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Super Union:1 RH Opener 2/28/09 1:13 AM Page 12 RN Nation CNA/NNOC Joins Forces with United American Nurses and Massachusetts Nurses to Form National Super Union C na/nnoc, united american nurses, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced in February that they will be joining forces to form a new association of 150,000 registered nurse members, a bold move that exponentially boosts the strength and influence of the country's direct-care nurses in improving the profession through unionization, winning patient protections, and passing single-payer healthcare reform. The new organization, called the United American NursesNational Nurses Organizing Committee (UAN-NNOC), will be the largest union of registered nurses in United States history, and will further amplify the national voice of nurses who actually work at patients' bedsides on important issues such as winning safe hospital staffing ratios, fighting back against multistate hospital corporations, and reforming the healthcare system. For the nation's nurses, UAN-NNOC could not come at a better time, as the economic crisis motivates hospitals and other healthcare industry employers to squeeze nurses and other healthcare workers with layoffs, wage freezes and cuts, reductions in health coverage and pensions, speed up, job outsourcing, and other attacks long seen in other sectors of the economy. RNs face an increasingly relentless attack on their ability to advocate for patients as the last line of defense against insurance claims adjustors and hospital managers who are all too ready to sacrifice patient standards for their bottom lines. "By working together, we can even further strengthen and expand the voice of direct-care nurses," said Deborah Burger, RN and member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. "The leverage and clout we have will be immense. We will be able to better organize in achieving our goals, like unionizing all RNs and getting safe staffing ratios and patient protections in all 50 states." Burger emphasized that for CNA/NNOC members, all contracts, 12 REGISTERED NURSE representation, and leadership remain in place, only now they're stronger than ever because they are reinforced by the power and influence of a national organization. Leaders of the three groups have been talking for more than a decade about banding together, and the current timing was perfect, added Burger. "Everybody was just ready to move in the same direction," she said. UAN-NNOC's core principle is to organize all of the country's registered nurses into an all-RN union. The majority of RNs, unlike professional teachers, fire fighters, or police officers, is largely non-union, and splintered into a variety of organizations, including a number of non-RN unions. Those divisions have undermined the ability of RNs to more effectively organize to improve standards for themselves, to fight for patients, and to win real, not insurance-based, healthcare reform. UAN-NNOC's new critical mass will provide a "stronger, more powerful national voice for RN rights, safe RN practice, and healthcare justice," promote solidarity with other nursing organizations around the world, and help create a national pension for union RNs. UAN was founded in 1999 by activist nurses within the American Nurses Association who believe that collective bargaining and advocacy through a strong RN union can improve conditions for nurses and safety for patients. UAN represents RNs from across the United States, from Hawaii to Alaska to Florida. The Massachusetts Nurses Association is one of the most progressive RN unions in the country, and has worked for many years to pass safe staffing ratios in that state as well as being a vocal supporter of single-payer healthcare. Details of the collaboration are still being worked out, so stay tuned for developments. I W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2009