Labor Unions

Leonora M. Barry’s Organizing Women Workers tackles the difficulties women and young girls in the working industry faced during the late 1800s in New Jersey. Barry reveals the dangers and hidden criminal acts women suffered while working beneath garment factories. The amount of suffrage women endured was overwhelming from inequitable pay to physical and mental abuse. She writes for awareness and hopes that one day the rights of a working-women will be restored. Leonora M. Barry was a widely influential woman during the American Civil War, as she fought for social reform and equal rights among women. The core of her own struggles in the working industry was the prompt for her desire to strengthen the voice of women in America. She immigrated from Ireland to the United States with her family when she was only three.

When Leonora M. Barry turned fifteen, she decided to become a schoolteacher. However, she married and could no longer be a teacher due to the rule that only unmarried women could teach. Shortly after, Barry and her family had to move in an attempt to find work during the economic depression. In 1881, Barry was left widowed with her three kids. After the death of her eldest child, Barry worked relentlessly so her other children would stay alive: “[S]he got a job at a hosiery mill, where she made 11 cents a day. It was while working at the mill that she joined the Knights of Labor” (Cook).

Barry, desperate to work to supply for her family, began working where she first-handedly experienced the gruesome conditions women faced in the 1800s. While also working at the hosiery mill, she joined the women’s division on the Knights of Labor which was a significant American labor organization of that time. The organization was meant to protect its members from harsh labor relations that welcomed women, minorities, employers and industrial workers. Barry’s own experiences are what led her into joining the organization and soon moved her into positioning as not only the master workman in charge of over 1,000 other women in the branch but also the President of District Assembly 65 that encompassed another 9,000 members (Women in World History). Leonora M. Barry did not just stop there.

She continued to fight to prevent harsh working condition for women and social reforms as she was sent to observe these circumstances. Her writing, Organizing Women Workers, was a testimony to address the events occurring on account of greedy businesses. Organizing and investigating with the Knights of Labor, Barry’s outstanding efforts created a movement that led many women to join labor unions and become apart of the change.

During the time of when Barry released her report, the Gilded Age was occurring. Labeled the “Gilded Age” from the late 1860s to 1896, it was a period of greed and selfishness in the economy. This really affected employees around America because businesses were no longer one to trust. They had become corrupt and greedy which only led to complications when figuring out how they were going to pay their workers. While this affected everyone, it especially put a toll on women because they were already oppressed as it was. The companies were growing and were beginning to lose contact with the people who were working for them. They grew very little concern for their workers because their only concern was the money.

Therefore, if production costs were too high, companies would pay their workers very little. “Because there were often many more people who wanted jobs then there were available jobs, big business owners could reduce the pay of their workers” (Workers’ Problems and Solutions). This was the result of many labor unions and protests. Workers didn’t want to work under these conditions any longer. This eventually ignited the idea of Knights of Labor, the first union to accept all races and gender. Leonora M. Barry’s main purpose in this deliverance was to confront the problems for women working and why these conditions were affecting them.

She makes an argument to the General Assembly regarding the harsh working conditions and pleading to them consideration for the obstacles women face. Barry implies the different struggles such as low wages, long working hours, and physical mistreatment. This made her case even more compelling because it gave the readers, at that time, the understanding of what was happening in their own cities and to their own citizens. The tone of Barry’s address indicates how she took this case very solemnly; she shows a resonance of hopefulness.

Because she had dealt with these same conditions, it was important that she was a voice to the women and young girls who felt discouraged working in these so-called “manly” jobs. Throughout Leonora M. Barry’s report, she documents the absurd circumstances women faced and sheds light upon the reality that was hidden from society. “Thus far in the history of our Order that part of our platform has been but a mockery of the principles intended” (Leonora M. Barry). The quote mentioned in Barry’s Organizing Women Workers, deflects the fact that the morals of this “order” have been severely broken from which they used to be.

The terms it had come to only made the original directive as a joke because the working conditions were no longer forbearing. The idea that because of her sex, she was imposed of little to no respect and treated as though she was unable to justify for herself. As stated in Barry’s report, one of the things that women were oppressed of was their pay. Like other women workers, Barry also experienced unjust pay while working at factories. While observing Auburn, New York, she noticed the workers would have long hours and poor wages. Women working in clothing factories would have to supply their own sewing-machine weekly which would lower the already ungenerous amount of money they receive. On top of that, the money women would receive weekly would not be enough for them to clothe themselves or their children.

In another case, Barry observed the linen-threads works of Patterson, New Jersey, where children would earn $2.70 per week. At one point, the children begged for an increase of five cents per day and were refused. Although, that was not the end of it. At another factory, women would be fined 10 cents if they were seen eating, laughing, singing or just talking. In case any women dare to stand up for herself against authority, she would immediately be replaced by the supply of recruits always ready on hand (Leonora M. Barry). Leonora M. Barry was angry and wanted to make a permanent change to abolish these stipulations. “Her reports helped lead to a factory inspection law passed in Pennsylvania in 1989” (“Leonora Marie (Kearney) Barry”).

The factory inspection law allowed factories to be observed and inspected in terms of working conditions and wages. Fortunately, after years of women being oppressed in the working industry, justice was beginning to restore in its rightful place. Leonora M. Barry contributed her whole life to the refinement of women’s working conditions and social reforms. The amount of deed she did for women all around America is remarkable. Her work will always be remembered and will continue to go down in history for her influential career as a speaker and writer.

From being a woman oppressed in a factory to becoming the National Women’s Organizer to one of the most influential labor unions in the history of the United States, she portrayed strength for women and was their figure of women rights. Her acknowledgment, Organizing Women Workers, was a realization that put light onto the issues happening right under the feet of society. By pleading to the workers, the number of labor unions continued to grow attacking toxic tendencies that weighed on workers around the United States due to traditional standards.

Labor Unions must be understood in the context of the economic structures that occurred within the United States and included the agrarian, industrial, and post industrial period (Cohen 27). In the year 1700, there were approximately 220,000 people living in the United States and approximately 95% were farmers (94 Almanac 53). The farmers comprised small communities and at that time there was no need for Unions as we know them today.

Some of the earliest Unions were created in the 1700’s when the shoemakers in Philadelphia formed a Trade Union for the purpose of regulating the wages that they would pay an apprentice and establish the length of time that apprenticeship would be necessary (Leap 29). In the mid-1700’s small cities began to grow along the east coast of the United States. Although the cities began to grow, the society was still agrarian in nature (Cohen 28). As the country entered he industrial revolution, the population began to migrate to the cities (Cohen 28).

The industrial revolution experienced a need for coal, oil, and food production, especially the meat packing industry (Cohen 29). The needs centered around the railroads which expanded greatly during the 1850’s (Rogers 7). During this period the railroads became dependent upon massive amounts of information and organization to effectively run their operations. It is during this time period that the railroads developed management practices that included formalized accounting procedures and management techniques for supervisors dealing with the many people employed by the railroad (Rogers 7).

In addition, the railroads began to establish their own codes, rules and regulations for operating the railroads (Yates 153). In 1910, the population of the United States had grown to 92. 2 million people (Census Bureau 26). Industry was expanding at a rapid rate and the companies that controlled them pushed for greater profits and efficiency. Industries also published their own magazine, such as “Factory Magazine” that was aimed at reaching a higher level of production (Yates 105).

Also include for the first time were magazine articles written to improve the morale of the factory worker in an attempt to humanize the workforce through articles and illustrations (Yates 74). However, these article were also an attempt to educate the work force in the policies and procedures of the company. Many of these companies also had constructed “company towns” where the factory workers were employed, resided in company owned buildings in which they paid rent, bought food and clothing in company owned stores and also company provided recreation (Leap 32).

Many of the factory workers, almost one-third, were uneducated immigrants that could not speak the American language and were frequently taken advantage of economically (Leap 30). The early 1900’s also brought mass manufacturing and the interchangeable parts for equipment and machinery to the industries, based on the efforts of Henry Ford (Cohen 28). The United States had become the industrial leader of the world. The industrial giants in the United States gained so much control over their employees that the workers conformed to the organizational culture of that company (Gibson 29).

Management theories and social theories during the early 1900’s concentrated on managements side and the more effective production methods. In 1911, Frederick Taylor wrote “The Principles of Scientific Management” that emphasized time and motion studies, breaking large jobs into smaller ones and analyzing repetitive tasks in an attempt to find a more efficient way of doing the job. An employees pay quickly became dependent upon how many pieces could be produced in an hour or a day (French 69).

Working conditions in factories were deplorable, with long hours, child labor and numerous industrial accidents that claimed many lives The issues that surrounded the early labor movement were centered around the redistribution of wealth of the companies that employees worked for. The labor movement in the United States began very slowly due to the oppressive actions taken by the large companies against the labor activists, which included firing employees, beatings, and killings.

During the late 1860’s to the 1930’s, government actions supported big business believing that Unions would only interfere with private ownership (Cohen 113). Between 1876 and 1896, there were more injuries and deaths due to strikes in the United States than in any other nation in the world (Cohen 114). Companies hired private guards and security specialists to break up any strikers and protect company property (Cohen 114). Violence often was the result of result of early attempts at organizing labor movements. A riot in Baltimore lasted three days and claimed 13 lives.

In Pittsburgh 20 people died as federal troops fired upon rioting workers and fires destroyed millions of dollars of railroad equipment (Leap 32). Violence also was occurring at the coal-mining companies when and secret societies such as the Molly Maguires that would threaten, beat or kill strike breaker at coal mines. Additionally the Molly Maguires, who often concealed their identity by dressing as as women, beat, killed and set fires to the homes of the supervisors and coal-mine superintendents who were not in agreement with the union cause.

The Molly Maquires were broken up when the Pinkereton Detective Agency infiltrated the organization and exposed them which resulted in 14 Molly Maguires being tried and hanged (Leap 34). The public viewed much of this violence with an anti-union response, making it more difficult for the employees to unionize (Leap 33). With the population at over 92 million people in 1914, many who were now working in factories, the government began to recognize labor and created the Department of Labor in 1914 (Cohen 115). However, it was not until 1934 and the passage of the Wagner Act did labor really begin to unionize (Cohen 115).

In addition, the government created the National Labor Relations Board to oversee union elections (Cohen 115). The Wagner Act allowed for employees to unionize and also allowed for the “closed shop” that required all employees of that factory or company to belong to the union once the union was voted in by the employees (Cohen 116). The Wagner Act legally permitted unions to organize and provide the much needed benefits for their employees. The goals of the unions during this time were to protect the jobs of their members and fight for increased wages and benefits (Leap 37).

The benefits included safer working conditions, health care, sick leave, and vacation time (Leap 37). During these years the American Federation of Labor (AFL) became the largest single federation that began to organize craft unions. In 1938 the industrial unions were dissatisfied with the AFL federation and split off to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which sought to organize more unskilled labor (Leap 46). After World War II, the United States had approximately fifteen million workers that belonged to unions.

In 1946, the United States experienced more labor strikes than ever before in history and the labor unions finally had a firm hold on large industrial and manufacturing companies (Leap 47). The Wager Act had provided the unions with a great deal of leverage and some unions quickly became corrupt and had very little accountability within their organization (Leap 48). The Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 which was designed to curb some of the activities of unions and provide for unfair labor laws against the union that would be enforced by the National Labor Relations Board (Leap 48).

The Taft-Hartley Act was successful in re-balancing the Wagner Act that gave the unions an unfair advantage of management (Leap 73). The Act also gave the President of the United States the authority to impose an 80-day injunction on any strike that may result in damage to the national economy or national interests (Infoplease 1). The injunctions have been used frequently in the transportation industry, where a strike against the railroads or the shipping industry could effect the distribution of food, clothing, or fuel, that could impact the economic structure of the country (Infoplease 1-2).

In addition the Taft-Hartley act prohibited jurisdictional strikes involving two unions attempting to gain control over company employees for the right to represent them in collective bargaining (Infoplease 1-2). The Taft-Hartley Act prohibited the use of coercion by union officials to force employees to join the union, set the guide lines for bargaining in good faith with management, prohibited secondary boycotts that involved unions striking or boycotting products and materials of other companies that management held an interest, and prohibited excessive union dues from its membership.

The unions reached their highest membership in 1954 reaching approximately 32% of all non-agricultural workers in America (Cohen 119). The following year the AFL and CIO Federations merged to make one large federation called the AFL-CIO (Cohen 119). What made the Unions so popular up to 1954 and what caused their decline? Early unions attempted to seek higher wages, less working hours, better and safer working conditions (Leap 51). Early unions also recognized the working conditions of the employees were critical to the production effort and experiments like the Hawthorne Experiment proved this to be true.

In 1927 a team of Harvard researchers conducted experiments at Western Electric”s Hawthorne Electric Plant near Chicago, Illinois (Stillman 157). The tests were designed to discover the most effective way to motivate workers and these tests began the human relations era in organizational theory and development (Stillman 157). What was discovered after a five year study was that the interaction between the workers themselves and the with their supervisors, had more impact on the production levels than did wages or type of physical plant that they worked in (Stillman 158).

Most of what was need by the workers was the social acceptance and feeling of worth among co-workers and bosses (Stillman 158). In every work area the individuals formed themselves into groups that have their own customs, duties, and localities to each other and management (Stillman 167). The attention given to the workers by management created a team effort that produced exceptional results on the assembly lines (Stillman 167). The Hawthorne experiment developed the human relations model of management for dealing with workers that existed from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, and in some variation still exists today (French 70).

Training for interpersonal skills to “humanize” the workplace Unions continued to initially prosper as they also followed the developments of social researchers as Abraham Maslow, who in 1954 presented his view in human motivation (French 71). What resulted is called “Maslow”s Theory of Self-Actualization” where Maslow outlines the basic human needs for survival, then the need of safety and security, followed by the need for social acceptance and belonging, to the forth level of self-esteem, and the fifth level of self-actualization or self-fulfillment in doing one”s work (Halloran 104-108).

The unions quickly adapted to the needs and desires of its membership and sought for issues such as respect in the workplace, health and safety issues, sexual harassment policies, equal pay for equal work, and generous leave time allowing for recreational activities. The Unions also became a culture within themselves, sponsoring community events for its members such as bazaars, summer picnics, Christmas parties, and scholarships programs for eligible dependent children of its members.

The Unions provided community structure and support for its membership when those needs were necessary (Leap 49). The humanist approach to negotiating worked well for the unions in their negotiations with management. The more progressive companies such as IBM provided benefits that could out perform the best of unions and therefore IBM never experienced a serious threat to unionize because the work force needs were met under Maslow”s Theory (Halloran 315).

Other large organizations such as the Japanese automobile maker Nissan, has also met the workers needs and therefore has built cars in the United States without the being unionized by the United Auto Workers Union, which is one of the largest and strongest unions remaining in North America (Halloran 315). The decline of labor unions began in the mid-1950’s as many of the needs of the workers were being met, either through the company”s individual effort or the passage of federal and state laws that enhanced the workers position in life.

Some of the laws passed were the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970 that provides for safe and healthy work environments for employees (Leap 90). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) function is to make sure that the environment is regulated concerning emissions from cars and factories, which directly effects the workers that must work in those factories (Kuennan 4). The Fair Labor Standards Act brought into existence the minimum wage rate, established a 40 hour work week for hourly wage employee wages and also provided overtime at a one-and-one-half the normal hourly rate.

The Act defined the number of hours that a child could work each week and restricted the type of employment that a child could engage in (Leap 89). Additional acts such as the Equal Pay Act was aimed at women in the work force as required equal pay for equal work. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act required that an employer treat the pregnancy as a temporary disability and to provide appropriate benefits (Kuennen 5). The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) also covered other disabilities and declared that discrimination against the disabled is illegal.

The ADA also required that public buildings and private buildings that are open to the public, be handicap accessible, giving them unrestricted access (Leap 88). Discrimination laws, including sex, age, and disability discrimination, were issues that the unions previously fought to get for their membership are now being provided by federal and state law (Kuennan 5). The decline of the unions can also be attributed to the post-industrial age in the United States. Since the mid-1970’s manufacturing has been leaving the United States and relocating in foreign countries where labor costs are much cheaper.

Manufacturing such as steel production, clothing and textiles, and ship building have relocated to foreign countries over the past two decades (Cohen 110). The unions lobbied heavily against such trade agreements as the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) that created a free trading zone with the United States, Canada, and Mexico to avoid tariffs (Cohen 119). Many of the industrial jobs that were once in the United States are now in Mexico and even oversees (Cohen 119). While the unions have lost membership in the industrial and manufacturing areas, they have had some success in unionizing government workers (Cohen 120).

The unions have targeted teachers, college and university professors, police, fire and other government workers such as the postal workers (Cohen 120). The latest groups to attempt unionization are the nurses, doctors and dentists within the health fields (Guadagnino 1). The public perception of unions was favorable during the mid-60’s with approximately 70% of the people showing positive attitudes toward the unions. However, the public has lost a great deal of trust in the unions as corruption and a general feeling of not needing unions has evolved.

By 1988 the confidence level or approval rate that was once 70% had dropped to 13% (Cohen 121). The public also blamed the unions for the high inflation in the 1970’s and early 1980’s in which the public believes that the unions drove up the prices of goods and services by their demands during contract negotiations. The non-union worker however suffered from this inflation while the unions upper level executives were getting paid salaries over $100,000 (Cohen 121). Governments also began to become more conservative in their treatment of unions.

An example of this was in the early 1980’s when the federal Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) when out on strike and crippled the airline industry. PATCO went on strike to seek better working hours and to force the federal government to hire additional air traffic controllers to help reduce the stress levels of the current air traffic controllers. The Reagan administration took quick action and fired all the air traffic controllers and immediately used military personnel until new employees could be trained (Cohen 122).

The population of the United States is over 270 million people as of March of 1999 and only 14% of the work force is unionized. This work force includes government employees of which 44% are union members (Dine 1). The culture of the population has changed dramatically and a great deal of the people are younger, better educated than the classes that were previously sought by unions (Cohen 123). The new class of American society is more professional and white collar in nature that mirrors the service industry that has evolved in the United States (Cohen 124).

To add to the union decline was the fact that the corporations that once held the edge over unions, only to loose that edge in the 1940’s through the 1960’s, have again regained that edge decisively by attending to the public”s needs and social attitudes (Cohen 124). Company”s like McDonald”s have well developed publications departments that donate millions of dollars to charities such as the Ronald McDonald half-way house for the parents of terminally ill children in distant hospitals (Ronald 1-4).

Corporations also donate and participate in attempting to keep the environment clean. The corporations realize that reaching the social conscience of the public is good business and worth the investment. In the last two decades the corporations identified with the social issues in America much more than did the unions (Cohen 124). Quality of life issues have become major considerations of this post-industrial class of Americans (Cohen 124).

Even though companies have made the worker feel more important and accepted, there is still a need for unions. Companies are doing everything they can to save money. By focusing on the worker, they are making labor less dependant apon unions. They are fighting a war with the unions, and the battleground is the American worker. If the companies win then they are sure to underpay and abuse their employees. It is critical that unions recruit more agressively, or a lot the progresss they have made will be lost.

Organizing and other labor union activity in the hospitals has drawn increasing attention for many years. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the largest and oldest professional association of registered nurses in the USA (Martin, 2001). The ANA and state nurses associations are committed to the rights of registered nurses (RN), the largest group of health professionals.

The ANA represents registered nurses through organizing and bargaining collectively. The ANA is definitely for creation of labor unions in hospitals (“Physicians and Unions: Implications for Registered Nurses”, 1998). This paper focuses on the development of these unions and outlines that union activity has an important role for nurses in addressing the benefits and salaries and in providing the appropriate care for patients.

Labor Unions in Hospitals

The leadership of formal nursing organizations historically reviewed labor unions and labor legislation with suspicion, if not with direct distaste. In the early of the 20th century, the American Nurses Association (ANA) did not consider the nursing discipline as a profession and its practitioners as professionals (D’Antonio, n.d.).

On the contrary, practicing clinical nurses were somewhat more receptive to the idea of unions. The Nurses Associated Alumnae, founded in 1896, became the American Nurses Association in 1911, and nurses successfully lobbied for strict registration credentials. (“United American Nurses, AFL-CIO”, n.d.)  But the initial registration laws were voluntary (D’Antonio, n.d.).  Nurses joined together at the end of century to fight the lack of standardization among quickly development of nursing schools, hard working conditions and exploitation of nursing students.

Nurses also sought a means to work together in a professional organization to establish a code of ethics, elevate nursing standards and promote the nurses interests. The first nurse staffing ratios were set by the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War. The first permanent hospitals were established during that war—but it wasn’t until 1872 that America could boast its first professionally trained nurse, Linda Richards. (“United American Nurses, AFL-CIO”, n.d.)

During the early 20th century, nurses joined other workers looking for such benefits as an eight-hour workday and paid vacations. By the 1930s, ANA and state nurses associations were considering the question of unionization for nurses — a responsibility ANA confirmed in 1946.

During the 1920s and 1930s many nurses left the private-duty labor market to work in hospitals (D’Antonio, n.d.) They saw that the professionalization rhetoric did not forward their fight to control the quality as well as the conditions of their day-to-day work. Gradually the unionization idea helped to some hospitals’ nursing staffs to secure contracts that improved wages and hours worked.

In the early 1940s state nurses’ associations, without the support of the ANA that was opposed to formal organizing, began their own collective bargaining units (D’Antonio, n.d.).  But in 1946 the ANA formally sanctioned the idea of “professional” collective bargaining by its constituent state nurses’ associations (D’Antonio, n.d.). In the post-World War II era nurses gained contract after contract.  Also in 1946 the ANA began the establishment of its Economic and General Welfare Program (“The Role of Collective Bargaining and Unions in Advancing the Profession of Nursing”, 1998).

That decision was made because of some of the same problems that nurses and nursing continue to face and from a desire to use collective wisdom and strength to effect necessary change. Nurses were represented on a national level as well, including a decades-long battle against the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act that left private RNs without coverage under the National Labor Relations Act. Since then, collective bargaining has provided for significant accomplishments in salaries, benefits, and the professional practice of nurses.

Historically, the nursing profession has worked to assure the public of  its commitment to their health needs through the establishment of professional licensure, practice standards and guidelines, and a code of ethics. Nurses have moved from the hospital into academe, research, long-term care, community and home health, school systems, the legislature, the military, law, and entrepreneurial enterprise.  Each avenue broadens professional perspective and adds value to the body of expertise and influence.

By the late 1960s the trade union movement had again resurfaced as a strategy for professional autonomy and economic security (D’Antonio, n.d.). Unions such as Local 1199 of the Hospital Workers Union reorganized to allow nurses separate guilds; and strikes, although deeply regretted, were no longer unthinkable tactics (D’Antonio, n.d.).

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Labor unions representing nurses

In the past 20 years, nurses in hospitals and health care agencies all over the world have unionized in an effort to achieve  appropriate wages and benefits based upon the skill level and risk involved in successfully fulfilling their job responsibilities (Klein, n.d.). There are some examples of active unions representing nurses. The UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers Union)  represents nearly 40,000 working men and women in the health care profession in the North America who work in hospitals, nursing homes, medical and dental laboratories, and home health care (Klein, n.d.).

Members include registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, unit assistants, certified nursing assistants, pharmacists, technicians, and caretakers. This union claims to have improved safety in the workplace and tackled a myriad of important issues, including restructurings, staffing levels, and compensation. Additionally, to being committed to workplace issues, the UFCW periodically sponsors training and education seminars to promote professional development among health care employees.

The United Nurses of America represents 45,000 registered and licensed practical nurses and is an AFSCME affiliate (Klein, n.d.). AFSCME is the voice for 360,000 health care employees, 76,000 of whom are nurses  (Klein, n.d.).  For its members, AFSCME provides training programs, information on workplace violence, a health and safety newsletter and fact sheets, and updates on union actions.

The ANA has also created the new United American Nurses (UAN) to strengthen collective bargaining states’ efforts to retain and recruit members. Now, according to the ANA, 24 states or U.S. territories have collective bargaining for nurses; 29 do not (the total of 53 includes Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia) (Hellinghausen, 1999).  Today’s  UAN, the nation’s largest union of staff RNs, began from the nurse unionization movement before World War II. (“United American Nurses, AFL-CIO”, n.d.)

For more than 50 years, nurses, through their state nurses associations, have organized to advocate for fair wages, good working conditions and staffing levels that ensure patient safety. State nurses associations struggled for state measures to pick up the slack, and the 1974 health care amendments to the NLRA finally extended such protections. Amendments to the NLRA passed in 1983 extended Social Security coverage to non-profit workers.

The United American Nurses’ forerunner, the Institute of Constituent Member Collective Bargaining Programs, met for the first time in September 1990. Nurses’ efforts through the Institute to find the solutions of workplace problems led to the organisation of a separate labor arm of ANA—the United American Nurses—in 1999.

The UAN held its first National Labor Assembly in June 2000, as representatives of 100,000 nurses working under collective bargaining agreements elected Cheryl Johnson as the union’s first president and Ann Converso as the union’s first vice president. UAN affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 2001.

With the addition of the UAN, the AFL-CIO represent now 1.2 million health care workers. (Martin, 2001) AFL-CIO unions bargain to provide health insurance for more than 40 million workers and family members –  accounting for one out of every four Americans with employment-based coverage. Johnson of the UAN said nurses are organizing into unions at an increased pace to gain a voice on the job and on behalf of quality patient care, and that giving nurses a voice can address the nationwide staffing crisis.

Now the UAN has offered strike support on a national level to nurses on the picket line; provided media training, organizing assistance and collective bargaining help through the annual Labor Leader Institute; provided a massive and meticulous contract information database to state nurses associations and nurse leaders; and provided testimony to national leaders on patient care, staffing and other issues.

Problems of nursing unions

In fact, the American Nurses Association (ANA) is “wed” to organized labor and in some states, such as California and Michigan, the state Nurses Associations act as labor unions. (“Subject:Union Debate”, 2003)

Most labor unions and Nurses’ Associations claim that by organizing nurses, they can increase salaries, improve benefits and working conditions, and draw more nurses into the profession. It sounds plausible, but a union cannot address the real underlying problem: Money. Unions cannot produce revenue. They can only extract dollars from the healthcare system.

Nurses’ salaries and benefits are typically a hospital’s greatest expense. A hospital’s primary source of revenue is from reimbursement for patient services. While hospital operating costs have steadily gone up, reimbursement for patient services by Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance have not kept up with increased operating costs. In a February 13, 2003 Press Release by the American Hospital Association (AHA), entitled “Rising Demand, Increasing Costs of Caring Fuel Hospital Spending,” rising hospital cost is cited as one the primary drivers of an increase in hospitals’ spending (“Subject: Union Debate”, 2003).

While organized labor would lead to believe there is an increased need for unionization, their popularity has declined. In our nation’s past history, organized labor played an important role in ensuring employee safety in the workplace. Currently, standards for employee safety have been established by Occupational Safety & Hazard Association (OSHA), Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), American Osteopathic Association (AOA), and other regulatory and accrediting bodies.

Therefore, the need for unions has declined. Especially because recent changes in healthcare have subjected nurses to the effects of cost cutting, shuffled duties and reorganization, not to mention a chronic nursing shortage. Just 17% of the nation’s 2.2 million RNs belong to unions, and labor groups are looking to nursing to boost their dwindling ranks (Salcedo, n.d.). Two AFL-CIO affiliated unions actively pursuing nurses are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW).

There have been several instances of already formed collective bargaining units represented by the state nurses’ association switching to AFL-CIO affiliated unions. The American Nurses Association is reeling from the defections, including the defection of the 20,000 member CNA from the ANA in 1995 (Salcedo, n.d.). The California affiliate complained that the national leadership wasn’t doing enough to combat layoffs and staff shortages. (Jaklevic, 1999)

Each state nurses association (except now California) is a member of the ANA. Each state nurses association is divided into two branches, a policy branch and a collective bargaining branch. The ANA is loudly protesting that “only nurses should represent nurses”, however, unions such as the SEIU charge that the associations are much more geared toward policy making and academic issues than collective bargaining.

So, there is currently a critical shortage of nurses in USA. As long as nurses continue to feel disenfranchised, unprotected and under siege by doctors and health care administrators, interest in unions will grow stronger. Nurses organize not only to protect themselves, but also to protect the patients under their care, as evidenced by the recent activity regarding staffing levels and acuity systems.

As an example, nurses, traditionally uninterested in the distractions of organized labor, are showing new eagerness to embrace unions (Seeman, 2000). But rather than objecting to pay scales or benefits plans, experts say, they are aiming more often at working conditions – depleted staffs, reduced time with patients, jobs that increasingly intrude upon their personal lives.

Union membership is rising. The string of strikes in 1999 – 21 – was five times the number just four years earlier. (Seeman, 2000). More than 1,000 nurses are currently off the job. (Seeman, 2000). In California, union nurses have pushed lawmakers to guarantee more nurses on hospital floors.

Hospital officials and insurers characterized the grievances as understandable but difficult to assuage. Current health care dynamics, they said, are testing the limits of all segments of the industry.

What’s unknown is whether nurses’ relationship with labor will gain more momentum, and what long-term effects that might have on the nation’s medical network.

In the early part of the decade, with the price of health care soaring, managed care gained currency as a strategy to encourage competition and control costs. Insurers notified hospitals that reimbursements for medical treatments would decline. That prompted hospitals to squeeze budgets, including the money spent on nurses, who typically represent about a quarter of a hospital’s work force.

Hospital patients, meanwhile, grew sicker. Diseases that might have been fatal in an earlier age now left patients alive but ailing. Hospitals, under pressure to save money, discharged the less sick patients to focus on the direly ill. Technology made nursing much more complicated.

In the past three years, about 15,000 nurses have become unionized by joining the Service Employees International Union. (Seeman, 2000).  About 105,000 nurses now belong. (Seeman, 2000).

Another 170,00 belong to the American Nurses Association (Seeman, 2000).  Of those, about 60 percent use the organization for collective bargaining, according to the ANA. (Seeman, 2000).

The overall numbers remain relatively small. Only about 15 percent of America’s 2.6 million nurses are unionized, according to government and industry estimates. (Seeman, 2000).

The BNA, echoing the nurses unions, said that walk-outs are more likely rooted in complaints about mandatory overtime, inadequate staffing and worries about patient care.

In California, the new law supported by union nurses requires the state to set nurse-to-patient ratio standards for general, psychiatric and special hospitals. Hospitals will also be banned from requiring unlicensed employees from performing traditional nursing duties such as giving medicine or assessing treatment. The bill was signed in October by Gov. Gray Davis. Its requirements were phased in through 2002. (Seeman, 2000).

Massachusetts, meanwhile, has become very important for union activity. The Massachusetts Nurses Association persuaded about 1,550 nurses at five hospitals to unionize in a 12-month period in 1997-’98, according to Judith Shindul-Rothschild, associate professor at the Boston College School of Nursing. (Seeman, 2000).

So, administrators should try to understand nurses. If to give the possibility to nurses to effectively care for their patients, half the battle is won. Better healthcare would mean better labor management relationships.

Conclusion

So, the American Nurses Association (ANA), along with its constituent state nurses associations, has a decades-long responsibility to the right of registered nurses, the largest group of health professionals, to represent through organizing and bargaining collectively, in labor unions (“Physicians and Unions: Implications for Registered Nurses”, 1998).

Such activity can play an important role in addressing wages as well as benefits, and the many employment conditions that have a direct bearing on nurses’ ability to practice their profession and to grant the highest quality care for their patients.

One of the most essential problems of unions is that there are no “guarantees” as to what will be included in a contract between management and the bargaining unit. Everything depends on contract negotiations. In other words, nurses may achieve less salary and/or benefits than before unionization.

Still, unionism is only one of some options to ensure nurses’ control over their practice. For nursing always has and always will need different organizing alternatives, whether through unions or specialized practice associations.
References

1. D’Antonio, P.  (n.d.). Labor Unions: Nurses’ Unions. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wm_019610_nursesunions.htm

2. Hellinghausen, M. A. (1999, August 9) ANA’s creation of labor entity worried the TNA. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.nurseweek.com/features/99-8/tex-ana.html

3.Jaklevic, M. (1999, July 5). Associations join pro-union ranks’ Doc, nurse organizations want to give their members a stronger voice, new services. Modern Healthcare, 6.

4. Klein, J. A. (n.d.). Unions in Nursing. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.nursingnetwork.com/union.htm

5. Martin, S. (2001, June 28) Largest Independent Nurses Union Votes to Affiliate with the AFL-CIO. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.needlestick.org/pressrel/2001/uan_afl.htm

6. Physicians and Unions: Implications for Registered Nurses. (1998, September) Vol. 3, No. 9. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.needlestick.org/readroom/nti/9809nti.htm © 2004 The American Nurses Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved

7. Salcedo, K. (n.d.). Labor Unions and Nursing. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.oppapers.com/print.php?id=33122;idenc=KxyHiuJa

8. Seeman, B. T. (2000) Working Conditions Drive Hospital Nurses Toward Unions. Newhouse News Service. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1a041300.html

9. Subject: Union Debate. (2003, February 24) Nurses for Preservation of Professional Ethics (NPPE). Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.nppe.org/dialog34.htm

10.The Role of Collective Bargaining and Unions in Advancing the Profession of Nursing. (1998, February)  Vol. 3, No. 2. Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://www.needlestick.org/readroom/nti/9802nti.htm © 2004 The American Nurses Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved

United American Nurses, AFL-CIO. (n.d.) Retrieved July 10, 2004, from  http://nursingworld.org/uan/uanhistory.htm © 2004 The United American Nurses and The

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 or Wagner act was introduced with the intention to protect the rights of the workers. During this time there were many instances of the harassment of the laborers by the employers. This act ensured the right of the employees to collective bargaining which was necessary for the laborers to bargain with the employers for their rights. In order to enforce this act National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created and it was given wide powers to determine the relationship between the employer and the employee.

In the light of the fact that the employers were adopting various anti worker policies, this act was successful in protecting the interest of the workers.(Bain, n.d.)

This is the main reason for its popularity among the workers who were allowed the right to unionize. The NLRB can be approached by the labor unions with the request to arrange for the secret ballots while forming the labor union. This act gives the laborers the right to bargain with the employers, fight against injustice through strike and lock out.(Bain, n.d.) The employees are also given the option not to indulge in unionization activities.

Before forming the unions the NLRB is supposed to be convinced with the fact that a particular labor union would represent the interest of all the employees. The labor union should represent the interest of the laborers who share similar problems and interest. By conducting the operations to establish their own unions, the NLRB was expected to safeguard the interest of the workers.(Bain, n.d.)

The employers are also expected to follow the labor law which is controlled by the federal and the state governments. The employees can approach NLRB whenever they find that there are unfair labor practices. Both the employees and employers are not supposed to indulge in unfair labor practices. The employers are expected not to discriminate against the union members while recruiting them and while continuing their service.

More often it is found that the management used to hire the workers who were not the members of the labor unions or who did not agree with the ideology of the unions. (Bain, n.d.) When such unfair labor practices occur, the labor unions can approach the NLRB which uses its power to investigate into the allegations of exploitation of the laborers by the employers. The main duty of the NLRB is to maintain the cordial relationship between the workers and the employers.

Through this particular act the government attempted to avoid the exploitation of the workers. These sections of the Wagner act satisfied the demands of the workers and naturally they favored this act. NLRB has handled thousands of cases concerning unfair labor practices. These cases show that the Wagner act has succeeded in protecting the interest of the workers. The workers have been able to unionize or not to unionize and they are given the power to go on strikes. Legitimate strikes are supported by the NLRB leading to the protection of the rights of the workers. (Bain, n.d.)

Another important labor and management relations act was Taft-Hartley act which was introduced in the year 1947. The anti labor provisions in this act evoked immediate reaction by the labor unions which, obviously, did not like the anti labor clauses in this act. The Taft-Hartley act has many clauses which protect the interest of the employers. The various rights sanctioned by the Wagner act are withdrawn by the Taft-Hartley act. This act restricted the labor union activities such as strikes, picketing, lock out, secondary boycotts and closed shops.

The state can prohibit a strike which affected the public health and national security. Using these clauses jurisdictional injunctions could be obtained prohibiting such activities of the labor unions. The states could invoke right-to-work laws which allowed the union members not to participate in the strike.(Wikipedia, 2006) This act also discontinued the closed shops practice which had compelled the employers to provide job security to members of the unions. The power of the laborers to enforce union security clauses have been restricted by this act. The courts are given the power to investigate the financial statements of the unions in order to ensure that all the laborers are provided representation by the unions.

The states could approach the courts and obtain injunctions which restricted the rights of the workers to go on strike. Instead of strike, the act encourages the use of other means to bargain with the employers. The workers are required to give 60 days notice to the employers and the mediating agency regarding their activities. The employers can approach the authorities to restrict the activities of the labor unions. The employees also can approach the authorities requesting that they should be allowed to work against the orders of the union. Many states have used these jurisdictional injunctions to restrict the labor union activities. This law has been criticized by the laborers as anti labor.

This act also gives the discretionary powers to the President to outlaw a particular strike or lock out declared by the labor unions. These powers have been used by the American presidents to control the labor unions. The unions are also expected to declare that they are not the members of the communist party. The unions are not allowed to give monetary donations to political campaigns and such other political activities. Due to these anti labor clauses, the laborers did not favor this law. (Wikipedia, 2006)

The above details show that the laborers liked the provisions of the Wagner act of 1935 while they opposed the provisions of the Taft-Hartley act.

Bibliography

Bain, Brian. (n.d.). The NLRB: The Wagner Act of 1935. St.francis.edu. Retrieved 17 March

2006 from <http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/wagner.htm>

(2006). Taft-Hartley Act. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2006 from

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act>