UAN Revises Its Constitution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30th 2008
CONTACT:
Suzanne Martin, 240-821-1825

Delegates to 2008 UAN Special National Labor Assembly Revise Constitution, Affiliate Independent Nurse Unions

Silver Spring, MD – Delegates to the 2008 United American Nurses Special National Labor Assembly, met Sept. 21 in Chicago to amend the national union’s Constitution to reflect the evolution and maturation of the UAN over its nine-year history and recommit to the relationships UAN has built with RN members in three states.

Specifically, delegates unanimously approved resolutions affiliating the Michigan Nurses Association (1-08S) and Hawaii Nurses Association with the UAN (5-08S). MNA and HNA withdrew from the American Nurses Association on June 27 and Sept. 17, 2008, respectively. Prior to the Constitutional amendments passed at the Special NLA, state affiliation with the UAN was contingent upon membership in the ANA. UAN delegates also unanimously ratified affiliation of the newly independent Southern United Nurses (2-08S), whose members previously were represented by the Kentucky Nurses Association.

Delegates also approved amendments to the UAN Constitution that reflect the termination of UAN’s affiliation with the American Nurses Association and the disaffiliation of some state nurses associations from the UAN. Among the approved changes are provisions which

• Remove references to the ANA from the Constitution.
  
• No longer require UAN Affiliates to be members of ANA.
  
• Clarify Constitutional language on founding Affiliates to include only those states which have maintained UAN Affiliate status since then.
  
• Add an associate membership category to include RNs in states which disaffiliated from UAN and retired UAN RNs.

Given UAN’s evolution as a national union since its founding in 1999, the Special NLA also voted to

• Remove the requirement that members of the UAN Executive Council be represented for collective bargaining by a UAN Affiliate.
  
• Remove “national” from the title of UAN’s executive director and expand the responsibilities of this position to include assisting the president.
  
• Lengthen the terms of elected offices from two to four years.

These Constitutional changes also will enable the establishment of a full-time UAN presidency.

“I commend our delegates for their hard work and thoughtful deliberation at the Special NLA,” said UAN President Ann Converso, RN. “The changes they approved allow us to move forward as a national union well-positioned to work with our members, our Affiliates and like-minded staff nurses across the country to meet our mutual goals of real and enforceable safe staffing legislation, quality and accessible health care for all Americans and a U.S. president who puts the priorities of working families first in this country.”

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The United American Nurses, AFL-CIO, represents registered nurses across the country in state nurses associations, nurse unions and collective bargaining programs, working for change on the issues important to staff RNs.

Comments

[Michgan nurse]

In my opinion, this is the worst action that has impacted Michigan nurses in the near 30 years I have been a nurse. We NO longer have a professional union as part of the UAN, AFL-CIO. We are now part of a system of unionization with little individual voice or freedom of movement regarding our workplace positions.