Is There a Doctor in the House (of Labor)? Yes, More than Ever

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFSCME

For the second time this year, doctors in California have voted to join the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

On Wednesday, April 6, a unit of 60 medical doctors working in public clinics and hospitals in Kern County voted for union representation by UAPD, the nation’s largest union representing licensed doctors in the U.S. This win comes on the heels of 78 medical professionals (medical doctors, dentists and nurse practitioners) at the Northeast Valley Community Health Care Clinics in Los Angeles, CA voting to join UAPD in March.

Doctors and other medical professionals are seeking to join UAPD for a wide-range of reasons, including to regain control over the quality of medical care they provide to the public.

AFSCME — the nation’s largest union of public service workers — has long led the fight to improve the nation’s health care system. In addition to advocating for improving workplace conditions and ensuring quality delivery of care for America’s health care providers, the union has been a leading champion of health care reforms to benefit all Americans.


Read more: http://www.standforpublicservice.org/blog/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-of-labor-yes-more-than-ever

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Posted April 08, 2011

I'm a PROUD AFSCME member.

OS

[Taverner]

1. This should be shown to the hordes of IT workers like myself

Even the Sales Techs

Without collective bargaining, everything becomes a John Galt Free-for-All

[bread_and_roses]

3. are you hooked up to

Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701? http://www.endicottalliance.org/ If you support organizing tech workers, you can hook up with them as a supporter

[Taverner]

4. Thanks for the link nt

[Hestia]

9. DH is a proud CWA Member District 6 - good union with good benefits

[loudsue]

5. UNITED WE BARGAIN ---- DIVIDED WE BEG.

It's a slogan that needs to be spread around the country. Why in the hell unions don't spend some of their money in advertisements FIGHTING the rightwing hatred, I'll never know.

[Taverner]

6. I like it!

[Johnny Morales]

12. you hit the nail on the head

during the last couple of decades while unions have had their reputations destroyed, they've done almost nothing to defend themselves effectively.

While I have a lot of compassion for workers without unions, it has been a huge mistake for unions to focus on defending them AS IF they were union members.

In doing so they have ignored the needs of their own members.

Wal Mart is a great example for several reasons.

As pathetic as it is, spending millions to highlight the shortcomings of Wal Mart workers in most of the country has made no sense at all, because they are NOT fertile ground for unionizing. All too often they are cut from the same conservative and poor cloth of their community, and consider unions to be more evil than their employer no matter how badly they are mistreated.
Unions need to be smarter and focus their efforts on places where they will end up with Union members, and spend money defending their reputation.

The blame lies squarely with the out of touch, extremely well paid leadership who are decades away from the working experience of their union members.

Unions need to find a way to bring the employed union member back into leadership, otherwise they are doomed.

[loudsue]

13. Oh man!! I've been saying this for YEARS!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Unions got a bad name because they got to be just like corrupt corporations, and even today, some of the union bosses are in the pockets of the corporations that they are supposed to protect their membership from.

Unions need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off from the mess, and we need to start a new movement in this country to get more companies unionized, and to get more people aware of ownership of their own industries...like Mondragon in Italy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

If we're going to live in a capitalist society, then WORKERS need to start OWNING the capital in their companies to have a say in their futures. It's a new and global world, and it's the PEOPLE that are going to have to take the initiative if they want to decide if they will live or eat or have clean water and flushing toilets, or if they want to live in squallor.

[AndyTiedye]

7. How Do You Organize H1b's?

H1b's are at risk of deportation if the "U" word is uttered and they're in the same room.
How are you going to organize them?

The other question is who is going to do the organizing?
We are not known for our social skills.
Those who could organize something like that tend to get sucked into management.

[Hestia]

10. Didn't John Oliver have this problem during the Writer's Strike? I do remember him doing

a sketch about it on Daily Show. He wasn't allowed to even mention unions or they would revoke his visa. Wonder who wrote that law?

[Taverner]

11. then membership will have to be a secret

Plain and simple

[Hotler]

2. k&r n/t

[mike_c]

8. SOLIDARITY!

I'm writing this from my union's 74th Assembly!