PEF campaign seeks to end short staffing, mandatory overtime

This spring, hundreds of nurses in New York will converge on the capitol in Albany to demand an end to dangerous working conditions created by short staffing and forced overtime. For the past two years, the nurses have coordinated their efforts to gain influence with state legislators. The coalition, which includes nurses from New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), New York State United Teachers and others, is calling for laws to establish nurse-to-patient ratios and to end mandatory overtime. The nurses are hoping to make more progress this year.

“There are a lot of forces working for us this year,” says Debbie Egel, co-chair of the nurses committee for PEF. This year, PEF poured $400,000 into a campaign to educate lawmakers and mobilize members. The nurses committee has organized regional meetings and legislative forums across the state, allowing members to voice their concerns and discuss the impact short staffing and mandatory overtime have on the quality of patient care. PEF also has produced booklets, “Know Your Rights and Obligations,” to educate their members, and “The Dangers of Short Staffing and Mandatory Overtime,” to educate legislators. In addition, the union has produced print, radio and television ads that will appear across the state just before the coalition of nurses’ rally on May 2.

The effort to establish an office of the National Nurse is picking up steam and congressional sponsors. In March, Teri Mills and Alisa Schneider, nurse educators and members of the Portland Community College Faculty Federation, who have been advocating for a National Nurse, got a boost when Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) introduced H.R. 4903 to create the office.

Mills and Schneider began their campaign last May. Mills made her case for the position in the New York Times op-ed, “America’s Nurse.” Since then, the two formed the National Nursing Network Organization and created a Web site, www.nationalnurse.org."A National Nurse would be an ideal platform to help nurses educate their communities," says Mills.

Unions prepare for NLRB decision on nurse supervisory status

If you are a nurse assigned to charge duty from time to time, your rights as a union member could be taken away
if the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decides that the role makes you a
“supervisor.”

The NLRB is an independent federal body overseeing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the basic law governing unions and employers. The board has two major functions: to oversee secret ballot elections in which employees choose whether to be represented by a union, and to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices by employers or unions.

For several years, a number of important labor law cases have been on hold, pending the appointment of a full board. Now that there’s a full board in place, one important issue—who is a “supervisor,” as defined in the NLRA—may be decided in two or three months.

The best-case scenario for health professionals would be a decision that says nurses do not have authority to “assign” or “responsibly direct” other employees. The worst-case scenario would be a ruling that  any nurse who has taken charge at any time for any reason, is asupervisor as defined by law.

To prepare for an unfavorable outcome, our national union, AFT Healthcare, has been working with AFL-CIO unions to develop contract language that may be used to lessen the damage. In the event of a negative decision, AFT Healthcare believes that nurse supervisors who are members of existing bargaining units would remain a part of the union until their contracts expire. It is also important to note that a bad decision wouldn’t require an employer to challenge the status of members.

Mobilization is the key to fighting this threat, say AFT Healthcare leaders.

“We are going to be challenged,” says Ann Twomey, president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees in New Jersey. “To protect ourselves, we must raise this issue beyond our contracts and our own unions. This is an issue that requires unifying all healthcare unions. Nurses must mobilize if we are going to preserve the right to have a strong voice for our patients.”

“We are not going to allow them to take away our right to stand for our patients,” adds Candice Owley, chair of AFT Healthcare’s program and policy council.