NewsBriefs.REV_April 6/23/10 7:33 PM Page 4
NEWS BRIEFS
TEXAS
n a dramatic string of victories in a
historically non-union state, nearly 2,000
RNs at five Texas hospitals voted in just
two short weeks in late May and early
June to join National Nurses United.
The elections mark a new era of activism
for nurses in the Lone Star State, which has
the third-largest number of RNs in the
country after New York and California.
At victory parties at Del Sol and Las Palmas
Medical Centers in El Paso, Rio Grande
Regional Hospital in McAllen, Corpus Christi
Medical Center in Corpus Christi, and Valley
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NNU-Represented
Facilities in Texas
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Regional Medical Center in Brownsville, jubilant nurses celebrated gaining a collective voice
W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G
after struggling to improve patient care and
working conditions at the hospitals.
"It was time for a change," said Monica
Sanchez, an RN at Del Sol Medical Center.
"Everyone is realizing that there is strength
in numbers and together we can help our
patients, be better patient advocates and
have better working conditions."
The nurses' official bargaining representative will be National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas, an affiliate of NNU that also
represents nurses at Cypress-Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston, the only other private
hospital in the state where RNs have unionized.
Nurses at the hospitals are currently
electing Facility Bargaining Councils made
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MAP: KUBRAK78 | ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
NNU Fever Sweeps
the Lone Star State
