NEW YORK NURSE: September 2011
Dear Editor,
NYSNA has 35,000 members, of which 350 are non-RN Healthcare Providers, (Physicians Assistants, Pharmacists, Respiratory and Physical Therapists, and Social Workers, to illustrate a few). They have been represented in NYSNA’s collective bargaining units for 20 years but beyond the local level they are not considered members.
As President of my local, I represent and fight for the rights of all the healthcare professionals in my facility. All the professionals pay the same NYSNA dues. We are all in the NYSNA Pension Plan. The officers on our LBU’s Executive Council are RNs and Professionals. We all defend NYSNA members at discipline hearings and negotiate for a fair contract. Professionals also walked our strike line in 2000.
The Delegate Assembly has recognized them and they are represented as the “Professional Zone.” On June 15, 2011 NYSNA’s Board of Directors voted, as a board action, to support the concept of full membership rights for the professionals in NYSNA. At convention we will vote on a bylaw change to have our professionals recognized as full members.
This bylaw change will strengthen our solidarity and NYSNA will be even stronger. We are all healthcare providers, working together side by side.
I encourage the membership to support this bylaw change and vote “YES.”
Bruce Lavalle, RN, BS, MS, CCRN
LBU president, Peconic Bay Medical Center
Editor’s note: Non-RN professionals represented by NYSNA for collective bargaining pay an agency fee, not dues, to the association.
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