restricting membership
Question 3
Not all states in the United States have nursing unions, and there is an umbrella union for with national wide coverage. Some of the states with nursing unions include California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Missouri, and Kansas. California State has a prominent nursing union and one of the largest (American Nurses Association website, n.d). Nursing unions advocate for their members and also protect their interests. The process of doing this is known as collective bargaining. They fight for better working conditions, pay increases, and job security, among others (Gaines, 2017). However, nursing unions have been accused of restricting membership where only employed can become members
Question 4. Part 1
My state is Minnesota, the nursing union there has been active on collective bargaining. Back in 2010, the Union staged a walkout strike where about 12, 000 members participated. The nurses were protesting wage freezes and a move that was in place to decrease pension for nurses. According to the Union’s website, the recent activity was on May 18th this year, where the nurses under the Union went on picketing. They were demanding to have a say in issues to do with workers’ protection and increased safety standards. Again they wanted an end to retaliation measures against members who have been trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus. The Union has been airing grievances on safety for its members on the pandemic.
Qestion 4. Part 2
A collective bargaining unit presents an upper hand for members to air their grievances. Unions can offer legal representations and make striking possible. They lobby better working conditions and other interests for nurses. Such would be almost impossible for individual nurses to achieve on their own. Unions, however, have minor disadvantages; for instance, there arise management conflicts that diminish bargaining power (Gaines, 2019). There may also be divided loyalty, but all the same, they serve an important task, and I would like to be a member when I am a full-time nurse.
References
American Nurses Association website. https://www.nursingworld.org/
Gaines, K. (2019). Nurses unionizing: benefits of working in a union hospital. Nurse.org. Retrieved from, < https://nurse.org/articles/benefits-of-nursing-union-hospital/
Minnesota Nurses website. https://mnnurses.org/news/2020-negotiations/
Whitehead, D.K., Weiss, S.A. & Tappen, R.M. Essentials of Nursing Leadership and Management. (6th Ed.) ISBN-13: 978-0-8036-3663-7
