The combination last week of three nursing unions has emboldened some of its supporters in Ohio, though it’s likely to remain an uphill climb to promote an agenda that includes codified nurse-to-patient ratios.
The new 150,000-member organization — made up of the United American Nurses, Massachusetts Nurses Association and California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee – -creates the largest nurse’s union ever. It will be affiliated with the AFL-CIO and be known as the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Only the United American Nurses has members in Ohio (at veteran’s hospitals in Dayton and Cincinnati). But the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) is active in several sections of the state, including Cleveland. The group last year derailed a vote by nurses at Catholic Healthcare Partners in Ohio to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
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It also backed legislation that would have instituted nurse-to-patient ratios in Ohio, but that proposal was never introduced. Having optimal nurse-to-patient ratios could help a hospital improve patient safety and nursing conditions.
Competing legislation that requires hospitals to create staffing plans with input from nurses passed last year and will go into effect in March. That legislation had the backing of the Ohio Nurses Association.
“One of the things the legislators were looking for was labor unity,” said Michelle Mahon, a registered nurse who works for the NNOC in Cleveland and campaigned for nurse-ratios legislation. “In Ohio, that has been the NNOC primary objective: minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. We believe this combined effort (the three unions) will certainly help go a long way for making that a reality.”
Mahon said NNOC members are reviewing the Ohio ratio legislation and likely will try to introduce it later this year.
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Ohio Nurses Association Chief Executive Officer Gingy Harshey-Meade thinks it will be a tough year for any kind of nursing reform. Legislation that would expand the ability of nurses to prescribe some drugs already is under fire.
Harshey-Meade said it’s unlikely staffing-ratio legislation would be passed — in part because of the passage of the legislation her group supported last year.
Harshey-Meade said the economy-driven nature of politics means her organization will campaign largely for patient-safety issues. “When the economy is this bad, people look for cheaper ways to do things, not understanding what looks cheaper isn’t cheaper,” she said.
Ann Converso, president of United American Nurses, said it’s too soon to talk strategy with the newly unified union. The union wants to be ready if the Employee Free Choice Act passes, which would give nurses an opening to represent more nurses.
The new union also drives home the feeling of Converso and others that “registered nurses are best represented by registered nurses.” This is what, in part, sparked skirmishes between the California Nurses Association and other nursing unions, and unions like SEIU, which sometimes includes nurses in unions that also represent other professions.
“RN unions aren’t in the (national) conversation,” Converso said. “We believe it’s the right time to say we’re here.”
[Photo courtesy of Bobster1985]
