Right To Work States, hospitals are unionizing

allnurses Guide · Apr 20, 2011

florida nurses win union voice

in plantation, florida., registered nurses at florida medical center voted overwhelmingly tuesday to join the national nurses organizing committee-florida, an affiliate of the national nurses united (nnu).

the 250 rn's join the more than 5,000 florida nurses in 14 hospitals around the state who have recently voted for a union voice to help them boost patient care. says delia kan, an intensive care rn at the hospital:

florida medical center rns want to improve nurse-to- patient staffing in our hospital which will help us retain and recruit experienced nurses. rns are gaining the power to have an effective independent voice in everyday patient care decisions that will improve the quality of care that our patients and our community deserve....

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/04/20/fla-nurses-win-union-voice-nnu-puts-new-spin-on-bad-govs/

WIN007 · Apr 28, 2011

come-on...man im a born conservative from brightly colered red state, but bring on them blue colored unions!

having just looked at averge nursing salaries by state I don't blame you. Nothing wrong with looking out for your own best interests anyway. I'm not union, but the discussions have been pretty interesting.

eagle78 · May 15, 2011

That's a few weeks back, but still pretty exciting news.
For those who don't know: States have the option of passing so-called "right to work" laws, which ban a union shop contract. Under a union shop contract, all the workers covered by the contract at a particular place must join the union or pay a fee in lieu of joining. Most unions avoid organizing in right-to-work states, because it's so much harder to build power in that setting - which of course is the reason those laws exist. The big corporations that push for those laws don't give a rip about worker's rights, they just want weak unions. The real problem is that the law requires that those who choose not to join get all the benefits of the contract. They get all the benefits, wages etc that the union wins and if they have a disciplinary issue, the union must represent them the same as those who pay dues. It's pretty much human nature that if you tell people: "You can have all this for nothing, or you can pay for it if you want", some folks won't pay. There are unions that are successful in that environment, but not that many - you have to be in a continuous organizing mode and can never rest. If anyone can do it successfully it's NNOC, but it will be challenging.

You are right, it can be done. Communications Workers of America (CWA) has a strong presence in Texas in spite of the right to work law.