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Civil Disobedience at Labor Board in D.C. July 13: Your Rights to Join a Union at Risk |
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As a staff nurse at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Sandra Falwell sometimes directs the work of less skilled or less experienced employees. Yet she’s not part of hospital management. She does not have the ability to hire or fire employees, evaluate their performance or make other decisions regarding their work.
But as early as this summer, the nation’s labor board could decide Falwell—and hundreds of thousands of workers like her—are supervisors. Such a ruling would mean Falwell and other nurses on the medical center staff could not belong to a union. And not only nurses: Within an instant, millions of workers, including journalists, port employee and building and construction trades workers—up to 10 percent of the U.S. working population—could find they are considered “supervisors,” barred from joining unions.
This potentially massive shift in U.S. labor law is happening largely unknown to the public—and to the workers who would be most affected.
This week, nurses, construction workers, miners and thousands of other workers nationwide are taking part in actions to demand the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) protect their rights.
The Bush-backed NLRB in recent months has found corporate interests often outweigh those of workers: The board has taken away workers’ protections and workers’ rights, including the rights of disabled workers, temporary employees and graduate employees. Now, it’s set to decide on a series of cases known collectively as “Kentucky River,” in which it will determine whether to expand the definition of supervisor.
Meanwhile, the NLRB has refused to hear oral arguments on the cases—and has heard no oral arguments, a fundamental part of any due process, since the Bush administration took office. In fact, the NLRB denied union requests to hear oral arguments in these cases.
Speaking on the House floor Monday, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who spent 30 years working as a nurse, highlighted how union membership benefits those served by workers:
For nurses, union membership provides a voice on the job and the protections needed to be effective patient advocates. A nurse with a union works with confidence to make tough calls and be a strong patient advocate when patient decisions need to be made. Patients need a strong voice to stand up to those who put the bottom line before patients’ health care needs.
For nurses, union membership provides a voice on the job and the protections needed to be effective patient advocates. A nurse with a union works with confidence to make tough calls and be a strong patient advocate when patient decisions need to be made. Patients need a strong voice to stand up to those who put the bottom line before patients’ health care needs. On The Agonist, Ian Welsh highlights the impact such a ruling could have on all workers:
It is also an assault of good wages for ordinary workers. In any industry where there is unionization, even if your shop isn’t unionized, the threat of unionization helps keep wages up and treatment good. Employers always know that if they treat their workers too badly, the unions are waiting for a chance to get in the door.
As she gets set to take part in protest at the NLRB, Falwell, who has worked at the medical center for 31 years, remembers her first fight for a voice on the job. Before she helped form a union 10 years ago, patient loads had became so heavy, she worried about patient care. “We didn’t have a voice in anything,” Falwell says. Management did not respect the work nurses did, says Falwell, who had gone seven years without a raise. When a nurse would leave the hospital, no one would be hired to take their place.
Falwell, now president of the District of Columbia Nurses Association, says the relationship between hospital management and the union has improved over the years, with both sides united to improve patient care.
Isn’t that what unions are for?
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