Your registered nurses may be vulnerable to union organizing!

In 2004, the California Nurses Association (CNA), a powerful and aggressive nurses union, launched an organization called the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), to take CNA's organizing efforts nationwide. Unfortunately, CNA/NNOC is targeting Indiana-based health care providers beginning this summer. On July 29, 2009, CNA/NNOC is hosting a program in Indianapolis called "Collective Patient Advocacy: Strategies to Secure Staffing Standards and RN Patient Advocacy Rights." (See the attached flyer being circulated to area RNs.) A similar program is being held in Evansville on July 27. But don't be fooled by the catchy title. This program is about one thing and one thing only - union organizing.

The number one goal of the CNA/NNOC program, according to its literature, is to "improve workplace standards through collective bargaining to assure RNs have compensation that recognizes professional skills and a retirement that provides dignity for our families after a lifetime of caring for others." In short, they want to organize your nurses and force you to bargain a contract, which may include costly wage increases, expensive benefits programs, and mandatory participation in overpriced union health care and pension plans.

Union organizing efforts are at an all-time high, as unions across America are fighting to increase their rolls of dues-paying members. We have seen the aggressive organizing tactics of other unions here in Indianapolis in recent months, including demonstrations, rallies, corporate campaigns, and frivolous safety and unfair labor practice complaints. Even more disconcerting, while we have watched unions such as the United Auto Workers forever change the face of the American automobile industry, pending legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act, with the support of Congress and the current administration, is actually designed to make it easier for unions like the CNA/NNOC to organize workers.