Dean urges Vt. nurses to organize a union

[dajabr]

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is endorsing another union drive at Vermont's largest hospital.

Licensed practical nurses at Fletcher Allen Health Care are due to vote Wednesday on whether to join the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.

Roughly 150 nurses are eligible to vote on the question, said Jeff Fowler, an organizer for the union.

Because of National Labor Relations rules, the LPNs are considered a separate bargaining unit from registered nurses, who last month approved their first union contract with Fletcher Allen, Fowler said.

More: http://www.theunionleader.com/prez_show.html?article=24900

[Warpy]

1. Oh, my!

I just decided to support Dean.

He's actually practiced as a physician, so he knows all the crap the insurance companies are pulling on sick people, and he does want that to stop. Now, he's apparently figured out that hospital administrators who always try to cut costs on the backs of nurses first really need to be countered by a strong union.

Dean is far from the perfect candidate. However, he just got my support.

[DrFunkenstein]

3. Take Your Time, No Rush

<>

St. Paul, Minn. — John Kerry first stop during his visit to Minnesota was at the Minnesota Nurses Association in St. Paul. Kerry joined union members to speak out against the Labor Department's proposed changes to rules for overtime work.

Under the new rules, managers making up to $22,000 a year would receive guaranteed overtime. But Kerry and others say the proposal would exempt salaried workers making over $65,000 a year. It would also reclassify and exempt many middle-income workers from earning overtime.

Jean Ross, a nurse at Fairview Southdale Hospital says many nurses who aren't under a collective bargaining agreement could be considered exempt under the new rules. She says that will discourage people from going into her field.

"Why would I and my collegues stay in a job setting where extra effort is now rewarded with overtime pay? Why would we stay in an environment that now has an open door to impose excessive work on existing employees? It even has the incentive to not recruit new employees," she said.

----------

St. Paul, MN - (AP) Sen. John Kerry made a swing through Minnesota Tuesday, the second day of an Internet pledge drive protesting a proposal to change overtime pay standards.

The Democratic presidential candidate said as many as 8 million workers, including nurses, firefighters and police officers, could lose the ability to collect time-and-a-half pay for time they work
beyond 40 hours a week.

His estimate echoes an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. The Labor Department puts that number at about 644,000. About 11.6 million workers received,overtime in 2000, according to the Labor Department.

The Bush administration's proposal would allow employers to deny overtime to workers classified as professional, administrative or executive and make more than $22,100 a year.

Some nurses would almost certainly be affected under the plan. Minnesota, for instance, has nearly 50,000 nurses. Officials said most make more than $22,100 and only about 17,000 are covered by
union contracts.

"These proposed regulation changes serve to undo all the good we have done to recruit new nurses, to retain veteran nurses and to endure safe patient care,'' said Jean Ross, a registered nurse and chairwoman of the Minnesota Nurses Association's commission on economic and general welfare.

The profession is already challenged by a lack of workers, she said. And nurses already are working extra hours _ expecting them to work more without overtime is "a bad formula for health care,''
she said.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Sounds good to me

I mean there's a union for everything else in this country.