RNs' rights to be in unions under heavy attack

[bobbieinok]

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2006/july/page.jsp?itemID=27916438

July 10, 2006

Nurses to Protest from California to Maine This Week To Defend Their Rights to Unionize, Advocate for Patients

Citing an imminent and irreparable threat to nurses’ democratic right to union representation and their ability to safely advocate for their patients, thousands of registered nurses will take to the streets this week.

....

At issue is an imminent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a series of cases that could unfairly reclassify hundreds of thousands of RNs as “supervisors,” and thus ineligible for union representation, and the protection it provides for their patient advocacy.

Without such rights, the ability of RNs to advocate for their patients, without the threat of retaliation, will be fundamentally compromised. Studies have documented a strong correlation between patient safety and improved patient outcomes when nurses have the protection of representation.

....

CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the threatened ruling “a backlash from employers, abetted by a labor board that is increasingly hostile to working people, who are desperate to reverse the gains won by CNA and others that puts the well-being of nurses and patients ahead of the wealth and profits of corporate medical care.”

....

“Corporate hospital employers also want to roll back the progress of a predominantly female work force which has finally begun to win the compensation and retirement security commensurate with their expertise and education after years of low pay and substandard benefits and pensions, and return to the days when nurses had few rights at the bedside.”

....

The scope of the potential ruling is unknown. It could extend to just some lead RNs known as “charge” nurses. But a number of the most anti-union employers, management attorneys, and anti-union consultants want the restriction to apply to all RNs.

more....

[readmoreoften]

1. None of us will be able to unionize soon.

I already have lost that right. Good luck nurses.

[annabanana]

2. Most of the Nurses I know are pretty tough broads...

(In the best possible sense!)

I want to see them out there kickin' butts and takin' names!