WEBVTT - The Union Election That Could Change Everything, Part 2 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:07.920 Welcome back to it could happen here. We now continue 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.280 our conversation with the team from Shift Change Enjoy. Outside 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.040 of the obvious, the union is doing landlordism for some reason, 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.080 part which is just sort of I can't get over, like, well, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.840 what do you what do you mean her forty four 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:23.920 billion dollars? The thing you're doing is being a landlord. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.360 But yeah, I mean it seems like they're you know, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.440 like out of one side of their mouth saying this 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:30.160 is a democratic union. In their side of their mouth, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.879 they're doing political purges. They're like doing everything possible to 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.800 make sure people don't know how the democratic process works, 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.800 which I think is a pretty like basic precept of 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:46.280 democracy is that if if if it's impossible to figure 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.040 out how the system actually works, it's not it's not 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:53.320 it's not actually a democracy in any real sense. Yeah, 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:55.640 and you know, yeah, And this is the thing you're saying, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.120 is like they see they seem to be acting like bosses, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:02.400 like they're firing people. They get nervous when people start organizing, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.560 which is not a thing that you would think a 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.880 union would be ecstatic if it's like, oh hey there's 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.880 this winter's like organized themselves I don't know, it's just 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:15.800 I mean, there's a there's a there's a mentality inside 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.640 among some people and even among some of the nurses 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.280 that like, you know, when people are causing problems or 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.840 you know, it's the Yeah, it's it's a very it's 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.959 a very perplexing situation to be in, and many of 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.120 us it's taken us years to really figure it out, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.120 because you don't we all come to work right to 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.560 do our job, you know, I don't come to work 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.480 to like figure out every like little nuanced thing about 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.120 what's going on inside my union. I didn't become a 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.760 union nurse because I wanted to be like a hero 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.640 union member. I did it because it was down the 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.120 street and it was a good job, and like I 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.680 wanted to be a nurse more than anything in the world. 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.920 So you know, this is but this is what we do, 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.000 and this is why things like labor notes and learning 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.400 how your union works is really important. We've been self 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:09.960 educating ourselves. Like it's almost like you have to become 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.560 a jail house lawyer, right, yeah, Like yeah, we've been 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.320 sharing our favorite resources for like how do you learn 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.880 about how union works or what your rights are and 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.519 like we're basically taking notes for what we're going to 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.760 have to do when we if we get in power 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.800 inside the union to educate all the nurses in our union. 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.000 One of the things a little too. I mean, every 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.320 time I talk with people about this to try and 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.160 give little tips and tricks. Don't leave your staff are 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.480 a loan in a at the negotiating table. They'll tell 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.000 you everything's going great, go get go, get some dinner, 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:45.720 and you come back and you can't do regressive bargaining. 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.160 You can't unbargain like a thing when someone's been empowered 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:54.320 to decide something for you. And this is where especially 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:59.480 new new units in in countries or parts of the 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.440 country with strong union culture are finding that they'll step 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.640 away from the bargaining table and they'll come back and 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.000 all these decisions will be made that they don't have 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.120 any you can't go back on it. It's like literally 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.640 no basis in like in union negotiations. No, and so 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.400 there's no such thing as regressive bargaining. If I offer, 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.360 if I say that I want a you know, you 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.440 offer a fifty percent increase in fifty cent an hour 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:34.160 increase for floating to another union unit, I can't turn 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.960 around and you can't offer me forty five cents the 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.960 next go round. You cannot go back if you said 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.400 fifty percent, it has to be you know, more than 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.280 fifty percent on the next offer, or you just say 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.000 that's my final offer. So you know, the idea of 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:55.520 regressive bargaining is I have to tell you it's amazing, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:04:00.880 is that when we negotiate against Sutter in twenty eleven 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:06.080 through twenty thirteen, we had multiple cases of ulps filed 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:13.040 for regressive bargaining on their part. They constantly made these 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.880 mistakes which we as nurses and the labor reps caught. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.799 And now for us, it's so important that we don't 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:29.159 regressive bargain regressive bargaining on our own members here. We 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.839 need to be moving forward. We should be making quantum 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.640 leaps and bounds as nurses. Well, what we've gone through, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.479 we're supposedly the most trusted profession in the country. I 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.040 think it's for the past twenty years. The only time 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.440 we have not been the most progressive or the most 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.839 respected profession was in two thousand and one. And you 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.320 can obviously guess that it was firemen. It was firemen, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.760 But it's like twenty five years or so in a row, 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.560 we've been the most trusted profession. It's because, you know, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.360 how can you not trust somebody who's cleaning you up 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.000 when you soiled yourself in the bed, who's holding your 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:18.799 hand when you're scared. That's why we're the most trusted profession, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.479 and we should be the most respected for what we do. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.960 It's just amazing that our union can't carry us through that. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:35.000 Our union was formed in a revolution that we overthrew 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:41.720 and kicked out management nurses and formed the California Nurses Association, 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.839 the bargaining part of the organization. The association broke away 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.520 from the management part and we twirled her at all 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.280 as a wonderful example somebody who was part of that revolution. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.880 And for about twenty over twenty some years, we were 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.560 a rapidly progressive union. We didn't have all the rank 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.800 and file things that we should have had in the union, 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.800 but it was in the right direction for nurses. And 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.680 we've kind of made in the past ten years this 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:23.679 U turn and the Association, which I think is bad 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:28.320 for nurses. We need to be going forward, and we 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.520 have new nurses and new a new generation that is 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.560 joining the union and they need to be a part 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.039 of it. And they can't look at me and say 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.720 that that old fogi that's you know, been in the 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.920 union for thirty some years. You know that I'll be 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:48.920 doing the work for them. They need to be active 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.240 in that union and they need to love the idea 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.159 of solidarity, you know, out of the fires of desperation, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.800 burn hope and solidarity. It was one of the ladies said, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.479 I think sharing Borough from Australia, an Australian labor activists, 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.320 said that we need to have every union member. I 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.480 don't think every one of them has to be rabbit 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.120 about it, but they should be aware that they need 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.640 to stand tall and support each other, and not just 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.440 even they need to support the non union nurses they 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.120 need to get. We need to get more nurses unionized. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:32.360 The problem with unions is there's not enough unions out there. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.160 There's not enough people in the unions. We need to 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.280 get more nurses unionized and our union hasn't been able 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.880 to do that in quite a while. We haven't We've 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.400 been raiding a lot of other unions, but we need 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:51.360 to get out there and get people in the South unionized. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.920 We need to get other nurses and you know in 0:07:54.920 --> 0:08:00.080 the Midwest organized that aren't unionized yet, we have a 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.840 bigger vision as bedside nurses, and I think that our 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.240 our national union has I'm only as strong as the 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.960 person next to me. I need support. As John said, Yeah, 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:16.280 we're four people running for the Council of Presidents, but 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:23.960 behind us, there's there's so many nurses supporting us. Nurses 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.960 are texting me all the time, Hey, give me some pliers, 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.040 give me some buttons. I want to pass them out. 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.679 It's it's important for us. I know we're we're at 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.439 a disadvantage we don't have. You know, the people were 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:42.560 running against even though it's illegal for them to have 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:47.199 the union promote them, they're obviously going to have that 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.320 advantage like a city president, because they're going to be 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.559 in the National Nurse magazine, going around the country, you know, 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.240 doing the things they do as sitting presidents, so they're 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.880 going to get that free publicity. I wish our union 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.079 presidents went around the country because as far as I know, 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.160 they've never come here at Chicago. Yeah, I think the 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.440 only time we beg to Chicago's when we had that 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:16.439 People Power convention there and that was my first visit 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.959 back to Chicago, and I think ten years was when 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.360 I went there. And it's amazing. Is it should be 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:30.640 our union should rotate, rotate where they have their their 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.920 their conventions. They should we should be all around the country. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.040 We should be going to the south and having conventions 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:42.520 so that we can attract people. Um. I think it's important. 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.600 We need to make inroads. You know, I know a 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.479 lot of it is they're going to say the pandemic, 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:56.200 and I think the pandemic did hasten this siloing, and 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.240 you know, some of it was a little understandable. But 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.640 even when it is evident that they should have come 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:07.480 out of the borough, they never did. The people have 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:12.160 been saying how tired they are from the pandemic, right, Like, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.400 I don't know how they could have been tired, but 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.560 the union could have been tired when they were just 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:22.040 having zoom calls. No, No, the nurses are saying that 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.800 they're tired. Like But here's what's interesting. This is a 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.040 thing that I'm seeing in real time as we're doing 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.920 this work, is that nurses who have been exhausted and 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.840 some of the most beat down, like like nurses who 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:41.880 are like in the worst situations here in Chicago, are tired. 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.480 But then they hear something interesting is going on with 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.920 the union that is actually something that they have a 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.839 say in, which is very unusual in our union, and 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.360 people get very excited. So I'm having coworkers coming up 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:00.000 to me who are the least interested in union business 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.880 until maybe it's time for a strike. And you know, 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.360 it's interesting because like when we did our strike organizing 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.760 twenty nineteen, the first strike in Chicago's of nurses in 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:17.760 like forty years in Chicago. You know, they kept it 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.000 would call these small kind of symbolic actions, and they 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.800 call them stress tests or structure tests for like, you know, 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.679 we're going to do We're going to do a press 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.480 conference and you have like, you know, a handful of 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.520 nurses come out for the press conference. He like ten 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.360 or fifteen nurses would come out and they're like, oh, 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.480 they're all wringing their hands. And then we start started 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.720 calling pickets and then we start blowing past our turnout numbers. 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.360 And then when we did our strike, they were expecting 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:50.080 eight hundred nurses with twelve fourteen hundred nurses, more nurses 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.600 than ever been in anyone place in our hospital like 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.040 it was like a giant party. So it's kind of 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.040 like when people have know that there's something that really 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.960 has like they has a stake in, right, there's an 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:07.480 infinite amount of energy almost and this election is really 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.880 kind of like we can't make the buttons fast enough 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.920 to give away, like they keep people keep coming up 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:16.800 and they're like, here, give me a handful. I've got 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.880 coworkers and we're doing there's you know, let's get the 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.280 pictures of everyone with their nurse with their with their 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:27.640 shift change buttons vote shift change, and you know, we're 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.040 turning that stuff into we're getting ramped up and prepared 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.280 for like our social media like outreach, and this is 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.440 part of it, is like getting people to see like, hey, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.640 there are people out there who want to do something 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.480 different and that put you, like as a as a 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.400 bedside nurse, this is our opportunity to get you into 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.920 the driver's seat of how your union is run, how 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.120 strikes are called, how we negotiate, Like we want to 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.480 have a council of hospitals in contract campaigns, it's just 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.360 nurses from negotiating teams so that they can all so 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.440 we can coordinate and decide when we want to go 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.719 on strike, and it's not someone who's never been a 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:21.719 nurse making that call for us, Yeah, which seems just 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.840 baffling that you'd have some random person who hasn't been 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.360 a nurse making strike decisions to that, I mean, the 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.880 fact that it's not also just there seems like there's 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.959 such an enormous gap between the things you would just 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.560 basically fundamentally expect a union to be doing and what's 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.240 actually happening, which has nothing to do with that, And 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:40.800 it's just the sort of I mean it almost it 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.880 seems like like intentional dubobilization. Well, they want to treat 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.920 us like a spigot, like like you can turn us 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.679 on and turn us off. You know. The problem is 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.880 is that people don't respond to that well, and you 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.360 kind of constantly have to be honing your practice through 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.920 defending the contract, which is a big thing that like 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.440 a lot of my coworkers are just constantly annoyed at 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.920 that the contract we're not defending. Our chief nurse rep 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.599 is always annoyed that she can only scrape together you know, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.040 four or five people, and you know I do it 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.040 and I'm not like I'm really good when I'm in 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.520 the room with You know, I my coworkers think that 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.160 I do a good job, but you know, when it 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.080 comes time to like doing all of the reading and 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.160 everything to make sure it's done, I need. You know, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.200 It's the thing that I'm always working on and trying 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.280 to get better at. But you know, the that is 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.720 kind of the lifeblood of trade unionism is like, if 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.720 you're going to have a contract, you need to in 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.320 between contract barting campaigns where you can go on strike, 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.000 you need to be constantly probing and pushing and finding 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:46.960 where the weak spots are and keeping people in the 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.960 practice of like fighting. And if you do that and 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.680 you're really effective at it, you can affect some pretty 0:14:53.920 --> 0:15:02.600 impressive changes in between contracts. When our friends was was 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.880 the labor rep at Cooke County, they went from having 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.720 maybe like ten people doing like the rep work to 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.640 over sixty people doing the rep work. She partnered with 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.840 a really phenomenal chief nurse Rep who had a family 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:24.520 Her dad had been president of a SEIU local, and 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.720 they were they had pushed so hard that they were 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:36.520 able to to open negotiations for attention bonuses, which after 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.600 you've settled a contract is like to open something on economics, 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.720 like on the order of fifteen, fifteen or ten thousand 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:49.280 dollars retention bonuses is a huge deal. Yea. The problem 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.440 was is that that then they fired her when she 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.960 connected us at Cooke County or the nurses at Cook 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:59.320 County with nurses at University of Chicago and we started 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.960 comparing no with what our staff were like, and their 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:07.200 chief nurse reps started asking the director of bargaining, who's 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.880 not a nurse and has never been a nurse, to say, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.480 why is it that we are bringing in Why is 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.440 my facility bringing in four million dollars worth of dues? 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.720 And we get like, you know, two hundred twenty thousand 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.800 dollars worth maybe of staff, Like what's the deal? And 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.440 why is it that we don't spend any money on 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.240 arbitration or any of the stuff. They're constantly afraid of 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:33.120 doing anything. And that's when they fired Natalie and then 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.400 and now they're down to they're trying to whittle those 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.600 those nurses retention bonus negotiations down to like three thousand 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.720 and four thousand bucks from like fifteen thousands. You know, 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:44.760 you bring in the right people, and all of a sudden, 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:50.640 management has to like hire in like an entire legal 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:56.000 extra legal department at coocounting Health Services. It's not it's 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.680 not that somebody is not a nurse. That doesn't matter. 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.640 That was not a nurse, yet she was an outstanding 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.359 example what a labor rep should be. An organizer. Yeah, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:13.879 I mean she you stand with the workers. I just 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:19.359 I do believe that we need more nurses involved in 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:23.040 in organizing and inside the union. But I have no 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.720 issues with you know, when you have labor reps like Natalie, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:31.879 that's that's what you need to keep the union thriving. 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.280 And unfortunately, to cut her down when she was making 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:42.520 inroads to really empower nurses and the union was it's 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.919 just beyond the pale to make that decision. Why they 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.320 made that decision is something that I think if we 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.439 won the presidency, we'd want to find out why was 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.959 that decision made because a big part of this is 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.919 holding the staff accountable is our big thing. Like we 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.920 just need to know at right now there's no accountability 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.600 to so imagine having a job where like if you 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.639 are a nurse, Like if we're speaking to our coworkers 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.400 right now, imagine being a nurse and no one ever 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.359 checking your charting. No one ever checking what a patient 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.479 has to say about the care they got. No one 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.320 asking a doctor like what you did during a shift right, um? 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.760 No one checking you're like to see if like all 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.280 of your vital signs are actually really reflected in like 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.280 the monitor. That's the situation that we're dealing with staff 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:37.800 right now. No one who's outside of their staff bosses 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.639 at the director level has they're they're only accountable to 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.639 those people, and they are only accountable and they're not 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:49.720 actually accountable. They just write like they write everything themselves. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.679 They write their own reports. They get they you know, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.639 they'll take you know, a nurse will come up with 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:56.960 a good idea, they'll run it up the flag pole. 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:04.000 Check out this awesome idea have, boss. I mean, it 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.640 sounds like a downer I guess is like it all 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.760 sounds very like this is all grim and like depressing. 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.919 But the fact is is that we are at a 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:13.800 point now where we see what's going on and what 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.520 we need to do. We've been educating ourselves about what 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.200 can be done to change the union because the union 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.400 is a democratic structure, even in like just the shell 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.760 form of it, and as nurses We've got a lot 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:27.960 of faith that as nurses, we can figure this out 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:32.080 and come up with a much better, more democratic way 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.800 to run our union, and I think it will fundamentally 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.000 be a much stronger organization. I think that's the fear 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.320 is that somehow we like, you know, some people are like, oh, 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.480 you're you're gonna make it worse. It's like, I don't 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.600 know that you can make it worse if, like, you know, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.400 there's the healthcare industry is changing. I think we're seeing 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.679 this in real time as a healthcare industry is changing, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.560 and we are seeing to the you know, you have 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.920 hospitals that come up with the most cutting edged version 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:06.360 of healthcare, like the Universe Chicago, or the university systems 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.159 out in California, or maybe like Stanford that's like the 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.960 very like the top end of like what healthcare is, 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.840 and those hospitals are like basically they might as well 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.600 be gold mines. And then you've got the safety net hospitals. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.199 And my fear is that the safety net hospitals they 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.919 would like to casualize to uber. They keep telling us about, oh, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.800 they're going to uberize nursing. Well, you know, what is 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.840 it that they're doing to stop you know, over half 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.520 of the nurses being at Cook County Health Service from 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.520 being replaced with agency nurses right now, Like how long 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:42.879 is that going to go? Until there's like you know, 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.200 they go from a bargaining unit of you know, over 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.280 fifteen hundred nurses in the union or seventeen hundred nurses 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.280 in the union to like, you know, it could theoretically 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.520 drop down to you know, a handful of Union nurses. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.160 And so they like they it's like an unofficial layoff, right, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.359 people quit and they institute a hiring freeze and then 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.200 they don't replace them. They bring them in as agency 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.640 nurses because they would rather in these safety net institutions 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:13.000 not pay benefits, not pay pensions. You know, our hospital 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.160 we lost, they took our pension away, and the union 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.040 didn't do anything to fight that back. I was in 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.879 the pension plan for like two years and then they're like, 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.879 guess what, no more pensions and the union to do 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.640 shit about it, and they could have done something. I mean, 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.600 it was like it's because the contract language is like, well, 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.960 you get whatever we offer you. And our teamsters at 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.920 our facility took like a very like a hundred two 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.200 to four hundred dollars buyout to get rid of their pensions, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.280 and that was the end of our pensions for the 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:53.000 entire medical center. And then our union where our staffers 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.760 are all bought into the steelworkers pension, right they have 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.240 a pension. They're like, well, John, maybe you'd have to 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.600 strike six or eight times, which is what they say 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:04.919 whenever they don't want to do anything. And they certainly 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.680 aren't telling us about hospitals, like the folks that all 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.639 debates who have struck like ten times to get what 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.159 it takes. And it's just like, you know, striking. I 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.760 think there's this idea that it's scary. I have co 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:17.720 workers who are telling me, John, just tell me when 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.879 the next strike is. I can't wait for the next strike. 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.200 But we've been through it. We have a lot of 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.520 coworkers who haven't. Half of our nurses are new, they've 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.199 never been through a strike. But you know, you build 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:30.920 a union through strikes, which is the thing that is 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.400 a little counterintuitive, especially if you do it the right 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:37.280 way and you're strategic about it. Raina, You've been real quiet, 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:40.240 like what do you think about all this? That's really 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.920 the number one I'm a lady and I don't interject 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:49.880 unless I absolutely have to. So to go back earlier, 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:56.080 what was said about how unique are Slate is well 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.440 is unique in itself. For one, of course, I kind 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:05.359 of sit with being a female and minority. But you 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.600 also got to think about the men. Now, there is 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.560 not a lot of men in nursing in general, and 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.680 I think that's what also they need to look at, 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:20.560 because I heard the criticism about that. But let's flip 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:24.880 the script on this. I mean we individually, as Eric 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:30.160 and John did say before that we were not here 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:32.320 to be a counsel of presidents on the every was 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:35.640 actually jumping on it to help other people. But from 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.800 you know, I myself and Eric, we've been knowing each 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:43.400 other for what seven six seven years? Yeah, something like that. 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:49.080 And yeah, and you know, I have seen the changes 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:53.400 with the union. I feel that the union has been 0:23:53.440 --> 0:24:00.000 really stagnant. I think our dudes should be used for community. 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:02.440 And now during the pandemic, there is a lot of 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:07.040 nurses are totally burnt out and they're slowing to realize 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:11.280 that nursing is not what I thought. I did not 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:14.320 signed for for this pandemic. I never I've been a 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.040 nurse for thirteen years. I never knew that was never 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:18.840 thought it was going to be a pandemic like this. 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.360 So it changed your whole spectrum of what nursing stands 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:25.560 and also what we should do to preserve it. Now, 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:29.320 I you know, I look young, but I am a 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:32.879 grandma about to be a four and so one of 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:34.520 them are going to be a nurse one day. And 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:37.400 actually one of them is a ten year old. And 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:40.040