For Immediate Release
Monday, March 26, 2001
Independent Association of Nurses Votes to Affiliate with AFSCME
Minneapolis, MN —Some 1,400 licensed practical nurses from around Minnesota will now find that strength — and collective bargaining power — comes in numbers, as they become part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. By affiliating their formerly independent union with AFSCME Friday, the nurses and technical employees boost AFSCME's Minnesota health care membership to 9,000 and establish it as the only true statewide health care union.
The Minnesota Licensed Practical Nurses' Association (MLPNA) represents employees at 35 community hospitals, clinics and nursing homes around the state.
"We're very excited to become part of AFSCME's 50,000-strong organization in Minnesota," said Maxine Davis, board chairwoman of MLPNA and a nurse in the dialysis unit of Immanuel-St. Joseph's Hospital in Mankato. "We preserve our identity and retain our unique role as LPNs in health care facilities around the state."
Rank and file members voted by mail ballot with a federal labor mediator overseeing the count of votes late Friday at MLPNA's office in Roseville. The vote was 575-117 in favor of joining AFSCME. Also affiliating are members of the Technical Employees Association of Minnesota (TEAM), a smaller union that negotiates jointly with MLPNA at four facilities.
AFSCME began discussions with MLPNA leaders last year, and governing boards of the two independent unions voted unanimously in January to affiliate upon membership ratification. Nationally, AFSCME represents 360,000 members working in hospitals, nursing homes, home health care and mental health agencies.
"This resounding vote by our members came from a desire to strengthen our hand in collective bargaining, and increase the visibility and influence of MLPNA in representing the interests of working nurses," Davis said. "With greater resources, we have a more powerful voice at the table wherever reorganization, the nursing shortage, high turnover due to low wages and other issues affecting frontline nurses are discussed."
Davis said the affiliation will increase MLPNA's ability to organize LPNs and other Minnesota health care workers who are currently unrepresented.
