![]() It realized that its members needed support with issues around wages, working hours and conditions of employment – and they also wanted to prevent nurses from joining unions. The American Nursing Association (ANA) entered the arena of collective bargaining in 1950. Today it is the largest union for nursing staff in the world, while still undertaking the professional development activities of a professional organization. Initially, it didn’t support strikes by nurses but this provision was changed in 1995, allowing for industrial action as long as it did not harm patients. The Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom, founded in 1916, registered as a trade union in 1976. At the time a commentator in The Irish Times, while acknowledging that nurses needed a better deal, wrote that nurses “were about to ‘cheapen the magnificent repute this profession has won for itself” and compared a strike of nurses to a strike of wives.” The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) was founded in 1919 as the first trade union for hospital nurses in the world and is celebrating its centenary this year. As a result, there has also been a significant shift in the attitudes of nursing organizations towards unionization and collective bargaining. For example, whereas professionals in the early 1900s were usually self-employed most are now salaried employees. Since then there have been many changes in society and in the professions. “We don’t want to strike, but we will if we have to!” Image: Furthermore, union tactics were viewed as being in conflict with the values of nursing. Unions were for laborers and those in trades – professionals generally did not join unions. The drive for unionization in the last century came at a time when nursing organizations across the world were advocating for recognition of nursing as a profession. Currently, about 21% of nurses in the US belong to a union. In contrast, the number of nurses who are members of unions has been increasing steadily. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 10.5% of workers belonged to unions in 2018, down from 20.1% in 1983. As a result, union membership has been dropping steadily. Today most companies accept that it is in their own interests to provide fair conditions of service for their employees. In the other states, persons working at unionized facilities have to be paying members of the union – whether they want to or not. In the 26 right-to-work states, employees can work at a unionized facility without having to join the union. ![]() In addition, the Taft-Hartly Act, passed in 1947, provides for either right-to-work or non-right-to-work states in the US. The most forceful bargaining tool is strike action – but this leverage is usually used only as a last resort. Any coercion tactics, on either side, to influence employees to vote one way or another are illegal.īesides regulating the recognition of unions by management, the legislation also spells out the processes which must be followed in collective bargaining. Under labor law, the voting process is monitored and conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. In the US today, employees can only get union representation if the employer voluntarily recognizes the union or when the majority of employees vote for unionization. The legislation initially excluded public sector employees, and at times also those working for non-profit organizations. President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Act on July 5, 1935. This article will provide you with some background about unions and unionization in nursing, and explain what unions do. Your stance on unions can, for example, influence where you apply for a job once you qualify – you might have to join the union at a particular hospital, whether you want to or not. Joining a union has professional, ethical, personal and financial implications and every nurse should be able to make their own informed decision. Other nurses believe that collective bargaining through unionization is the only way to address current issues in nursing, such as staff shortages, and their effect on the care which nurses can provide to their patients. Many nurses see unions, and what they stand for, as unprofessional and against their ethical code. While in the United States, union membership is shrinking in most sectors, the number of nurses joining unions or organizing to form unions is increasing. Whether to join a nurse union or not has been a dividing question in nursing since labor across the world started to unionize from the early 1900s.
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