New 150,000-Strong Nurses Union Emerges
As Leading Fighter for RNs and Health Care

After a grim year, when organized labor was faced with a host of still insoluble problems, exacerbated by the layoffs and home foreclosures of the recession, it is a relief to have something to boast about: the creation of a new union of 150,000 nurses at a convention in Phoenix Ariz. on Dec. 7, 2009.

At the two-day meeting, the 200 energetic delegates created a constitution and an initial agenda, elected its officers in a new structure, and found time to demonstrate and picket in front of the headquarters of the Arizona Hospital.

The new union, National Nurses United (NNU) will be in a stronger position to organize RNs around the country, from Maine to Hawaii, in a campaign to improve their working conditions, but it will also be a major advocate for better patient care for the millions of people with serious illnesses in the nation’s hospitals.

Some of the key features of the initial NNU agenda include:

• Defending and advancing the interests of direct care RNs and patients.

• Passing key patient care reforms, such as national nurse-to-patient ratios

• Developing stronger international; ties with nurses around the world.

Nurses continue to receive broad public respect for their dedication to improve patient care. The annual Gallup survey on honesty and ethics in 20 professional occupations has given top-ranking to nurses in each of eight years, with bankers, business executives, politicians and car salesmen far down the list.

National Nurses United appears to have developed a unique leadership structure that seeks to fit in with its concept of sharing power and responsibility. It has elected three co-presidents, instead of one, like most unions, and 11 vice presidents, with an executive director, Rose Ann deMoro, the longtime leader of the California Nurses. Association. The three RNs elected co-presidents are: Karen Higgins, Deborah Burger and Jean Ross. Martha Kuhl, CNA-NNOC treasurer, was elected secretary-treasurer. There were no opposition candidates.

The impetus for building the NNU came from the California Nurses Association, which, through aggressive organizing, had grown from 60,000 members to 85,000. CNA decided to expand its reach nationally by setting up the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, referred to as CNA/NNOC. After eight months of negotiations, the United American Nurses and the Massachusetts Nurses Association agreed to merge with CNA to create the largest professional nurses organization in U.S. history.

One of NNU’s first priorities is taking part in the nation’s health-care reform debate. It continues to be a leading voice for universal, single payer health-care coverage, in line with H.R. 676, the bill originally introduced in Congress by Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan. The NNU has a seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council and played an important role in getting the Federation’s convention to endorse “not for profit” health-care insurance coverage.

Nurses Prove That Unions Can Grow even in Hard Times

It is worth repeating that the California Nurses Association increased its membership from 60,000 to 85,000 during a period when many unions gave up on organizing, waiting for the time when recruiting new members would presumably become easier with the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. CNA disproved the conventional wisdom that when economic times are hard, it becomes increasingly difficult to organize workers, because they fear they can lose their job if they join a union.

The NNU has a formidable recruiting job ahead of it, because only about 20 percent of the nation’s 2.5 million nurses in the U.S. belong to unions. Furthermore, it will have to insist that the NNU is the legitimate union for nurses and fight off all raiding attempts by other AFL-CIO unions as violations of Articles XX and XXI of the Federation’s Constitution.

NNU has an advantage, which other unions do not exploit. It has an enthusiastic membership that is actively involved in organizing campaigns and believes in what it is fighting for. In many unions, the rank-and-file are not called upon to participate in building their union. That’s an important difference.—Harry Kelber.

LaborTalk (30) will be posted here on January 7, 2010 and on our web sites: http://www.laboreducator.org/ and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.