7/11 Protest In Oakland Over NLRB Union Busting

New assault on right to union representation could threaten union rights

RN ALERTS: Stay Informed and Engaged


Nurses Across Nation Take to Streets to Demand Protection of Right to Organize, Advocate for Patients
Pending Labor Board Decisions Could Imperil RN Protections, Standards, Patient Advocacy Role

The National Labor Relations Board will soon issue a major ruling that could jeopardize the ability of RNs to receive the protections afforded by CNA/NNOC representation. At the request of healthcare employers and anti-union consultants, the Board is expected to make the absurd ruling that many thousands of RNs are "supervisors" under the law because they make clinical patient care assignments to other staff. Under federal labor law, supervisors have no protection. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO UNION REPRESENTATION.
What Is At Stake for RNs?
Literally thousands of RNs could be stripped of their right to CNA/NNOC representation. Without CNA/NNOC representation:
RNs would be employees "at will" and subject to termination or other unfair discipline without contract protections.
All pay, health coverage, retirement, and other standards now negotiated by CNA/NNOC would be subject to the whim of your employer.
Management could ignore RN-to-patient ratios and other patient protections with no voice for RNs to challenge unsafe conditions.
The collective power of RNs through CNA/NNOC could be dramatically undermined, and the rights of RNs to organize into CNA/NNOC drastically curtailed.
Why Is This Occurring Now?
Challenges to RN union rights have been pushed for years. Now, however, the Bush administration has finally succeeded in filling the NLRB with anti-union management attorneys who have already rolled back employee rights in a number of other cases. A decision is expected before the end of August.
Press Releases:
Nurses Across Nation Will Take to Streets July 11 - Demand Protection of Right to Organize, Advocate for Patients </media-center/press-releases/2006/july/page.jsp?itemID=27916438>
Press Release 07/07/06

Major Threat to RNs’ Voice, Representation Rights - Nurses Plan Protests July 11 in Los Angeles, Oakland - Hundreds of RNs say they will strike if their rights are abridged </media-center/press-releases/2006/june/page.jsp?itemID=27845020>
Press Release 06/20/06


Attend a Rally in a City Near You!
CALIFORNIA: Tuesday, July 11th
OAKLAND, CA: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 @ 11:30 AM
Federal Building in Downtown Oakland
1301 Clay Street (Located near the 12th Street BART station)
11 a.m. Meet Up: Picket on Broadway between 12th & 13th streets

Download, Post, and Distribute PDF Flyers </rn-alerts/ky_river_action_071106.pdf>
LOS ANGELES, CA: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 @ 12:00 Noon
NLRB Region 21 in Downtown Los Angeles
888 South Figueroa Street (9th and Figueroa)
11:30 a.m. Meet Up: Busses arrive at Good Samaritan Hospital
Download, Post, and Distribute PDF Flyers </rn-alerts/ky_river_action_071106.pdf>
MAINE: Tuesday, July 11th
BANGOR, ME: Tuesday, July 11 @ 4:00 PM
Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC)
489 State St., Bangor, ME
3:30 PM Meet Up: Across the street from EMMC on State Street

Download, Post, and Distribute PDF Flyers </rn-alerts/nlrb_maine_protest_0606.pdf> (Miane)
ILLINOIS: Thursday, July 13th
CHICAGO, IL: Thursday, July 13, 2006 @ 12:00 Noon
NLRB Region 13 in Downtown Chicago. IL
209 S. LaSalle Street
Download, Post, and Distribute PDF Flyers </rn-alerts/nlrb_chicago_protest_flyer_0606.pdf> (Chicago)
Sign a Petition
Sign our petition that says: "I pledge to support and defend the California Nurses Association (CNA) so that CNA can continue to protect my rights as a Patient Advocate, maintain Safe RN Patient ratios and protect my retirement benefits, my wages, the Nurse Practice Act (Title 22) and Standards of Competent Performance (Title 16), none of which could exist without my Union—CNA/NNOC! If my Employer moves to deny RNs their rights to CNA/NNOC Union representation, I will take any and all actions necessary, up to and including striking, to protect CNA/NNOC, my contract and my legal rights." Hard copies are also circulating in your facility.

Sign our petition online here <http://ga1.org/campaign/nlrb_petition>
Share this information with other RNs
Click here to forward an email to others <http://ga1.org/campaign/nlrb_petition/forward>



CNA/NNOC 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612
Tel: (510) 273-2200 | Fax: (510) 663-1625
© 2005 California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee. All rights reserved.

4. If you live in NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, join the rally on Tuesday, July 11th, 11:30 am, at the Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland; for more information, please see http://www.calnurses.org/rn-alerts/.


From: PBigman [at] aol.com
Reply-To: ILWU [at] yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 22:00:48 EDT

Dear Sisters and Brothers,



Kentucky River. If the name doesn’t worry you, you need to know more about the latest effort to take away the right to have a voice at work. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is considering cases which could ultimately deprive millions of workers in this country of the right to have any union representation.

There are over 130 cases pending before the NLRB which represent an effort to eliminate the right to have a union for, potentially, at least a couple of millions workers in the private sector. How? Be redefining large number of professional and higher-level workers as “supervisors,” removing them from federal labor laws.

Right now the focus is on nurses. The NLRB will be ruling on three cases within the near future that could define all hospital RNs as “supervisors.” That alone could take away the right to choose union representation from 300,000 nurses.

But this isn’t just about nurses. If big business - and make no mistake, hospitals today ARE big businesses - can take eliminate union rights for nurses, it’s easy to see where they’ll go next. Foremen in the building trades are an obvious target; and, in fact, the NLRB could take the position that all journeymen in the building trades are “supervisors,” on the grounds that they “supervise” apprentices. ILWU-represented “walking bosses” would have targets on their backs in the next round of negotiations. Working foremen in factories and warehouses, who spend most of their time doing the same work as others but have limited supervisory authority, could also lose their rights.

This is not just about the rights of nurses. And it is not about whether you personally think nurses - or anyone else - should choose to have a union. These cases are about whether workers in this country have the right to choose - whether we will be “allowed” to have unions at all.



A little history

Sixty years ago, the Taft-Hartley Act dealt working people in this country a blow from which we’ve never recovered. Twenty-five years ago, Ronald Reagan used the smashing of the PATCO air traffic controllers to send a signal to big business that it was open season on workers.

But today we’re better prepared, and we’re fighting back.

The anti-worker has already reversed itself, ruling that graduate student workers in the private sector have no right to union representation. The administration stripped 165,000 federal workers of union rights, transferring them to the Department of Homeland Security. Why? Retired Admiral James Loy, Undersecretary of Transportation for security, in signing an order denying collective bargaining rights to airport screeners under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), delcared that “mandatory collective bargaining is not compatible with the flexibility required to wage the war against terrorism.”

Then the administration moved to eliminate union and civil service protections for 750,000 civilian workers in the Department of Defense through the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). And on tap is the Working for America Act, which would effectively end meaningful union representation for the rest of the federal workforce, removing several million workers from any real collective bargaining.

The courts have struck down many of the worst elements of NSPS. Washington’s own Rep. Jay Inslee got the US House to adopt by voice vote a provision denying funding to any of the illegal portions of NSPS. We’re winning that battle.

The Kentucky River cases represent just the most recent strategy by employers to eliminate unions altogether. They are a threat to basic freedoms for all of us.



What you can do



1. Tell your member of Congress to demand that the National Labor Relations Board provide for oral argument on this case. The NLRB must understand that we won’t give up our rights, and that we insist on being heard. You can do this easily by going to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/kentuckyriver_cases.



2. If you live in the PUGET SOUND, join us for an action to defend our right to have a union:

Monday, July 10th, 4 pm - 5 pm

Virginia Mason Medical Center

1100 9th Avenue, Seattle



Virginia Mason is trying to take away the right to union representation from 600 RNs, using the very rationale of the Kentucky River cases - arguing that the nurses are all supervisors. Join Washington State Nurses Association, SEIU 1199NW, UFCW 141, Washington State Jobs with Justice, Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO, building trades workers, longshore workers, community allies, faith representatives, students and others to defend our basic rights! For more information, please see http://wslc.org/reports/2006/06/28.htm#Wednesday.



3. If you live in OREGON, there will be actions the week of July 10th in Portland and Eugene. For more information on the Portland action, please contact jennifersargeant [at] unions-america.com (Oregon AFL-CIO) or chris [at] jwjpdx.org (Portland Jobs with Justice); for more information on the action in Eugene, please contact essn [at] efn.org (Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network/Jobs with Justice).



4. If you live in NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, join the rally on Tuesday, July 11th, 11:30 am, at the Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland; for more information, please see http://www.calnurses.org/rn-alerts/.



5. If you live in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, join the rally on Tuesday, July 11th, 12:00 noon, at NLRB Region 21, 888 So. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles; for more information, please see http://www.calnurses.org/rn-alerts/.



These cases are part of a coordinated effort to eliminate the right for workers to have collective bargaining and a voice at work. Please join us to protect these rights.

In solidarity,

Paul Bigman