FNHP members share knowledge and experience
in Kansas City organizing campaign

Nurses at Lee's summit hospital, part of the corporate giant Health Midwest that dominates the Kansas City, Mo., health care market, have their own strength, organizational abilities and the power of their beliefs to thank for their recent union election victory (see box on p. 5). But they can also thank a growing effort by the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals that helped bring a contingent of member volunteers--nurses like themselves--to spend time with the Kansas City campaigners and share hopes, dreams and solid strategy and information.

"Members are the most effective voice and face of the union," says FNHP director of organizing John August; it makes sense that volunteer members from FNHP locals in other parts of the country should be matched with health care professionals who want to know about the FNHP. The Nurses United for Improved Patient Care--a group of nurses from the Health Midwest chain of hospitals and elsewhere that hopes to unionize--is just such a group of would-be unionists.

Three members and one staff member of the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers in New York City were asked to share their union experience and their stories about the benefits of a union contract in today's difficult health care industry with the Kansas City nurses.

"The nurses there greeted us with open arms," says Dorothea Meinecke, who heads the FNHP chapter at Lutheran Medical Center. "We were flabbergasted."

Thinking that the experiences of New York City nurses might be a world apart from those of Kansas City nurses, Meinecke says she found just the opposite. "I understood and empathized with their needs," says Meinecke. "Though half a country away, we had the same issues--not being properly staffed, working overtime and being treated like children." Along with the other nurses who joined her for visits with Kansas City nurses, Meinecke says, "we explained the only way this changes is when we become equal." In fact, becoming equal partners at the bargaining table is the one way to gain power in the workplace and begin to make changes that affect the quality of patient care.

In addition to Meinecke, New Yorkers Cora Shillingford, Hope Willocks and Joanne Adams (see cover photo) also traveled to Kansas City to attend meetings, make home visits and have personal conversations with Health Midwest nurses who were eager--as well as curious and sometimes a little cautious--about making unionization their road to power and equality in the workplace. What the New York City nurses found out about the Kansas City nurses, however, was that "they were like sponges; they picked up every piece of information we had," says Meinecke.

"We got a lot of questions," says FN/UFT special representative Hope Willocks, who spent 10 days meeting with Kansas City nurses. "What's it like to be in a union? How can this benefit me? Why have we traveled all the way from New York to speak to them?" The answer, says Willocks: "Because we truly do believe that the only way to make change in health care these days is to make sure nurses are organized."

"We're nurses," says Visiting Nurse Service of New York RN Joanne Adams, who added that because they were nurses--and union nurses, at that--they could explain the effect that being organized has made on their profession. "Whether we have respect for ourselves, for our own self-image ... things can change and will only change if we're part of a union."

With a common understanding of the problems that caregivers face in today's workplace, "we were able to sit one on one with the many nurses and explain that we have been there and done that and talk about the positive aspects of belonging to a collective bargaining unit," added Visiting Nurse Service of New York RN Cora Shillingford.

Some of the conditions that the Kansas City nurses work under are appalling, says Willocks. "They have no say. There's mandatory overtime, no equity when it comes to pay for new nurses and senior nurses. No experience differential. We stressed that whatever they put in their collective bargaining agreement is their decision."

Heed the call!

Nurses who are bravely seeking out union representation in Kansas City are doing so in the face of aggressive employer opposition. The National Labor Relations Board is now examining some 130 unfair labor practice charges against Health Midwest management, including the use of armed guards to block the nurses' legal unionizing activities.

"These nurses went up against the hardest things in their lives--they could have been fired for anything that they did," says Meinecke. "It was a struggle beyond belief, [but] they kept going."

The nurses at Health Midwest's visiting nurse service, who were the first to hold an election, lost their bid for FNHP representation by just three votes, although the vote may be set aside by the NLRB, given the employer's objectionable and aggressive tactics. Nevertheless, the second election--at Lee's Summit Hospital--was a resounding success, and the members of Nurses United are plunging forward in their effort to organize more of the system's 15 facilities.

"We will win that struggle [at the VNS] eventually," says Meinecke.

The benefits of this volunteer effort weren't entirely one-sided, notes the New York City nurses. Meinecke, who described her experiences in Kansas City at the June FNHP professional issues conference, says, ÒI would go back in a minute. I would leave from here on a plane to go back to help. They are the most wonderful people I ever met in my life!"

Shillingford says she "made some wonderful friends" in Kansas City, and Willocks says the trip gave her "valuable experience and education."

"I thank them [the Kansas City nurses] for letting me into their hearts and their souls," says Meinecke. "The only way we will be able to control our destiny [is] if we all get together."

"If our union is going to grow and we're going to meet the challenges before us, we must organize," says FNHP program and policy council chair Candice Owley.

Organizing today is not about recruiting, it's about establishing one-on-one relationships, says the FNHP's John August. The union's member organizing program, which has already expanded and branched out, must expand even farther.

"I hope everyone has an opportunity to do some organizing," says Meinecke, whose message to all FNHP members is: "Heed the call!"