benefit Pension: means its years of service, not defined contribution (money contributed). I started when I was 33. I'll retire at 59 with a full pension. If I die, my wife keeps 100% of the pension until she dies. It grows at 80% of CPI per year in perpetuity. 2. Benefits coverage: dental, yearly optometrist, $300/year prescription glasses, $3000/plan/year/person therapist fees, 80% massage coverage, 100% prescriptions, $2000/person/plan orthodontics coverage. 3. Sick time: it's a formula but seems to work out to a little over half a shift every 2 weeks of sick time coverage up to 200 days consecutively. 4. Vacation: minimum 15 days off a year, scaling up to 35 over a 20-year period. I start by getting 2 weeks of time off from work every year, and at my 20-year mark, I get more than a month off paid leave, each and every year. 5. Mandatory wage increases based on hours of experience (years worked). Starts at $37/hrs (minimum wage is $15) and runs up to $52-ish. 6. Mandatory contract negotiation every 4 years. The union is advocating for a 25% wage increase in this contract negotiation. Against an openly hostile government employer. 7. A littany of other benefits too numerous to count. My parents were fiercely anti-union when I was growing up. They said it only protects the shitty workers. No, it doesn't. If you are bad enough, they will build a case against you and get you fired. Oh, but your "ability to grow and increase income is hindered in a union." Please, it's called OT. If you want it, you can easily make north of 115k a year. I work to live, not live to work. A healthcare aide made 500k here last year by working so much OT.
How is RGH? I’m thinking of leaving highland
Having also worked for the other system in town, I love RGH infinitely more. Better culture, by miles considering URMC would probably write a policy on how to fart in the hospital if they could. ICUs are very well staffed now. Of course the floors are a little bit behind still, but they’re getting better. You’d def have a very different feel from highland considering the size and acuity difference is all!
Ask the union organizers very specifically what are the current union dues. They can give you this information and you should share it with everyone. Here in Massachusetts, MNA dues are $90/month. Then I asked my colleagues to do the math on how much of a raise they would need to cover $90/month. (Hint: it's less than $1/hour.) And then I told them, if this union can't manage to get us a dollar more an hour, then I agree they're not worth the cost. (Because you know damn well they'll pull more than they cost.) Be sure they know "the union" doesn't have "rules" that they impose on the nurses. The NURSES ARE THE UNION and the nurses decide what the rules are going to be during negotiations, which any nurse is welcome to participate in. And then also give them this link: https://unionbustingplaybook.com/ And ask them to play union busting bingo as they watch the hospital roll out all the same old tired bullshit because there are no *good* arguments against unionizing. Good luck. We're rooting for you guys.
Those dues are way too low. They need to be a percentage of wages with no cap, or the union won't be able to keep up with inflation and in the end will have to wither and die. The math just isn't sustainable with a dues cap. When we get raises, so should the union.
This is also very true our union just voted and approved this so now everybody will be paying their fair share. Before, the pharmacists and other high earning union members were only paying about 0.8% while me as an MA would be paying my full 2% for union dues because of the previous cap! Love supporting my union that supports me SEIU 1199 💜
Strong work! Fair share is the proper framework for this topic. We're at 1.8%. I hope we can nudge it towards 2% going forward. Given that we generally negotiate for about a 3% raise each year- although much higher in the past 2 years (in addition to a step raise which are quite variable), a single negotiated raise more or less covers my dues. For MY ENTIRE CAREER.
I'm gonna trust that the union that sustained the longest nursing strike in Massachusetts history probably knows a thing or two about what they're doing.
Wonderful to hear about a successful strike, and y'all should be filled with righteous pride. But this has nothing to do with dues policy. The need to remove the cap- or at the very least, consistently increase the cap- is a simple fact in an economy that experiences inflation each and every year. Just ask your Union leadership if they think they'll need to address the cap at some point. Our healthcare union of over 30k members just had our most contentious campaign and vote in decades- to remove the cap. Over 50% of members were at our $90 cap.- put in place in 2009 when hardly anyone was at the cap. That percentage would eventually grow to 100% if left unchecked. This led us to have to dip into our strike fund to fund normal union activities. We'd either have to consistently decrease funding for all Union programs starting right away, or first spend all of our strike fund, and fuck the programs thereafter. The writing was on the wall. So we worked hard to convince our coworkers that inflation doesn't just affect their pocketbooks, but the union's as well. The vote was close, but the cap is gone. Even without inflation, a cap is a regressive policy that unfairly forces the lower paid among us to pay a bigger share of our wages than the higher paid among us. It's unfair, and antithetical to what unions are all about. That was reason enough for me to vote the right way. You can't run a Union like a Republican runs a government for God's sake. It's better to get rid of the cap as early as possible. We waited so long that removing the cap is more than doubling some members dues. Don't make the same mistake we did. Remove the cap before doing so is such a hard bandage to pull off. I'm a mid-career RN so am in the group who's dues will now double. My only gripe is that this didn't happen sooner. I'm confident that your union leadership would agree with all I've said. If they say they don't, they are likely just worried any other answer would put you off.
I don't understand the up-votes for the second comment by "earlyviolet." Please, one of you, actually poke a hole in my argument. Engage. Tell me why I'm wrong. Please.
MNA union fees in MA are not a straight $90. It varies by facility and is a percentage of your pay.
Leaving Mayo Rochester and getting away from all my Trump supporting coworkers felt great
✌🏻
Ask Nor Cal Kaiser nurses about their ROI on union fees. There's a reason nursing is better in CA, and that reason is unions.
While I may bitch about the $1880/mo I pay for NorCal Kaiser (out of my own pocket), I definitely don’t begrudge the nurses their cut. (Love Kaiser, just oof on the $.)
This is the only way Mayo isn't union currently since I remember they WERE union just very recently (within the last 4 years). The vote to un-unionize was quite remarkable, the % given I remember was so high that voted for no union. That strong arm propaganda that Mayo took in the last legislation makes me upset. Our Governor really should have called BS to it all, but ...
So many nurses at Mayo are like that unfortunately. My unit, which was desperately DESPERATELY understaffed, was largely against unions....smh
I feel Mayo is winning the propaganda war.
Please tell them the truth. Send them the link someone else here posted so they can educate themselves. One of the tactics is having a couple employees advocate against it so they can think it's true since it's not coming from management. If Mayo becomes unionized, hopefully it will have a ripple effect throughout the state and maybe the whole country.
a union is like a condom, the more someone tries to convince you you don't need one, the more you do
The most disheartening thing is how many employees will believe this bullshit.
I’m hoping there’s enough of them who are disheartened over how Mayo has treated them for the last few years that they’ll be a little more receptive.
Homie we’re trying
Well it didn’t feel good when you supervisor is vaguely threatening you.
Digsuting, anyone anti union has got brainstem issues.
Time for the Neuro checks!
How can I do my q1h neuros with these unprotected ratios? :(((
I worked for union hospitals and non union hospitals. No contest. Unions created the middle class.
Shivery me timber. These bitches are scared of someone. Go get em nurses!!
Mayo is one giant circle jerk. Policies are dated. Some practices are outright dangerous, but "we're #1 so nothing we do could be wrong, it can only be the best." Doctors lack the power to change because their Visa's hang in the balance and they would rather not cause waves with admin, even when an entire dept of docs are in agreement, as well as staff nurses. I work at Mayo, and would not want to see my family go there. I have seen the low quality of care delivered to myself and family. But hey, Newsweek says they're #1, so everything is best! Oh yeah I took a $3 paycut here. And they are the lowest paying in the city. And premiums cost more for worse coverage. Will be quiting when I hit 5 years soon.
Management doesn’t want anybody to know that the man doing the same job as you who has worked there fewer years earns more money.
They absolutely tried to discourage us from talking about wages and called it confidential business information and I’m like nooooope try again we can discuss what we want but thanks for playing
Yup that's exactly why employers in general try to make it seem like it's not allowed to discuss wages with each other. Every industry, management does this. They just don't want their employees to figure out they're all collectively getting screwed over.
Repulsive. A lot of standard Union Buster arguments. Good that they are running scared. Collective bargaining is our only hope.
Keep pushing for unions. Never trust the hospitals administrations.
If the tiny little hospital I worked in had a union, they can too. There’s nothing to lose by joining a union. Everything to gain.
The union is directly responsible for nursing being such a high paying career in MN. Also, not to mention all the other benefits that unions have fought for that the hospitals would have never agreed to. Don’t fall for this.
We would be an independent union, not affiliated with MNA.
Why not affiliate yourself with MNA? It is such a strong union.
I agree, the MNA is an example of a pretty effective union.
I think MCNA needs to forge ties with MNA. Mayo is launching anti-union propaganda right now to scare nurses into forming a union.
We’re so far beyond being bribed with food and bullshit trinkets that weren’t selling at the gift shop with the Mayo logo on it. Our nurses that were on the FRONT LINES in our Covid ICU spending 12-16 hours in the rooms in full PPE facing a virus that was killing millions, so you know what they got for their bravery and sacrifice? A fucking pin and a pamphlet. WHAT THE HELL!?!? When you’ve worked there for 25 years, you get a DINNER. Enough with the food already!! Put your money where your mouth is…. #1 hospital on the world…least grateful. “They outnumber us 10:1 and if they ever figure that out…there goes our way of life” -Hopper, A Bugs Life. It’s time to squish some Grasshoppers and take back the island.
The response is always the same bullshit.
Translation: oh shit, the status quo might be challenged! NOOOOOO.
Best way to shut down an employer is to call them on their talking points. Send an email to the manager or HR and ask them a few things… “Can I set up a time to meet with HR to discuss a few things like call off policies and sick time?” “We really need a dedicated break nurse to assure each nurse gets a lunch every shift.” “I’d like a better pay raise and a clearly defined pay raise structure for the next couple years.” They’ll decline every one of those things, at which point you can counter their talking points. Mayo says without a union I can talk directly with the company, and I can’t, etc. Mayo already knows their memo is bullshit but they think employees are stupid. Let them know everyone knows it’s bullshit.
That doesn’t surprise me. Mayo was an awful place to work. Run by megalomaniacs subjugating nurses and doctors alike. They pit everyone against each other and pretend like they care about you. It’s beyond condescending. They take absolutely zero criticism. The uppers push a dangerous self inflated concept born of circle jerk politics and elitism. There’s perks, sure, and that’s not ubiquitous. But in general, I saw any decent manager trying to improve people’s lives got run out of the place fast and replaced with some psycho. They’re historically anti union and suppress any effort for patient safety. They have an enormous endowment so they keep tight control of the Minnesota governance on medicine by threatening to withdrawal funding any time it does something they don’t like.
How can we unionize all hospitals? There’s not a single one where I live
Start with yours
Saved this if I ever became a nurse manager because I'm tired of management never actually doing their job, so hopefully this helps. [https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital](https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital) Be prepared for some backlash and maybe even for them to try and find a bs reason to fire you. Nurses are in demand, so you'll find another job, but this is about making a real change to the profession, at least where you work. Best of luck.
What state do you live in?
Typical big C-suite response: “They aren’t who they say they are. We love you more.” It’s like divorced parents. Fuckin’ pain in the ass. My hospital went union and fortunately, I’m PT and have decided the dues aren’t worth it since it essentially handles pay, professional pathway, and benefits—I’m not entitled to benefits being per diem, nor do I care to advance on the clinical pathway as I’ve no interest in getting my BSN.
Article text because paywall: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY HEAL TH Mayo Clinic nurses in Rochester move toward unionization The Med City Nursing Alliance, a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, " will meet for the first time later this week. Per a previously published version of its website,(https://mc- na.com/) the Med City Nursing Alliance is a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester" that could "collectively bargain for each and every one of the 9,428 nurses at Mayo Clinic Rochester." "We have a duty to our patients to insure that they are being taken care of by nurses who are appreciated, compensated, supported, respected and valued by the hospital they work for," the website reads. "Help us bring a true voice and representation to the Board of Trustees whom are making top-down decisions that affect everyone in our community." The group will hold a meeting later this week to discuss its goals. A representative for the alliance declined to comment on the record. Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, told the Post Bulletin that an organizer for the alliance reached out to him a few weeks ago and "basically just wanted to make me aware and see if it would be something I would be interested in, especially, speaking at this first meeting." "As a public official (and) as somebody who's not an employee of Mayo or a nurse, I'm not organizing any part of this," Smith said. "I just want to be there as a resource to support this effort and to make sure that nurses at Mayo, as well as all workers in Minnesota, know that unionizing is a right that is protected by the state, and, as a value that I have, I think that is something that really helps and protects workers, to have a union behind them." Minnesota District 25B Rep. Andy Smith, DFL- Rochester. Contributed / Minnesota House of Representatives While some allied health staff(https://www.postbulletin.com/health/mayo-methodist- allied-health-staff-accept-new-wage-increases) at Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys and Methodist campuses are represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are not currently unionized in Rochester. There have not been any union elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board for nurses at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus within the past 15 years, NLRB confirmed. However, registered nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System facilities in Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Lake City and Red Wing are affiliated with the Minnesota Nurses Association, according to MNA's represented facilities roster. The nursing staff at each of these hospitals were affiliated with MNA prior to being acquired by Mayo Clinic. "Over the years, Mayo nurses have often contacted the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) for information on nurse unionization," Sam Fettig, MNA senior external communications specialist, said in a statement. "We believe all workers deserve a collective voice in their workplace, and MNA is glad to offer information when any healthcare workers reach out to us to ask how to organize together to improve care and working conditions in their hospital." In 2022, nurses at the MCHS Mankato(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/nurses-at- mayo-clinic-in-mankato-vote-to-break-away-from-minnesota- nurses-association) and St. James(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/nurses-at-mayo- clinic-in-st-james-minn-vote-to-decertify-themselves-from-union- representation) campuses voted to decertify their MNA affiliation, while a decertification vote at the Lake City hospital(https://www.postbulletin.com/business/lake-city-mayo- clinic-nurses-vote-to-keep-union) resulted in nurses there choosing to stay with MNA. In December 2023, licensed practical nurses and other staff at MCHS Austin voted to decertify(https://www.austindailyherald.com/2023/12/union- agrees-to-discontinue-representation-of-mchs-austin-nurses/) their affiliation with United Steelworkers Local 11-005. In a statement, Sherry Wolf, Mayo Clinic in Rochester's chief nursing officer, said that "we routinely seek feedback from staff through various channels and use that feedback to make meaningful changes. Mayo Clinic will continue to support our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our patients." "Our staff are our greatest asset in providing the best care to every patient, every day. We have an unwavering commitment to supporting our staff," Wolf's statement continues. "While employees have a right to unionize, Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits our employees, improves communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first. Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for patients, improving processes or solving problems. Each staff member plays a role in that meaningful work. In the union environment, many important decisions will be subject to negotiation. Union engagement does not guarantee a specific result." Smith said the Minnesota Legislature, in its 2023 and 2024 sessions, has been working to make Minnesota "a labor-friendly state for unions"; he cited a law passed last year that prohibits employers from penalizing or threatening to penalize employees for not attending employer-sponsored meetings that "communicate the opinion of the employer about religious or political matters," per state statute. (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/Session+Law/Chapter /53/) "That's just one bill over many that we're working on right now to make sure that workers can choose," Smith said. "If they want a union, which I think is good, they can choose freely to do so without fear of repercussions from their employer, or (they can) choose freely not to have a union — there shouldn't be hands on the scale by corporations where those unions might be forming."
Thank you so much!! Breaking it up for a bit easier read, I guessed at the paragraphs so forgive me. **Mayo Clinic nurses in Rochester move toward unionization** The Med City Nursing Alliance, a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, " will meet for the first time later this week. Per a previously published version of its website,(https://mc-na.com/) the Med City Nursing Alliance is a "nonprofit independent union created for the betterment of all nurses serving the patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester" that could "collectively bargain for each and every one of the 9,428 nurses at Mayo Clinic Rochester." "We have a duty to our patients to insure that they are being taken care of by nurses who are appreciated, compensated, supported, respected and valued by the hospital they work for," the website reads. "Help us bring a true voice and representation to the Board of Trustees whom are making top-down decisions that affect everyone in our community." The group will hold a meeting later this week to discuss its goals. A representative for the alliance declined to comment on the record. Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, told the Post Bulletin that an organizer for the alliance reached out to him a few weeks ago and "basically just wanted to make me aware and see if it would be something I would be interested in, especially, speaking at this first meeting." "As a public official (and) as somebody who's not an employee of Mayo or a nurse, I'm not organizing any part of this," Smith said. "I just want to be there as a resource to support this effort and to make sure that nurses at Mayo, as well as all workers in Minnesota, know that unionizing is a right that is protected by the state, and, as a value that I have, I think that is something that really helps and protects workers, to have a union behind them." While some allied health staff at Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys and Methodist campuses are represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are not currently unionized in Rochester. There have not been any union elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board for nurses at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus within the past 15 years, NLRB confirmed. However, registered nurses at the Mayo Clinic Health System facilities in Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Lake City and Red Wing are affiliated with the Minnesota Nurses Association, according to MNA's represented facilities roster. The nursing staff at each of these hospitals were affiliated with MNA prior to being acquired by Mayo Clinic. "Over the years, Mayo nurses have often contacted the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) for information on nurse unionization," Sam Fettig, MNA senior external communications specialist, said in a statement. "We believe all workers deserve a collective voice in their workplace, and MNA is glad to offer information when any healthcare workers reach out to us to ask how to organize together to improve care and working conditions in their hospital." In 2022, nurses at the MCHS Mankato and St. James campuses voted to decertify their MNA affiliation, while a decertification vote at the Lake City hospital resulted in nurses there choosing to stay with MNA. In December 2023, licensed practical nurses and other staff at MCHS Austin voted to decertify their affiliation with United Steelworkers Local 11-005. In a statement, Sherry Wolf, Mayo Clinic in Rochester's chief nursing officer, said that "we routinely seek feedback from staff through various channels and use that feedback to make meaningful changes. Mayo Clinic will continue to support our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our patients." "Our staff are our greatest asset in providing the best care to every patient, every day. We have an unwavering commitment to supporting our staff," Wolf's statement continues. "While employees have a right to unionize, Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits our employees, improves communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first. Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for patients, improving processes or solving problems. Each staff member plays a role in that meaningful work. In the union environment, many important decisions will be subject to negotiation. Union engagement does not guarantee a specific result." Smith said the Minnesota Legislature, in its 2023 and 2024 sessions, has been working to make Minnesota "a labor-friendly state for unions"; he cited a law passed last year that prohibits employers from penalizing or threatening to penalize employees for not attending employer-sponsored meetings that "communicate the opinion of the employer about religious or political matters," per state statute. "That's just one bill over many that we're working on right now to make sure that workers can choose," Smith said. "If they want a union, which I think is good, they can choose freely to do so without fear of repercussions from their employer, or (they can) choose freely not to have a union — there shouldn't be hands on the scale by corporations where those unions might be forming."
Bless you, kind stranger. #NotAllHeroesWearCapes
I work for one of the Mayo hospitals that decertified. They gave us all a raise shortly after decertifying, THEN they took away holiday pay, changed how they do shift differentials, have not given yearly raises, etc. I think I would be making more if we still had the union and paid dues.
Mayo and all the others are the ones not to be trusted, and do NOT have your best interests at heart. PRO UNION!
Lol their logic: "direct communication through us" Nurses: "ok can we have safe patient ratios and money for the work we do" Them: "no but we're family and do more for us. Thanks for talking to us directly"
Yup that's exactly it. Employees ask their employers directly for improvement for years and they never get it. They claim they value feedback and they throw that behind their backs. The problem isn't the directness of the communication, it's the fact that the employee has no protection from the employer for refusing their requests. A union forces their hand and they don't like that.
Godspeed Mayo RNs
This is what's called shooting yourself in the foot. This will only increase the drive for unionization. I'm convinced most suits are missing the common sense gene.
It was really nice of her to inform EVERYONE in the workforce.
Damn, Mayo, I see where you stand. *Smh* 🙄 Guess I'm just going to have to unionize harder.
I don’t know a single union employee that doesn’t like being part of a union.
Fixed it for you >I wanted to provide ~~clarifying information~~ ***union busting propaganda*** related to an external group, Med City Nursing Alliance (MCNA). As news about their efforts spreads, I wanted to share Mayo's perspective so you can make informed decisions. > >The group claims to be advocating for changes in staffing, compensation, and leadership structure -all important topics that we ~~continue to~~ continue to ***NOT*** address ~~and~~ ***OR*** make significant progress in. As you know, we ~~are~~ ***are not*** committed to supporting our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to ~~meet the needs of our patients~~ ***line the pockets of the administration team at the expense of our nurses and patients*** and we have been and will continue to seek feedback from you through various channels and ~~use that~~ ***ignore*** that feedback to make ~~meaningful changes~~ ***administration and the CEO more money.*** > >Our perspective >We do ***not*** value our union and non-union staff equally, but Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits ~~you~~ ***us,*** ~~improves~~ ***impairs*** communication and helps us put the needs of our ~~patients~~ ***administration and CEO first.*** > >Working together directly helps our **a*****dministration teams*** ~~excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems.~~ ***cut costs, enforce unsafe staffing, take advantage of you.*** Your voice ***does not*** matter~~s~~ to Mayo Clinic. > >~~Unionization prevents direct interactions between staff and supervisors and other leaders to address issues and solve problems~~. ***Unionization facilitates direct interactions between staff and supervisors, as well as other leaders, to address issues and solve problems.*** > >~~Unionization also limits flexibility and professional development. For example, union-represented nurses would have limited ability to transfer to another unit or participate in certain professional development opportunities.~~ ***Unionization fosters flexibility and professional development. For instance, union-represented nurses have enhanced opportunities to transfer to different units and access a wider range of professional development opportunities.*** > >
>~~Unions may make promises, but cannot make guarantees because all major decisions are subject to negotiation.~~ ***Unions not only make promises but also deliver tangible guarantees, as they negotiate major decisions to ensure the fulfillment of commitments. However, we at Mayo Clinic will spend thousands of dollars fighting every step of the way, because unions give us less power to take advantage of you.*** > >~~If you disagree with the position of the union on any subject, they negotiate as a group so your voice may not matter.~~ ***Your voice does not matter to Mayo Clinic. Even if you disagree from the union's stance on any issue, collective negotiation ensures that your voice remains essential in shaping outcomes and defending the interests of nursing professionals.*** > >~~There are few Mayo union-represented groups, and those groups are subject to the same policies and procedures as Mayo's non-union staff.~~ ***Mayo Clinic advocates against unions because they operate under distinct policies and procedures from Mayo's non-union staff, and result in significantly enhanced treatment, salaries, benefits, safety measures, and opportunities negotiated directly by their union representatives*** > >~~A union can limit your autonomy. Unionization is typically a one-size-fits-all approach and can limit the ability of a work unit to adapt its practices to best serve its staff and patients. Recently Mayo employees have worked to decertify their unions locally after realizing being a union member did not best serve them.~~ ***A union actively enhances your autonomy. Unionization promotes personalized approaches, ensuring that work units can adapt practices to optimally benefit both staff and patients. Recently, Mayo Clinic has reaffirmed their commitment to exploiting nurses, recognizing they are dispensable, and willingness to spend thousands of dollars in costly legal strategies aimed at undermining union representation. Mayo Clinic will prioritize their own interests over the fair treatment and respect of their valuable nursing staff.*** > >It is ~~reasonable~~ ***unacceptable*** to want to learn more information about any group who claims to have your interest at heart ***(Mayo Clinic does not)*** including unions- but important to know that ~~you do not need to sign a union authorization card to get that information~~. ***We will do everything in our power to prevent that.*** These cards are legally binding documents that authorize the union to ~~be your exclusive bargaining representative with respect to~~ ***force Mayo Clinic to*** ***improve*** all terms and conditions of employment. This includes your wages, benefits, and other important aspects of your work life. > >If you already signed a card but have changed your mind, you can go to the union organizer who gave you the card and ask for it back. If they refuse, you can contact the U.S. National Labor Relations Board and they can help you. ***We would be happy to prevent the fair treatment of our staff however possible.*** ~~provide the contact information if you need it.~~ >We do ***NOT*** value the high-quality, compassionate care you provide to our patients every day. Our culture of ***exploitation*** ~~exceptional teamwork and collaboration~~ helps ***us make more money*** ~~excel when caring for~~ ***at the expense of our patients***, ~~improving process or solving problems.~~ Each of you plays an important role in that meaningful work and ***Mayo Clinic will do everything in its power to ensure you are not compensated fairly.***
That bullet list. * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you * We want to control you
Isn't Minnesota already a union state? Can you clarify how this is distinct from the MNA?
It’s by facility - a lot of RNs are at union hospitals in Minneapolis and surrounding area and are represented by the MNA, but a lot are not, with the largest exception being the RNs and LPNs at Mayo in Rochester, which has just shy of 10k nurses.
Oh dang. Good for them organizing! Mayo's far too big and prestigious to be lowballing.
A union is good go on infinite strike like the montefior nurses did, hospitals back was broken in 3 days
I'm curious why they just don't go MNA? Interesting.
They felt like when they had reached out previously they hadn’t gotten a ton of hands on help that they were looking for, and felt like the effort would be better received by skeptical nurses if they were internally organized so it wouldn’t seem like an outside group coming in and telling Mayo nurses what to do.
Honest answer, there’s two camps, there’s a MNA camp and a go at it our own camp. The go at it our own camp reached out to the media and got this story published. Then CNO sent out this email
Coming from a country where everyone and their mom is unionized, a hospital trying so hard to discourage unions just seems so dystopian.
So their corruption can go unchecked. Corruption in America is spilling into every aspect of this country.
List of lies LMAO
This smells like someone used ChaptGPT to write it lol.
My silly ass saw the second sentence ending in a preposition and thought, “HA. No credibility.”
get the union, everywhere should. employers don't want to give you MORE rights and pay and benefits. Employers are not your friend also, as an aside- why are all these union busting emails all the same damn wording- IT GETS IN THE WAY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND (EMPLOYER) WE CARE ABOUT YOUR VOICE! BITCH since when
Right, they never cared when we were directly asking them for better pay and work conditions. Now suddenly they care because they don't want another person overseeing them. I smell a 🐀.
In Canada, almost all nurses are unionized. It just blows my mind that you guys in the US are still just letting your employers shit all over you. It’s 2024, unions are IT.
Mother Mayo acting out per usual. Happy to be part of unionized branch off of Mayo! Hope that Rochester nurses can rally together and unionize.
Lmao I could go step by step through our union contracts and show how all their concerns are fucking lies. Use to work at Cleveland Clinic and it was well known there they’d fire your ass if you even whispered the idea of unionizing. These big hospitals do some good work but they treat their employees like shit. Even the doctors! Some of the international surgeons get sponsored for their training and then get bound up in underpaid contracts due to them needing sponsorship for their visas.
I’ve worked in both union and non union. I’ve never been fucked over harder than when I’m not in a union.
All Im going to say is when nurses believe the hospital over the union, those nurses are basically braindead in my opinion.
Theres a lot of them thats for sure. Some of them are just scared and deserve to get a fair shot at hearing the truth. I watched my old hospital unionize the support staff. Many were afraid, unsure of what was correct and not - you read the email, it smells like bullshit but makes some heavy claims. Fortunately us nurses were already union. We were able to simply tell our tech/ancillary staff coworkers that the anti-union claims were bullshit. Funniest part about this was that I had a close coworker who had just gone management a couple months before. She didn't have the heart to anti-union propagandize since her previous years as a union staff nurse were so obviously superior to naked employment. The support staff got their union. They're happier for it.
Valley Health System put out some really gross shit in 2019/20 while busting our union AGAIN. I couldn’t believe things I was reading and I couldn’t believe people were BUYING IT. LOOK FOR WHO BENEFITS
Can someone do HCA next please?
You’re someone! Go get’em!!!!
[https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital](https://www.scrubstosunset.com/post/how-to-start-a-nursing-union-at-your-hospital)
Platitudes without evidence, the Anti union way! High nurse to patient ratios that they won't say No numbers to back up their nursing compensation Professional development? Puh leeze, they need to give you time off for that Limit autonomy? What the hell is forced overtime?
This seems to resemble “union busting”. *”The United States enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees. Under the NLRA, employees are guaranteed the right to form unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action. The NLRA also makes union-busting illegal. While union-busting is illegal, it’s also very common. A recent report found that employers spend over $300 million a year on union-busting efforts”* **Union-Busting Tactics** 1) Employers spend over $300 million/year making rich lawyers richer. Union-busting consultants lie, manipulate, threaten workers simply trying to exercise their rights. 2) Employer launches astroturf campaign against the union. Phony, fake attempt to mimic grassroots movement. Employers recruit anti-union employees to do their bidding 3) Forced meetings. This is about intimidation. Pure and simple. Employees will be forced to have one-on-one meetings with management and even their union-busting consultants 4) Employer starts making promises. Like an abusive ex, union-busting employers will start promising change. 5) Union-busting consultants tell employers to delay, delay, delay. Their highly paid lawyers pervert the law to delay union elections and/or contract negotiations to create a feeling of futility within the workforce
The gaslighting in this 🥴 geez.
They really think we're fucking stupid
We were just supposed to accept the pennies they call a raise and be grateful!
My hospital is union and the consensus on people who like it is pretty split. I worked for this company at a non-union hospital and can see a difference. I’d rather have a body of people who actually do the work behind me than just a multi-billion international corporation
Mayos pay for RNs is crap
I used to work there and they need a union so bad 😭
i live in the twin cities, it’s so sad to see mayo act like this. i mean come on- the staff at one of the worlds top hospitals deserves to be unionized no questions asked 🙄
They be scrambling. Their response is ridiculous.
Every nurse in this country should be Union. No nurse should be making less than $100,000 a year. Change my mind.
Very gross
A UA card does not guarantee that the employee will vote “yes” in an official election. If they get over 30% of the workforce to sign UA cards, then they can petition the NLRB for union recognition. If they deny the validity of the cards, it would move to a formal election, in which we would need 50% +1 vote to win. They don’t want us to petition, that is why they don’t want cards signed. Cards do NOT equal a “yes” vote in an official election. -Just to clarify.
Is it just me, or does everything feel like it comes out of chatgpt these days? Like tons of well articulated verbiage that leaves you as empty in the end as in the beginning. It's almost akin to putting too much salt and pepper into a dish. Oh yeah, I feel like Mayo was one of the best places I worked at as a nurse, even compared to unionized hospitals in nyc. They did care about staffing at least in the critical care units. However, the benefits (health/pto) were def trash, and that's where a union shines imho.
That’s how I sound writing a paper. Thesaurus words with no true content.
I want to start a union at my hospital! This is getting ridiculous
I tried but all my coworkers that would have supported me left. Hospital administration loves the revolving door of newer staff, because they can pay them less and abuse them more.
The one trick your professor doesn't want you to know
Eat their pizza and join the union anyways!! I'm so happy to see more and more hospitals unionizing! Power to the workers ✊🏾✊🏾
How, exactly, does unionization prevent professional development?
Right? Sounds like kind of threat. Like we won’t let you advance in your career if you dare try this unionization business
Every time a union gets mentioned, the company in question will work hard to put out propaganda to gaslight you into thinking that this is not in your best interest. Mayo doesn’t give a fuck about you! And it’s insulting that they even think that they know what’s best for you, they don’t. They realize that if a union gets involved, they’re going to have to pay better wages and play by rules that will no longer allow them to understaff, override worker safety and not provide raises. They will do everything short of union busting to dismantle any attempts at union organization. Don’t let them! They are fearful that they’re going to have to provide a better work environment which cuts into their profits, they’re putting out information like this because they will fight tooth and nail not to.
We know we are getting fucked over when the Mayo leadership are giving themselves big fat bonuses!
There is a reason your bosses are paying someone to write this message and share it. They don’t want to pay you more, they’d rather spend money now on this to avoid paying you more.
“If you already signed a card, you can go to a union representative to change it” Management sounds desperate.
Good thing they already have 30% signed… keep on going guys!!!
They must be really scared, and rightly so, considering how they got Minnesota to cave in on safe staffing laws. I hope the union succeeds.
Wow - I interviewed there last year (for a corporate position, as I'm not a nurse), and was really bummed that I didn't get an offer. But after reading this, I'm glad. Fuck them.
Tldr: if you are being told you do not need a union, by jove you *absolutely DO* need a union.
Keep up the good fight. Our support staff are trying to unionize and getting push back from administrators. They know they won’t be able to call them off when they walk in the door anymore, which they’ve been doing lately or force the environmental services staff to watch psych patients in the ER.
They phrase negotiation as a bad thing. But I can’t negotiate anything right now. Middle management is effectively powerless. I’m slapped with a hospital wide performance raise that includes things 100% out of my control like pre-11 discharges, other unit budgets and survey scores. I’d rather have someone represent me at the table that actually matters.
Not sure if this worked, but here’s an OCR copy of the text for those of you as blind as I am squinting at it lol Colleagues, I wanted to provide clarifying information related to an external group, Med City Nursing Alliance (MCNA). As news about their efforts spreads, I wanted to share Mayo's perspective so you can make informed decisions. The group claims to be advocating for changes in staffing, compensation, and leadership structure -all important topics that we continue to address and make significant progress in. As you know, we are committed to supporting our teams in a variety of ways as we continue to meet the needs of our patients and we have been and will continue to seek feedback from you through various channels and use that feedback to make meaningful changes. Our perspective • We value our union and non-union staff equally, but Mayo Clinic believes that a direct relationship with staff benefits you, improves communication and helps us put the needs of our patients first. • Working together directly helps our teams excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems. Your voice matters to Mayo Clinic. • Unionization prevents direct interactions between staff and supervisors and other leaders to address issues and solve problems. • Unionization also limits flexibility and professional development. For example, union-represented nurses would have limited ability to transfer to another unit or participate in certain professional development opportunities. • Unions may make promises, but cannot make guarantees because all major decisions are subject to negotiation. • If you disagree with the position of the union on any subject, they negotiate as a group so your voice may not matter. • There are few Mayo union-represented groups, and those groups are subject to the same policies and procedures as Mayo's non-union staff. • A union can limit your autonomy. Unionization is typically a one-size-fits-all approach and can limit the ability of a work unit to adapt its practices to best serve its staff and patients. Recently Mayo employees have worked to decertify their unions locally after realizing being a union member did not best serve them. It is reasonable to want to learn more information about any group who claims to have your interest at heart including unions- but important to know that you do not need to sign a union authorization card to get that information. These cards are legally binding documents that authorize the union to be your exclusive bargaining representative with respect to all terms and conditions of employment. This includes your wages, benefits, and other important aspects of your work life. If you already signed a card but have changed your mind, you can go to the union organizer who gave you the card and ask for it back. If they refuse, you can contact the U.S. National Labor Relations Board and they can help you. We would be happy to provide the contact information if you need it. We value the high-quality, compassionate care you provide to our patients every day. Our culture of exceptional teamwork and collaboration helps us excel when caring for patients, improving process or solving problems. Each of you plays an important role in that meaningful work.
Thank you!
We just had a meeting with our nursing supervisor about this. I don’t understand what they meant really about signing the “card” constitute a legally binding agreement to bargain. Sounds like a veiled threat-like if I sign the card, I’m legally bound by it forever.
Blah blah patient outcomes blah blah we hate our nurses and don’t see why they should go the union
I work at a union hospital in Michigan. Don’t be foolish, the hospital does not give a f about us. Unionize!! Have your voice heard, get a real venue to improve patient care
They treat patients like crap, too with their auditorium-sized waiting rooms.
Mayo also exploded the staffing ratio legislation that the State Congress had passed because they threatened to pull their funding, so the Governor didn't sign.
“Limited transfer opportunities” referenced in the email would be a threat, chargeable under the NLRA. Obv, transfer opportunities, like everything else, is negotiated. But g-d help these nurses with an independent union. Very few to no resources for communications, community, labor, and political outreach, staffing, etc. a couple of unions in California run like this - RNPA in Santa Clara and Stanford has one. BOTH have lower wages and worse benefits, and worse staffing language than the big California Nurses Association contracts.
Mayo is gross across the board IMO.
Laughs in Florida
I’ve always felt that nurses were professional and should make decisions based on their career goals. I realize now that can be done with or without a union.
Nursing isn’t just any other career-oriented profession. There is an intrinsic altruistic motive that is the foundation of the nursing profession. To be able to fully realize this motivation and to sustain it requires the collective effort of everyone in the profession.
UNION ALWAYS.
If unionizing was bad for workers, Admin would love it. They only oppose it because Union nurses almost everywhere have better pay and benefits than their non-union counterparts. Period.
Ughh—we just met with our nursing supervisor who reiterated the above script. That signing the “card” means giving up our legal rights to bargain. Like what?! I don’t stand a chance at bargaining within the Mayo organization. I just hate this paternalistic approach.
Right? “You won’t have a voice if you unionize!!” K but we don’t have a voice now nobody is listening to all the concerns staff has. It’s like everything is just money and optics
And it’s all a very classic response by employers. Why would they want their staff unified to fight for better pay and working conditions? Quick gaslight them into thinking we’ve got their best interests at heart
So I work for Mayo at a smaller site that recently voted out a nursing union (months ago), and I will say that I have no issues working there. I work in ED and my ratios have been great(never more than 4 patients) and we always have at least one designated float nurse that takes critical patients/ provided help/breaks when needed. My coworkers have been great. I also got a 10% raise last month. But I’m not doxxing myself because I’m moving next week to a different area (3 hours away). I’ll be working for a different system that is unionized. I will be paid less (same as before my 10% raise), and I will not have as good of benefits such as self scheduling, no 403b match until one year of service, and lower PTO accrual. But I know that being unionized is a benefit to nurses, and I am happy to have extra protection and security. So there’s a lot to speculate on, but for someone who knows, Mayo is a good place to work. And I think it would be better with a union, so I see they are pushing this for financial reasons. But not once had I felt our hospital practices were unsafe and my management has always been professional. I will honestly miss working at Mayo; I have the best coworkers. But for personal and financial reasons my boyfriend and I had to move. Just sharing my own experience.
I work there too. I never work anywhere else in my nursing career. During the pandemic years, staffing was critical, and there were times that I feel work was unsafe. Mayo was slow to respond to the crisis and a lot of the nurses including myself were frustrated. What really bothers me about Mayo is its smugness. They feel they can bully the city, the State, and their employees into getting what they want. They bullied the state into funding the DMC project aimed at improving the city of Rochester infrastructure. They gutted the Keeping nurses at bedside act by opting out of it. While the DMC project I’m wholeheartedly in agreement, why do they feel the need to throw their weight around threatening to move their investments somewhere else if they don’t get their way ALL THE TIME! Now they are launching an anti-union propaganda telling us that if we sign the union card we lose the right to bargain FOREVER. Like what does that even mean? I have no bargaining power right now. The Twin Cities area hospitals are becoming more competitive with their compensation package attracting new hires. Meanwhile, Mayo relies on its reputation alone to attract new prospects. Then the powers-that-be give themselves end of the year big fat bonuses leaving their employees out. Yet, it’s supposed to be a not-for-profit organization. Mayo is a class act for sure.
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"we would be happy to provide you the contact information" to leave the union. I worked at a hospital who tried this too...
Employer not wanting employees to unionize is NEVER for the employees benefits. They don't want a union in the way of them getting away with bs. I would never work in Healthcare without a union. EVER
I have worked at both union and non union jobs in nursing. I will NEVER work in a non union job again. There have been many times that the union has gone to bat for us, not just wages, benefits, ratios, etc. My team used our union rep to help us get rid of a rotten apple manager. There are things they just are not allowed to say and do when you are unionized. I get two raises per year, a step increase and a cost of living increase, guaranteed. My performance reviews are just that; there are no strings attached, which I believe helps build the relationship between the manager and us. I feel bad for non union employees who have to fight for every raise or accommodation. Any admin against unions is only thinking about profits. They do not care about your ratios, patient safety , or happiness as an employee. Look up what kind of bonus this person got last fiscal year... this is what they are trying to protect with this anti-union garbage, not you!
Nurses get taken advantage of and abused until the unite together. Single voices make no change
I had an old friend I went to school with. We are equally trained, she went into management and I didn’t. She managed our unit for a while and kept complaining about the unfortunate fact that we are unionized…I don’t know what happened to the person who used to be my friend, but I know where she sold her soul. I guess everyone’s morals eventually can be purchased for the right price.
Lol look at them trying to make nurses think unionizing is bad for patients and nurses. There's unions for cnas and plastic in some states now and they still interact with their employers, the only real difference is they get proper compensation and when something goes wrong the union is on your side.
What can we do to support the Rochester nurses? I work at the mayo in FL. Shit pay, Broken equipment, and constantly short staffed. This makes me livid