understanding unions for dummies?

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I am a nursing student who will be graduating in 3 weeks. My last assignment is to write a paper and give a presentation on nursing unions. I have to pick a side and support it. All the information I am finding is biased and it's purpose is to sway people one way or another. Does anyone know of any good sources of info that just give the facts, pros and cons of nursing unions, and their impact on hospitals?

Thank you!!!!

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Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

It's very hard to find an unbiased article regarding unionization in general let alone in nursing. If your assignment is to pick a side and then defend it your paper by definition will be biased toward the side you ultimately choose. It is an academic exercise so just go ahead with defending either one as there is no universally correct answer for this topic.

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That is exactly what I have to do. I just spoke with a member of my group who I am doing the presentation with, and was informed that we will be going "pro union" for our presentation. So, that makes the decision a bit easier. Now I just have to research since I know nothing about unions! Thank you for your reply!

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Given that angle, a good place to start would be the web sites of the various state nurses associations that do collective bargaining.

There is an umbrella organization made up of some of the larger ones - National Nurses United.

some of the most active organizations in collective bargaining include: California Nurses Assn., Mass. Nurses Assn.,

Michigan Nurses Association, PASNAP, New York State Nurses Assn. (NYSNA).

All of those have web sites that are easily found.

Among them you will find lots of pro-union info specific to nursing.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

great article:

traditional and non-traditional collective bargaining: strategies to improve the patient care environment

see the links @ top of forum:

collective bargaining and union links

a seat at the table--historical look @ nursing's collective barganing

brownson's collection: [color=#333333]nurses and unions

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