FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2001
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UAN Moves Forward with Historic AFL-CIO Affiliation
Washington, DC -- Registered staff nurses from the United American Nurses (UAN), the nationwide union arm of the American Nurses Association, took an historic step yesterday toward affiliation with the AFL-CIO and full partnership with the 65 unions that make up the House of Labor.
UAN's Executive Council yesterday evening strongly and unanimously passed a resolution recommending that delegates to the UAN's National Labor Assembly approve a charter for AFL-CIO affiliation when the Assembly convenes in June. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was authorized during an earlier meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Boston yesterday to issue a charter to the UAN, the largest RN union in the nation, with more than 100,000 nurses in its 26 constituent nursing associations.
"We're delighted that the AFL-CIO Executive Council has authorized President Sweeney to issue a charter to the UAN, and we're confident that delegates to the UAN's National Labor Assembly – who in June 2000 directed our Executive Council to seek an AFL-CIO charter – will enthusiastically approve," said UAN President and Chair Cheryl Johnson, RN. "RNs across the nation have embraced union organizing, representation and bargaining to secure better working conditions, recognition and respect for their professional expertise and appropriate compensation and benefits."
“Affiliation with the AFL-CIO unites staff nurses across the country with the 13 million working women and men of the largest labor organization in the country," added UAN Director Susan Bianchi-Sand. "We're looking forward to working in partnership with the AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions to fight for quality patient care and safe work and care conditions for nurses."
"The UAN brings a wealth of professional expertise in the work of health care, and we look forward to their affiliation with the AFL-CIO with pride and excitement," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "We have deep respect for the voice the American Nurses Association has given to registered nurses for more than 100 years. Together, we can be even more effective in addressing the persistent health care problems that plague American families, as well as the issues facing nurses and all health care workers, who too often bear the brunt of a system under siege."
"The ANA expresses its congratulations to the UAN and its appreciation to the AFL-CIO for recognizing the significant contribution that the UAN makes to nurses who choose collective bargaining," stated ANA President Mary E. Foley, MS, RN. "We look forward to our new partnership so we can advance issues of patient safety and advocacy. It's an historic step that is good for nurses, patients and quality health care."
UAN's Labor Assembly, the top policy-making body of organized RNs from across the country, last year directed UAN's executive council to begin the process of seeking an AFL-CIO affiliation. Delegates to the National Labor Assembly will formally vote on acceptance of the AFL-CIO charter during the 2001 Labor Assembly, June 27-28, in Washington, DC.
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The United American Nurses, the labor arm of the American Nurses Association, is the nation's largest union of RNs and is comprised of state nursing associations from 24 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its constituent member state nurses
associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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