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T h e c a l i f o r n i a Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Com- mittee are rapidly mobilizing its 70,000- plus registered nurse members to tell employers they won't tolerate any violation of their union rights, and are willing to back up their message by striking, in the wake of a feder- al decision that classifies a whole swath of nurs- es as "supervisors" and thus ineligible for labor protections. As many observers and unions expected, the National Labor Relations Board on Oct. 3 released a 3-2 decision finding that full-time charge nurses are supervisors because they exer- cise independent judgment in directing and assigning patient care provided by col- leagues. Under the National Labor Relations Act, the federal law governing unionization among private-sector workers, "supervisors" do not have rights to union representation and protection because they must be loyal to employer interests. This decision gives hospital employers fighting the unionization of their RNs a new tool to try to declare not only designated charge nurses as supervisors, but also to declare relief charge nurses and regular staff nurses as supervisors and thus to prevent or delay their unionization. Without the protection of a union con- tract, nurses say, they will be less likely to speak up and challenge hospital practices that jeopardize patient safety and care. The decision covers potentially hundreds of thou- sands of nurses and is feared to expand even further to millions of the country's 3 million RNs. "This decision is a disaster for patients," said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA/NNOC. "It provides a roadmap to exclude hundreds of thousands of RNs from their rights, and forces them to choose between protecting their patients and keeping their jobs." RNs in California, Illinois, Missouri, Ken- tucky, and Maine protested their local NLRB offices just two days after the decision to show they would not accept it. CNA/NNOC is continuing to add pledges to the 30,000 RNs who have already agreed to strike if hos- pitals exploit the ruling. The organization is also working with the AFL - CIO and the American Association of Registered Nurses on federal legislation to overturn the deci- sion. And, finally, CNA/NNOC is planning to secure, within the language of its contracts, commitments from employers not to exclude nurses from the unit based on this ruling. Kaiser Permanent RNs and NPs were suc- cessful in doing just this in their recently- approved contract. (see sidebar on Kaiser Permanente contract) Charge nurses strongly objected to the board's interpretation that they were "supervi- sors" just because they helped direct the pa- tient care workflow of their units and performed clinical supervision duties required by their RN license and professional responsi- bility to patients. 4 R E G I S T E R E D N U R S E W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6 NewsBriefs NATIONAL RNs Vow to Fight Federal Ruling Falsely Labeling them Supervisors