Unionize
Posted By: rand_man on 2009-04-16
In Reply to: Why are they begging for MTs for VR? - mtme
It is time for all MT's to Unionize! Why not the nurses did it!
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PS, and to all the MTs who think we ought to unionize
since all we ever seem to do is attack and fight with each other, how well do you think that will work?
Those wanting to unionize should probably
Friday, July 18, 2008
When management becomes unreasonable, when benefits shrink and get more expensive at the same time, and when the average salary increase is way
less than the inflation rate, here’s something you can do: Form a union.
And on Long Island, you wouldn’t be alone. Just don’t let management know what you’re up to – it could get you in trouble.
There are already 650,000 construction workers, teachers and grocery and health care workers in unions on Long Island today, and as economic conditions
worsen, some employees are hoping to take cover by turning to organized labor.
John Durso, president of Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW and the Long Island Federation of Labor, said frustrated employees generally meet off-site to air their
grievances without fear of retribution.
“Sometimes they just want to get things off their chest, want somebody to listen,” Durso said.
Sometimes, however, it’s a lot more than that. If one-third of the employees sign on to join the union, an election is held and a petition is filed with the
National Labor Relations Board.
And that often leads to a fight.
It shouldn’t, Durso said. He said in the best circumstances, unions and employers work as partners to make a company better.
“It doesn’t make any sense for a union to make it so unworkable that an employer cannot grow or expand,” Durso said. “If you have the right attitude, the
right work environment, there’s no reason why an employer and a union cannot work together.”
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Companies faced with negotiating contracts with unions could stall, because if a deal isn’t reached within a year,
the union needs to be recertified.
“Nothing in law requires them to reach a contract. They are just required to negotiate in good faith,” said Bruce Millman, an attorney with Melville employment
law firm Littler Mendelson, representing employers.
To fight the stalling, unions are pushing federal lawmakers to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to form a union. It would also
force binding arbitration in case of an impasse, thus eliminating stall tactics.
But Bob Archer, managing partner of Melville’s Archer, Byington, Glennon and Levine, which represents labor and employee benefits clients in the building
trades, entertainment and service industries, said he doesn’t expect the Employee Free Choice Act to pass under a Republican president.
Not all contracts stall, however, and once a first contract is reached, the union is official. Then members need only to pay a set amount of dues each year.
In 2004, the latest year with complete data, dues nationwide averaged $377 per month.
Another interesting note: Long Island’s unions are becoming more white collar.
For instance, adjunct professors at Stony Brook University and New York University recently became union employees, said Tom Conoscenti, chief
economist for the Long Island Contractors Association and the Long Island Builders Institute.
He said the adjuncts formed a union to receive amenities such as offices, a pension plan and health benefits.
Joining a union has hardly led to the elimination of “the struggle.” Traditional blue-collar industries, such as construction and plumbing, are feeling the
pressure of undocumented workers taking what had been union jobs, Archer said.
“That is an X factor that we have not seen in the past,” Archer said. “It’s more of an issue of competing against employers that use unregulated workers.”
Those employers are seeking cheaper labor, especially when prices for land, and subsequent property taxes, on Long Island are among the highest in the
nation.
The politics of labor has stretched from the Suffolk County Legislature to Albany.
For example, Hauppauge-based Bactolac Pharmaceuticals recently battled the unions and the Legislature over building a new headquarters at the
Hauppauge Industrial Park. The unions and supportive legislators wanted the company to hire contractors who paid a prevailing, or union, wage in exchange
for $6 million in state Empire Zone benefits.
Although the company originally balked, it eventually gave in, holding numerous meetings with union officials and promising to offer each contractor a fair
shake.
Also, the teachers union has played a large role in fighting a plan to create a 4 percent property tax cap, Conoscenti said.
The Commission for Property Tax Relief originally pitched the tax-cap proposal in May. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi headed that group. The
proposal was endorsed by Gov. Paterson, but faced strident opposition from other New York leaders, including Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver of Manhattan.
I think our chance to unionize has come and gone,
the current perks big companies get for offshoring American jobs. No, offshoring can't be stopped (unfortunately), but instead of being rewarded, companies should have to PAY for it as a privilege, not a right. That way, companies who truly NEED offshore workers could do so, for a price. But it should be more cost-effective for MTSOs to use American MT labor, even with the pay we deserve, rather than what we're currently getting, than to use foreign labor. Right now, they're having their cake and eating it too, at America's expense.
It is time to unionize before it's too late
After reading a post about how greedy MTs are to expect more than $0.05 per line, to expect a gesture of appreciation at Christmas, I must post this.
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It is JUST THAT TYPE OF ATTITUDE, and total acceptance of VR, EMR, and pitifully low pay that have caused MTs to be kicked into the respectless extinction we now face. It is because of MT's like the GRATEFUL poster with the THANK YOU FOR MY PAYCHECK, KIND SIR sweatshop attitude, that we find ourselves with salaries/hourly/line pay having been cut by 60%, and we are looked upon as mere clerical workers instead of the medical language and computer specialists that we actually are.
Some of us work from home so we can be there for our children or grandchildren, some want to transcribe without having to deal with the politics of an in-house staff, there are others who are physically handicapped and work from home as it is the least painful and most sensible option.
But a small faction of MTs spout ridiculous self-depricating platitudes that we should all be grateful for receiving even a pittance of a paycheck, and a late paycheck, at that, and not expect to be rewarded for dedication and excellence, disregarding the fact that many of us work 10-12 hours per day now to earn what we were able to earn in 4 hours 5 years ago. The MTSO's and hospital HIM administrators never stood up for us; they sold us out to VR and EMR, yet the GRATEFUL faction would have us believe that we do not DESERVE anything more, and that expecting to be recognized for dedication and job excellence is nothing more than shameful greed. THEY COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH, and the members of the GRATEFULS are slowly ruining this profession with our silent blessing, because we are allowing them to. The members of this faction, as well as the MTSO owners and hospital members that did not come to our defense, but instead embraced VR and EMR to make the last of their money as our trade was being made extinct, those are the folks that have contributed to the extinction of our trade. Do any of you know lobbyists who fought to keep medical records in the US? Most likely not, and the members of the GRATEFUL faction may be jaded and void of self-respect, willing to work for 60% less pay and grateful to receive a pittance for their services, but I am not, and neither should you be. We work hard for what little we receive, and we need to gather our forces and strengths and stand together against the extinction of our careers.
Unless extinction of our trade is the goal, Medical Language Specialists and CMT's cannot continue to allow medical facilities and MTSO's to manipulate by fear. MTs must be allowed to speak out without fear of losing jobs. If we do not unionize, or at least organize and agree on boundaries very soon, our industry will never recover. VR/EMR will replace us totally IF WE LET IT. These facilities and MTSO's CANNOT outsource/offshore or jump from full transcription to VR without transition, and THEY CANNOT TRANSITION WITHOUT MTS TO EDIT.
We are the ones who edit the VR reports and I don't know how many of you know this, but in doing so, we are actually TRAINING THE VR SYSTEMS TO RECOGNIZE ALL OF THE WORDS THAT IT DIDN'T CATCH THE FIRST TIME AROUND WHEN NEXT THE DOCTOR MUMBLED THEM INTO THE MICROPHONE, AND THIS ALLOWS THEM TO MOVE FORWARD AT A HEADY PACE TO TOTAL VR WITH NO EDITORS. We laugh about the hilarious mistakes perpetrated by VR, but we are actually help perfect it by editing. Soon there will be no editing to be done.
The GRATEFUL FOR A PITIFUL PAYCHECK faction have made us all look like groveling idiots, willing to silently accept AND BE GRATEFUL FOR, a $0.05 per line pittance to edit VR. We must set boundaries, stand up for ourselves, put guidelines in place and STICK TO THEM, refusing to work for MTSO's or facilities for $0.05 a line for VR editing, without fear as we really have very little to lose at this point, but it is not too late to turn this death of a trade into a rebirth.
We MUST stand up for ourselves, our voices louder than the GRATEFUL FOR ANY KIND OF PAYCHECK faction, as they are actually cutting off their own noses to spite the rest of us, and the days of AAMT are over. ADHI will not help us, as they support not only offshore but VR/EMR, as well. ADHI’s views are counterproductive to US MTs now, as they clearly embrace off-shore, VR, and EMR in totality, and are of absolutely no use or help to Jane Doe, CMT.
In Michigan and Indiana the union is almost in place; final legalities are being settled quietly, and I advise the rest of you, if you want to continue transcribing for a living, to continue to make a decent salary doing what you chose as a career, if you want to be paid what you deserve, if you want to see your daughters take up this trade before it is extinct, you need to unite. Facilities and MTSO's are counting on continuance of MT silence, acceptance and complacency, along with PAYCHECK GRATEFULNESS to keep us in line, at their beck and call, on their terms, cutting our pay and benefits, running remote sweatshops and reaping the benefits as they quickly invest in other businesses because they see the end of the trail for transcription. They count on the fact that we will continue gather in places like this, arguing amongst ourselves, whining about low pay and no benefits, while doing absolutely nothing to reverse our plight.
Unite while we still have the power to command better salary and stop the eradication of our trade, because the scales are slowly tipping against us.
Don't be grateful for the pig swill they're tossing our way. We are intelligent, talented, skilled tradespeople and we deserve much better than what we receive.
There are clerical workers with less skills than MTs, and they’ve unionized and have won mediations and settlements. It is possible. We can save this industry for ourselves.
If you have had enough, if you have even a a modicum of self-respect left, have not been dehumanized to the point of no return, and have a sense of the injustice over what we’ve endured for the past 6 to 8 years, please visit the soon-to-be opened web site of USMLSU (United States Medical Language Specialists Union Initiative). You can email them at contact.us at usmlsu.org for information.
The following states have local chapters: Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. If you are in a state not mentioned here, please choose someone from your state to represent you by emailing the USMLSU.
I hope to start seeing many of you at meetings, and organizing your own. The time is now.
I don't think it'd work just to unionize here. Timing's wrong. SM
Actually, the phrase Pissing into the wind, comes to mind. Once the folks offshore competing for the same work unionize, then maybe. (Did you notice that successful unions are for lines of work that can't be sent offshore? Inability to replace workers is key.) And once EMRs come into widespread use here in the States and a new workforce has transitioned around them, maybe. Being an optimist, I also like to think that countries with new growing middle classes will start producing, not only more demand for middle class wages, but plenty of local work too generated from people who will also get to benefit from this amazing medical revolution we're all part of. In the meantime, identifying and training for a position in the medical information field or another that will/should have decent-paying work in the future would be a good idea for any of us. Anyway, that's what I think.
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