NYSNA Plans To Break With National Union

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The New York State Nurses Association Dec. 21 announced its decision to disaffiliate from the United American Nurses, the national union it helped to form in 1999, due to what officials said were undemocratic practices.

NYSNA's decision to walk away, alongside state nurses' associations from Ohio, Oregon and Washington, strips the UAN of almost two-thirds of its roughly 100,000-strong membership. The most-contentious issue, according to NYSNA officials, was the UAN's recent talks with the Service Employees International Union about affiliating with the giant health-care union.

'No True Democracy'

"It hasn't fulfilled what we thought its mission would be," said NYSNA spokesman Mark A. Genovese. "There hasn't been true democracy in the organization, and in recent years the decision-making has been increasingly top-down."

NYSNA had hoped that the formation would give nurses' unions greater clout and protect it from organizing raids by other unions. Officials said that they had voiced concerns at the body's annual meetings and had made specific proposals to change the decision-making process and allow more input by state affiliates, but that the UAN board of directors had not been receptive.

UAN offices were closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2 and a spokesperson could not be reached for a response.

Some NYSNA members had voiced disappointment about the performance of the UAN and the delegate assembly voted to recommend disaffiliation. NYSNA must continue to pay dues to the UAN into early 2008 by contractual agreement, but will then divert those funds back into the state union when the agreement expires.

Old Tension Surfacing?

Mr. Genovese would not comment on the relationship between UAN President Ann Converso, who is a NYSNA member and past president of Local District 1 and the delegate assembly, and the current NYSNA leadership. Former NYSNA president and delegate assembly president Marva Wade is also a director on the UAN's seven-person executive council. Two of the slots are currently vacant.

The UAN affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 2001 and, until the split last month, had counted about 27 state nurses associations as members.

Mr. Genovese said that the decision to leave was not connected to tensions between the AFL-CIO, of which NYSNA is a member, and SEIU, which led a break-away faction of seven unions in 2005 to form the alternate national labor federation Change To Win. He noted that NYSNA continues to have good relations with state SEIU locals.

"The concept is still good, and we believed there was a possibility to make it happen through some reform," said Mr. Genovese. "But the way it was carried out by this organization meant that we could no longer participate."