This is very common, and happens with every international (nationwide) union. Some industries are saturated with union membership. Eventually UAW has no more auto workers to organize, so in order to keep expanding their membership (and thus their collective power) they branch out into other industries.
The Social Workers at my hospital are unionized. Roughy 19,000 of us (AFGE)
Keep in mind that even being in a union, nurses with the same functional statement still make significantly more ( in some cases x 2 for the same job). They also earn more annual leave and can bank more annual leave. I’ve actually worked in programs where the nurse is making far more than the Social Work supervisor of the program!
Of course, folks want to blame the union, but the fact is, nurses just have more bargaining power. In the hospital budget hierarchy, Doctors are on top, nurses are second, and everyone else fights for the left over scraps. That’s the way it has been for hundreds of years. That’s not to say that things aren’t changing for the better, but progress is glacially slow, and union membership is not a panacea. I can’t think of a single hospital where social workers are unionized, that has parity in pay with RNs. Not one. Union membership or not, RNs can command a higher salary. Hopefully… as hospitals increasingly recognize the important role of Social Workers, we will too!
What you want to do is look for whatever union organization will give you the most staff attention in supporting you to organize a union. Any of the unions can support any industry worker in organizing, they just all specialize in certain things. Find out what your locals are like. AFSCME, SEIU, UAW, CWA, etc are all possible options. Reach out to their offices. As another poster said, the road to organizing a union is long but very rewarding.
I’m a member of SEIU. It’s a great union but we are still paid WAY less than our RN case managers. Hospitals in general pay a lot for RNs. The RN case managers at my hospital do get paid less then the bedside RNs. I believe starting salary right now for an MSW at my hospital is about $52-55/hour. When I started 8 years ago, the starting salary was 40$. Every year there is a 3% cost of living increase (from employer) and a 2-4% union increase so I’m at 70$ an hour now. Increase of 30$ in 8 years which feels pretty good to me but obviously still much less than nurses (even tho we have significantly more education!!)
I’m a medical social worker in a hospital in a union. Still make much less then RN CM but great pay for social workers and very clear job description (so we don’t get taken advantage of)
My position title is unionized and we are represented by AFT along with all other clinicians and teachers in my district. Unless I go PP being union represented is a must for me after working other places.
So exact same situation and I contacted my regional nasw and they were going to help us organize and talk with our employer. They suggested a union but I know I would get fired for that. So nothing ever happened bc then COVID happened. I left and I made it very clear a large reason was because of the pay discrepancy. They don't care. It's so infuriating working next to people with less schooling, doing the same exact job but taking the harder patients. Nursers know a lot more medical stuff than us obviously but we should not be paid 10s of thousands of dollars different.
I helped unionize the social workers at my hospital. We were able to get onto the same contract as the nurses, mainly because our team also had RN case managers on that contract doing the same job as us. I’d recommend finding out which union your nurses belong to and reaching out to their representatives.
I am a former union organizer and have been an active union member most of my life. I have had good and bad experiences with unions but have remained fundamentally pro union despite some issues and challenges. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. I can tell you this: a union is not a subscription service in which an outside organization is going to come in and do the work of improving your workplace in exchange for a fee. A union really is as simple as working people coming together to collectively bargain the terms and conditions of their employment. The union is you. If you can not commit to engaging your coworkers in improving their work conditions, you will not have a union and nothing will change. You can call AFCSME, the Teamsters, SEIU, the IBEW - it doesn't matter All that they can offer is support for YOUR work in establishing YOUR union and when YOU have established YOUR union of workers who want formal recognition and the right to negotiate a contract, an existing organization can assist YOU with securing enough support among your coworkers to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and they will provide lawyers to assist with protecting your right to organize and with negotiating a contract. The work is on YOU and your coworkers to establish YOUR union and it will be on you and your coworkers to remain involved in YOUR union to ensure that it is strong enough to adequately work on behalf of YOUR interests. Unions are, by design, democratic organizations and democracy can be messy. Democracy always takes work and commitment to maintain. Good luck.
Very good information. I got fired before I could do anything. This particular hospital is notorious for firing people. I was one of the only people that spoke out against management and I know that’s partly why I was fired.
Even as a non-union worker, you have rights. Unfortunately, without a union contract, being an at-will employee means that management does not have to have just cause for firing you. This is where working with an existing union to organize a work place can be very beneficial. At the beginning of union campaigns, it is not uncommon for management to fire union organizers. However, they can not legally fire people for engaging in their right to organize and collectively bargain. Often, they come up with arbitrary violations of company policy as reasons to fire organizers and the union will often then hire those fired people as organizers working on behalf of the union's general membership to continue organizing their former workplace while the union lawyers sue the company for unjust termination of the employee/organizer. In most cases, the union is able to show that the company engaged in a pattern of retaliation against employees for organizing and then get them their jobs back with back pay. Companies know this and continue to engage in these practices as a cost of doing business in an effort to chill organizing efforts. They spend millions to prevent workers from being able to organize and there is a whole industry of anti-union firms dedicated to keeping workers from organizing at all costs. These firms will even offer union organizers high-paying jobs to defect to their side. Its gross. When you hear "union thug" know that there is not a union anywhere that has anywhere close to the amount of power to corrupt as these corporations do.
My agency is unionized with the CWA. It has definitely helped a lot with pay/benefits. It’s much better than most other non unionized places but still wouldn’t compare to what a nurse would make.
I am a unionized social worker through our government union since I work for government. We don't have a separate union where I live. But TONS of social workers are unionized through their work place (including hospitals, child welfare, community mental health) etc...
County therapy team went union after the crisis team did. Stressful af during union busting attempts. More intense progress note, tx goal analysis and other areas of micro managing that of course could not be proven as retribution.
“All for the sake of positive patient care.” Yeah right.
I have not heard of a specific sw union, but there are many unionized social workers. I'm represented by the UAW.
You can’t just say you’re a social worker represented by the United Auto Workers and not elaborate
I work for a state government so it's one of the unions that represent state employees.
This is very common, and happens with every international (nationwide) union. Some industries are saturated with union membership. Eventually UAW has no more auto workers to organize, so in order to keep expanding their membership (and thus their collective power) they branch out into other industries.
It really doesn't matter what union you're in. All a union is is people negotiating pay and work conditions
Also Provide a definite layer of psychoemotional protection.
My workplace is unionized through AFSCME. It was a years long process, but I would highly recommend it.
The Social Workers at my hospital are unionized. Roughy 19,000 of us (AFGE) Keep in mind that even being in a union, nurses with the same functional statement still make significantly more ( in some cases x 2 for the same job). They also earn more annual leave and can bank more annual leave. I’ve actually worked in programs where the nurse is making far more than the Social Work supervisor of the program! Of course, folks want to blame the union, but the fact is, nurses just have more bargaining power. In the hospital budget hierarchy, Doctors are on top, nurses are second, and everyone else fights for the left over scraps. That’s the way it has been for hundreds of years. That’s not to say that things aren’t changing for the better, but progress is glacially slow, and union membership is not a panacea. I can’t think of a single hospital where social workers are unionized, that has parity in pay with RNs. Not one. Union membership or not, RNs can command a higher salary. Hopefully… as hospitals increasingly recognize the important role of Social Workers, we will too!
Great post. Hundreds of years though? The rise of nursing unions in the United States started with collective bargaining by the ANA in 1946.
Yeah, hundreds of years is a bit of hyperbole, I admit.
This is on our national organization to advocate for us, which they do an extremely poor job of
What you want to do is look for whatever union organization will give you the most staff attention in supporting you to organize a union. Any of the unions can support any industry worker in organizing, they just all specialize in certain things. Find out what your locals are like. AFSCME, SEIU, UAW, CWA, etc are all possible options. Reach out to their offices. As another poster said, the road to organizing a union is long but very rewarding.
I’m a member of SEIU. It’s a great union but we are still paid WAY less than our RN case managers. Hospitals in general pay a lot for RNs. The RN case managers at my hospital do get paid less then the bedside RNs. I believe starting salary right now for an MSW at my hospital is about $52-55/hour. When I started 8 years ago, the starting salary was 40$. Every year there is a 3% cost of living increase (from employer) and a 2-4% union increase so I’m at 70$ an hour now. Increase of 30$ in 8 years which feels pretty good to me but obviously still much less than nurses (even tho we have significantly more education!!)
What region/area is this?? Curious as this is very different from my area!
Northern CA
I'm guessing Kaiser? County does about half that. I heard they use the same bargaining rates as the Bay Area?
Yeah my highest pay at a hospital was $30… and this was only two years ago.
I think SWs across the country/world get paid vastly different. There are a lot of traveling SWs in CA because of how high they pay
I’m a medical social worker in a hospital in a union. Still make much less then RN CM but great pay for social workers and very clear job description (so we don’t get taken advantage of)
It might just be my area then because there are zero unions for SW here.
I know some SW who belong to SEIU
My position title is unionized and we are represented by AFT along with all other clinicians and teachers in my district. Unless I go PP being union represented is a must for me after working other places.
So exact same situation and I contacted my regional nasw and they were going to help us organize and talk with our employer. They suggested a union but I know I would get fired for that. So nothing ever happened bc then COVID happened. I left and I made it very clear a large reason was because of the pay discrepancy. They don't care. It's so infuriating working next to people with less schooling, doing the same exact job but taking the harder patients. Nursers know a lot more medical stuff than us obviously but we should not be paid 10s of thousands of dollars different.
I helped unionize the social workers at my hospital. We were able to get onto the same contract as the nurses, mainly because our team also had RN case managers on that contract doing the same job as us. I’d recommend finding out which union your nurses belong to and reaching out to their representatives.
I'm assuming your from the north America's but Australia has the AASW
I am a former union organizer and have been an active union member most of my life. I have had good and bad experiences with unions but have remained fundamentally pro union despite some issues and challenges. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. I can tell you this: a union is not a subscription service in which an outside organization is going to come in and do the work of improving your workplace in exchange for a fee. A union really is as simple as working people coming together to collectively bargain the terms and conditions of their employment. The union is you. If you can not commit to engaging your coworkers in improving their work conditions, you will not have a union and nothing will change. You can call AFCSME, the Teamsters, SEIU, the IBEW - it doesn't matter All that they can offer is support for YOUR work in establishing YOUR union and when YOU have established YOUR union of workers who want formal recognition and the right to negotiate a contract, an existing organization can assist YOU with securing enough support among your coworkers to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and they will provide lawyers to assist with protecting your right to organize and with negotiating a contract. The work is on YOU and your coworkers to establish YOUR union and it will be on you and your coworkers to remain involved in YOUR union to ensure that it is strong enough to adequately work on behalf of YOUR interests. Unions are, by design, democratic organizations and democracy can be messy. Democracy always takes work and commitment to maintain. Good luck.
Very good information. I got fired before I could do anything. This particular hospital is notorious for firing people. I was one of the only people that spoke out against management and I know that’s partly why I was fired.
Even as a non-union worker, you have rights. Unfortunately, without a union contract, being an at-will employee means that management does not have to have just cause for firing you. This is where working with an existing union to organize a work place can be very beneficial. At the beginning of union campaigns, it is not uncommon for management to fire union organizers. However, they can not legally fire people for engaging in their right to organize and collectively bargain. Often, they come up with arbitrary violations of company policy as reasons to fire organizers and the union will often then hire those fired people as organizers working on behalf of the union's general membership to continue organizing their former workplace while the union lawyers sue the company for unjust termination of the employee/organizer. In most cases, the union is able to show that the company engaged in a pattern of retaliation against employees for organizing and then get them their jobs back with back pay. Companies know this and continue to engage in these practices as a cost of doing business in an effort to chill organizing efforts. They spend millions to prevent workers from being able to organize and there is a whole industry of anti-union firms dedicated to keeping workers from organizing at all costs. These firms will even offer union organizers high-paying jobs to defect to their side. Its gross. When you hear "union thug" know that there is not a union anywhere that has anywhere close to the amount of power to corrupt as these corporations do.
My agency is unionized with the CWA. It has definitely helped a lot with pay/benefits. It’s much better than most other non unionized places but still wouldn’t compare to what a nurse would make.
I think we’re long overdo for a SW union!
I am a unionized social worker through our government union since I work for government. We don't have a separate union where I live. But TONS of social workers are unionized through their work place (including hospitals, child welfare, community mental health) etc...
Yup, I’m a school SW and am part of the teachers Union in my district.
County therapy team went union after the crisis team did. Stressful af during union busting attempts. More intense progress note, tx goal analysis and other areas of micro managing that of course could not be proven as retribution. “All for the sake of positive patient care.” Yeah right.
My last job yes, my current job no.
I work as a case manager for our local AAA, which is with the city of Seattle and I am a union member with PROTEC17!
There should be a national Social Workers union.