So we had a bit of emerging crisis here with nurses that is now settled. One union, which represents almost half of all the nurses here wanted a considerable raise. They first talked about 24%-25% raise, that would be directed at the basic salary. So the actual raise would be quite a bit more, since there's all kinds of bonuses for night work and so forth, percentages for personal portion of the salary based on experience, time of service and so forth.
So the union was drumming that they are slaves (yes, they really did use that term), and was threatning to go for mass resignation unless their terms were met. Well, it was a weapon for the negotiation, not necessarily what they really thought as the final price. So that's _considerable_ raise and amount of money the municipalities were supposed to come up with. Other worker's unions had come in terms with the employers a long time ago, but this one union kept on hyping and advertising.
Let's rewind a bit to the last parliamental election. The government that was supposed to be formed, it's always 2 big parties in it and 1 big party in the opposition. It's a matter of the centre party and social democrats or coalition party forming it. SDP is usually there, but this time they didn't get enough votes so the centre party and the coalition party formed the government. Coalition party is closest to the Democratic party in the US, considered right wing in here (we don't have an equivalent for the Republicans).
The coalition party campagned for better salary for low paying jobs that is predominantly occupied by women. So they took nurses as their example, saying they would support their salary raises. Coalition party won the elections.
So back to unions and salary negotiations. Mass resignation was the weapon, and so the government actually voted for a law that would allow them to force some of the nurses to work (or they'd have to pay fines). We have a shortage of nurses, and the resignation woudl have meant thousands, and we're a country of 5 million people so this is a very considerable amount of hospital people. The resignations also included places such as ICUs (for kids as well), maternity wards and so forth. The union _refused_ to cooperate with sheltered(?) work, which basically means they will still help to the degree that for example ICU wouldn't shut down. So they _denied_ this cooperation.
So the government came up with an emergency law, because they figured they have their first priority and responsibility for the patients, as in they can't let people die in case thousands of professionals just resign becuase the want 1/4 raise (on their basic salary none of the less). The employer side was naturally able to benefit from this, because they knew the law would go into place, so it might have stalled the negotiation. However, the situation was, when the resignation starts, people also start to die.
This very ethical way of doing things of course had ramifications. Pregnant clients who were in risk had to be flown to Sweden, some ICU patients had to be moved to other wards (which is dangerous) and so forth. So it was a game with lives the union and the employers were playing.
THe point is, the demand of quarter raise was totally unreasonable and VERY unrealistic. OK, they said that this only concerns us, this union, no one else, so there is enough money to make it up. However, that's not how real life works, the hospitals won't pay their staff according to what union they belong to. It would effectively mean similar raises to _everyone_. And the next round of negotiations? Then you have teachers, cops, researchers and everyone else demanding the same thing. Impossible.
SO... at the last moment, they came to resolution. The union cheered, claiming they got what they wanted. 22%-28% raises were announced. They were drinking shampagn and advertising that they were real heroes, even though they were kind of holding patients as hostages, which in itself was ****ing disgusting(!!).
However, today the employer side says that apparently this union has difficulties with thier calculations, because the substantive raise is actually about 16%-18%, spread to 4 years, which means it is about the same as everyone else had.
2 things happened here that should be realized. The union held patients as hostages and LIED TO THEIR OWN MEMBERS as well. They took all the credit for massive raises, which didn't even happen. So they lied to their own members, of course this resulted into thousands of people joining this union before, because they did such a good job.
So this whole drama, that might have resulted into deaths of few patients (due to high stress, moving of patients and so forth) actually was a game the union played, and they lied about the results afterwards as well. It's all they were looking for, but they wanted a high profile case. OK? The real stooges in this one were their own members!! They're prolly so stupid they won't even realize they were just had, big time.
I think this whole thing has turned a new page of disgusting, and I definitely think these commie *****es that lead this union should go to prison, they're freaking criminals!
So the union was drumming that they are slaves (yes, they really did use that term), and was threatning to go for mass resignation unless their terms were met. Well, it was a weapon for the negotiation, not necessarily what they really thought as the final price. So that's _considerable_ raise and amount of money the municipalities were supposed to come up with. Other worker's unions had come in terms with the employers a long time ago, but this one union kept on hyping and advertising.
Let's rewind a bit to the last parliamental election. The government that was supposed to be formed, it's always 2 big parties in it and 1 big party in the opposition. It's a matter of the centre party and social democrats or coalition party forming it. SDP is usually there, but this time they didn't get enough votes so the centre party and the coalition party formed the government. Coalition party is closest to the Democratic party in the US, considered right wing in here (we don't have an equivalent for the Republicans).
The coalition party campagned for better salary for low paying jobs that is predominantly occupied by women. So they took nurses as their example, saying they would support their salary raises. Coalition party won the elections.
So back to unions and salary negotiations. Mass resignation was the weapon, and so the government actually voted for a law that would allow them to force some of the nurses to work (or they'd have to pay fines). We have a shortage of nurses, and the resignation woudl have meant thousands, and we're a country of 5 million people so this is a very considerable amount of hospital people. The resignations also included places such as ICUs (for kids as well), maternity wards and so forth. The union _refused_ to cooperate with sheltered(?) work, which basically means they will still help to the degree that for example ICU wouldn't shut down. So they _denied_ this cooperation.
So the government came up with an emergency law, because they figured they have their first priority and responsibility for the patients, as in they can't let people die in case thousands of professionals just resign becuase the want 1/4 raise (on their basic salary none of the less). The employer side was naturally able to benefit from this, because they knew the law would go into place, so it might have stalled the negotiation. However, the situation was, when the resignation starts, people also start to die.
This very ethical way of doing things of course had ramifications. Pregnant clients who were in risk had to be flown to Sweden, some ICU patients had to be moved to other wards (which is dangerous) and so forth. So it was a game with lives the union and the employers were playing.
THe point is, the demand of quarter raise was totally unreasonable and VERY unrealistic. OK, they said that this only concerns us, this union, no one else, so there is enough money to make it up. However, that's not how real life works, the hospitals won't pay their staff according to what union they belong to. It would effectively mean similar raises to _everyone_. And the next round of negotiations? Then you have teachers, cops, researchers and everyone else demanding the same thing. Impossible.
SO... at the last moment, they came to resolution. The union cheered, claiming they got what they wanted. 22%-28% raises were announced. They were drinking shampagn and advertising that they were real heroes, even though they were kind of holding patients as hostages, which in itself was ****ing disgusting(!!).
However, today the employer side says that apparently this union has difficulties with thier calculations, because the substantive raise is actually about 16%-18%, spread to 4 years, which means it is about the same as everyone else had.
2 things happened here that should be realized. The union held patients as hostages and LIED TO THEIR OWN MEMBERS as well. They took all the credit for massive raises, which didn't even happen. So they lied to their own members, of course this resulted into thousands of people joining this union before, because they did such a good job.
So this whole drama, that might have resulted into deaths of few patients (due to high stress, moving of patients and so forth) actually was a game the union played, and they lied about the results afterwards as well. It's all they were looking for, but they wanted a high profile case. OK? The real stooges in this one were their own members!! They're prolly so stupid they won't even realize they were just had, big time.
I think this whole thing has turned a new page of disgusting, and I definitely think these commie *****es that lead this union should go to prison, they're freaking criminals!
Comment