However, in recent history, the NLRB has not always been a 'friend' to nurses. Precisely who constitutes a supervisor and an employee is of critical importance in determining who has the right to engage in collective bargaining under the law. In 2006, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) "dealt a severe blow to nurses' and other workers' rights to join unions and bargain collectively….the board ruled that many charge nurses were supervisors, and therefore excluded from the protections under the National Labor Relations Act" (NLRB, 2006, AFSCME). The relative ease of defining certain employees as supervisors has been used to limit the ability of nurses to strike. According to the current terms of the National Labor Relations Act, a supervisor is "any individual having the authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment" (NLRB, 2006, AFSCME). By holding that a supervisor need only perform ONE of these actions, many ordinary staff nurses were subsumed under the category of 'supervisor,' simply because they direct other employees as part of their nursing duties.
However, the NLRB has also strongly supported nurse's rights in other instances. "The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found that Virginia Mason Medical Center engaged in unfair labor practices by requiring nurses who didn't get flu shots to wear masks" (Ostrom 2006). While not all rulings of the NLRB have been favorable to nurses, and rulings may vary from...
Given the stresses nurses labor under, it is vital that nurses fight to protect their rights and are aware of current rulings by the NLRB and how its interpretations of the law may affect their organizations and profession.
References
Employee rights. . (2011). National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Retrieved February 22,
2011 at http://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employee-rights
FAQ. (2011). National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Retrieved February 22, 2011 at http://www.nlrb.gov/faq/nlrb
National Labor Relations Act. (2011). National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Retrieved
February 22, 2011 at http://www.nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act
NLRB calls charge nurses supervisors (2006). American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. (AFSCME). Retrieved
February 22, 2011 at http://www.afscme.org/publications/13209.cfm
NLRB Judge finds Daycon Products violated labor laws; must reinstate workers and resume bargaining with union. (2011). National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Retrieved
February 22, 2011 at http://www.nlrb.gov/news-media/news-releases
Ostrom, Carol. (2006). NLRB rules for nurses in dispute with the hospital. The Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002965976_masks02m.html
Settlement reached in case involving discharge for Facebook comments. (2011). National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB). Retrieved
February 22, 2011 at http://www.nlrb.gov/news-media/news-releases
