Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 3:39:06 PM
I am told on what I believe is good authority that the SEIU Nurse Alliance has $30 million available to unionize Colorado nurses. The plan seems to be to start in the outlying areas of the state with nursing homes and small hospitals.
The organization is pushing Colorado SB-10, which is an unbelievably bad bill. It would fine hospitals $5,000 a day if they did not meet staffing levels set by staffing committees. Unsurprisingly, it also requires that not less than half of the membership of staffing committees be Registered Nurses.
These nurses would have no accountability to the ownership of the hospital and could, by law, set the staffing levels so high that the hospital would be driven out of business.
In the 1960's and 70's the "Big Three" automobile companies allowed their labor costs to get out of hand when they surrendered easily to union demands. They at least had a choice to commit financial suicide. SB-10 cocks the gun and points it at Colorado hospital management's head, leaving the nurses to pull the trigger.
I would like to say that SEIU is being ethical about telling voters what it is doing, and what the bill would do, but it is not. In a recent Gazette Telegraph guest editorial by Patricia Stewart deceptively titled "Bill would make hospitals more accountable, competitive" Ms. Stewart neglected to mention the composition of the staffing committees and the $5,000 a day fine.
The bill has nothing to do with accountability and certainly nothing to do with competition. Rather, it is all about using lawmaking to help unions at the very real risk of forcing hospitals out of business.