NEW YORK NURSE: March 2011
by Robin Wood
NYSNA members who are represented for collective bargaining have elected 16 delegates to the National Federation of Nurses (NFN) National Federation Assembly, in the new national union’s first round of delegate elections. The new delegates will serve a four-year term and are charged with considering resolutions and helping to shape the NFN’s governing documents. Additionally, they will elect a director to the union’s executive board from NYSNA’s represented membership.
The NFN operates using a federated model, in which each of the member nurse labor organizations (NLO) – currently the state nurses associations of New York, Washington, Oregon, Ohio, New Jersey, Montana, and Indiana – have equal representation on the NFN executive board, and proportionate representation in the National Federation Assembly, the delegate body of the NFN.
The new delegates will be seated at the NFN’s Founding National Federation Assembly Meeting, May 16 and 17 in Chicago.
Barbara Crane, NFN president and NYSNA member, said the NLO elections are an important step forward for the national union. “We are building a new kind of national union, creating a unified voice for nurses. I want us to be at the table. I want us to join hands with all the nurses and represented professionals who are working to improve healthcare delivery and working conditions.”
The NFN makes a point of taking its direction from its member NLOs and so the national union’s agenda reflects that of its members, including improving workplace safety by reducing violence against nurses and promoting safe staffing models.
The biggest issue facing the NFN, as with labor organizations across the nation, is the sustained threat to collective bargaining rights. Under the guise of reducing expenditures in this time of financial crisis, many politicians are attempting to roll back union protections. For example, in Ohio, proposed Senate Bill 5 would eliminate public sector collective bargaining, which would directly impact a third of the members of the Ohio Nurses Association.
“This is not an effective cost-cutting measure,” Crane said, “and will undo decades of work by the labor movement to protect workers and their ability to bargain for livable wages and workplace standards. For nurses, that means their safety and that of their patients would be critically compromised.”
For more on the NFN’s efforts to support union solidarity, see page 10.
| Zone | Delegate | Zone | Delegate |
Zone 1 |
William H. Huto, RN Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center Roderic Roca, BSN, RN Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center |
Zone 7 |
Victoria R. Arrick, RN Westchester Medical Center Margaret Ciavolella, RN Westchester Medical Center |
Zone 2 |
Donna Florkiewicz, RN, CCRN, CMC Ellis Hospital |
Zone 8 |
Jenmarie L. Byrnes, RN, CNOR St. Joseph Hospital (formerly New Island Hospital) Lillian Audrey Viggiano, RN St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center |
Zone 3 |
Wendy Czajak, RN Onondaga County Health Department |
Zone 9 |
Beverly Brown, RN St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center Kittie McGee, MA, BSN, RN Harlem Hospital Center |
Zone 4 |
Dennis Lindell, RN Erie County Medical Center |
Zone 10 |
Verlia M. Brown, MA, RN, BC Kings County Hospital Center Patricia Rochford, RN, BC Maimonides Medical Center |
Zone 5 |
Diane C. Earl, RN A. O. Fox Memorial Hospital |
Zone 11 |
Kathleen Winslow, RN Shore Memorial Hospital |
Zone 6 |
J. Howard Doughty, BSN, RN, CNOR Nyack Hospital |
NYSNA’s new NFA delegates will elect a director to the NFN’s executive board for a four-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2012. To be eligible to hold the office, members must:
Find the nomination form on our members only website at https://members.nysna.org. All nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m. on April 15, 2011. If you have questions, contact Bobbi Ormin, associate to NYSNA’s Economic and General Welfare program director, by e-mail at Bobbi.Ormin@nysna.org or by phone at 518.782.9400 x 258.