As part of a "National Week of Action to Stop threats from Bush's National Labor Board on Our Right to Organize," the California Nurses Association marched outside of the Federal Building in downtown Oakland on July 11th. Photos

In recent cases, the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board has taken away workers' protections and workers' rights, including the rights of disabled workers, temporary employees and graduate employees. This summer could bring more such decisions from the Bush Labor Board in cases collectively called 'Kentucky River'. These cases will serve to clarify issues left open by the Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care. The 'Kentucky River' decisions could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their rights under federal labor law. At issue is a revised definition of 'supervisor' which could potentially affect workers in a wide range of industries, including health care, building and construction, energy, broadcast and port shipping.

Registered Nurses (RNs) could lose their right to receive the protections afforded by their union representation. Healthcare employers and anti-union consultants will likely persuade the Board to rule 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- no right to union representation. Without their unions, nurses would be employees "at will" and subject to termination or other unfair discipline without contract protections. Pay, health coverage, retirement, and other standards now negotiated by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee would be subject to the whim of the 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 could be dramatically undermined, and the rights of RNs to organize into their union drastically curtailed. A decision is expected by the end of August. Read more

National Labor Relations Board | National Nurses Organizing Committee | California Nurses Association's Alerts