California Nurses Union Jumps into Action Against Ebola, Goes on Strike

They're patient advocates like Ebola is an antibiotic

They’re patient advocates like Ebola is an antibiotic

California nurses unions, which are to affordable patient care what AIDS is to the immune system, are gearing up to deal with Ebola in the only way they know how.

By going on strike.

Some 18,000 nurses in Northern California are planning a two-day strike starting Nov. 11, partly over equipment and training standards for the Ebola virus.

But… they’re doing it for the patients. Just like teachers’ unions go on strike for the children. And politicians steal for the people.

The union said in a Nov. 6 statement that Kaiser “continued to stonewall on dozens of proposals to improve patient care standards, as well as refusing to address the concern of Kaiser RNs about Ebola safety protocols and protective equipment, refusing to even answer questions by the RNs.”

So is this actually about patient care and Ebola?

He disputed the idea that health workers aren’t being trained to deal with Ebola.

“We are training our staff on how to use the right protective gear, to make sure they know how to use it,” Nelson said in the statement. “We have repeatedly asked union leadership to work with us on our Ebola strategy. They have refused. Instead, they continue to hold press conferences claiming hospitals are unprepared for Ebola.”

It just happens that this sudden concern for Ebola and patient care overlaps with a union contract expiring.

The union’s contract with nonprofit Kaiser expired in August and was extended until October, he said.

So this is really about leverage in contract negotiations while using Ebola to scare people.

Another little reminder that teachers’ unions and nurses’ unions are run by unalloyed sociopaths who will literally do and say anything for more seniority protection and quadruple paid overtime.

These people don’t care about patients or children. They exploit them and abuse them to make education and hospitals even worse while lining their own pockets.

What has National Nurses United, one of the more aggressive nurses’ unions been doing? It backed a ban on fracking, fought to allow schools to bill children for “services” provided to them by school RNs (Cha-Ching), fought to prevent community colleges from teaching nursing or to allow athletic trainers to work with patients. Because they just care so much.

The path to fixing education lies through ending the teachers’ unions. The path to fixing health care lies through ending nurses’ unions.

  • truthmatters

    They have a right to give a darn about their safety .The evidence is
    clear our Gov does not care .the choice people need to make today ..Seem you hate unions is your real problem .As if companies are so pure and never abuse people for profit . Get real will you .
    http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0100/0100_01.asp

  • Ted Kennedy

    Kaci Hickox is leaving Maine. My guess is that she’ll be headed to California. Kaci will fit in nicely with these nurses. Maine’s loss is California’s gain.

    • JayWye

      I suspect she’ll go back to New Jersey,that she’s most familiar with.

    • doramin

      Kaci HIckox was almost certainly shunned and run out of her small town. At least one article I’ve read made it clear that her selfish grandstanding brought considerable difficulty to her neighbors and that they were not in an indulgent mind. Don’t cry for her though, she’s still a CDC employee, a lifelong lefty activist, and was almost certainly doing this on Obama’s orders. You can bet your sweet bippy that she’ll be well looked after.

  • The Brass Cat

    So who’s caring for the patients while the nurses are all busy stomping around outside with signs? I would not want to be a patient on these two days.

    • Tim N

      They bring in strikebreakers. They usually fly them in from distant states and put them up in a hotel.

      • The Brass Cat

        Ah, that must be horribly expensive.

        • Pete

          Maybe not as expensive as caving into the nurses union.

        • Pete

          I think you could come up with fair wages the same way they determine how hard material is to teach.

          I am jot saying they don’t fail miserably at it, but there is some thing to it.

  • AbsolutelyRight

    All unions need to be broken. They are an evil socialist construct of mediocrity and selfishness that have no real competitive place in a free society.

    • objectivefactsmatter

      We definitely need to refine some of the laws regulating them. It’s like legalized racketeering at this point.

      • AbsolutelyRight

        There should be no restrictions under the law on employers hiring replacement workers if insane socialist leftists are not reasonable during “collective bargaining,” which they never are. And you are right, racketeering laws should be enforced against their thuggery and intimidation when they inevitably start up the violence when things don’t go there way.

        • Tim N

          That picture certainly looked like a violent bunch of thugs, didn’t it.

          • AbsolutelyRight

            The no-good union thugs will show up when they are “needed,”

          • Tim N

            Nonsense. The CNA is hardly the Teamsters.

          • AbsolutelyRight

            Your no-good unions are always a criminal enterprise when they get desperate enough. The CNA not excluded.

    • objectivefactsmatter

      And if the ACA was about controlling costs the first thing it would have done would have been to deal with these problems.

      • AbsolutelyRight

        It was never about cost cutting or better healthcare, it was only about Obama and “progressives” making a move towards socialized medicine, with no more thought to it than him getting “credit” and evil leftist totalitarians shoving something down American’s throats.

    • Pete

      Unions are as natural as guilds. There were no Marxists back in Medieval times.

      German warbands elected their leaders, who were temporary leaders at first. As time went on the leaders of the warbands became chiefs and were permanent. Society became stratified. Chiefs became nobles.

      People formed guilds to protect themselves from the nobility. It started well enough.

      “All wage earning artisans were excluded from membership. In Flanders and England, the “blue-nails” — those who stained their hands with their work, weavers, fullers and dyers — were refused admission to the guild unless they ceased to work at their trade and also got rid of all necessary tools.”

      p. 66 Life in Medieval Times

      • AbsolutelyRight

        You idiot, we don’t live under feudalism.

        Unions are anti-free market. Individuals freely associating to form “guilds” are fine, but the government not allowing employers to hire replacement workers at the point of a gun, is not a honoring a guild, it’s racketeering.

        • Pete

          I did not say that we live under feudalism.

          What I said was:

          Guilds were to the Medieval world what Unions are to the Modern world.

          I am not the 1st to make that observation or argument. Analogies breakdown when you take them too far, but I don’t think I have taken this analogy too far.

          When I said guilds and unions are natural, I am saying they came about for good reasons. I stand by that statement.

          What I did not say was that guilds or unions stay good. In fact I am arguing the opposite. I am arguing that like guilds (e.g. the wool or weavers guild), which went bad, unions have gone bad.

          It is a bit abstract to liken guilds and unions as similar social structure. They are not quite equal, but they are sufficiently similar IMO. Therefore you may be able to draw conclusion or inference about unions by studying the history of guilds.

          Do you care to reply?

          - Oh & I am not taking any umbrage.
          - It would be counterproductive & stupid for me to do so.
          - I just want to win against the Left. They have bad ideals and worse execution.

          • AbsolutelyRight

            I appreciate and accept the clarification.

            But what I am saying is that skilled citizens banding together voluntarily to form a guild is consistent with free markets, but having the government forcing employers/businesses to exclusively negotiate with them under the threat of being jailed or forced out of business is a totalitarian marxist concept that makes Unions closer to a criminal enterprise like the Mafia than a guild.

          • Pete

            Yes

  • donqpublic

    Why stop with nurse’s unions? You do realize that progressive professional state licensing of doctors, lawyers, medical schools, etc, and the AMA and ABA have functioned as the union equivalent of supply and demand management by those self regulating professions? I noticed when the AMA and the hospitals were granted a captive market through the individual mandate along with government coverage for economic inefficiencies (losses) to the insurance corporations those “unions” of professionals got on board the Obamacare train to the future.

  • Pete

    Typically nursing is a 4 year degree. They cannot attend a 15 minute demonstration, watch a video or a professional online article on how to put a suit on?

    Are they going to need a 4 hour demonstration on proper hand washing too?

    • Django

      Actually, you can become an LPN with one year of schooling and an RN with an associates degree.

      A nurses aide course is like 8 weeks.

      Lower end of the gene pool….

      • Tim N

        A certified nursing program is 3 years. Then there’s a license test for the actual RN. The program may be an AA program, the difference is generally in the amount of theory.

        • Pete

          Thanks I should have looked it up. I know there are graduations in the profession of nursing.

          My point is that many nurses have more than a nominal college education of a few courses. Someone who had a 4 year degree or a 2 year degree, should in significant measure an autodidact. This would not be true for many or most people in harder areas of theory, but we are talking about putting on a suit.

          A college educated nurses should IMO be able to educate themselves with a online video with a 15 hands on demonstration. See one do one.

          It should not reach the level of contract negotiation. If it does it is a failure of the nurses or the management or both.

          • Tim N

            Thanks-
            the problem as I see it is that it’s more than just some “training”. The training won’t do any good unless the rest is in place.
            Most “isolation rooms” are just a regular room that has a sign on the door and gowns and gloves available. You gown, glove, and hand wash in and out. A real isolation room has an anteroom where you make the changeover and do all that. Without the anteroom you’re either in the room or you’re in the hall so you wind up removing the gown and hand washing while still inside the room. Not all hospitals have negative pressure rooms and the ones that do have a limited supply. The isolation protocols in place are barely good enough to handle MRSA and CDIF.
            If the bunny suits are available I haven’t seen them. And getting in and out safely is more complicated than it looks. To do it right and not spread bugs all over takes a few practice runs.
            Still, ebola is probably manageable- if it’s contained. It’s not terribly contagious, but it is contagious. It is dangerous and highly lethal but It’s treatable. With a lot of intensive care, baseline good health and a little luck you can recover.
            If it turns into a real epidemic the health care system will be overwhelmed. All the big talk from the corporate bigshots, political pundits, or anyone else won’t mean a damn thing. It will come down to those same nurses you see in the picture, the doctors, the aides, the paramedics who will be on the front lines and putting their own lives at risk to try and save you and your loved ones.

          • Pete

            I have a cousin, who is a nurse. I have not talked to him about ebola yet.

            I agree with you that we need more negative pressure rooms and such. That is definitely not something that nurse can do. That is management. Still for as many ebola cases as we have had and will get in the near term, every hospital in California or the U.S. cannot be outfitted with these wards. Nor are these nurses at risk form ebola.

            What we need is a regional center, get that done and then spread out. That will take years, but we need to get started.

            I agree with Mr Greenfield int at this is more about contract talks than ebola. What nurses really need to get vocal & uptight about is TB. We need negative pressure room with the air filtered past UV light and the whole bit. As long as the border is porous, as long as we have commercial and private travel to Lat in America (where TB is a problem) and as long as we have air travel we need more & better TB rooms. There is some overlap there with ebola.

            Had to look CDIF (C. difficile infection). It looks pretty worrisome too. I think we need to continue immigration until we get as many people as China, India or Indonesia. That will make rubbing elbows easier and ease the transmission of our respective biomes. Just a rant. I love our immigration policies where there are no standards.

            You can probably tell me than the other way around, but we have had an uptick in TB cases and more worrisome in multiple drug resistant TB

          • Tim N

            Pete- thanks for your reply.
            Negative pressure rooms are a major retrofit. That won’t happen in a hurry. Yeah TB- especially some of the antibiotic resistant strains- is also a major threat.

  • Django

    Sounds like a bunch of Union slobs looking for a paid vacation. Ain’t no Ebola cases in Ca.

    • Tim N

      They don’t get paid while they’re on strike.

  • Guy Nohrenberg

    You Forget about
    Creeping Sharia, or Muslim Extremists terrorizing our nation. America’s greatest threat is
    already within our borders. While you go about your day working hard, being
    stuck in traffic and trying to pay your bills, they are already impacting your
    life, taking advantage of you being distracted by everything else.

    You’re
    told to be happy that gas prices are going down, to nearly $3.50 a Gallon. You
    read that your local market has a real “deal” for you on meats, at only $7.00 a
    pound. You’re convinced you should be grateful that your utility bills are only
    going up a little, every month. There’s Terrorism, Politics, and Ebola to be
    distracted by.

    I
    was 15 minutes late for an appointment at Kaiser in Woodland Hills. Yes. It was
    my fault. I was 15 entire minutes late. So, I was turned away. They couldn’t
    fit me in for many hours if at all.

    The
    soonest this diagnostic for a traumatic injury could be scheduled was two weeks
    after the injury. I should feel lucky that this diagnostic could be scheduled
    at all. After all, I’m stuck with Kaiser. I should feel blessed. So, I took the
    day off work, and was 15 minutes late, losing an entire days pay and a quarter
    tank of gas. But the fault is mine.

    The
    fault is mine for choosing Kaiser.

    That
    afternoon, I wrote about it on the Internet on a couple comment lines for news
    releases about Kaiser.

    THE
    VERY NEXT DAY a Kaiser Executive calls me on my cell phone. I can’t call and
    talk to a Kaiser Executive with a Writ from POTUS! The exec says he’s really
    sorry for them turning me away. He says he’s willing to make amends and let me
    get to Oxnard to
    get the Diagnostic. Then he says, “Oh, and I read your blog.” and hung up.

    What
    motivates Kaiser? The Arbitration Process or Press?

    The
    very next day another Kaiser Executive calls me. Apologies, Empathy, and
    rescheduling because of my frustration with Woodland Hills Kaiser were the
    points of his call.

    Two
    weeks later, a “Department Supervisor” from Woodland Hills Kaiser calls me and
    says, “Mr. Nohrenberg. I don’t know what you’ve been told, but we cannot send
    you to Oxnard for
    [Diagnostic]. You have to come back here. That’s our policy. That’s just how it
    is. I’m ready to schedule you an appointment.”

    Wow.
    I was just starting to think Kaiser wasn’t that bureaucratic and out-of-touch.
    I told her that I’d just wait until Health Benefits Open Season and find other
    insurance.

    How
    did she respond? “Sir. If there’s an Emergency, you’ll have to come to Woodland
    Hills Kaiser anyway. Have a nice day.” And hung up.

    Oh
    My God. Was that a threat? She sounded like an angry teenage girl in a shopping
    mall who found a position of power.

    TWO
    HOURS AFTER THAT… Another call from Kaiser. A woman said that her supervisor
    just called me and was incorrect in what she had said. This woman was extremely
    apologetic. She said I can schedule the Diagnostic and any further treatment in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard as I wish. Something tells me her
    supervisor didn’t get the memo.

    True
    story.

    So,
    now what do I do? After all the Kaiser Executives and Doctors have fumbled the ball in their quest for
    glory and know it. After they realized I do write and often. After a threat
    from Kaiser from a huffy power-mad supervisor… What do I do? How can anyone
    expect me to go back to them and sit on a table while they hold a knife, a
    needle, and an attitude for revenge?

    Do
    I blindly walk into Kaiser and some “accident” happens to me that kills me or
    cripples me for life? It has happened before: right there at Kaiser.

    I
    have lost my Trust for Kaiser.

    I’m
    stuck with them for two more months and my injury is not only not healing, but
    worsening. Then, today, I read about how the Kaiser Nurses have to go to the
    extreme of going on strike to get Kaiser to have Ebola Protections and
    Procedures in Place.

    Why
    doesn’t Kaiser listen to customers and employees before things get out of hand?

    I’ve
    been with Kaiser for over 15 years. I loved Kaiser. Good treatment, little to
    no lines. Good Doctors and fine staff. I could call my doctor directly. In the
    past 5 years, things have quietly changed. Slowly and surely, service cuts have
    slithered into place.

    Let’s
    look at the examples of Kaiser’s History and the truth:

    · You can no longer talk to your doctor on the
    phone. The Customer Services Center gets
    all direct calls rerouted to them and they become uneducated
    non-medical-personnel intermediaries for any phone conversations.

    · You cannot manage or view any of your own
    child’s medical records online.

    · We used to have Kaiser services here in Simi
    Valley where
    I live. First, the Urgent Care Services hours were reduced, then a year later,
    they were eliminated all together. Now, those of us in Simi must drive over 20
    miles to get services at heinously overcrowded centers in Woodland Hills or Thousand
    Oaks. You know, where traffic is at a standstill.
    Parking? Park on the street and walk a block or loop your way to the roof.

    · Kaiser has been convicted criminally of Patient Dumping.

    · Kaiser has been convicted criminally of delaying their
    arbitration system until the patients have died.

    · Preferential treatment for Kidney
    Transplants that allowed patients to die.

    · Kaiser has stalled union contract agreements
    where the Nurses and other workers simply wanted efficient staffing, quicker
    care for patients, while they themselves sacrificed their own medical benefits
    and pensions.

    · The CEO of Kaiser Permanente makes over 10
    million dollars a year before bonuses in this “Non-Profit Healthcare
    Organization”.

    · Kaiser appointment scheduling is packed. Due
    to their internal staff cutbacks you could bleed out for an Emergency Visit before
    getting medical help. You would be lucky to get seen by your own Kaiser
    physician on appointment before the ailment you suffer from has either taken
    you, or passed.

    Kaiser
    Permanente is a “Non-Profit” that makes a profit of BILLIONS. How is this? The profit
    is split between the physicians themselves and the executives. When considering
    the tax exempt status of Kaiser Permanente, one can realize the Billions that
    are being made by these two parties.

    So,
    if you can find a way to leave Kaiser, do so, in all haste, as there are
    further plans for more Creeping Service Cuts which will leave you dying in the
    streets. I’m leaving. Our open season is this month. I want a doctor within a
    quarter tank of gas from my home. One that will answer the phone. One that will
    actually care about the health of my children and myself.

  • hrwolfe

    I always thought it wayyyy out of line when the Nurses Union marched on candidate Meg Whitman’s personal residence. I do not recall that happening before here in California.

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