National Nurses United on a Roll

by | Jun 10, 2010 | Labor Relations Ink

Over the last few weeks, the new nurses super union has added more than 1900 Texas nurses to their ranks. Hospitals in El Paso, Brownsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen have joined the ranks of the only prior Texas hospital to succumb to unionization, Cypress Fairbanks in Houston. Some have described the run as a “historic sweep that could alter the nation’s labor and political landscape.” Texas is predominantly a non-union state, but contains the 3rd highest concentration of nurses in the country behind California and New York. SEIU recently won the representation of some of the non-nurse employees in one of the El Paso hospitals above. If these trends continue, coupled with the implementation of the healthcare bill, unions may rise like a phoenix out of the ashes. Hammering that point home, the NNU is attempting to flex its muscle by threatening to take 25,000 nurses out on an illegal strike in California and Minnesota today (June 10th). A statement by the University of California Medical Centers called the action “unlawful, a violation of good-faith bargaining requirements and a clear violation of the parties’ contract.” In a further demonstration of disregard for both workers rights and labor law, the CNA/NNU attempted an end-run during the campaign at Cypress Fairbanks mentioned above. The NLRB issued a formal complaint for the union and management negotiating contract obligations prior to the union receiving majority support of the employees. A news release from the National Right To Work Foundation Legal Defense Fund reads in part,

“CNA operatives foisted themselves on Cypress Fairbanks nurses through a backroom deal designed to impose unionization,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “It is telling that these union bosses are so intent on forcing themselves into nurses’ workplaces that they were willing to violate the rights of the very employees they claim to represent.”

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