FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2001
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ANA Applauds Historic Affiliation Between UAN, AFL-CIO
Washington, DC --The American Nurses Association (ANA) congratulates its labor arm, United American Nurses (UAN), for its historic affiliation with the AFL-CIO today. UAN delegates voted today to accept a charter with the AFL-CIO, which will make it the national labor group's 24th largest affiliate of the 65 affiliates.
"We witnessed an historic step forward in the labor movement for registered nurses today," stated ANA President Mary E. Foley, MS, RN. "It's no secret that many nurses are under siege as never before with poor working conditions that include inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime becoming the norm across the country. This new partnership between the UAN and AFL-CIO will help collective bargaining nurses to achieve change in the workplace by providing a strengthened, united labor voice."
The UAN includes more than 100,000 registered nurses from state nurses associations or collective bargaining programs in 23 states and in the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who was on hand for today's historic vote, was authorized during a May 2 meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council to issue a charter to the UAN, pending today's vote by the nurses' group.
"With this vote, the UAN delegates sent a message loud and clear that we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get down to the business of solving together the patient care crisis in this country," said UAN Chairperson Cheryl Johnson, RN.
ANA Chief Executive Officer Linda J. Stierle, MSN, RN, CNAA, called today's affiliation a monumental moment in ANA's history. "This is a significant milestone in our evolutionary growth," Stierle said. "The ANA has always been a diverse organization with a single purpose yet multiple strategies. One of those strategies, collective bargaining, got a significant boost today because through this affiliation, registered nurses will be able to tap into the power of the larger whole."
As a multipurpose organization, the ANA represents the interests of all registered nurses to effect change in the workplace to benefit nurses, their patients and health care delivery. In addition to having a labor arm through the UAN, the ANA has a national Commission on Workplace Advocacy that addresses the needs of nurses who choose other strategies, such as legislative and regulatory measures, to improve their workplace.
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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. The 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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