Thread: Backroom negotiations underway-foreign NURSES

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Friday 8DEC06 4:30 p.m. EST


Backroom negotiations underway to bring 90,000 MORE foreign NURSES next year -- Phone to stop

ANTI-AMERICAN WORKER EFFORTS NEVER STOP -- BUT WE DON'T EITHER, DO WE?

We've just learned that the other Texas Republican Senator (Kay Bailey Hutchison) is negotiating furiously to pass a foreign nurses bill tonight.

While Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) remains stymied in passing his bill to increase overall skilled workers by several hundred thousand next year, Hutchison is greasing the skids for another slam against American nurses.

CALL YOUR TWO SENATORS -- NOW!!!!

Capitol Switchboard
202-224-3121

Choose from the following in what to say:

1. I just heard that Sen. Hutchison is nearing a deal to import another 90,000 foreign nurses next year.

2. I oppose yet another effort to undercut the wages and working conditions of American nurses.

3. The country has tens of thousands of trained nurses who are waiting for working conditions to improve before returning to their field. If you keep importing foreign nurses, the improvement will never happen.

4. Unless you want to stop American girls and boys from pursuing nursing careers in the future, you must stop turning it into a foreign profession.

5. Sen. Hutchison's chronic efforts to flood the country with foreign nurses are thwarting the ability of the free-market system to entice and reward career choices based on what skills are needed by our society. Sen. Hutchison is ruining the nursing profession year by year.

6. Adjourn, end this Congress and go home without adding ANY more foreign workers of any kind.

7. Many politicians such as Sen. Hutchison seem to believe that because nursing is a tough, demanding job that the pay and working conditions should be constantly undermined and that only "foreign serfs" should do the work. That is a terrible principle. In our society, the tougher the job and the more difficulty in filling it, the more pay should increase and the more employers should strive to improve the working conditions. Efforts like Sen. Hutchison's represent an unethical kind of classism that should be repugnant in a 21st century American Congress.

If you are reading this, please call -- because most people won't see this email in time!

EXTRA CREDIT ACTIVITY

After you have called your two Senators, we have a few very special leaders who need extra calls, if you have time, and especially if you live in their state or region:

Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN)
Senate Majority Whip McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Minority Leader Reid (D-NV)
Senate Minority Whip Durbin (D-IL)
House Speaker Hastert (R-IL)
House Majority Leader Boehner (R-OH)
House Majority Whip Blunt (R-MO)
House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA)
House Minority Whip Hoyer (D-MD)
Senate Judiciary Chairman Specter (R-PA)
Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Leahy (D-VT)
House Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
House Judiciary Ranking Member Conyers (D-MI)

I certainly hope you Texans are doing everything you can to let your two Senators know how disappointed you are them. MAKE SURE THEIR HOME STATE OFFICES ARE GETTING A LOT OF CALLS, TOO.

Let's not let all of our American nurses (both native-born and foreign-born) down. They deserve the support of all of us in this moment of great threat.

Sen. Hutchison has succeeded in sneaking through similar giant increases in foreign nurses in past years. She has to be competing for the title of the Most Anti-Nurse Person in America.

THANKS FOR JUST A FEW MORE PHONE CALLS BEFORE CONGRESS LEAVES TOWN,

-- ROY

P.S. You all have done a remarkable job of keeping the phones busy all day today in the Senate on the Cornyn H-1B bill.

The word we had from many congressional staffers today is that the tech industry lobbyists -- especially Microsoft lobbyists -- are fit to be tied. They cannot believe that so many Members whom they thought they had purchased with campaign contributions are standing up against them on this bill. You know the only reason they are standing up is because of your pressure/support. We are told that the lobbyists have begun calling some congressional offices in tirades hurling all kinds of threats about the future.

You've held them off this long. Keep the pressure today until the switchboards close. Our goal is that the House will leave town later this evening before the Senate has passed Cornyn or Hutchison and we will have won. Although the Senate likely will be in session tomorrow, it won't do any good for them to pass something that the House has not already passed, since the House won't be around to vote on anything after it leaves town.

AN EXAMPLE OF MANY EMAILS FROM VICTIMIZED AMERICANS

"In response to those who are hestitant about opposing H-1B.

"In the next five years my wife, a nurse for 32 years and still working for another 10, and I will have spent/borrowed over $250,000 to educate my son as an engineer and daughter as a nurse.

"My family has been here since the 1850's and my wife's family since 1880's. Our kids have worked extremely hard and our family has sacrificed much for them to achieve their goals. They have suffered much from immigration. A fair number of our professional friends and associates have lost their jobs and careers because of technical foreign workers working for less pay.

"I support education anywhere in the world and welcome people who want to be educated here but we are flooded by those who stay.

"Remind politicans they work for us and not for themselves."
----------Kevin McCann

There is No Shortage of skilled nurses. However, the education system limits the number of new nurses. Check any school you wish. They typically have twice as many applicants as they will accept. The supply of practically all medical professions is restricted.

I would rather have our schools accept more kids, than bring in foreign nurses.

Originally Posted by magyart

There is No Shortage of skilled nurses. However, the education system limits the number of new nurses. Check any school you wish. They typically have twice as many applicants as they will accept. The supply of practically all medical professions is restricted.

I would rather have our schools accept more kids, than bring in foreign nurses.

you are absolutely correct, MAGYART!

And, what's more disturbing, is that we take tons of FOREIGN nursing students! Mostly from 3rd world and send the Europeans HOME. Ain't that a kick in the pants.

Foreign students get AMERICAN student seats in school!!

.

I made the calls here. These are the jobs, along with h1b, we work so hard to send our kids to college for.

It is time to take a look at what the profit motive has done to amereican business. Congresspersons seem to think america will fold without the microsofts of the world. But, just like a the rhino's boss used to say when The Rhino would get to cocky about his job. " Put your hand in that bucket of water and pull it out. That is how fast you can be replaced."

It is time to focus on a worker and american citizen driven economy. We need to take control of labor and capitol. It is not socialism it is survival. The revolution, violent or peaceful, is at hand and only The new legislature can stop it. Those who vote for these kind of legal american worker replacement laws should be marked in there community and throughout america.

Thanks Sis for posting this. I called my Senators.

According to this memo from NumbersUSA, Microsoft is fit to be tied. All I can say is I hope they have a complete melt-down.

[

quote="magyart"]There is No Shortage of skilled nurses. However, the education system limits the number of new nurses. Check any school you wish. They typically have twice as many applicants as they will accept. The supply of practically all medical professions is restricted.

s
Nursing Facts: Nursing Shortage
1. Nursing Shortage Indicators
The nation is facing an impending shortage of nurses, which is expected to peak by 2020; here are some of the prime indicators:
According to projections released in February 2004 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RNs top the list of the 10 occupations with the largest projected job growth in the years 2002-2012. Although RNs have listed among the top 10 growth occupations in the past, this is the first time in recent history that RNs have ranked first. These 10-year projections are widely used in career guidance, in planning education and training programs and in studying long-range employment trends. According to the BLS report, more than 2.9 million RNs will be employed in the year 2012, up 623,000 from the nearly 2.3 million RNs employed in 2002. However, the total job openings, which include both job growth and the net replacement of nurses, will be more than 1.1 million. This growth, coupled with current trends of nurses retiring or leaving the profession and fewer new nurses, could lead to a shortage of more than one million nurses by the end of this decade. (For details, see www.bls.gov/emp/#outlook.)

http://www.nursingworld.org/readroom/fsshortage.htm


Study on the nursing shortage by Linda Aiken of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that an estimated 20,000 people die each year because they have checked into a hospital with overworked nurses. The study also found that Americans scheduled for routine surgeries run a 31 percent greater risk of dying if they are admitted to a hospital with a severe shortage of nurses. That’s approximately one-fifth of the up to 98,000 deaths that occur each year as a result of medical errors. Nurses in the study cared for an average of four patients at a time, with the risk of death increasing by about 7 percent for each additional patient cared for over that baseline number. This study highlights the fact that people can and do die when nursing care is inadequate. (Source: “Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction,” study; see Journal of the American Medical Association, Oct. 23-30, 2002.)

Nursing Shortage Contributing Factors:
1. Nurses increasingly are facing deteriorating working conditions at the facilities in which they work. This problem is reflected in the decline in nurse staffing nationwide. According to a 2001 ANA Staffing Survey, 75 percent of nurses surveyed feel the quality of nursing care at the facility in which they work has declined over the past two years, while 56 percent of nurses surveyed believe the time available for patient care has decreased. In addition, more than 40 percent of nurses surveyed said they would not feel comfortable having a family member cared for in the facility in which they work. And over 54 percent of respondents would not recommend their profession to their children or friends. (Source: ANA Staffing Survey, Feb. 6, 2001. See www.nursingworld.org/staffing/ for details.)

Unfortunately, we are in a shortage of sorts for nursing staff...and it is a shame we are in this shape. I too support putting "our" kids through the schooling and producing our own numbers rather than import others.

Having served in Europe and the Middle East, it is common practice for those countries to import hordes of labors (to include nursing staff) at the "state" or "country" level (sponsored) to fill the voids felt in any country. What really gets me angry is most of our hospital staffs are now begining to be "contracted" which means they can practically use anyone to fill a position. I am familiar with the pay scale big business gives our nurses, and they, for a lack of better terms, are being under paid (just as our teachers are not getting substantial pay).

I suspect if someone were to look into this, you will find "big business" like INNOVA or some other type of contracted medical service behind this trend. I would be interested in knowing myself.

The following was something I posted on another thread, but I feel it definitely applies here:

Lone_Patriot wrote:

Quote:
i'm not saying teachers don't earn or aren't worth their wage. i am saying nurses are worth more then they are currently (in this county) being paid. and importing cheap labor is once again not the solution.

MW wrote:

You're exactly right Lone_Patriot! My sister, in Texas, was an RN and she told me that there were more than enough nurses to care for American citizens, but many eventually end up leaving the field and/or hospitals because of unfair compensation for their labor. She was on salary and working 60-70 hours a week in a hospital emergency room. Unfortunately, according to her, they couldn't pay a fair wage because of hospital operation cost overruns due to "no-pays." Moreover, the hospital absolutely refused to hire enough nurses to properly cover the required shifts. The hospital did hire nurses on working visas (when they could get them) that would work for less than what would normally be considered a fair wage. Of course all that did was undermine the American citizen nurses demands for a fair wage. I'm not saying the situation my sister was in applies to every hospital in the United States, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it applied to many of them, especially in the the southwestern region of the U.S.

My sister ended up leaving the hospital and going back to school She now teaches nursing classes at a university.

Bottom line, she was being worked to-death and not being compensated fairly for her efforts. It all goes back to the "cheap labor" you were speaking about. The hospitals really aren't to blame, it's the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) that's causing the problem. The EMTLA has been directly responsible for over 80 hospital closing in California. Many see the "cheap labor" injection as a solution to a the problem created by our federal government and the U.S. Supreme Court that requires all hospital to provide care for illegal immigrants, regardless of their ability to pay. Basically the hospitals can't afford to pay a fair wage to the American nurses as long as they are required to care for hoards of illegal immigrants - hence the need for nurses that will work for less than what used to be considered a fair wage.

Our government created a problem and now it is attempting to fix it at the expense of working Americans!

We are only in a so-called Nursing Shortage because the seats are being given to FOREIGN STUDENTS BEFORE AMERICAN STUDENTS.
The seats are being given to 3rd world students BEFORE European students.

3rd world Nurses are allowed to stay and a great percentage of European nurses must leave after they've graduated.

The "shortage" was created for the purpose of bringing in CHEAP NURSING LABOR and opening our borders. This has been going on for quite a few years!

.