One Union or Two?

Currently in BC, the majority of LPN's working in hospitals (and some private facilities) are in the HEU (Hospital Employees Union). This union consists of Support Workers. http://www.heu.org/ LPN's have mixed feeling about HEU in their history both positive and negative.

LPN's have approached (this has been a 3 yr process) the BCNU (BC Nurses Union) http://www.bcnu.org/ and BCNU is currently offering LPN's and other health care workers an associate membership in BCNU for us to "check it out" http://www.bcnuassociate.org/

In the provinces (NS ? and Manitoba ?) that are in ONE union with the RN's - how is it working? Are you getting your needs met professionally? and supported? good thing? bad thing? what needs to be looked at? downfalls?

Here in BC the RN's in BCNU are approximately 26,000 strong, LPN's around 8,000 strong.

Personally, I feel a Union built by nurses, for nurses, makes the over all needs of nurses better known and understood. Being ALL together in one union makes sense to me as far as bargaining, contracts, education, support, training, etc etc. We have more in common with RN's than we do with housekeeping staff, kitchen workers, plumbers, electricians etc - as we have a licensing body, are professionally recognized, have a code of conduct, Standards of Practice etc etc. We are nurses and legally entitled to use the title "Nurse".

I look forward to hearing thoughts from others
Nurses for Nurses
Cheers