According to National Nurses United (NNU) and the AFL-CIO, the healthcare sector has the fastest growth rate in the organized labor movement. If you attended or viewed our “Rising Storm in LTC” webinar, you are aware that nurses and nurses aids are two of the employment groups expected to see explosive growth in the next few years. It should come as no surprise that Big Labor is drooling over this employment sector, since their work cannot be outsourced and their numbers are growing.
About 170,000 RNs (about ten percent of RNs in acute-care hospitals) are represented by unions out of the current total potential of 1.6 million hospital RNs. That’s a huge pond in which to fish! Since 2009, NNU has organized 11,000 RNs.
What is troubling is the track record of unionized industries, whether steel, auto manufacturing, or anything else. Quality often suffers, and costs generally rise. More troubling still is the interruption of services when strikes occur. This week, the NNU called 23,000 nurses out on a one-day strike at two of California’s largest hospital chains, affecting 34 different hospitals. At about the same time, another hospital chain, Kaiser Permanente, will see a three-day work stoppage by 4000 National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), and supposedly another 17,000 CNA/NNU nurses are planning on joining their picket lines on the first day.
Americans cannot afford a healthcare system burdened by the animus purposely created and violently sustained by unions.
