Organize with NYSNA
We are NYSNA—the New York State Nurses Association. With over 42,000 members, NYSNA gives frontline nurses and healthcare professionals a unified voice to promote the health and welfare of our members, our profession, and the people of New York state. When nurses come together and fight, we win!
Organizing a Union at Work
Working together, NYSNA nurses have achieved more than great wages and benefits; we have also won respect, a seat at the table, safe staffing and a better future for our patients. Organizing a union at your workplace is the one thing you can do to bring predictability, fairness and accountability to your profession. Registered nurses throughout New York are already standing with NYSNA to secure better wages, better benefits and a better life with a union contract!
You stand up for patients. Who stands up for you?
Learn More About NYSNA
NYSNA helps nurses make their workplaces safer, advocate for their patients and advance the nursing profession.
Contact Us
Learn more about organizing a union at your workplace, or joining as an individual or student member.
Already a NYSNA member? Click here to login or create your account.
How It Works
Step 1: Bringing Nurses Together - The first step in organizing your workplace is to educate yourself and your fellow nurses about NYSNA and quietly and quickly develop a network of nurses interested in organizing a union.
Step 2: Meet with a NYSNA Organizer - Next, reach out to one the NYSNA Organizing staff to discuss your desire to form a union with NYSNA and to learn “the plan to win NYSNA” at your facility.
Step 3: Signing a Union Petition or Card in Solidarity - Once you’ve reached a critical mass of support and have met with a NYSNA organizer to learn the plan. Together we circulate a union petition or card to show our strength and solidarity! Signing on at this point does not make you a NYSNA member and is not a commitment to paying dues.
Step 4: Holding an Election - Upon reaching a strong majority of nurses, your employer could honor your wishes and recognize your request to unionize. If not, the collected signatures are sent to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that governs union elections, to schedule an election by secret ballot.
Step 5: Winning Your Union Election - NYSNA representation begins once an election has been won by simple majority. However, we always aim for a victory by the supermajority!
Step 6: Bargaining Your First Contract - Congratulations! Now that you and your colleagues are represented by NYSNA, management can no longer change existing practices, like wages or benefits, without bargaining first. Now you and your co-workers prepare to bargain your first union contract!
For 35 years, Hudson Valley Hospital denied nurses a real voice—but thanks to NYSNA, we're making a real change. The administration has thrown everything at us: delays, intimidation, even forced revotes. But when a billion-dollar giant pushes, we push back even harder. Being part of a union is about more than the wages and benefits we win—it's about proving that no corporation, no matter how powerful, can outlast the solidarity of frontline healthcare workers. To every hospital chain that thinks nurses won't fight back—watch out.
- Renee Mauro, RNC
Hudson Valley Hospital
Know Your Rights
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) you have the legal right to organize in your workplace. In the case of many public hospitals, state law that is similar to the NLRA governs the process.
You have the right to:
- Sign a NYSNA card and attend meetings to discuss NYSNA.
- Talk to your colleagues about NYSNA during work time.
- Hand out written NYSNA materials on non-work time (i.e. breaks) in non-work areas (i.e. cafeteria, nurses’ lounge, etc.)
- Post NYSNA materials on general purpose bulletin boards.
It is illegal for your employer to force you to discuss NYSNA or discipline you in any way for exercising your right to join or support the union.
Learn more about your rights as a nurse.
Anti-Union Employers
Some hospitals and healthcare systems may try to dissuade nurses from organizing by hiring antiunion consultants or using fear and intimidation to try and stop nurses from joining NYSNA.
But we have had great success in defeating these campaigns by staying united and aggressively defending our rights and filing legal complaints if the employer breaks the law.