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Do you want a union in your workplace?
A union is a group of employees who band together to set their own goals and achieve them. To reach these goals, the workers negotiate a contract with the employer.
AFT Healthcare can assist you in creating your own member-driven organization to achieve your and your coworkers' goals.
You have a legal right to organize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a federal labor law. If you work in a public hospital, the rules for organizing will be governed by a state law that is similar to the NLRA.
Federal law protects your right to talk to your colleagues about organizing a union during work time. Federal law explicitly forbids employers from firing you for talking about, supporting or joining a union.
Forming a union can seem frightening and complex. But AFT Healthcare has trained, professional organizers who can provide the right information and advice to make the process less intimidating. Here are the basic steps:
Step 1: Talk With Your Coworkers
Talk to people at your facility who do work similar to yours. Exchanging information, learning about unions and building relationships with coworkers on other shifts and in other units and departments is essential. If you and your coworkers believe a union can help, your organizing effort will move to the next step.
Step 2: Create a Mission Statement
Next, you and your colleagues should create an "organizing committee." This committee should be composed of coworkers who not only support the formation of a union but who are willing to talk about it publicly with others. One of the first tasks of your organizing committee is to write a mission statement that lists the principles you believe in, as well as affirms that the signers believe a union is an appropriate way to achieve these goals.
Step 3: Distribute and Sign the Authorization Card/Petition
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and most state labor laws provide for an election to determine whether you wish to establish a union. This means that you and your coworkers will have to sign an "authorization card" or an "authorization petition" requesting that an election be held. AFT Healthcare organizers can help you write, print and circulate these materials. In rare cases, an employer may voluntarily recognize your union. But in most cases, an election will be held.
Step 4: Hold the The Election
Once enough employees have signed an authorization card or petition, the signatures are given to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that governs union elections. If you work for a public hospital, the cards will be turned over to the appropriate state or local agency. Usually, a secret-ballot election will be held 45 to 60 days later.
During the period before the election, your employer may try very hard to dissuade you and your coworkers from forming a union. The employer may hire an outside consultant, hold one-on-one discussions with you or spread rumors or false information about the union. During this period, AFT Healthcare will help educate you and your coworkers about what the employer may say or do, assist you in obtaining correct information about unions and provide encouragement whenever it is needed.
Step 5: Set Up Your Union and Bargain Your First Contract
Once you win an election, your employer can no longer take things away from you or change existing practices without bargaining with your union first. Healthcare workers negotiate the best contracts when they are organized, unified and participate actively in their own organization and their own contract negotiations. AFT Healthcare representatives will help you and your new union negotiate contracts and will assist you in achieving the goals you and your coworkers set for yourselves.
If you wish to learn more about organizing a union or about any of the other topics mentioned here, please contact AFT Healthcare's organizing department. You may also wish to read the following:
Quick Facts About AFT Healthcare
AFT Healthcare is the healthcare division of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a 1.3 million-member union that belongs to the AFL-CIO. The AFT is the largest and fastest-growing union of professionals in the United States.
- The AFT was founded in 1916. Healthcare workers have been part of the AFT for more than 50 years.
- AFT Healthcare represents more than 70,000 healthcare workers in the public and private sector working in hospitals, home health agencies, schools, nursing homes, blood banks, laboratories, higher education and other facilities.
- AFT Healthcare represents registered nurses, LPNs, technicians, technologists, therapists, psychologists, pharmacists, physicians, service and maintenance personnel and other healthcare workers.
AFT Healthcare leads the nation in working to pass ground-breaking federal and state legislation such as bans on mandatory overtime, whistleblower protection, safe needle/safe sharps requirements, patients' bill of rights and more.
