New York Nurses Take Back Their Union, Push for Safe Staffing 

Mark Brenner |  May 18, 2012

http://labornotes.org/2012/05/new-york-nurses-take-back-their-union-push-safe-staffing

New York nurses upended the 100-year power imbalance
between bedside nurses and nurse managers yesterday,
voting to bar supervisors from elected office in the
New York State Nurses Association.

NYSNA simultaneously launched a public campaign to make
New York the second state that legally mandates
staffing levels for nurses, pushing a nurse-to-patient
ratio bill similar to one adopted in California in
2004.

Thursday's one-two punch, at a mass meeting attended by
2,400 members, showcased the reform agenda promoted by
a slate of nurses who took over NYSNA leadership last
fall. "This has been a long time coming," said Pat
Holloman, a veteran NYSNA member from Mount Sinai
hospital. "After so many false starts and stops, it's
hard to believe we made it."

Members of the Staffing, Security, and Strength slate
ran for office pledging to take a more aggressive stand
against hospital management and to make structural
changes that would put the union squarely in the hands
of the staff nurses who comprise 99 percent of the
association's membership.

Earlier this year the new leaders made good on the
first part of the platform, launching a coordinated
contract campaign that shook up management at four of
New York's busiest hospitals in January. The union beat
back a laundry list of concessions.

Split Personality

The bylaw changes that nurses approved are the product
of many years of struggle inside the union, against a
bizarre structure that often left the union hamstrung.

Because of a holdover from the days of professional
associations that pre-dated nurse unionism, nurse
managers were eligible to serve on the NYSNA board of
directors. Indeed, nurse managers frequently controlled
the board.

Managerial involvement in unions is, of course,
prohibited by labor law. To stay within legal bounds,
the board of directors couldn't oversee the central
work of the organization--union representation,
organizing, and bargaining--despite the fact that the
lion's share of NYSNA's resources came from union
members and was spent on union activity.

The board could not debate or discuss the union's
future or vote on any matters relating to the union.
That left union functions, including decision-making
over bargaining strategy, resource allocation and what
grievances and arbitrations to invest time and money
in, controlled by staff.

Elected leaders were marginalized. The union had a
delegate assembly composed of bedside nurses, which
ostensibly set policy, but as an advisory body without
control of the union's resources and agenda, it was
ignored.

By voting to give power to leaders elected by bedside
nurses, New York is following the lead of nurses in
many states, from Massachusetts to California.

The tension between staff nurses and managers bubbled
up in most statewide nursing organizations over the
past 20 years, driving many to abandon the American
Nurses Association. The 115-year-old professional
association formulates standards for nursing practice,
and opposed nurse unionism for years. ANA includes
managers in its ranks and leadership.

Such divisions fueled the creation of National Nurses
United (AFL-CIO) in 2009, bringing together unions in
California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and
Minnesota with the United Association of Nurses,
formerly the union arm of the ANA.

The ability of the thousands of NYSNA nurses to chart
their own course, ensuring that patient care and
bedside nursing are the priority of the organization,
is a reminder that unions can change based on member
involvement. Mary Fitzgerald, a case manager at
Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, said, "Nurses
are so pumped that their voices are being heard."

The next step is a campaign for safe staffing, learning
from the California model that has improved patient
safety and quality of care by limiting the number of
patients per nurse.

NYSNA members adopted a staffing ratios bill as their
top legislative priority for 2013, but leaders know the
only way to achieve their goal is to mobilize thousands
of members, allied organizations, and communities to
share their vision--and fight for it.

"The members are more involved than I've ever seen
them," said Marva Wade, an OR nurse in Manhattan. "Now
the real work starts."




New York nurses shift to union-style format

The 37,000-member New York State Nurses Association
voted Thursday to become more like a traditional labor
union than a professional association.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120517/HEALTH_CARE/120519887

By Daniel Massey

May 17, 2012 3:51 p.m.

Following a leadership shakeup last fall, members of
the 37,000-member New York State Nurses Association
voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve bylaw changes
that will transform the organization from a
professional association into a more traditional labor
union.

Members opted Thursday to give more power to elected
leaders to set the course of the union; to ban
supervisors from serving as union leaders; and to
replace the position of CEO with an executive director.

The association traditionally had a board that included
supervisors, which limited its ability to discuss union
issues. A delegate assembly made up of non-supervisory
nurses had only an advisory role.

"People wanted to change the structure so members can
have control over the organization," said Judy
Sheridan-Gonzalez, an emergency room nurse at
Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and a NYSNA vice
president. "Members are going to have a voice in their
union that they never had and it means the union can
aggressively pursue the issues that matter to them."

The limited opposition to the changes came mostly from
nurses worried that being a more traditional union
would mean the nurses were less professional.

Also Thursday, the union kicked off a campaign to get
the state Legislature to pass a law mandating
staff-to-patient ratios. The ratios are currently
negotiated via collective bargaining.

"Our union is unique," said Patricia Donahue, a nurse
from Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, N.Y. "We speak for
ourselves, but we also speak for our communities and
our patients and their need for quality health care."

In a memo, the Greater New York Hospital Association
wrote that it "strongly opposes" the legislation.
"Requirements to comply with fixed, prescriptive and
arbitrary staff-patient ratios may lead to closure of
nursing units because of a shortage of appropriately
trained nursing staff," the Association argued.

Bruce McIver, who has negotiated contracts with NYSNA
as president of the League of Voluntary Hospitals, said
the changes will not affect his work.

"I don't think it means a whole lot [will be] different
for the industry," he said. "From the perspective I've
dealt with them, they were a pretty traditional union
anyway."

Labor experts agreed the vote wouldn't change the
union's relationship with the industry, but said it
raised interesting questions about the future of nurse
unions in the city. About 6,000 nurses in the area are
represented by 1199 SEIU, which has historically
believed in one union for all health care workers.

"The question is, what happens to nurses in New York?"
one labor expert asked. "Do you continue to have
competing nurse unions?"

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