Nurses in Unions Negotiate From a Position of Strength

¶ … Collective Bargaining

Basically collective bargaining is when an employer and employees (or their representatives) sit down and negotiate about something pertaining to the workplace. It may be a negotiation over workplace conditions, salaries, time off, or other matters important to employees. Typically when there is a union present in a workplace the union leaders will negotiate with management to improve conditions or to settle other issues that come up, according to Cornell University Law School.

What are the legal components of collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is governed by laws in states and at the federal level; the states have statutory laws, and there are federal and state administrative agency regulations and court decisions that govern how collective bargaining takes place. If there are overlapping regulations between states and the federal government, the U.S. Constitution (Article VI) points out that federal law "preempts" state law (www.law.cornell).

As to the legal components, the principal federal rule that governs collective bargaining is the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1935 to back up workers' rights, it " ... explicitly grants employees the right to collectively bargain and join trade unions" (www.law.cornell).

The NLRA created the National Labor Relations Board, which hears problems and issues that result from organizations and businesses engaged in union activities or in collective bargaining. The National Labor Relations Board specifically prohibits employers from interfering with leaders that are appointed or elected by a union; and the National Labor Relations Board makes it mandatory for the employer " ... to bargain with the appointed representative of its employees" (www.law.cornell). The NLRB also sets the guidelines as to tactics each side may use during a labor stoppage; the NLRB usually recommends binding arbitration as a way to settle disputes between unions and management.

The manager's role in union organizing

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) lists what managers can and cannot do; as regards what managers can do, among other things (there is not room in this paper for all they can and can't do), they can tell employees: a) that the company is against unionization; b) that workers do not have to sign union cards; c) that there are disadvantages to joining a union (dues, initiation fees); d) to vote against the union; e) that they may be required to picket other employees, even when they are not on strike (SHRM). However, managers cannot: a) tell workers that they will be given pay raises and other benefits if employees turn down the union; b) tell workers they will lose wages if a union comes in; c) discriminate against those who provide leadership for the union; d) visit employees in their homes to pressure them to turn down the union (SHRM).

While unions in the United States are not flourishing -- due to Republican-controlled legislators and governors doing everything they can to attack unions (Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan are examples) -- in the UK unions are strong, including nurses unions. "Unions are competing aggressively and successfully for new members in health care ... they claim success [pushing for] better wages, staffing levels, floating, mandatory overtime and benefits for nurses" (Johnson, et al., 2014).

Nursing leaders in the UK have successfully bargained collectively for resources to allow "better patient care," which required arbitration in some cases (Johnson, 226). But the result of that bargaining and arbitration " ... gave nursing leaders authority to determine whether sufficient staffing resources were available and to actually close units when staffing levels were insufficient" (Johnson, 224).

Nurse managers create collaborative labor-manager relationships

In the peer-reviewed publication Social Policy, research shows that nurse managers have successfully negotiated (through collective bargaining) good contracts for their nursing staffs. Clearly nurse managers have indeed created a collaborative labor-management relationship because leadership in nursing unions has " ... negotiated working rules that limit management's ability to change their work assignments arbitrarily" (Vinel, 2014). Nursing managers have negotiated contracts which prevent employers from "limiting overtime" and from requiring nurses to conduct "floating" (the sudden reassignment of a nurse for an unknown period of time to another unit in the hospital) (Vinel, 40). Nurse managers in unions also have removed the rule that nurses must lift and move patients around without help. This provision is called "No single lifts," which protects nurses from injuring themselves; after all, the nursing workforce is "aging" and nurses spend " ... long hours standing, walking, and moving patients around" (Vinel, 40).

"The State of the Unions"-- facts on nursing unionizations