Nurse Unions Move Forward With Merger Including Calif. Union
On Monday, the California Nurses Association and two other labor unions voted to merge to form the largest-ever labor organization of U.S. medical professionals, Reuters reports.
The new National Nurses United is composed of:
- 83,000 members of CNA from California and other states;
- 45,000 members of United American Nurses from mostly the Midwest; and
- 22,000 members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (Gaynor, Reuters, 12/7).
NNU will be led by three co-presidents drawn from each group, Modern Healthcare reports (Carlson, Modern Healthcare, 12/7). The unions will continue to operate separately but will be aligned under the larger organization (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/8).
Objectives of the Merger
NNU officials said the union's priority will be to organize registered nurses who lack union representation.
The group is pushing for an end to mandatory overtime for nurses and other cost-cutting measures that have hurt patient care, union officials said (Reuters, 12/7). NNU also seeks to enact legislation modeled after California's nurse-to-patient ration law in other states (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/8).
The merger is expected to give nurses more power during collective bargaining negotiations and strengthen nurses' position in the health reform debate (Reuters, 12/7). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.