We're being raided by the NNU

Nurses Union

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Specializes in ICU.

Hey all!

My hospital in Florida is being raided by the NNU.

I want to know the good and the bad about the NNU. Specifically, what are you unhappy with if a are a part of the NNU?

All input is appreciated!

Many thanks!

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Specializes in Critical-care RN.

hide the livestock..... lock up the women and kids.......

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Organizing campaigns are not "raiding."

Go to the meetings with an open mind. My experience as a union nurse is that we have a higher performing organization with better wages and benefits under a union contract.

Many professionals believe there is a basic antagonism between unionism and their profession. They have a picture of unions as adversarial — striking, picking fights or imposing work rules that will limit employees as well as management.

Professionals are employees who have the same problems as other workers. Every Registered Nurse or high tech employee, for example, needs a chance to do her or his job well: sane hours, a manageable workload, a decent wage, a guarantee of fair benefits, protection from unjust treatment, respect, and recognition of skills, education, and expertise.

The reality is professional employees are increasingly losing control of their work lives. At non-union worksites management makes all the decisions concerning the wages, benefits, and working conditions for professional employees. This is generating conflict between employees concerned about the delivery of their professional services and human resource managers more concerned with the bottom line. These professional employees are turning increasingly to unions. For the latest statistics about the unionization of professionals, check the Fact Sheets on the website of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) at http://www.dpeaflcio.org/programs/factsheets.htm.

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Union families have much better benefits:

Some 85 percent of union workers in large and medium-sized workplaces have employer-provided health care benefits, compared with only 74 percent of unrepresented workers.

If injury or illness keeps us off the job, nearly two-thirds of union workers (63 percent) have short-term disability benefits, compared with less than half (47 percent) of unrepresented workers.

On pensions, union members are much more likely to enjoy secure retirement benefits. Nearly eight in 10 union workers — compared with about four in 10 non-union workers — have "defined-benefit" pension plans, which are federally insured and provide a guaranteed monthly benefit. And, because union members are better paid during our working years, we earn larger pensions — and have a better chance to save for retirement.

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Do you already belong to a Union at your hospital? If you belong to one then yes you are being raided if another union gets involved. If you are not in a union then its not a raid.

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Specializes in ICU.

We have a union. We just disassociated with the UAN and are now independent and the NNU is raiding us, so I want to know the good and bad about the NNU while considering them as a new parent union for us. I think I'd prefer the OPEIU, but I want to hear all sides.

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The only thing I know about the NNU is that the UAN merged with them. I think they are a new union. I know the OPEIU has been around a long time. Most hospitals in the union in Florida have been in SEIU. They do have a healtcare division. Some like them some don't. If OPEIU is the one you prefer then maybe you should talk with them and more important talk to your coworkers. The union that shows up on your door step with lots of glitzy flyers and organizers that talk about how great their union is doesn't mean they have the answers for you. You know what your issues are and the union that is addressing those issues in your state is the one that you might want to talk with. Everyone has an opinion but who is getting the work done for nurses in Florida is the question to ask. Good luck with whatever union you join.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

OPEIU - http://www.opeiu.org/tabid/37/Default.aspx

NNU - http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/about/who-we-are.html

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A little background on NNU.

First, all this can be really confusing - welter of initials, shifting alliances, organizations and individuals with old grudges, etc. Hard to tell the players without a program.

NNU has very few direct members - I think only a group of VA hospitals are direct members. The approximately 150,000 nurses who are members of NNU are members via the various associations that make up the NNU. The UAN, which was sort of the collective bargaining spin-off of the ANA had been fracturing in recent years, for a variety of reasons. Several states had left the UAN individually, then a group left maybe in 2008. The remaining states had a total of around 50,000 members - mostly in Mich, Wisc, with smaller numbers scattered through other states. Mass has been independant for several years since leaving UAN, as had California Nurses Assn/NNOC which was the first state to leave back in '95 and had also been organizing nationally through its NNOC arm. So recently, those three organizations came together to form NNU - CNA/NNOC, Massachusetts, and the remaining UAN states. Total membership around 150,000, essentially all RNs. All the elected leadership are RNs, though of course there is extensive staff who are not.

OPEIU is mainly office workers as the name implies who represent relatively few RNs in scattered places. I don't know them, though the link Herring provides above may be useful.

I'm a member and board member in CNA/NNOC, by way of disclosure.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/TRAUMA/ECMO/BURN/PACU/.
We have a union. We just disassociated with the UAN and are now independent and the NNU is raiding us, so I want to know the good and bad about the NNU while considering them as a new parent union for us. I think I'd prefer the OPEIU, but I want to hear all sides.

First, I would question the term "raiding." Isn't it likely that a significant number of members of the "current" union you belong to are dissatisfied with the representation? If that's the case I think they may have invited NNU representatives in because they've done their homework. Educating yourselves and collectively organizing your peers to assert freedom of association rights isn't raiding---it's a proactive approach to promote the positive change that your colleagues believe is needed. To me, it makes sense that an all RN union is in a better position to understand and more powerfully represent direct care RN's professional interests...that's why I belong to an NNU affiliated union.

The laws we support such as safe-staffing ratios, whistle-blower protection, worker's rights to organize, and Medicare for all---benefits all RNs, patients, and potential patients. Why not join and help support an all RN professional association and labor union like NNU? At least go to some meetings with your friends and colleagues to learn more about it...then let us know what you think.

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RN4Mercy,

Can you please send any good Nursing Union to 'raid', as you say, a few of the hospitals in Birmingham, AL. Like UAB, Cooper Green. They need them. Some of the staff RNs have been placed on the exempt status and have no rights. No overtime, no call pay which are being mandated to take.

I think AL RNs need to unionize immediately. How can we help them?

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