NEW YORK NURSE: December 2007
by Barbara Crane, RN, BC, CCRN, President, NYSNA Delegate Assembly
In October we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our collective bargaining program. Next spring we will follow up that milestone by marking the 20th anniversary of the NYSNA Delegate Assembly.
The Delegate Assembly (DA) met for the first time on May 10, 1988. It was hailed by Executive Director Martha Orr as “truly an historic occasion” and by first DA Chair Marva Wade as “a real way for a majority of members to have input into the direction of the association and into the problems of collective bargaining, which are many.”
The DA is a conduit between the members of our collective bargaining units – the RNs in the trenches, so to speak – and the Board of Directors. At the time the DA was created, the association had just gone through a perilous time when its very existence as a union had been challenged by a hospital where nurses were trying to organize with NYSNA.
In April 1988, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that a multipurpose association could effectively represent staff nurses, stating that NYSNA “is a labor organization… and operates in a manner that avoids conflicts of interest.”
The Delegate Assembly plays a key role in this conflict avoidance. It has the important responsibility to inform and advise the Board of Directors on matters related to collective bargaining. And with the formation of the Congress of Bargaining Unit Leaders in 2004, the elected members of the DA can perform this role even more effectively.
Back in the day, as a DA representative from Long Island, I was the liaison for bargaining units at seven different facilities. I tried to maintain contact with them, but found it to be extremely difficult and time-consuming.
Now, the biannual meetings of the Congress provide the DA with first-hand information about what is going on at the facility level. The chair or president of each bargaining unit is eligible to attend the meetings, which have been rich opportunities to share experiences and ensure that the needs of our members are being met.
Working hand in hand with the Congress, the Delegate Assembly is committed to making sure our nurses have a voice. I urge all our bargaining unit members to share your concerns and questions with your LBU executive committee so they can effectively represent you before the Congress and the DA.
In his recently published book, State of the Unions, reporter Philip M. Dine argues that the future of the American middle class – and our democracy itself – may depend on revitalizing the labor movement.
Dine writes, “If the labor movement does revitalize itself, it won’t be because its leaders have developed a magic formula . . . It will be because unions, having decided that democratization is not a luxury but a matter of survival, have reformed themselves in ways that unleash the energy of their members.”
Here at NYSNA, we have that “bottom-to-top” system in place. We’re counting on you to help us make it work!