FREE ESSAY ON LABOR UNIONS AND NURSING

LABOR UNIONS AND NURSING

The American Labor movement in the United States has a history dating back to the
beginnings of the industrial revolution. Its existence is due to poor working conditions
and exploitation during the beginning of that time. Labor unions have had a long history
of using their most powerful weapon, strikes, to fight their battles. Even today, with
the diminishing numbers of union members, strikes appear in the news sporadically.
History of Labor Unions
The first strike is thought to be by printers in Philadelphia in 1786 (Maidment, 1997).
Working conditions, pay and benefits were so poor, leaders in the southern United States
used them to justify slavery. Their contention was that slaves were treated better than
the workers were in the North. (Maidment, 1997)
Unions attempt to rectify poor working conditions, pay and benefits through collective
bargaining. An individual has very little power when negotiating with an employer,
however many individuals, collectively have the power to achieve results through
bargaining and negotiating. The ultimate bargaining tool that the collective bargaining
unit has is the right to strike.
Strikes
The United States has the most violent and bloodiest labor history of any industrialized
country (Foner, Garraty, 1991). In 1850, police killed two New York tailors while
attempting to disperse strikers. These were the first of over seven hundred documented
caused by strike-related violence. In 1913, National Guardsmen attacked striking Colorado
miners known as the Ludlow Massacre. In 1937, police killed Ten Chicago steelworkers
during a strike, which came to be known as the Memorial Day Massacre. More commonly,
though, strike related deaths are attributed to lessor known confrontations. 
Strikes in the United States are generally linked to the business cycle. Strikes are more
common when unemployment is low with the lowest strike rate being during the Great
Depression. The first American strikes in the late 1700's and early 1800's were by
shoemakers, printers, and carpenters led by their trade societies and were generally
effective because of the limited labor pool skilled in those trades. The strikers simply
refused to work until their pay demands were met. The strikes were generally short,
peaceful and successful. Successful litigation by employers inhibited the spread of these
strikes and the trade societies. 
After an economic upturn in the 1820s, strike activity was revived. Throughout the 1800s,
strike activity continued to wax and wane based on economic conditions. Women
participated in strikes as early as the 1820s. After the Civil War, the labor movement
started to more closely resemble today's labor movement. In order to discourage strikes,
instead of unilaterally setting wages and striking, unions started negotiating with
employers, addressing wages, work rules, hours and grievances. This method of
"arbitration" led to binding contracts between the collective bargaining units and the
employers. The Knights of Labor, the most important labor organization of the 1800s,
discouraged strikes. 
Mediation
Union leaders, particularly those in the craft unions affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor (AFL), continued to question the efficacy of strikes in the early
1900s. Instead of strikes, the craft unions turned to private mediation groups to help
settle disputes. In mediation, "the third party assists the negotiators in their
discussions and also suggests settlement proposals." (Mathis, Jackson, 2000) 
An expansion of the union movement was created by four years of depression in the 1930s.
The violent strikes by autoworkers, truckers, longshoremen and textile workers in 1934
sparked the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA). The NLRA is the
law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. It guarantees
the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with employers. The
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency created by
Congress, which administers the NLRA. 
Under the direction of the NLRB, strikes continued in the 1940s (after WWII) and while
some were very long, most were peaceful. The NLRB saw to it that employers who were
legally obligated to bargain with unions, did so. In addition, strikers were given legal
protection. In the 1950s the number of strikes dropped sharply, as the relationships
between unions and employers became more predictable. The 1960s saw a rise in public
employee strikes (teachers, transit workers and other local government workers) and in
1970, the wildcat strike of 180,000 postal workers became the largest public employee
walkout in U.S. history. Declining strike volume during the 1970s and 1980s are
attributed to recession, as strikes are less common with economic downturn, conservative
political climate and declining union membership. During this time striking union workers
were commonly replaced by non-union "scabs". This was evident by the firing and
replacement of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) by President Reagan in the 1980s.

Nurse's Unions
The most common reason for organized labor to walk off the job and strike are
wage-related issues. Common reasons for nurses to strike are wage, benefits and patient
care demands. In California, the marathon contract dispute between Kaiser Permanente and
the California Nurses Association (CNA) alleges bad-faith bargaining, poor quality of
care, understaffing of licensed beds and improper closures of facilities. In 1997, the
union issued daily press releases alleging poor quality of care and cited daily instances
in which Kaiser sacrificed patient welfare to save money. (Sherer, 1998) The nurses have
staged six one-day long strikes since the contract expired in January 1997. 
The issues include not only wages, but the fight for "the clout they (nurses) want in
setting and enforcing standards". (Sherer, 1998) They also want to be equal team members
in reviewing and evaluating whether acuity systems and classification methods are
effective. Typically, these systems are used to determine staffing levels and if
inaccurate, working conditions could be not only poor, but also dangerous. CNA is
organizing politically as well in California, scoring a victory in the California
Assembly with a bill that, if signed into law would mandate minimum nurse-to-patient
ratios. (Sherer, 1998)
In August, 1999, the tight healthcare labor market along with nurses' frustration at
hospitals where they work have allowed the CNA to make strong gains in organizing and
collective bargaining. (Moore, 1999) On August 23, the CNA won a 20% pay increase over
three years, plus the provisions on the joint staffing/patient acuity committees at four
Columbia HCA hospitals in California. After the months of negotiation, the nurses' vote
to authorize CNA to serve notice to strike lead to the settlement. 
Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester,
Massachusetts, states "I don't think there's a major union in the United States that
isn't in one way or another approaching the health care sector." (Greene, 1998) Recent
changes in healthcare have subjected nurses to the effects of cost cutting, shuffled
duties and reorganization, not to mention a chronic nursing shortage. 
Just 17% of the nation's 2.2 million RNs belong to unions, and labor groups are looking
to nursing to boost their dwindling ranks. Two AFL-CIO affiliated unions actively
pursuing nurses are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Food
and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). There have been several instances of already formed
collective bargaining units represented by the state nurses' association switching to
AFL-CIO affiliated unions. 
The American Nurses Association is reeling from the defections, including the defection
of the 20,000 member CNA from the ANA in 1995. The California affiliate complained that
the national leadership wasn't doing enough to combat layoffs and staff shortages.
(Jaklevic, 1999) Each state nurses association (except now California) is a member of the
ANA. Each state nurses association is divided into two branches, a policy branch and a
collective bargaining branch. The ANA is loudly protesting that "only nurses should
represent nurses", however, unions such as the SEIU charge that the associations are much
more geared toward policy making and academic issues than collective bargaining. 
There is currently a critical shortage of nurses in this country. As long as nurses
continue to feel disenfranchised, unprotected and under siege by doctors and health care
administrators, interest in unions will grow stronger. Nurses organize not only to
protect themselves, but also to protect the patients under their care, as evidenced by
the recent activity regarding staffing levels and acuity systems. Administrators should
attempt to understand nurses. If you allow nurses to effectively care for their patients,
half the battle is won. Better healthcare would mean better labor management
relationships. If they turn a blind eye, there are many collective bargaining units
waiting for the opportunity to organize. 
Bibliography
Foner, E., & Garraty, J. (1991). The Reader's Companion to American History Houghton
Mifflin, Co. Electronic version licensed by Inso Corporation.
Greene, J. (1998, June 20). Nurses' aid: labor groups look to nursing to boost their
dwindling ranks, promising tough tactics. Hospitals and Health Networks, 72 (8), 38-40.
Jaklevic, M. (1999, July 5). Associations join pro-union ranks" Doc, nurse organizations
want to give their members a stronger voice, new services. Modern Healthcare, 6.
Maidment, F. (1997). Annual Editions: Human Resources 1997, 98. Guilford, CT:
Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.
Mathis, R., & Jackson, J. (2000) Human Resource Management (9th ed.). Cincinnati, OH:
South-Western College Publishing.
Moore, J. (1999). Nurse union gains in California: CAN uses favorable market conditions
to win pay increases, organize new units. Modern Healthcare, Crain Communications, Inc.
Sherer, J. (1998, March 20). Kaiser's labor pains. Hospitals & Health Networks, 72(8),
30-32.