Nursing and teaching are the only majority-union professions that are predominantly women and also, coincidentally, constantly memed as professions for lazy mean girls, abusers, and bullies who make too much money.
Meanwhile, police unions regularly help their membership avoid accountability, and politicians slap their endorsements on their campaign signs.
in my experience people making fun of teachers and nurses as lazy abusive mean girl bullies are mostly internet opinion-havers (who are often ACAB in theory but, yes, do not like to point nearly as often out that at least in the US police unions are frequently white supremacist gangs, "LOL"). politicians either court teachers and nurses or abruptly cut their funding. not disagreeing, but I do think these are two completely different groups of people we're talking about here?
I'm not entirely sure what you're asking or looking for. Yes, they are two completely different groups. As far as I know, there isn't a Nurses and Police Union.
Nurses' and Teachers' professional associations also frequently help their members avoid accountability, it must be said, including after assaults, deaths, and sexual abuse of people in their care.
Okay I realized I had to look into the matter more, and bargaining units are as follows:
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) "represents over 800,000 workers in nearly every agency of the federal and D.C. governments, spread across over 900 local unions. Our members are nurses, correctional officers, doctors, Social Security professionals, TSA agents, law enforcement officers, park rangers, and so much more."
Separately, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL–CIO (AFSCME) represents "62,000 corrections officers and 23,000 corrections employees" [1] and over 60,000 nurses [2]. They also say their members are "patrolling our streets, securing our airports and enforcing our laws (a)s uniformed officers and civilian law enforcement workers" [3] but do not specify the rank-and-file numbers for that.
"#also. controversial maybe??? but if i found out that my childhood bullies were becoming nurses#i would be glad that they had a change of heart and now want to help people." - @imsorryimlate
So, as the excellent @rotationalsymmetry put it:
"That’s absolutely missing the point.
While those are all “helper” professions and they very much are pink collar (and are underpaid, that’s not an incompatible idea), they’re also ones that involve power over vulnerable people’s lives. (And I’ve only encountered it as a comparison to, say, male bullies becoming cops, it’s not like men aren’t being mentioned here.)
Secretaries/administrative assistants aren’t on that list for a reason. Flight attendants aren’t on that list. Housecleaners aren’t on that list. Receptionists. Customer service representatives. Dental hygienists. The people who style hair or do nails. That’s not a list of pink collar jobs. It’s specifically (pink collar) positions where if you want to abuse people you’re relatively likely to get away with it.
It can both be true that “nurses who care for disabled people need better pay” and “nurses who care for disabled people have a lot of opportunities to abuse their power and that’s something worth talking about.”
Women aren’t immune from treating people badly because they’re women, or because women are underpaid. They’re sure not immune from specifically seeking out jobs that will allow them to be cruel without any consequences to them, if they get personal satisfaction out of being cruel.
You are trying to shut down a conversation about abuse."
Border Patrol agents belong to the same federal workers union as VA nurses, a situation some of Pretti’s colleagues are determined to change
rest in power Alex Pretti of AFGE Local 3669 killed by federal agent members of AFGE. god help us face this rot and violence with honesty.
