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Kaiser Nurses
So, the Kaiser nurses are posed to go on strike next week. I'm sure it
is about time and I'll take my chances for a few weeks with administrative
"fill-ins" while the nurses work out a more favorable settlement.
The administrative representative from Kaiser speaking on the evening
news spoke blithely about how all the nurses, if they do go on strike,
will just go and get other jobs. Does this bozo think a few graveyard
shifts around the Bay Area are going to absorb the entire Kaiser nursing
staff? And then to resort to sentimentalist perfidy with laments about
"how much the poor patients will suffer". Oh please, hand me
the Kleenex box! Of course they will suffer if the administrators try
to fill in for the absent nurses. But the administration might have thought
of that before. They do the same thing to teachers too. "Oh dear,
you can't go out on strike. What about the children?" The compassionate,
hard-working people who choose such professions are easily taken advantage
of, held captive by their enormous responsibilities and then over-worked
and guess who suffers? Everybody except the over-paid administrators.
Other than being a crew member on a submarine, I can think of few jobs
with worse hours than a nurse. Twenty-four hours a day -- seven to three,
three to eleven and eleven to seven. 365 days a year. Try to work out
a civilized existence around any of these three shifts, much less being
moved around from shift to shift. And for each shift you have to be there
an hour early and stay an hour late for reports and extra paper-work.
And, while the rest of us enjoy the holidays; HIV, heart disease, old
age and Cancer don't take vacations.
Hospitals are not run by the government or some other incorporeal agency
for our benefit, such as, presumably our schools and fire departments.
Au contraire, they are big-time businesses and the bottom line is profit.
Whenever possible their workers are over-worked and under-paid. The same
old story from Samuel Gompers to the present.
Listen to the nurses. Raise my Kaiser premium a few bucks and pay them
what they're worth.
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