March, 19 2009, 10:36am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
SEIU, Michelle
Ringuette, 202-341-7057
CNA/NNOC, Charles Idelson, 510-273-2246
SEIU, CNA/NNOC Announce Major Accord
Expected to Spur Campaign for Employee Free Choice Act, Spark Major Drive for Healthcare Union Organizing, and Boost RN Standards and Power for Healthcare Workers
OAKLAND, CA/WASHINGTON DC
In a dramatic agreement likely to accelerate the drive to pass the
Employee Free Choice Act and rapidly promote unionization in the
healthcare sector, the Service Employees International Union and the
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
today announced the signing of a transformative cooperation agreement.
Under the pact SEIU and CNA/NNOC, the largest unions in the nation
representing healthcare workers and registered nurses, respectively,
will work together to bring union representation to all non-union RNs
and other healthcare employees and step up efforts to enact Employee
Free Choice.
Increased union representation in healthcare, say the unions, would
play a huge role in strengthening the ability of nurses and other
employees to fight for improved patient care standards, promote
economic recovery through improved economic standards, and sharply
assist efforts to enact genuine healthcare reform nationally and in
state capitols.
Concurrently, SEIU and CNA/NNOC jointly endorsed measures to allow
states to adopt single-payer, or an expanded and updated Medicare for
all, as a comprehensive, cost effective healthcare reform.
"The marks the beginning of a new future for nurses and other
healthcare workers and their patients throughout this nation," said
Andy Stern, president of SEIU, the nation's largest healthcare union. "
We are lining up to make sweeping changes to this country's broken
healthcare system, and as we wait for the starting gun it is imperative
that we put the past behind us and move forward by putting all
healthcare workers in the strongest possible position to define reform,
move legislation and make the new healthcare system operational. Is
this accord surprising? Perhaps, but those who recognize our shared
value of making sure registered nurses and other healthcare workers
have not only a say but a critical role in helping reshape a failed
system into something that actually helps people know that this is the
right step to help us meet the challenge and the call of this moment."
"This is an exciting new day for nurses and patients across the
nation," said CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. "This
agreement provides a huge spark for the emergence of a more powerful,
unified national movement that is needed to more effectively challenge
healthcare industry layoffs and attacks on RN economic and professional
standards and patient care conditions. It will also strengthen the
ability of all direct care RNs to fight for real healthcare reform and
advocate for improved patient care conditions and stronger patient
safety legislation from coast to coast."
Today's agreement comes just three weeks after the announcement that
CNA/NNOC, with 85,000 current members, will be uniting with the United
American Nurses and the Massachusetts Nurses Union to form the largest
RN union ever in the U.S. with 150,000 members. Steps to complete that
unification are continuing.
Now, augmented by the joint campaigns with SEIU and its 2 million
members, the creation of a much larger, stronger, national nurses union
and RN movement, with sweeping implications for improving RN standards
and patient care protections, is greatly hastened, said CNA/NNOC and
SEIU today.
Among key elements of the pact:
- The two unions will work together to organize non-union
hospital workers throughout the country, with CNA/NNOC as the leading
voice for RNs, and SEIU as the leading voice for all other hospital
workers. - The unions will launch an intensive national organizing campaign with an initial focus on the nation's largest hospital systems.
- In addition to organizing, SEIU and CNA/NNOC will coordinate on a
broad range of other issues from bargaining with common employers to
the campaign to enact the Employee Free Choice Act. - SEIU and CNA/NNOC publicly endorse measures that allow states to adopt single-payer health care systems.
- Both parties will refrain from "raiding," seeking to displace the
existing members of the other's organization, or from interference in
the other's internal affairs. - The two unions will create a new joint RN organization in Florida
to represent current and future RNs of both unions. In all other
states, SEIU will continue to represent their current RN members in
collective bargaining.
With 2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.
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