NY Nurse April 2017 Special Edition "‘Right to Work’ is Wrong for Nurses"

New York

nurse special edition | april 2017

the official publication of the new york state nurses association

‘Right to Work’ is

S E S R U N r o f WRONG WAGES

$6,109 less per year than a worker in a free bargaining state.

HEALTH

Average worker in a RTW* state makes

POVERTY RATE

15.3%

in RTW states compared to 12.8% in free bargaining states.

BENEFITS

RISK OF WORKPLACE DEATH

of people younger than age 65 in RTW states are uninsured, compared to 9.4% in free bargaining states.

more likely in RTW states.

13%

49%

*Right to Work (RTW) source: AFL-CIO

2

New York Nurse april 2017

Right to work: Wrong for nurses!

R

Our union in action: Members from Western New York at NYSNA's March 28 RN Advocate Training

ight to work is a head-on attack on the existence of unions, threatening to undermine job security and a healthy and secure retirement for all working people. And while we at NYSNA are fortunate to work in New York state, a state without right-to-work laws, even here, right-to-work (RTW) is not an impossibility. At the federal level right now right-to-work is being debated. Make no mistake, unions are under serious attack.

We at NYSNA cannot allow right-to-work to stand. RTW has devastating consequences on unions’ ability to collect dues.

These funds support union leaders and staff, union governance, legal representation, legislative lobbying, political campaigns and pension, health, wealth and safety funds.

In effect, RTW allows workers to have elected union representation by majority vote, BUT: l employees in unionized businesses cannot be compelled to join the union; l workers who opt out — or free riders — need not pay full dues, or in some instances, any dues whatsoever to the union; and l unions are prohibited from collecting other fees from employees who opt out of union membership.

These are significant setbacks.

When large numbers of free riders opt out, a union can lose its ability to function effectively in a workplace, and may even dissolve. This is bad for our nurses, bad for working people, and bad for America.

Unions are America’s best hope

Bar none, since the Industrial Revolution, organizations of workers, labor groups and now our unions have been the most effective advocates for working Americans.

They have been in the vanguard of the fight against poverty and greed and for safe working conditions, a good standard of living, healthy communities, and a secure retirement for ALL. Our unions built America and helped make it prosperous, providing tens of millions of workers with job security, good wages and safer work places.

In these times, it is critical that

NYSNA stand united and help keep America strong for workers.

NYSNA’s history dates to 1901 and the role of nurses in building unions in the healthcare sector is on-going, a pillar of New York’s healthcare system. Our union today is 40,000 strong and along with other unions, NYSNA is out there building coalitions for progressive policies and social justice, with a high profile presence n Albany and in Washington, D.C. Our unions play a leading role in raising the minimum wage, ensuring healthcare access, enacting paid leave laws, protecting the environment, enforcing safe staffing and much more. NYSNA is there every step of the way.

National Labor Relations Act

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ushered in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a comprehensive federal law compelling employers to recognize unions and collectively bargain with their workers. Without this mechanism, strikes and boycotts were frequent and large, the primary ways for most workers to advance their interests. Collective bargaining expanded worker power and is the key to our ability to win fair contracts.

NYSNA used the NLRA in 1957 to establish its economic and general welfare collective bargaining arm.

Over the past three years, NYSNA

has exercised its right to bargain collectively, scoring big wins in the public and private sectors. We excel at it. Our contracts are outstanding and NYSNA’s growth reflects our professional skill at using the collective bargaining law.

Union growth Labor organizing was fueled by the National Labor Relations Act. Just two decades after its passage, more than a third of American workers were union members. These rapidly escalating ranks allowed working people to win their fair share of the pie. They upped their wages and added unprecedented healthcare and retirement packages as a hedge against the setbacks of old age, illness and unemployment.

And they won contractual protections as well, greatly strengthening worker rights to employment in a fair workplace. Union productivity was high and translated into strong profits for employers.

Right to Work Without a doubt, a federal rightto-work law will present a serious challenge to union security gained in critical victories over the course of a century. All the costs of collective bargaining — research, legal, and administrative — are funded by dues-paying union members.

And so, too, are grievances, which require money for fact-gathering and support. In RTW states free riders

Average Annual RN Wages Union RNs earn 25% more than non-union RNs nationally.

$75,000

$60,000

Source: Lance Compa, Cornell University, CNNMoney, Feb. 24, 2015

NEW YORK NURSE

3

april 2017 pay no union dues but reap all the benefits of union contracts. They let others foot the bill for contract negotiation and enforcement. They threaten the life of the union by refusing to contribute to its coffers.

The end of collective bargaining could undercut the many benefits achieved for NYSNA members: fair wages, raises, benefits – including retirement and healthcare – and the protection of patients through safe staffing provisions and overall conditions in the facilities.

Union advantage: Health and pension benefits Union members are 28% more likely to have employer-funded health care and 54% more likely to have an employer-funded pension plan than non-union workers.

53.9%

28.2%

Taft-Hartley In 1947, the federal government enacted the Taft-Hartley Act, amending the NLRA. Taft-Hartley was a way to demobilize labor by imposing limits on its ability to strike.

And under Taft-Hartley, states were allowed to pass RTW laws that banned agency fees — money the unions used for collective bargaining and other essential aspects of union representational activity.

Within a year, 12 states had RTW on their books. By 1960, the total had climbed to 19, largely in the South.

Proponents of RTW claim it helps workers by protecting their Constitutional rights to freedom of association and speech. This is a specious argument because these protections are already afforded under federal labor law. No one can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment and union fees collected from non-union workers cannot be used for political purposes if the worker opts out.

Proponents also claim that RTW creates jobs and the resulting economic benefits by fostering business friendly environments.

The facts tell a very different story. Non-partisan analysis of Department of Labor and Census Bureau data found that workers in RTW states earn less, are far less likely to have health and pension benefits, are poorer and are far less likely to be union members.

RTW is promoted as a strategy for attracting new businesses to a state precisely because it lowers wages and benefits, weakens workplace protections, and decreases the likelihood that employers will be required to negotiate with their employees. In fact, analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that RTW laws have no significant impact on attracting employers to

Source: Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America, 12th Edition

a particular state and have not produced job growth.

Further, by cutting wages, RTW laws threaten to undermine job growth by reducing the discretionary income people have to spend in local retail stores, real estate, construction, and service industries. Economists estimate that $1 million in wage cuts translates into an additional six jobs lost in the economy.

RTW fervor died down in 1960 and entered a long period of hibernation with only four additional states passing RTW laws between 1960 and 2010.

RTW is back

After five decades, RTW found new life after the 2010 mid-term elections, posing a threat to America’s unions. There are currently 28 states with right-to-work laws on the books and the numbers are growing fast. Since January, two states — Kentucky and Missouri — have passed RTW laws.

This renewed RTW movement has powerful new advocates, among them the Koch brothers, industrialists whose vast fortunes in energy production and market speculation have played a leading role in funding RTW support.

(Koch Industries revenues are in excess of $125 billion annually, making this enterprise among a handful of the most profitable in the nation). Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council

(ALEC), just two among scores of organizations funded by the Kochs and their allies on the right, organized winning strategies for enacting RTW laws.

By the end of 2012, 15 states had passed laws restricting the collective bargaining rights of public employees along with their ability to collect money from non-union members to pay for collective bargaining costs.

There are currently 28 states with right-towork laws on their books.

Why the courts matter

The same anti-union forces that pushed for Taft-Hartley and state RTW laws have filled the annals of American history with benchmark labor law cases, but the one most relevant to unions today is Abood vs. Detroit Board of Education. In Continued on page 4

Our union in action: SIUH nurses and supporters met to review bargaining survey results on April 19.

4

New York Nurse april 2017

Just say no Every 20 years, by directive of the New York State Constitution, a question appears on every voter’s ballot: “Shall there be a convention to revise the constitution and amend same?”

It’s an option worth preserving.

However, there’s nothing to be gained right now by revising our State’s Constitution In fact, the opposite. Right-to-work proponents are pushing hard for a rewrite. They are promoting this agenda using slogans, such as “a chance to end the dysfunction in Albany.” These slogans say nothing, but have broad appeal. This does not bode well for unions.

“Have no doubt,” State Senator Diane Savino (D, 23) warned a group of Staten Island University Hospital nurses recently, “should voters elect to hold a constitutional convention, worker protections and rights will be among the first things on the chopping block.”

So voters beware. Right-towork proponents know that our legislature and governor are union friendly, and almost any bill curtailing union rights would be dead on arrival in Albany.

But that doesn’t stop the rightto-work folks from peddling their influence in indirect ways.

And a constitutional convention is just such a venue. It provides the opportunity to rewrite laws and make inroads into New York, one of the strongest union states in the country.

Most New Yorkers are likely unaware of RTW efforts to use a constitutional rewrite to further their agenda. In February 2017, a poll, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute, found that of all union members surveyed, 57 percent think a constitutional convention is a good idea.

We need to spread the word that a Constitutional Convention may subvert worker rights.

RTW: Wrong for nurses!

Continued from page 3

1977, this Supreme Court ruling proved to be a double-edged sword for labor.

The court ruled that union shop clauses did not apply to government jobs, delivering a severe blow to labor’s fastest growing sector.

Public workers could no longer be required to join unions. And subsequently, other states enacted laws further restricting public sector bargaining rights.

However, there was good news.

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of public-sector unions to charge agency fees to workers who opt out of membership — thereby allowing unions to charge non-members fees for “collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment purposes.”

Proponents of RTW want Abood overturned. And recent cases, such as Freidrichs vs. California Teachers and Janus vs. AFSCME, look to do just that. In both cases, RTW forces argued that there is no line in the public sector between political and non-political activity. Therefore, under the First Amendment, all union activity in the public sector should be deemed “political” and dues should not be required from nonunion workers.

Freichrichs was effectively blunted

Our union in action: Peconic Bay Medical Center members voted to ratify a new contract on April 20.

last year by a split court, but Janus has since picked up the ball.

Backers of these cases, such as the National Right to Work Foundation, promote them in friendly terms, invoking First Amendment terms like “freedom of association” and “freedom of speech.” But these freedoms are not threatened by public union activity.

Their real motive here is to undercut unions, allowing more control by management.

Stifling workers’ voices

The ultimate aim is to destroy unions once and for all by denying dues needed for effective member advocacy. This effort would strip

workers of their workplace rights and stifle their voices in the political arena, stunting advocacy for health and safety, environmental protections, and other laws that protect the public’s health. Needless to say, bigger profits would be had in an America with unions in demise.

For NYSNA nurses, reduction of dues for the range of services and activities that make our union such a vital part of the health and civic life of New York would be a terrible loss. It would undercut our collective bargaining that leads to concrete benefits as well as threaten the solidarity of our nurses and the patient advocacy at the center of our profession.

Median Hourly EarningS by Region, Union vs. Non-Union, 2015-2016 $31.59 $22.65

$22.51 $19.22

$17.00

USA

$26.44

$25.96

$25.00

$24.16

NYs

$18.00

NYC Metro

NYC (5 boroughs)

U.S. Current Population Survey, Outgoing Rotation Groups, 2015 – June 2106, all occupations

Union

Non-Union

NYS, excl. NYC