Health Care Workers
 Kiran Bal, Registered Nurse; United Nurses Associations of California
AFSCME members work in our nation's health care system night and day to provide quality care for patients. In hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, public health and other practice settings we are nurses, aides, dieticians and food service workers, custodians, technicians, physician assistants, therapists, doctors, pharmacists and administrative staff.
Join your brothers and sisters in the AFSCME Health Care Employees Network. We’ll discuss shared concerns, learn about what’s going on around the country and exchange information and ideas.
If a hospital is unionized, might care be better? One recent study found that hospitals with unionized registered nurses have 5.5 percent fewer deaths from heart attacks than nonunion hospitals. That mortality rate is a key statistic used to evaluate a hospital’s performance. The study, conducted independently and without union funding, was by an economics and public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a community health professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Published in Cornell University’s “Industrial and Labor Relations Review,” the study looked at many variables that could affect quality, including how better wages might increase productivity. It concluded that the presence of unionized workers meant higher quality of care. Next Wave Toolkit Learn how to start a new Next Wave chapter, host an event, get involved in the election or find more information.
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Denise Berkeley
CSEA Local 1000, New York
"Health care is a huge industry and it's easy to feel alone. But with a union, I never feel alone. Everyday, we stand up together -- for our rights, for our families, for our patients and for each other."
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