Friday, July 16, 2010

Union slams SAHO

Union slams SAHO

Funny how things work out.

It's almost like the union doesn't WANT to reject the offer just yet.

Meanwhile, back in the hospitals, more fun from the rank and file members.

Now, I don't know for sure why the unions are specifically waiting to hold a vote on the contract offer that SAHO presented in January. What I DO know is that many of the unions during negotiations tend to take the position that it's not about the money, it's about management not listening to their concerns.

The problem is that those concerns don't seem to be communicated effectively, especially when stuff like this happens:

Mary-Frances Eley, who gave birth to twins one month ago at RUH, said she was encouraged by nurses to complain about the situation.

"The nurse actually told us that we should write to the board to get more resources for new parents so there would be staff there to take care of babies. She really encouraged us. She said, 'I think there should be something like that there, but there's not.' "


Now, I don't know what that looks like to you, but it REALLY looks like a nurse in this situation was attempting to use a patient who did not have all the necessary information as a mouthpiece to get something that the nurses would appear to want - more positions and more people hired.

Now, with all due respect to many good people out there, employees usually fixate on the trees to the exclusion of the forest. Groups of similarly minded people end up being unions who gather more power in numbers and cause problems for proper management.

Still, the more I view both situations, and the anecdotal evidence that I see on a regular basis, the more I come to a conclusion that others including Gormley have already arrived at:

The SGEU, SEIU and CUPE aren't allowing a vote on the contract offer by SAHO for one important reason - they're afraid of what their members might do, and they are trying to hold out until next spring when they can do a general strike.

There's labour unrest coming. The problem for them is that the labour unrest may cause a backfire that will put the NDP in a tenuous position going into the next election.

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