read more]]> Nurses from around the country gathered for the National Federation of Nurses third annual National Labor Academy, which took place in Chicago, May 4 – 6. As always, NFN Academy themes are designed to address the most current, critical and relevant issues for nurses everywhere. This year’s theme, “Sharpening Our Political and Collective Bargaining Focus”, brought our members together to share strategies about how we can successfully fight anti-worker legislation in our states and preserve America’s middle class as well as ensure that nurses are properly represented in our work through improved workplace conditions and quality care for our patients.

NLA keynote speaker, Yetta Kurland, Esq.

The exciting event was launched with our keynote speaker, Yetta Kurland, a prominent civil rights attorney who shared the alarming and riveting story of how St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, the oldest hospital in New York City, which treated the survivors of Titanic and survivors of 9/11 was closed to in order to build luxury condos. Patient lives are jeopardized by the loss of the only hospital in lower Manhattan to pad the pockets of the wealthy 1%.  An accidental advocate, she underscored how, through simple actions and collaboration, we all have the power to successfully create healthier, more just communities. Download her presentation here. Watch the video and support the ongoing efforts to bring a hospital back to this community at HealthcareVote2013.org.

Montana Nurses Association CEO, Lori Chovanak, and president, Vicki Byrd, present Mary Munger with an award for her extraordinary work to bring collective bargaining rights to nurses in Montana

Nurses were inspired by the Blue Eyed Nurse, the story of a courageous nurse who brought collective bargaining rights to nurses in Montana. Recognizing how this victory has forever changed the lives of nurses in the state, the Montana Nurses Association and NFN presented Mary Munger with an award for her fearless advocacy on behalf of nurses and our patients. Watch the Blue Eyed Nurses story.

Over the two days, participants had the opportunity to attend educational sessions on a variety of topics. View the presentations (a select number are provided below) and take valuable insights back to your workplace to fight for stronger protections and patient safety.

• Boots on the Ground: Building Solidarity Through Kick Ass Grievances (PDF)
• Frame or Be Framed: How Labor’s Opponents Shape Public Perception (PDF)
• In Defense of Nurses: The Value of Legal Collaboration
• Accidental Advocacy &Circles of Influence: Our Voices/Our Stories
• The Not So Friendly Labor Laws
• Creating a Culture of Safety, Fairness and Respect
• SB-5 How Ohio Turned the Law Upside Down from the Ground Up
• Parliamentary Procedure: Roberts Rules of (Dis)Order (PDF)

Michael Loughran, BA and Bruce Dmytrow BS, MBA, CPHRM discuss how nurses can reduce their risk for malpractice claims.

The afternoon plenary offered a presentation from the Nurses Service Organization (NSO) and  insurance provider CNA, about a newly released report analyzing nursing malpractice claims over a five-year period and identifying current nursing liability patterns and trends affecting our practice. Download the report and learn practical ways you can reduce your risk.

Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO

The second day matched the energy of the first. We were brought to our feet by Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, who was instrumental in repealing Senate Bill 5 in Ohio, legislation that would have stripped workers of their rights to collectively bargain.

The state AFL-CIO worked closely in partnership with NFN member, the Ohio Nurses Association (ONA), in securing this feat, and came to the Academy to celebrate the win and share their strategies for organizing from the ground up.

Read our Q&A with Kelly Trautner, Deputy Executive Officer for Labor Relations at ONA, about the process to save workers’ rights in Ohio.

Keynote speaker, Paul Booth, Executive Assistant to the President of the international union, AFSCME.

Sunday’s keynote address was presented by Paul Booth, Executive Assistant to the President of the international union, AFSCME. Paul enumerated current political challenges contributing to the state of the 21st Century Labor Movement and to the American middle class with a call to action in the 2012 elections and legislative process throughout the country.

Anne Tan-Piazza describes WSNA's new Campaign for Patient Safety

Anne Tan-Piazza, Assistant Executive Director of Government Affairs and Operations, Washington State Nurses Association, shared details of WSNA’s statewide Campaign for Patient Safety, emphasizing that safe care starts with safe staffing. NFN is mobilizing their members to take a stand as never before in advocating for practical legislative solutions to resolve the staffing crisis.

No NFN Labor Academy would be complete without an inspirational call to action from our friend and mentor, Stuart Acuff, Utility Workers Union of America’s chief of staff and assistant to the president. He brought everyone to their feet in celebration of what labor has accomplished for America’s middle class, and left us challenged and mobilized with renewed inspiration for our continued fight to bring economic and social justice for our patients, our community, our profession, and our brothers and sisters in the labor movement.

Stuart Acuff, Utility Workers Union of America's chief of staff and assistant to the president

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read more]]> The National Federation of Nurses applauds its members and nurses everywhere for their dedicated service to patients, and wish them a very happy National Nurses Week. This observation comes at a very special time for NFN as it began on the second day of our National Labor Academy, during which we honored nurses of our past and present who courageously fought and continue to fight for better workplace conditions for nurses and their patients.

Stay tuned for a recap of the Labor Academy, including photos and content that can help support advocacy at your workplace. And, enjoy this special time. You deserve it!

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NFN President with members at the launch of WSNA's Campaign for Patient Safety

Unsafe staffing is the leading concern for staff nurses across the county. It endangers patient care, and leads to nurse burnout, injury, violence and fatigue. Studies show that registered nurses intercept 85 percent of medical errors before there is harm to the patient. Quality nursing care can mean the difference between life and death, yet the volume and complexity of patient care continues to grow without adequate precautions in place to protect nurses and patients from the dangers of fatigue. NFN is committed to reversing this trend, and has teamed up with NFN member, Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), in the launch of WSNA’s new Campaign for Patient Safety.

The Campaign includes a coalition of health care unions, labor organizations and consumer groups that together are pushing three important pieces of legislation to address core patient safety concerns:

• New Statewide Staffing Minimums for Safer Patient Care
• Uninterrupted Rest and Meal Breaks.
• Limiting Mandatory Overtime & Pre-scheduled On-call

NFN president Barbara Crane, RN, joined hundreds of nurses across the state in support of the Campaign.

“Representing more than 16,000 registered nurses, the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), successfully kicked off to their Campaign for Patient Safety in January 2012. WSNA rallied support from nurses all across the state by hosting mobilization events, encouraging nurses to write to their legislators and local media, and traveling to each location in a WSNA Campaign for Patient Safety branded van to encourage support and generate excitement.”

For several years, WSNA has worked in the legislature, in collective bargaining, in the courts, and in good-faith negotiations between the hospital association and health care unions to ensure adequate staffing levels and safe patient care. Despite claiming economic hardship, many hospitals continue to focus funding on new buildings and excessive CEO salaries without meaningful commitment to ensure that nurses are not overworked and fatigued. This is extremely dangerous to patient safety and nurses across the state are frustrated, fed-up, and out of patience and WSNA’s Campaign for Patient Safety is encouraging and providing nurses with new ways to take action.

Learn more.

read more]]> The Oregon Nurses Association is supporting Oregon Strong Voice, a coalition of public and private sector unions that are working to protect and improve the quality of life for working families in Oregon. The union movement created a strong middle class. The goal of the coalition is to bind together now to protect it so that all Oregonians can share in the American Dream to build a better future for themselves and their children.

“ONA is working as part of the Oregon Strong Voice coalition because it is important that we come together for all of Oregon’s working families. The contracts unions negotiate raise the bar for wages, benefits, and other working conditions for all workers, not just union members,” says Paul Goldberg, Assistant Executive Director of Labor Relations for ONA. Continues Goldberg, “Coming together with one strong voice allows us to promote a higher quality of life for the middle class and ensure our children have the opportunity to work hard and thrive.”

Anti-union attacks are aimed at shrinking the union workforce and the middle class. When unions are strong, the middle class is strong. When the middle class is strong, the economy is strong. Oregon Strong Voice is a coalition of unions working together to benefit all working Oregonians, not just union workers, to strengthen the middle class and our economy.

“Oregon is not immune to the anti-union attacks we’ve seen implemented on a national level. During the 2011-2012 legislative sessions, we saw many attempts at legislation to curtail collective bargaining rights for Oregon’s public employees,” says Jack Dempsey, ONA’s Assistant Executive Director of Government Relations.

Senate Bill 5 was the name of similar anti-worker legislation that passed in Ohio before Ohio Nurses Association—with support from NFN and all its member associations—helped repeal it in the name of workers rights and America’s middle class. Read more about how the victory was won.

Supporting nurses and other workers’ collective bargaining and free speech rights was one of five resolutions adopted at NFN’s 2011 Federation Assembly. Read the full resolutions and share your opinions about the issues most critical to you.

read more]]> A court sentenced a man to 11 years for attacking a nurse with a chair leg at Franklin General Hospital in Nassau County, NY. The tougher sentence is thanks to a new law in NY that increased the penalty for committing violence against nurses from a misdemeanor to a felony, a right all other public servants already enjoyed.

Read more.

Nurses experience violence in the workplace more than any other profession. Passing state legislation that increases the penalty for such acts is one part of a national effort NFN is working on so that nurses are protected on the job. Ensuring nurses’ safety is essential if we are to deliver high quality care to patients and, attract and retain high quality nurses.

After New York, we are now working to pass Violence Against Nurses legislation in Ohio. NFN member the Ohio Nurses Association has made great progress already, getting a violence bill passed through the House during the last legislative session, and successfully negotiating language into a large contract that provides violence education and increased security in emergency departments.

Our 2011 Labor Academy was dedicated to the subject of reducing violence against nurses during which we heard stories from our members about their experience with violence. Read more.

read more]]> The Ohio Nurses Association continues to move legislation through Congress that would better protect nurses from violence in the workplace and improve patient care. The Health Care Professionals Assault Bill HB62 overwhelmingly passed the Ohio House by a vote of 82-12 and is currently on hold in the Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee. Help us advocate for its passage, read fellow nurses’ stories and share yours.

HB62 will increase the penalty for assaulting a nurse on the job from a misdemeanor to a felony, a right other public servants in the state already enjoy. It’s one part of Ohio Nurses Associations’ strategy to make sure that nurses feel safe on the job and no nurse is ever victim to violence in workplace again.

Kelly Trautner, Ohio Nurses Association’s (ONA) labor director says, “There’s a strong sense among nurses that we must combine this legislation with de-escalation training for nurses in situations where they are at risk. We’re hopeful that the passage of HB62 will be the beginning of how we think about and approach nurse safety in the workplace.”

“We’re working with ER nurses and others in the nursing community. There is strong support there, this is not just a labor issue. Lot’s of diverse groups want to see this pass,” Trautner continues, “We’re confident it will, just not sure it will happen this session.”

Nurses work tirelessly to ensure that all patients receive the best possible care. But the call of duty comes at a price: nurses experience violence in the workplace more than any other profession.

A 2007 Emergency Nurses Association study found that more than half of emergency-room nurses experienced physical violence on the job during a three-year period.

Nurses are an essential part of an effective healthcare system, but there aren’t enough of us, and unsafe working conditions are driving good nurses away and preventing others from choosing the profession.

This legislation is the first step in creating workplaces where nurses’ safety is prioritized, making nurses feel protected and supported on the job, and more willing and able to provide high quality care to their patients.

Have you experienced violence on the job? Please share your story and read others. Your story can be a powerful tool for in our effort to pass this legislation and other solutions to protect nurses on the job.

read more]]> Register Now or visit the Labor Academy page for more details.

This activity has been submitted to the Ohio Nurses Association (OBN-001-91) for approval toward contact hours. The Ohio Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Please contact Lorraine Seidel for more information about contact hours.

read more]]> NFN represents nurses in Indiana, a state that recently passed so-called right-to-work legislation. Right-to-work laws, in fact, inhibit the rights of workers by limiting the ability of RNs, teachers, police officers and other workers in both private and public sectors to successfully advocate for fair working wages and benefits.

Background
The National Federation of Nurses supports and advocates for union security agreements around the country.

Right-to-work (RTW) laws prohibit agreements between unions and employers that make employment conditional on union membership, severely hampering union strength. A given employee, after all, will benefit from the actions of unions: they will receive the same increased wages and improved working conditions as their coworkers who are union members, all without having to pay union fees or participate in organized movements. Without an incentive to support the union financially and create a united front, RTW laws weaken the bargaining unit and lead to lower safety measures, livable and workable conditions, and wages.

The Economic Policy Institute published a study on the income gap between RTW states and states that allow union security agreements. Average hourly wages are 16 percent higher in non-RTW states, from $19 to $22 over RTW states. Health insurance, pensions and safety standards are also lower for workers where RTW laws exist. The AFL-CIO notes that health and safety standards are so weakened by RTW laws that workplace deaths increase by 51 percent in states that enact them. Advocates for these RTW laws may say they are fighting for a person’s right to a job, but those jobs are more dangerous, less protected and compensated at much lower levels than those in states that allow union security agreements. RTW laws say they protect jobs. But at what cost?

This ability by employers to circumnavigate their workforces’ collective bargaining ability is allowed as a result of the Taft-Hartley Act. The Taft-Hartley Act was called a “dangerous intrusion on free speech” by Harry Truman, but his veto was overturned by Congress and passed. Along with outlawing many types of strikes and picketing, the Act also allowed states to pass right-to-work laws. In the sixty-five years since, twenty-three states have done so, over the protests of their citizens in multiple and varied labor forces. Although most states with RTW laws, pushed them through in the first 10 years after the Taft-Hartley Act, some states have joined them in recent years. The latest state to pass such a law was Indiana in early 2012.

The laws are harmful in many ways, and helpful in few. Despite claims that RTW laws are good for business and therefore, employment, studies have shown that states that pass such laws yield little to no gain in economic growth. And this isn’t Indiana’s first attempt at establishing RTW legislation. A similar bill was signed into law over fifty years ago. It became such an unpopular and ineffective law that it was overturned within eight years. Hoosier voters today are no different. In poll after poll, Indiana voters say they don’t approve of these strong-arm tactics by GOP leaders.

This is the latest in a series of worrying anti-labor and anti-worker assaults around the country that stem from state politicians’ attempts at weakening the power of collective bargaining for political payback.

Last year Ohio and Wisconsin legislators went on high-profile anti-worker attacks, passing union-busting laws that created enormous state- and nation-wide backlash. NFN and our affiliate member the Ohio Nurses Association were instrumental in repealing the legislation in Ohio. The landslide victory proved Americans will not stand for right-wing legislators using state budget deficits as a way to shove through their own agendas that only favor our nation’s wealthiest one percent.

Recommendations
NFN supports the efforts of labor unions and supporters in current RTW states to repeal these harmful, anti-worker laws. The NFN encourages legislators to pass pro-labor and pro-union legislation that recognizes the need of workers to organize and negotiate for fair wages and a safe workplace.

The NFN also promises to oppose any future RTW bills around the country. Because we do believe we have a right to work—a right to work for a fair wage, in a safe place, for employers that respect us, and, above all, a right to collectively bargain for these rights.

read more]]> The U.S. Department of Labor ruled fall 2011 elections of new members to the New York State Nurses Association Board of Directors will stand
New NYSNA leadership cease membership with NFN

The United States Department of Labor (USDOL) has recently ruled that the election of New York State Nurses Association’s (NYSNA) Board of Directors will stand. The ruling is in response to a lawsuit NYSNA members filed over alleged interference in the elections by the affiliates of the National Nurses United (NNU). They also filed election protests with the NYSNA Election Committee.

Members alleged that NNU improperly provided financial assistance to NYSNA candidates, and that NYSNA staff assisted NNU in unlawfully interfering with the NYSNA officer election. Read more about the allegations and the NYSNA Election Committee’s full report that ordered a re-run of the election.

In the midst of the pending election protests, a federal judge has ordered that the winners of the NYSNA election must be permitted to take office. The newly seated NYSNA Board issued written notification that it is ceasing payment of dues to NFN, a violation of NYSNA’s legal affiliation agreement with NFN. Read NFN’s letter to NYSNA in response.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) has since suspended NYSNA for violating its bylaws by engaging in dual unionism and recently upheld that decision despite NYSNA’s appeal. Read ANA’s media release.

“We are disappointed by the Department of Labor’s ruling and, particularly, NYSNA’s decision to disaffiliate. At a time when labor needs to stand united, the unfortunate circumstances in New York only serve to detract from the bigger challenges ahead,” said Barbara Crane, RN. “It is particularly disappointing considering how many victories NYSNA and NFN have shared over the past several years.”

Victories include passing violence against nurses legislation, restoring one of the best pension programs for NYSNA nurses in the country, negotiating NYSNA’s reinstatement back into the New York State AFL-CIO so that members would have the most comprehensive representation possible, and coming to NYSNA member Kelly McLean’s side within hours of her attack at Erie County Medical Center to ensure swift justice for her assailant and safer policies at her workplace.

“NYSNA was a founding member of NFN out of a desire to create a new type of union, one that is built on the principles of transparency and democracy. NFN still stands by that commitment, and will continue using it as the foundation for our work to protect workers’ rights and improve workplace conditions and safety measures for our nurses, nurses everywhere and their patients,” Crane said.

Visit www.nfn.org to read about our recent victories in Ohio and other member activities, and sign up for the quarterly e-newsletter.

read more]]> A year ago, a four-month standoff began in Madison, Wisconsin that involved hundreds of thousands of people and captured national attention. On one side were Governor Scott Walker and the state’s Republican delegation. On the other side were nurses, teachers, police officers, fire fighters, city and state officials, and scores of other public employees and their supporters. The issue at hand: the right for public employees to collective bargaining.

Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO

What happened next is common knowledge. The bill passed and survived an appeal to the state supreme court. The protestors packed up and moved out of the state capitol building in Madison, defeated for the moment. They have not, however, forgotten.

In August of last year, two of the Republican senators who voted for the collective bargaining ban lost their recall elections. In November, recall petitions for Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch began to circulate, as organizers aimed to gather the 540,000 necessary signatures to trigger a recall election. Within two months, they had gathered over one million!

The recall election is now an inevitability, but Walker is attempting to clog the process by demanding more time to verify the signatures. This delay will do nothing to stop the recall – Walker’s campaign claims 20 percent of the signatures are fake, which would still leave the petition 300,000 signatures over the requirement – but it will allow Walker to continue to raise money unhindered by campaign restrictions.

The recall supporters have now returned to the streets with the Reclaim Wisconsin Tour, a rally to gather support of the effort to vote Walker out of office. Teachers, nurses, students and workers and citizens of all stripes have come together to speak out against Walker’s policies: an agenda that not only includes the harmful collective bargaining ban, but caps on health care and cuts to the education budget that have left hundreds of thousands worse off.

Lifelong Republican Sue Carey spoke up against Walker: “The people who are getting hit hardest by his wrongheaded policies are the people who need help the most.” Another former Walker supporter agreed: “The more I learn about Scott Walker, the sorrier I am that I voted for him.”

National Federation of Nurses and the Ohio Nurses Association have been one of multiple national organizations to stand in solidarity with Wisconsin laborers. “This is a matter of life or death. If nurses cannot come together for safe equipment and working conditions in hospitals and other settings, than we’re not only talking about nurses leaving the job and adding to the current shortage, we’re talking about patients’ lives at risk,” said Barbara Crane, RN, president of NFN, during efforts to block the bill’s passage. “It is not Wisconsin’s issue. This is the nation’s issue.”

A year later, the same holds true. A threat to unions and workers in one state is a threat in all, and the NFN supports the citizens of Wisconsin in their effort to reclaim their state and their rights.