Houston Nurses Vote For Unionhttp://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/31/houston-nurses-first-in-state-to-have-collective-bargainingby James Parks, Mar 31, 2008
Nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston
celebrate winning the first private sector nurses’ union
in Texas. Photo credit: CNA/NNOC While most Texans are mourning the Texas Longhorns’ loss in the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday, nearly 300 nurses in Houston are celebrating their own enormous victory. The registered nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center are the first private sector nurses in the Lone Star State to win collective bargaining rights. They gained their voice on the job March 27 and 28 by voting for the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) Texas, an affiliate of California Nurses Association/NNOC.
Says Josie Jupio, an RN at the hospital:
Finally our voice will be heard. This victory of the nurses’ unity will bring a change for the better, impacting patient care, improving the benefits and assuring an open door policy that is fair to all.
CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro says the “stunning victory” changes the face of healthcare in Texas and will send shockwaves across the country, especially in states where no or only a few RNs are represented. It sends a clarion message to those RNs, a hope that they too can overcome the odds and band together to improve the quality of care at the bedside and change forever the standards for themselves and their colleagues.
Texas RNs have crossed a historic bridge and will never look back. CNA/NNOC leaders say the nurses at Cypress Fairbanks, part of the Tenet Healthcare system, will inspire other nurses to seek a union. NNOC Texas already is helping workers in at least five other Texas cities form a union.
The Texas win comes as 4,000 CNA/NNOC members are on a 10-day strike at hospitals owned by Sutter Health in the Bay Area, seeking safe staffing levels. The nurse-patient ratio is a key concern of the Houston nurses as well. Says Cypress Fairbanks RN Purita Reyes:
Union means unity for the good of all, especially our patients who are the cause we are here for.More.........
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:woohoo: :woohoo: :toast: