Nursing Union Education

What is a union?

A union is a group of people engaged in “collective bargaining.” It is a group of people with similar interests (like nursing) that use their strength in numbers to make working conditions better for themselves.

What do they do?

Being part of a union means that you have the legal right to have a seat at the table with management and administration. Your union represents your interests. It allows the group to have one voice to fight for your rights as an employee, for example working conditions, policy changes, wages, benefits (retirement, health benefits, etc.), and safety. You can have a union representative present in the event you are called to discuss your actions, your performance review, a conflict resolution meeting, or just about your employment in general.

Doesn’t my job’s HR department do this already?

It depends on the circumstances. The company’s HR department’s goal is to minimize the company’s risk. If it turns out that you are the risk, you can not count on them to defend you.

You need somebody with your best interest in mind–that’s what a union does. There’s a reason that large corporations are against unions. According to the NNU’s document,

“most hospitals hire professional consultants to stop nurses from organizing…[they] pay consultants $2,000-4,000 per RN.”

They want to stop employees from unionizing because they know that unions will cost them even more money, as they will likely be forced to raise wages and spend more money on your benefits and rights.

The company has lawyers, Risk Management, and HR on their side. Who is on your side? Have you seen other nurses have their voices ignored? Having a union gives us all a voice.

How has National Nurses United (NNU) helped other nurses?

According to the NNU’s 101 Guide, they’ve helped nurses get:

increased compensation, with salaries up to $92.04/hr for RNs with new grad rates up to $51.73/hr,
Education leave of up to 12 days per year,
Up to 13 paid holidays per year,
Overtime rates of time+half after 8 hours and double-time after 12 hours,
Full coverage for RN and family healthcare (health, dental, and vision) fully paid by the employer with no employee contribution required,
No cancellation (RNs cannot be cancelled from a regularly-assigned shift),
No mandatory weekends after 20 years of service,
Five weeks of vacation after 10 years,
Fifteen days of sick leave after 5 years,
Preventing mandatory overtime,
Retiree health benefits at age 55.

They’ve also helped increase safety by decreasing nurse-to-patient ratios in California, which has been shown to prevent deaths by increasing time with patients.

ICU, NICU, PACU, ICU patients in ED, L&D are 1:2
OR, trauma patients in ED are 1:1
Step down is 1:3
Antepartum, postpartum couplets, pediatrics, ED, telemetry, and other specialties are 1:4
Med/surg is 1:5
Postpartum womens’ only and psych are 1:6

Does this mean I have to go on Strike?

Strikes are rare and are used as a last resort. If the union and the hospital has not come to a resolution, RNs vote to strike. Patients are protected from harm because there is an extensive Patient Protection Task Force that issues a 10-day notice of the strike, which allows hospitals to prepare (not admit new patients and transfer out patients they already have, etc.). There’s in-depth information on this on page 18 of the 101 document.

This sounds too good to be true. Has it worked before?

The NNU represents more than 150,000 RNs. The biggest hospital systems in the country have hospitals that are represented by NNU.

Here’s a list of HCA facilities that they represent, including four in Texas.

And a list of Tenet facilities they represent, including two in Texas.

How can I help?

First, fill out the confidential form that shows your intent to vote to unionize your hospital.

Next, share this information with other RNs, so that they too can fill out the form. Use common sense; don’t discuss this at work, as you could face disciplinary action. Remember that the hospitals do not want you to unionize to fight for your rights.