A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

I am on board for the union and thank you for getting the info - but, sm

Posted: Oct 05, 2012

What about India? I have always been under the impression that we are a minority in this company, we being US MTs. Won't Nuance just send all the work to India and be done with us? I wonder if joining/forming a union would protect us from that... Just wanted to get discussion going about this. Of course, they are sending the work overseas because it is cost-effective, and maybe I'm wrong, but I think we are in the very small minority and most of the work is done in India. I just had an E-mail from TS yesterday that requested OT commitment yesterday and through the weekend because of "India unrest." This clearly makes it seem like they would be in crisis mode if India were not in the mix, but would they be in crisis mode if we all strike? I don't know. There are some accounts that do not offshore, but mine does and I believe that most of them do.

good thought - but could india handle all the work

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm all for the union myself. I think with the right union they could find a way to protect us with wages, work being sent offshore, etc. Perhaps something could go into place such as we are contracted to work x hours during the day, then that work is to be there for us to work, as most of the work is not there when we run out b/c it is in India. If we would all walk off the job for a day or two even, would there be enough workers in India to handle all of the work flow from all the accounts? If we could be successful in demanding what we are deserved to have and that would come in the form of a strike of some sort to even be finally heard or recognized, the company would suffer greatly that time that we refused to work.

No our jobs are not secure, at least I do not feel secure. However, if the majority of MTs walked off the job today, even just with Nuance, they could not hire enough experienced MTs US based or Indian based to push the work out.

In essence the entire medical community would come to a halt. Without our work, coders can't do their job. Coders can't do their job, claims aren't submitted to insurance companies or to the patient for private pay. Without claims being submitted hospitals/clinics, etc and doctors will not be paid. Then you will have the questions from the facilities as to why the MTs are now refusing to work, what is the problem. It would be spiraling event, but somebody would actually have to start listening and start negotiating to get the work back online to be done.

The only way for any of this to work is for the MTs to stick together and stop all the snarking at each other. Nope I cannot afford to lose my job, I can't afford to take time off but look at the alternative we are facing. We either stick together and do something about all of this or we shut our mouths (our fingers on the board) and just continue on as is. You can't attempt to change things by sitting here complaining about it, you can change things by doing something about it, or at least trying. I know I will probably get snarky replies by my post, but it is what it is. I am sick of working long hours 7 days a week on dirt dictations to barely make it by. Not just anybody can do our job and yet we are paid as if anybody could come in off the street and sit at a computer and start typing. If that were the case, I would put my kids to work in transcription b/c they all can type.

As i'm rambling, I'm just trying to say, we need to figure it out and do something about it. We all value ourselves and we all know we are worth better than our pay and treatment here and we all know that we can do our jobs very well. This has been long coming. These issues are not new just nobody is standing up so why would they even think of changing it, they wouldn't.

It does not have to be about unions - It is about getting noticed

[ In Reply To ..]
If MTs stopped working, we would get noticed. There would be a back log that India would not be able to handle.

I did not work back in April for several of my scheduled days, and no one noticed.

If we keep talking and not taking action, that will give them time to transition even more and finally all of it overseas. We don't want them to be prepared. We want to just slam them.

Walk away, please. Stop work, please. Take all day to do one report.

Don't come on here and talk to me about compromising patient care or doing the right thing.

We have all been compromised, disrespected, stressed out. Who are these companies to hire employees who are on foodstamps and collecting unemployment while employed. The MTSOs are not only screwing us but the taxpayers who are paying for our foodstamps and our unemployment.

We need to put a stop to their practices now. And we need to stop taking their treatment of us now. We are participating in our own demise and disrespect by allowing it to continue.

It will not stop until we make it stop.

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