National Federation of Nurses joining forces with American Federation of Teachers

Feb 16 2013

The nurses' group says this step will give them the added leverage they need to address issues related to conditions and to protect against unfair hospital management attacks.

Modern Healthcare: Nurses Union Moves To Boost Clout By Teaming Up With Teachers
Members of the National Federation of Nurses said affiliating with the American Federation of Teachers will give them the leverage they need to improve working conditions and protect themselves from unfair attacks from hospital management. Affiliation talks have been ongoing for the past year, said NFN President Barbara Crane in a Thursday conference call with reporters. Over the next few weeks, NFN membership will finalize the deal that will combine their 34,000 members with the 1.2 million members of the AFT. About 48,000 of AFT's members are nurses. The move brings together two of the more vocal union groups-;teachers and nurses-;and continues a trend seeing smaller unions partner with larger collective bargaining units. Last month the 10,000 members of National Union of Healthcare Workers combined with the 95,000 California Nurses Association (Selvam, 2/14).

Kansas City Star: National Federation Of Nurses Will Affiliate With Teachers Union
The leaders of two labor organizations representing health care professionals announced Thursday that they had approved an affiliation agreement that will bring 34,000 registered nurses into the American Federation of Teachers, the largest union of professionals in the AFL-CIO. The National Federation of Nurses, which represents nurses across the country, will affiliate with the teachers union, whose 1.5 million members include more than 48,000 nurses and thousands of other health care professionals. Barbara Crane, the president of the nurses federation, said her group's national board voted to join forces with the teachers union to give the nurses more political clout and money to try to unionize more nurses (2/14).