non-union, union, and a national nursing organization, does this make sense?

[wildtime88]

Here is a simple question that has been on my mind for a long time.

How come the ANA who oversees the United Nursing Association has not used it resources to rally lead nurses nationally to show some muscle and take charge and ultimate control of our own profession?

They do not seem to have a problem with it when it comes to a labor union. So where and how do they or nurses who are opposed, for one reason or another, to being in a labor union benefit from the double standard?

We all know that you do not have to be a dues paying, formal labor union member to say and do the same thing as union. So why have they not tried to unite every nurse nationally union and nonunion alike in the same tactics used on a national simultaneous basis?

[WashYaHands]

My understanding is that the ANA is a professional organization for nurses that utilizes the political process to change and create laws that benefit the profession of nurses across the board. One example is the Needlestick Safety Act. I saw this law enacted in my facility when we transitioned to needless systems. It was not a labor union or union members who mandated the transition, it was national legislation. In addition, my state nurses association in conjunction with the ANA lobbied to prevent a law from passing in the state legislature that would allow facilities to renig on paying overtime for any hours worked over 12 in one shift. Fortunately, the law did not pass, so facilities must pay nurses overtime for any time worked over 12 hours in one shift in my state. My view is that one of the roles the ANA serves is to lobby congress (Political Activist Committee) to support or vote against legislation that effects nurses and the nursing profession across the board politically. I think they do try to rally nurses to be politically active where laws and legislation is concerned, but their focus is the political legislative arena.

Conversely, a labor union (or this arm of the ANA) and its members seek to change policies within a facility or facilities for fair labor practices that benefit the nurses who are employed there. For example, a nursing strike in one city at one facility may be beneficial to the nurses who are employed there (and I fully support any nurse who strikes for the profession or patient care), but their victories may not effect the facility where I work.

To attempt to answer the question, my view is that the reason that the ANA does not rally nurses, union or otherwise, to protest and lead in facility policy change is because that is not their mission or purpose, their purpose is to serve as political change agent for the profession and the public by working with congress to change laws.

ANA membership is an option. I do not always agree with their positions and I believe they realize this of their members, therefore, using labor union tactics is not appropriate for the purpose of the organization.

[wildtime88]

WashYaHands,

Your explanation although well intended is flawed. You seek to explain it in terms that the ANA and its union are not joined. If the ANA union UAN was a completely separate and independent organization without financial or leadership ties to the ANA in any form, which by the admission of the ANA it is not, then your explanation would be valid.

So again why does the ANA not use the same tactics and resources it uses with one hand in a united and simultaneous effort for all nurses nonunion and union alike?

Perhaps you are just as confused as I am. Or the ANA is just good at doing the slight of hand trick?

In much of your post, you actually point out the existence of segregation within the ANA as whole. So how can an organization who practices segregation unite the very same people it claims to speak for and represent effectively without alienating one group or the other in the process.

This very same thing is what the ANA has did in the past and in many ways continues to do today. They do not promote unity by their own actions. The truth is that they actually continue to promote ssegregation of nurses on a national level by their actions or lack of action.

[WashYaHands]

I was a member of the ANA before the UAN was conceived. I continue my membership to support political lobbying efforts that benefit the profession. If a portion of my ANA membership fee is used to assist the UAN to provide nurses with improved working conditions and establishment of fair labor laws and policies then I support that too.

According to the ANA bylaws if you join the UAN you are automatically afforded ANA membership, therefore, one is not paying a double membership fee. The UAN is a branch of the ANA. It is my understanding that they are not one in the same, and that the UAN operates as a separate entity as stated in the ANA bylaws as follows:

"Section 6. Accountability

The UAN is an organized body of ANA that shall be autonomous with respect to all matters that are required by law to be addressed by an insulated labor body. "

I do understand your question. I also respect the point that you're making and it is relevant. My point is that I prefer to have the option of being a member of a professional organization that contributes to political activity without being mandated to be a union member. I also enjoy the fact that I do not have to agree with every position statement published by the ANA. The ANA recognizes this view, which is why, I believe, they offer membership without a union mandate.

If I choose to join a union and I had to pay dues for that membership in addition to ANA dues, that would be a different story.

Linda

[wildtime88]

WashYaHands

The following is from the ANA bylaws in regards to the UAN. If you will take the time to read it, then you will see that the ANA is in fact ultimately in charge of the UAN..

assure that its positions and policies are in accordance with those of ANA. In accomplishing these functions, the institute is not intended and will not operate to substitute for or control the constituent members in their role as the certified bargaining agent. As the certified bargaining agents, the constituent members and their local bargaining units retain the sole and exclusive authority relative to collective bargaining and all related decisions. The relationship of the institute (and of the Congress on Nursing Economics with respect to all matters involving collective bargaining) to constituent members is advisory only.>

I hope that you do know that what you found and posted in no way says different. In fact, if is a legal maneuver to protect one bank account from being a target in case of legal issues of litigation. It is also used for tax purposes. It is a law trick more than anything else to protect the remaining parts of the association and the ultimate governing body from financial reprisal. It is aslo required to insure that funds are not intermingled according to law. In short, this gives the appearance that the UAN is independent but in reality it is only a legal protective measure.

The UAN is an organized body of ANA that shall be autonomous with respect to all matters that are required by law to be addressed by an insulated labor body. " >

Do you really believe that the ANA membership is extended for free? Do you really believe that some of the dues do not go into an ANA bank account somewhere, in order to fund the ANA? Maybe you need to rethink this next statement you made.

And yet my original question still does not have a logical or reasonable answer to all those nurses who are nonunion. Nurses who would like to see a national, simultaneous, organized movement from a national nursing organization who approves of the use of labor tactics without having to actually join and pays dues to a formal labor union. In other words, a national leader who does not segregate the members in the profession into union vs nonunion.

[nurs4kids]

Wild,

I agree with you, completely. I would like to see an organization 1) with the bedside nurse a primary focus and 2) not affiliated with the political arena of the ANA. In speaking with older nurses, I found that many cancelled their ANA membership because of the lack of activity for the bedside nurse. Now is the prime opportunity for nursing, yet the ANA is not speaking very loudly..UNLESS you're in a state that has a large UNA/ANA membership. Locally, I've seen several articles on the nursing shortage; I've seen nothing from the ANA. Why isn't the ANA taking some of the membership funds and running public service announcements about the impact the nursing shortage is/will have on healthcare in the next decade?? The general public is clueless to the severity of the shortage, someone should be informing them.

I can't argue the in's and out's of the ANA/UNA because I lack the knowledge or the interest. However, it is quite obvious they are very "affiliated". I think nursing needs a fresh approach..and it isn't likely to come from the ANA.

Keep those wheels turning wild....

tracy

[OC_An Khe]

Wildtime,

You keep asking the point why can't one organization represent all Nurses (mainly nurses at the bedside).

Simply put all nurses don't have the same goals,beliefs or legal responsibilities, some of which are directly opposite of each other. One organization can not represent all, just as one political party can't represent all Americans, but both the political parties all support thre USA.

Secondly you are asking for the use of the same tactic for differrent groups of people, that is almost always a recipe for defeat. You may have the same strategic goals, the betterment of the entire Nursing profession but each sub population within the nursing profession needs to have its own particular set of needs addressed differently, thus differrent tactics.

Nursing is not monolithic but very diversified, some would say schizophrenic profession, but it is this diversity that is our professional strength.

[wildtime88]

Ocankhe, although you can not directly answer my original question. You have supported and justified my confusion.

You have pointed out the segregation on a national level. The bedside nurse is the majority yet it is under represented by the ANA in dealing with issues. If you thought of the profession as a triangle the base would be the bedside nurses. This is the basic foundation of nursing. The attention to nurses in general has not been focused on this as a whole. Instead the ANA has actually divided this base into Nonunion and union sections with each receiving different type of support and attention. Nonunion nurses would without a doubt benefit from the tactics supported by the ANA for unionized nurses, if there was a national simultaneous organized effort lead by them. In many ways, diversity of interest, as you have pointed out, is the same as segregation of one group from another.

This is way bedside nurses, RNs and LPNs alike and together, need a national organization that focuses solely on our needs, issues, and concerns and treats every nurse the same in their actions as a whole irrelevant if they are nonunion or union.

Professional strength begins at the bottom with the majority and not at the top with a trickle down effect.

I think if you ask around a little you will find that a key reason many nurses do not support the ANA as a national organization will have a lot to do with many of the points made here and reinforced personally by you.