the kentucky river case and what it means for all nurses
09/11/06
ana is following the actions of the national labor relations board in its anticipated upcoming ruling on kentucky river community care, inc.
the legal battle: when are registered nurses “supervisors” & who can't be in a collective bargaining unit?
over the years, employers have claimed that registered nurses are “supervisors” because of their oversight of other staff members' work in some settings and under some circumstances. this is significant because the national labor relations act does not protect the rights of supervisors to bargain collectively, even though the act does protect these same individuals' right to join unions. in fact, the constitutional right to freedom of association mandates that the government cannot restrict a class of employees from belonging to any organization they choose.
as the national labor relations board and the u.s. supreme court have considered the question of whether registered nurses are supervisors, various parts of the national labor relations act have been considered. most recently, the u.s. supreme court considered and rejected the national labor relations board's longstanding view that the professional judgment exercised by registered nurses did not make rns supervisors when they directed the work of other employees when the rns served as charge nurses or delegated tasks to other health care team members. nlrb v. kentucky river community care, inc., 532 u.s. 706 (2001).
the act defines “supervisor” as “. . . any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.” 29 u.s.c. 2(11). the inclusion of the phrase “independent judgment” arose in connection with the attempt of congress to distinguish between true “supervisors” with “genuine management prerogatives” and those who are still eligible to organize under the act, even if they perform “minor supervisory duties.”
the nlrb and the courts have long recognized that work leaders of all sorts, like charge nurses, are not “supervisors.” ana thinks that this approach is correct as a matter of law, and mirrors the realities of nursing practice.
"the decision shows an incredible lack of understanding by the majority of the nlrb as to what nurses actually do and how hospitals work. every day, nurses make decisions about patients' care. that's not only our job; it is required by our code of ethics and our standard of professional practice.
Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Nurses Denounce Bush Labor Board Ruling on Union Rights As Fundamental Assault on Democracy, Patient Safety - RNs Prepared to Strike to Defend Their Rights
...The broadest and most immediate impact of the ruling is on public safety, DeMoro said. "In an era of corporate medical care, when hospital corporations make daily decisions that put patients at risk, RNs must be are able to intervene to protect patients without fear of losing their job or other retaliation.
"Union representation is the only effective security for an RN to fulfill that role. The hospital industry wants the first allegiance of the RN to be to management and the corporation's profit, rather than to the health and welfare of the patient."...
Nurses prepared to strike to protect their patients? Nurses will walk off the job and walk a picket line while their patients are inside? I know, I know the union will give the hospital ten days notice of a strike so that they may cancel elective surgery and book registry.
Union "insiders" will have more advance notice so that they don't schedule themselve to work and then strike. If you are scheduled to work and strike then you cannot collect sick pay, vacation pay etc. If you have enough advance notice you can schedule yourself around a short strike so you do not suffer any financial harm. The nurses scheduled that choose to strike will be penalized and so will the patients.
What does Rose Ann Demoro know about being a nurse? What does Rose Ann Demoro know about sitting with a grieving family? Who is she to tell me what is right for nursing. Rose and Demoro was a grocery store checker and who became a teamster who now is the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association. The Leader of the CNA is not a nurse and has never been a nurse. According the the most recent LM-2's paid herself $199,000.00 and conviently paid her husband another six figure salary as well.
The CNA complains and rants about corporate greed and corporate salaries and George Bush and how selfish everyone else is. While you walk your picket line think about the patient in the bed and think about Rose Ann Demoro spending your dues money traveling to Arizona, Illinois, Hawaii..... to continue to fuel business that is the California Nurses Association.
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
This isn't just a union issue. Fully expect to see Charge nurses being relassified as "unit supervisor" while trying to lower pay...especially in those facilites where supervisors make less than bedside nurses.
If your the only game in town it CAN happen.
The lack of understanding of supervision and delegation as integral part of Registered Nursing is what is at stake here. Expect to see ANA + nursing groups try to get this ruling before Supreme Court.
What this means is that Registered Nurses are one step closer to being legally recognized as the professionals we are. Nurses do supervise, direct and make managerial decisions every day. Not just Charge Nurses either, any of us who works with an LVN, nurses aid or patient care tech supervise and direct the care they give to our patients. The feedback we provide is directly used in their reviews.
What about those of us who precept? New grads or experienced Nurses, we are part of the process in deciding if they keep their job, need further orientation or if they must be let go.
This is not a threat to Nursing professionals, this is only a threat to the unions bottom line. As for getting paid to be the professionals we really are, maybe if more of us accepted more responsiblity for ourselves, our actions and our profession we would get paid more. So many want to play the blame game. We complain and moan but unless the "union" says it's right we do not serve on committees, we do not volunteer at health fairs or other nursing/hospital community service. You let the union choose the politicians you vote for and the propositions you vote for or against. Not because it's right for you, your profession or your community but because the "union" says it's so it must be true.
Sherwood, RN, CCRN
Nurses are "professionals"? No extra pay, respect, and no union protection? Just the "protection of the hospital administration? Well, Sherwood, as we say in Brooklyn, that and $0.50 will get you on the subway.
Send me the "fine contract", that you are negotiating with the hospital where you work. Make sure that you include staffing ratios, wage increases to bring your salary down to the "professional" wage of $8 an hour, and you even get to keep your SS for your pension. JMHO, and my NY $0.02.
Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Nurses are "professionals"? No extra pay, respect, and no union protection? Just the "protection of the hospital administration? Well, Sherwood, as we say in Brooklyn, that and $0.50 will get you on the subway.
Send me the "fine contract", that you are negotiating with the hospital where you work. Make sure that you include staffing ratios, wage increases to bring your salary down to the "professional" wage of $8 an hour, and you even get to keep your SS for your pension. JMHO, and my NY $0.02.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
Nurses at my hospital have received up to a 22% wage increase over the last three years without union representation. Get your BSN and you get an additional 5%. CCRN? CEN? 5% more as well. Tuition reimbursment, free CEU's? Yes! Bonuses for extra shifts, holiday and weekend premiums? YES!
I go on and on. There are a lot of hospitals and very few nurses to go around. If you want to keep your staff and attract new nurses you have to keep up. It's only smart. Where do you get this $8 and hour number? We can make 4 to 5 times that plus.
Nurses recognized as being a professional? Whats wrong with that?
Nurses at my hospital have received up to a 22% wage increase over the last three years without union representation. Get your BSN and you get an additional 5%. CCRN? CEN? 5% more as well. Tuition reimbursment, free CEU's? Yes! Bonuses for extra shifts, holiday and weekend premiums? YES!
I go on and on. There are a lot of hospitals and very few nurses to go around. If you want to keep your staff and attract new nurses you have to keep up. It's only smart. Where do you get this $8 and hour number? We can make 4 to 5 times that plus.
Nurses recognized as being a professional? Whats wrong with that?
The only thing WRONG with that, is there is no compenstion, or reward, for being labeled a "professional". It is an empty title. It is wonderful that you are compensted as well as you are where you work. Reality is, you are the exception, not the rule. For a nurse in "right to work, or at will states", nurses are treated like disposable, interchangeable, "units", (also known as 'indentured servants'), and compensated like HS dropouts. They are terrorized, threatened, scapegoated, harrassed, blacklisted, and "rewarded", with a "retaliatory discharge". That is fact, not fiction. One ony has to read this listserve, to be "enlightened", as to the life of a nurse in the USA.
This change in the labor laws, is a bad omen for every nurse for things to come. If we cannot muster the power and courage to change this, we will see the death of nursing as we know it. There is a hard enough time keeping nurses at the bedside. There will be even less reason for a nurse at remain at bedside nursing, and more incentive for hospitals to cry, "nursing shortage". There will be a stronger push for even more de- skilling of our professional practice, to provide health care workers for the predicted flood of patients to hospitals in the future. Hospitals will exploit this to the max. There will be NO protection for nurses.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
The only alternative would be for nurses, en- masse, to change their employment status to that of an independant contractor. If they even can. If hospitals don't want nurses to be protected by a union contract, they will be even less likely to accept nurses as independant contractors, where they will truly have more power.
Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
The only alternative would be for nurses, en- masse, to change their employment status to that of an independant contractor. If they even can. If hospitals don't want nurses to be protected by a union contract, they will be even less likely to accept nurses as independant contractors, where they will truly have more power.
Nurses as independant contractors? That would be kind of like a staff of registry or travel nurses wouldn't it? This would cost the hospitals a bundle and then they would not have dedicated staff. Interesting thought.
Lost amidst the wall-to-wall coverage of Predatorgate this month, yet another bunch of political appointees from the Bush administration quietly destroyed a hard-won right for millions of Americans: the right to unionize. The political implications are greater still.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling should have been front-page news for days; it wasn't. Organized labor in the US has become so marginalized, and mainstream media so routinely ignores labor issues, that practically nobody noticed.
Protection of Right to Organize, Advocate for Patients
re: Oakwood Ruling...Exacerbating the Care Crisis
The nation is undergoing a "care crisis." A recent study in the Health Affairs medical journal "found 6,700 patient deaths and 4 million days of hospital care could be avoided each year by increasing staff of registered nurses," which requires not only training additional nurses, but also recruiting and retaining them in hospital positions. The Oakwood ruling will directly affect nurses, classifying more as supervisors ineligible for union protection. Lower unionization levels definitely won't help recruit more nurses or improve healthcare. Acuff notes, "Nurse unions lead the way in advocating for lower patient-to-nurse ratios and limits on mandatory excessive overtime, both of which have major consequences for patient care. It is no accident - and has been documented by solid scholarly research - that heart attack survival rates are higher for patients in hospitals where nurses have a union than in hospitals where nurses do not have a union." http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101006G.shtml
"Unrepresented Nurses = Unrepresented Patients"
I'm with you, advocating in the exclusive interest of my patient, without fear of retailiation because of my union contract! Nurses across the country are inviting the NNOC/CNA to help them organize because they know the truth, that their silence will not protect them or their patients.
NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN
10 Articles; 19,178 Posts
nation's largest rn union says nlrb decision threatens patients and nurses. (october 04, 2006)