So you live in an "anti-union" state - so what?

oramar · Jan 8, 2003

Embarrassed to say that this is the first time I heard of that.

Stargazer · Jan 8, 2003

I knew a lot of that, but THIS:

The union's president, leadership, and board of directors are all staff RN members who are elected by the other staff RN members. The UAN is the largest RN union in the nation. In 2001, it became the 3rd largest union of all unions within the AFL-CIO, and was elected by the other unions to hold a seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Board.
That means that unionized staff RNs are in a position of political power in the house of labor in this country.

is veeeerrry interesting. Seems like we ought to be able to capitalize on this.

-jt · Jan 9, 2003

The UAN's president is Cheryl Johnson - an ICU RN still working at the bedside in Michigan & member of the Michigan Nurses Assoc. She recently received an award from the ANA as one of the distinguished RNs of the year for her national leadership & her work in advocating for improved working conditions for the bedside RN. She also received Michigan's Nurse Political Activist Award for the same. In her "spare time" off from work, she holds the UAN's seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Board, has gained respect & recognition for RNs from the political circle & house of labor, & speaks for the staff RN with people like the Secretary of Labor in DC, legislators, & the media all over the country. http://www.minurses.org/news/press/2001pressreleases/pr102401johnson.shtml

The Vice President is Ann Converso - a working staff RN in a VA hospital in upstate NY, the chair person of the union of nurses at her hospital, a member of the New York State Nurses Assoc and a tireless leader on the governing board of its union branch. The Secretary Treasurer is Jeanne Sardo, a staff RN working on a pediatric cardiology unit at a hospital in Minnesota . She is also a VP of the Minnesota Nurses Assoc. Speaking for the UAN & all nurses working at the bedside, she recently testified before the Institute of Medicine Committee on Work Environment for Nurses and Patient Safety regarding The Working Conditions of Registered Nurses and Their Relation to Patient Safety (for the text of what she said on our behalf, see https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24554&highlight=UAN)

It is awe-inspiring to see & hear how these working women represent us.

For more info about who the leadership of the UAN is, see http://www.uannurse.org/uan/uanoff.htm

Every one of those names listed there is also a working staff RN, a nurse union leader at the facilities where they work, an active leader in their state nurses assoc, and a member of the ANA.

And the only job they get paid for is the one their hospital hired them to do. All of this RN advocacy & union leadership work is voluntary.

I work full time 12 hr shifts at the bedside in an ICU, go to school part time to finish that damn BSN, am a single parent to 3 kids, and am also an elected delegate to the UAN, representing direct-care RNs in my state, and that too is an unpaid position. So why do we do it? To finally fix the problems we're all working under - because if we dont do it ourselves, it will never get done.

So you see, when people talk about "the union" like its some far off, out-of-touch, "3rd party" entity, theyre wrong, cause all theyre really talking about is plain old working staff nurses.

-jt · Jan 9, 2003

lol. sorry. We've been posting about the UAN for 3 years but I dont think we ever made the info so concise. Feel free to copy that info & post it wherever you want.