National Nurses United

NewsBriefs.REV_April 5/8/10 3:08 PM Page 10 NEWS BRIEFS Ready, Set, Organize! NATIONAL A s a registered nurse in North Dakota, Barb WarrenBloms never paid much attention to the union organizing drives that periodically happened at her hospital. "I never went to any meetings, but word would spread about how bad the union was," she said. Then Warren-Bloms started working at a hospital in Minnesota, where RNs were represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association, part of National Nurses United. There, she discovered, pay was based on a nurse's experience, instead of "random" like it was in North Dakota, and working conditions were better. The difference, she concluded, was union representation. "Once you learn what power you can have, it's hard not to do more," she says. "My goal used to be to be in management. Now I realize I want to be a leader among my fellow nurses." Warren-Bloms was one of over 75 nurses and staff organizers who gathered in Berkeley, California over three days in March to discuss how to organize nurses around the country and strengthen RN unity in healthcare facilities that are already unionized. At the first-ever National Nurses United Organizing Institute, RNs shared their experiences in organizing campaigns, got fired up to take on new chal10 N AT I O N A L N U R S E lenges, and learned concrete skills that they could bring back to their own hospitals. The conference kicked off with presentations about the state of the labor movement and the dire need for organizing. Only 19 percent of RNs nationally are organized, compared with 51 percent of teachers and 65 percent of firefighters, National Nurses United organizing director David Johnson told the group. "Imagine what the world would look like if we had 65 percent of nurses under union contract," he said. "We would have a different political climate." The nurses then broke up into small groups for role-playing, followed by panels where newly-organized nurses talked about how they gained union representation at their workplaces. On one panel, Kansas City RN Sandy Baldrie explained how she and her colleagues at Menorah Medical Center, a hospital owned by HCA, recently organized with the help of other HCA nurses from around the country. The show of solidarity helped overcome some of the resignation and cynicism of nurses at her facility, she said. "Nurses said 'Oh yeah, like we'll ever get relief nurses so I don't have to bring my cell phone to lunch.' We showed them, yes, we can, we can put it in our contract. I felt invigorated," she said. Role-playing exercises helped RNs understand the first rule of organizing: listening. In one small group, nurses sat with former California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee president Kay McVay, RN, who played the part of a shy, quiet nurse colleague. Through careful probing, group members discovered that McVay's character was worried about new technologies that were interfering with her ability to connect with patients, and the group engaged in a discussion about how to solve the problem. A key theme at the conference was the need to engage newer nurses, who often don't understand that the benefits they enjoy at their facilities have come as a result of years of struggle. One of those younger nurses was Rosie Holland, RN, a former political science major who said she had learned more at the institute than she had in years of studying for her degree. "I didn't realize everything the union has done to affect my work environment and patient safety," she said. "I'm going to share more of those stories and ask newer nurses to be more involved, even if it's something as simple as passing out a leaflet." Katie Oppenheim, RN, said the conference had inspired her to do more walkthroughs at the University of Michigan, where she leads the local bargaining unit, to organize members around issues like swine flu and the erosion of benefits at the hospital. Massachusetts RN Betsy Prescott, a cardiac case manager at a Catholic hospital, said she had realized that some of the problems she and her colleagues were contending with, such as management demands that nurses use inflexible scripts while talking to patients, were trends around the country. "We're all fighting the same battles, and we've got to fight them as one," she said. "My goal is that every nurse in my hospital system become a member of NNU." —Staff Report

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