New national union aims to unite nurses
Submitted by seachange on Mon, 2010-03-08 14:57.
Herman Benson, Association for Union Democracy, February 24, 2010 Delegates from three major unions of registered nurses, meeting in Phoenix on December 7, merged their forces into a new national organization, the National Nurses United. The three founding affiliates - the California Nurses Association, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the United American Nurses - report a combined membership of 150,000. To thunderous applause from some 150 delegates, one of the three elected co-presidents proclaimed that this creation of the "largest union of direct care nurses is about a century overdue." ... New
Massachusetts Nurses
Massachusetts Nurses Association: The MNA joins National Nurses United with 23,000 members. The union has a robust democratic tradition, reflected in its website. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how enthusiastically the membership welcomes the new setup. Just over 500 of the union's 23,000 members voted in the referendum that approved the merger by 390 to 124. Fewer than 1,500 voted in the MNA referendum on a dues increase re-quired by the merger; it was approved 820 to 642.
On December 9, just one day after the NNU founding convention, dissenting MNA members, skeptical of the merger, formed a caucus independent of the leadership. Its supporters had begun by opposing the merger; now they are convinced that they must organize for the future to resist what they fear could be a disquieting drift away from their union's democratic spirit and an erosion of its autonomous rights in the larger national body.