Labor & Employment Law

Las Vegas Nurses Join National Nurses Movement

By Mike Hall

Registered nurses at MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas voted yesterday to affiliate with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC).

The 500 nurses are the first RNs to unionize with the growing national nurses movement?National Nurses United (NNU)?following its formation last month with the joining together of CNA/NNOC, the United American Nurses (UAN) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).

Alta Meyer, an intensive care RN at MountainView, says the election is

a victory for patients, patient safety and for us, the nurses. We have our voice at last.

MountainView is affiliated with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the nation’s largest hospital system. Malinda Markowitz, RN, a California HCA nurse, co-president of CNA/NNOC and NNU national board member, says:

This election should provide tremendous encouragement to HCA and other nurses across our nation who also long for representation to enhance patient care conditions and advance standards for their colleagues, their families and the nursing profession

NNU was formed in part to accelerate the organizing of nonunion RNs into a direct care RN-led national movement.  NNU Co-president Jean Ross congratulated the MountainView RNs as new charter members of NNU who will be

a vital part of our national campaign to change the face of patient care, and assist the ability of all RNs to promote a better life for themselves and their patients.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).