Nurses and the new NLRB rules. Implications for healthcare management

The inclusion of nurses as an allowable bargaining unit is one of the most significant aspects of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold the National Labor Relations Board's new collective bargaining unit rules. For a number of reasons, the decision makes it more likely that nurses at a given hospital will vote to form a union. Union nurses receive, on average, 6 percent higher salaries than do their nonunion counterparts. In addition, being able to organize into a smaller unit gives nurses a much stronger bargaining position. Finally, because of the new collective bargaining unit rules, labor leaders now find hospitals an attractive place to attempt to establish unions. In responding to the possibility that nurses might unionize, hospital managers should acknowledge that nurses often have legitimate grievances concerning pay and working conditions. They should also be aware that changes in the healthcare system during the 1980s often led managers and administrators to neglect focusing on nurses' satisfaction in favor of an emphasis on the bottom line. In the future, if managers can offer nurses the same rewards a union organizer offers and at the same time establish a cooperative, employee-oriented hospital atmosphere, nurses will benefit from the Supreme Court Ruling, whether or not they ultimately join a union.