Labor & Employment Law

For Sixth Time in a Month, Florida Nurses Join NNU

By James Parks

For the sixth time in about a month, registered nurses at a Florida hospital voted last night for a stronger voice in patient care by joining National Nurses United (NNU). This time it was the 300 nurses at Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, near Tampa.

Since mid-November, more than 2,100 registered nurses at six Florida hospitals have voted to join National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida, NNU’s Florida affiliate. The combined margin of victory in the six votes was about 3-to-1 (74 percent to 26 percent).

At all six hospitals, the RNs say they are seeking a stronger voice for better nurse-to-patient ratios, improved procedures for floating assignment of RNs beyond their areas of clinical expertise and experience and improved economic standards, including better retirement security in pensions and medical coverage.

Oak Hill RN Dee-Ann Marsh proclaimed:

We won! Collective bargaining will pay off and we will now be able to get better care for our patients and for our hospital. Now the work really begins.

?This is a proud moment, and one that heralds tremendous promise for the future,” said NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. She also paid special tribute to “those courageous nurses who have dreamed for years about building a powerful,  national movement of nurses.”

NNU Vice President Malinda Markowitz said:

By feeling empowered and unified, we can work together to change the face of nursing and devote the time that our patients need.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).