What Is A Union?
NYSNA is a union of nurses and healthcare professionals who work collectively to have a real say in our working conditions and patient care.
A labor union is a group of workers who join together to advocate for better working conditions and to negotiate contracts for good wages and benefits, health and safety protections, and more.
NYSNA is a union of nurses and healthcare professionals who work collectively to have a real say in our working conditions and patient care.
We are New York's largest union and professional association for registered nurses with 42,000 nurse members.
We are united to win safe staffing, stop hospital closures, defend professional wages and benefits, and fight for a just healthcare system that cares for all New Yorkers.
With a collective voice, we work together and advocate for better contracts that improve working conditions for nurses and outcomes for the patients we serve.
The Union Difference
Because we join together to advocate for our co-workers, our union bargains with the employer from a position of strength. It pays to be in a union.
Union members, at median salaries, make 18% more than their nonunion counterparts, according to the annual 2023 report on union membership from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In states with high union density, the minimum wage is 19% greater than the national average and fewer people go without health insurance, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
By uniting as union nurses, we have won safe staffing standards through negotiated contracts and new state laws, fought back and saved hospital services from closing, and strengthened health and safety protections and mandatory overtime laws.
"Our contract helps us protect nurses and protect our patients. Negotiations are about to start again, and I know that working together we can continue to protect what matters to us."
