Nurses fight bosses’ attempt to split union

Over 200 nurses marched on the Chicago headquarters of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Aug. 8 to challenge the association’s argument before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that tens of thousands of nurses are really “supervisors” and have no union rights. The march was organized by the National Nurses’ Organizing Commit tee, a nationwide union established by the California Nurses’ Association.

Nurses block Chicago street for over 40 minutes. WW photo: Lou Paulsen

About half of the participants were from hospitals in Chicago such as Stroger Mem orial and Provident, while the rest were from other states from California to Maine. Chanting “Union power” and carrying signs, they picketed at the front of the AHA’s headquarters building. Twenty of the nurses sat down in Franklin St. and blocked downtown traffic for over 40 minutes.

The cases before the NLRB concern “charge nurses” who mostly organize work and communication on a particular shift. While they also delegate tasks to other nurses or health care workers, they have no power to hire, fire or discipline workers. In many settings, nurses perform charge duties only part of the time.

The AHA wants the NLRB to overturn its past precedents and radically expand the definition of “supervisor.” Nurses fear that Bush appointees on the NLRB will do this in the coming weeks in a set of cases called the “Kentucky River” cases. This decision would affect not only nurses but hundreds of thousands of other workers who are not at the bottom of the ladder.

The AHA is the trade association representing 6,000 hospitals in the United States. It argues that “it is essential that charge nurses perceive themselves ... as part of hospital management” because “where charge nurses are permitted to unionize, they are more likely to align themselves with unionized staff nurses during labor disputes.”

Nurses tried for decades to work with “management” to improve the working conditions of nurses and to improve the quality of patient care, with little success. While a little over half of the hospitals are non-profit organizations, in the capitalist health-care environment all hospitals must compete with each other; they act like any capitalist firm, cutting wages, limiting workers’ rights, and cutting back the nursing staff even though it has been shown to hurt patient care.

Nurses organized unions when it became clear that they had no power outside the collective actions of their unions to improve their working conditions or to improve patient care. A NLRB ruling removing a significant portion of nurses from unions would make charge nurses involuntary scabs with no right to organize, to speak out, or to associate with their fellow nurses.

At their action here the nurses gave their answer to the hospital industry: “We will not be divided!”