Although the latest data indicates that union membership in the private sector has been shrinking, the trends for health care are moving in the opposite direction. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that 693,000 health care workers were union members in 2000 (about 12.9%). In 2009 the number rose to 962,000 (13.6%).
Early indications for 2010 seem to indicate the trend will continue. “Unions very much want to gain inroads in expanding sectors of the labor force, and they know that if they can organize nurses and other health care workers, they will have a future,” said Gary Chaison, PhD, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “Second, nurses and other health care workers feel a loss of control in their jobs because of cost-cutting pressures, particularly with the uncertainties of the impact and unintended consequences of health care reform legislation.”
The emergence of the new nurses super union, National Nurses United, should only add fuel to the fire. “We’re watching hospitals continue to try to cut back, and it’s always nursing,” commented said Karen Higgins, RN, a critical care nurse at Boston Medical Center and co-president of National Nurses United.
