Introduction
The workers in a company need to be treated nicely to maintain a positive work environment. As a result, companies are responsible for ensuring that their employees receive the best possible care while at work. Employers can dramatically improve their workers’ overall performance as well as their morale through the use of this strategy. Various institutions’ employees join labor unions to fight and negotiate for their rights at work when they are subjected to mistreatment by their employers. This ensures their rights are respected in the workplace, resulting in them being treated nicely. Labor unions are essential to protect the rights and liberties of workers across a wide range of industries,
The rights and freedoms of nursing staff, like those of other workers, must be respected and maintained. There are many issues that nursing professionals confront in their professions at Stanford healthcare companies. Nurse staffing shortages can lead to extended working shifts in the healthcare facility, and one of these problems is compensation and workplace conditions for nurses. Through their unions, nurses will continue to press for more in the future. As the cost of living rises, healthcare facilities may find it challenging to keep up with the rising demand for more excellent wages. The union will have difficulty defending its position even if the facility rejects the request. This paper will discuss and analyze labor-management negotiation among Stanford nurses.
Management Proposal
The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) is a labor union that strives to improve the working environment and ensure nurses meet their needs. CRONA recently negotiated several three-year contracts with the nurses’ employers. After a one-week walkout, the nurses sat down to talk. Hospital workers had complained for years about low wages, understaffed facilities, and mental health issues (Mogensen, 2022). They were exhausted by the long hours they had to put in because they lacked staff members. At the height of the pandemic, this severely impacted their mental and physical health. The two parties could not agree, although the employees had known their objections. Patients’ understanding, or how much nursing care they need, is considered when determining staffing levels, as stipulated in the contracts. Additionally, the arrangements enhanced benefits for retirees and paid time off for nurses hired. The nurses’ union declared victory in the negotiations, and as a result, they agreed to resume work on May 3rd (Kim, 2022). As a result of nurses’ willingness to go on strike to be heard, CRONA was able to negotiate benefits for its members successfully.
CRONA and Nurses
Nurses play an essential role in the health sector, including delivering proper patient care, serving as a leader, and ensuring patients receive patient-centered care. Patients and healthcare organizations alike depend on them being present in the sector. It’s essential to remember that nursing can be a challenging job, and as a result, one must be prepared to deal with the many difficulties that come with it. Despite this, nurses must use the union to advocate for their rights in the workplace (Finkelman, 2017). The healthcare environment has several labor union difficulties for nursing workers. About five thousand nurses from Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital are represented by CRONA, a union in Stanford.
CRONA is critical in ensuring that nurses at health facilities do their jobs efficiently, which in turn helps improve the general public’s health. Labor unions look at various factors to determine whether or not nurses are treated fairly to keep them happy and engaged in their work (Burchill, 2014). The CRONA will be able to identify and remedy any errors the employers make. So that nurses may do their jobs more efficiently, and as a result, better healthcare services can be provided to the public.
Nurses Grievances
Nursing staff compensation is a frequent CRONA issue in healthcare organizations. A healthcare worker’s compensation is the amount of money paid by their employer for providing services to the organization, such as caring for patients. Most of the labor union issues and challenges faced by healthcare workers are addressed by adequate compensation for nurses working in the healthcare organization. It is important to remember that regional differences in pay for nurses aren’t to be expected simply because of differences in the overall cost of living. Because of a lack of compensation for nurses, morale and productivity in the workplace are negatively impacted.
Extended hours are another issue that labor unions deal with when it comes to nursing staff in enterprises. Nurses may be required to perform long shifts that pose health risks. The nurses’ unions’ fight against working conditions helps keep these dangers to a minimum. Short staffing is another problem that labor unions must also cope with. It is not uncommon for nurses to get overworked due to being allocated too many patients at one time. Due to an organization’s nursing shortage, this is the case. Nursing unions must strive to protect their members from being overworked at any given time. As a result, the nurses were more inclined to provide high-quality care to the patients. Nurses are also at risk of violence in the workplace; thus, labor unions must deal with it effectively. Patients or coworkers may be the source of violence.
Management Position
Labor-management cooperation necessitates recognizing that it may be impossible to satisfy all parties. Management can take several appropriate and prioritized stances on the topic of overtime pay. Mutual gain negotiation is the only way to reach an agreement. Management must advocate for a cooperative approach to solving the issue (Krachler et al., 2020). This strategy would clearly show that management is concerned about the desire of employees for more valued personal time to be revealed in the. This strategy likewise relies on offering as many options as possible to meet the workforce’s needs. An attempt to bridge the gulf in interests by generating a viable package of negotiation elements in which each party offers something to the other side and vice versa is called a “mutual gain” bargaining condition (Kagwe et al., 2019). This goal is achieved by tying in other areas of concern and bringing them into the discussion. Both parties must be prepared to come up with possible package options for the other side.
Alternatives to Counter Proposal
Management places a high value on the time employees spend with their families and friends outside of work. The company’s goal is for its workers to be happy. Management also believes that a peaceful working relationship between management and the union is critical. All parties involved benefit from this type of working partnership. Management agrees to provide specific options to the union’s plan to ensure this occurs. One option is to pay an employee one hour of overtime at time-and-a-half if they are scheduled to work extra but fail due to a scheduling error on the part of management (Gooch, 2022). Before arranging overtime, management could also call for volunteers to help out.
Union Proposal and Employee Concerns
The union proposal helps the union members convince their participants that they are listening to the employees’ worries by staying concerned with issues and working hard to keep negotiations civil. The union will participate in a collective bargaining process to address the problems raised by management and union members. Mediation may be necessary to support management and members’ concerns at the forefront of discussions (Krachler et al., 2020). The union must pay attention to the wants of its members when it comes to personal time and family life. Pattern bargaining, which shows that the union in another state agreed on the same issues, is needed to demonstrate to union members that productivity and cost reductions can be achieved. The union proposal will demonstrate to the members how the same union may successfully negotiate the approval of the overtime proposal while preserving personal time and family life for its members. There is a strong emphasis on open communication with management and the union’s efforts to solicit members’ feedback on agreements that have been reached. Realistic bargaining expectations from the union’s members are essential.
Union Arguments to Management for Proposal
The union can make the case to management that members are more ready to sacrifice time with their families to work late if the company rewards them. A union’s primary function is to promote the economic well-being of its members as well as to provide them a voice and a say in the decision-making process (Krachler et al., 2020). Individuals spend their off-work time with loved ones, doing chores around the house, or participating in church or other community activities. Managers should make an effort to show their appreciation for employees who stay late by granting at least two hours of extra pay. Therefore, members who feel valued are more willing to put aside their other duties and obligations to assist the management in achieving its goals. Members’ morale is also boosted because they can now earn extra money for working longer.
The Impact of Negotiation and Organizational Performance
Negotiation is often conceived of as a cooperative problem-solving or decision-making process that necessitates research and flexibility of mind to uncover options and devise innovative solutions. The labor union difficulties mentioned above directly impact the facility and the individual nurses’ performance. Adequate remuneration directly impacts individual employees’ productivity, which can lead to workplace disputes like strikes and other concerns. Nurses must use the union in contract negotiations to get an adequate and sustainable salary. However, if problems develop, the facility’s bottom line may suffer (Krachler et al., 2020). The actual effectiveness of a company is harmed when people are not motivated to work at their best because of workplace dangers, lengthy work hours, personnel shortages, and even violence in the workplace.
Conclusion
CRONA and health employers must agree that the priority must always be on what is best for the employee and the company. Most of the time, negotiating a mutually beneficial agreement is preferable to a worker walkout. They accepted that management would not get all they wanted but that conditions would be negotiated and some concessions must be made. Employees can benefit from a more cohesive relationship between management and the union if both sides work together to achieve this goal.
References
Finkelman, A. (2017). Professional nursing concepts: Competencies for quality leadership. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Gooch, K. (2022). Stanford health care to nurses: No pay for those who strike. Becker’s Hospital Review. Web.
Kagwe, J., Jones, S., & Johnson, S. L. (2019). Factors related to intention to leave and job satisfaction among registered nurses at a large psychiatric hospital.Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 40(9), 754-759. Web.
Kim, B. (2022). Stanford nurses ratify contract with hospitals, set to resume work on Tuesday.The Stanford Daily. Web.
Krachler, N., Auffenberg, J., & Wolf, L. (2021). The role of organizational factors in mobilizing professionals: Evidence from nurse unions in the United States and Germany. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 59(3), 643-668. Web.
Mogensen, J. F. (2022). After a week on strike, Stanford nurses just approved a new contract.Mother Jones. Web.