American Nurses Association (ANA)

UDR Story

• Union-oriented slate tops NY Nurses election

  N.Y. Nurses United, the pro-union opposition group in the New York State Nurses Association, chalked up an important gain in the August election of top officers. NYSNA two-year term elections are staggered. This time, of the six positions to be filled, the opposition group had nominated four and called for a write-in for a fifth. Of its four candidates on the ballot, it elected three.

• New national union aims to unite nurses

  Delegates from three major unions of registered nurses, meeting in Phoenix on December 7, merged their forces into a new national organization, the National Nurses United. The three founding affiliates --- the California Nurses Association, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the United American Nurses --- report a combined membership of 150,000. To thunderous applause from some 150 delegates, one of the three elected co-presidents proclaimed that this creation of the "largest union of direct care nurses is about a century overdue."

• A flawed referendum for Massachusetts nurses

  Registered nurses voted on whether or not to merge their Massachusetts Nurses Association into a new union along with the California Nurses Association and the United American Nurses. The process was a disappointing beginning in the quest for what so many nurses want: one strong democratic union to represent nurses who are now scattered and divided among a bewildering array of competing unions. Of the MNA's 23,000 members only some 500 were able to vote in the union's referendum.

• Four state nurses associations quit AFL-CIO union

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  In December, nurses associations in four states, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington, withdrew from the United American Nurses, the national AFL-CIO union of registered nurses.

• New York nurses battle over union ties

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  Registered nurses in New York State Nurses Association are embroiled in a bitter factional fight over how they should be linked to organized labor. In a non-binding opinion poll, 60% of the voters, 2,312 to 1,533, rejected a proposal to disaffiliate from one AFL-CIO collective bargaining unit. But the battle continues. The urgent question is whether the association officialdom which, despite disclaimers, obviously favors disaffiliation, will resolve the disputed issue democratically or whether it will try to steamroller its opposition.

• Three major nurses unions unite in AFL-CIO

  United American Nurses, the California Nurses Association, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association --- three big unions of registered nurses that had been independent and somewhat in competition ---- joined forces in February to form one new union that claims to represent 150,000 members. The new union, called the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee, will be part of the labor movement as an AFL-CIO affiliate.