Arkansas Nurses say no to collective bargaining.

While the american Medical Association has given its approval of physician unions, a group for state nurses has gone against its national organization and rejected the concept of collective bargaining.

The Arkansas Nurses Association persuaded the American Nurses Association to set up a task force by September to investigate establishing a workplace advocacy entity to parallel the national organization's collective bargaining arm, the United American Nurses.

The workplace advocacy entity would involve Arkansas in professional advocacy but keep the state out of collective bargaining, whereas the UAN would serve as a national labor entity that would allow the ANA to affiliate with the AFL-CIO.

"We are not a union," says ArNA executive director Joanne DeJanovich, who has worked four years to develop the ArNA's Workplace Advocacy Program. "Unions are a quick fix."

The Arkansas Nurses Association has about 900 registered nurses as members in 13 districts throughout the state.

Not a Union

DeJanovich says the ArNA declassified itself as union in 1989 and does not wish to return to that status. She says the ArNA is a not-for-profit, professional organization that doesn't involve itself in labor disputes. Though it has never been involved in collective bargaining, DeJanovich says, the group has had difficulty getting support and new members because people thought of it as a union.

So when state representatives at a November meeting of the ANA Constituent Assembly proposed that ANA create a new unit - the UAN - to assist nurses with collective bargaining in all states, the ArNA was not happy.

DeJanovich says Arkansas' culture isn't conducive to union activity. "In the South, they really don't support union activity," she says.

Recent events, however, have stirred collective bargaining in the state's medical community. AMA doctors have voted to form physicians unions, and there has been a drive to unionize nurses at St. Vincent Health System, citing extra work and cuts in pay and benefits.

St. Vincent officials say they respect the workers' right to unionize, but spokesman Scott Mosley says nurses bringing in an outside group could complicate the relationship the system has with its employees.

DeJanovich says nurses at St. Vincent haven't contacted the ArNA for help, though she says she would love to talk to them. She says the ArNA is not an arbitration organization, though it could provide resources and materials to help nurses deal with administrative problems. She says the association's biggest role is in passing legislation, educating nurses and advocacy.

A Search for Equity

DeJanovich says the ArNA doesn't want resources that could benefit workplace advocacy going to collective bargaining.

Fearing they would be left out in the cold, the ArNA "told them we wanted some equity," she says.

By February the ANA had a provision for the UAN, but stuck the ArNA's workforce advocacy program in a committee, making an entity within an entity rather than its own arm of the ANA. The ArNA told the ANA their plan was unacceptable and, working with the Texas and Arizona nurses associations, submitted a model that would have the workplace advocacy entity exist parallel with the UAN.

"We told them we could not be part of a labor entity," DeJanovich says. "We told everybody that we were still standing by the workplace advocacy program, not collective bargaining."

Making It Work

DeJanovich says the ArNA took criticism from other states that supported collective bargaining. But by May, the ArNA and the Texas association was unhappy enough to threaten a break with the national organization.

At a June ANA House of Delegates meeting in Washington, D.C., DeJanovich says, the ArNA was finally able to get the ANA Board of Directors to create a task force on workplace advocacy. The group is to report to the ANA by the end of the year with recommendations about establishing an arm for workplace advocacy.

"We recognize that our [state associations] seek a variety of ways to champion for the procession and workplace," ANA president Beverly Malone says. "We are allocating resources to see that all RNs have support as they take on tough issues that impact their ability to care for patients effectively."

The ArNA will take part in the ANA task force, which could present a plan for ratification at the June 2000 House of Delegates meeting.