Seeking Growth, Nurses' Union Links to Teachers' Union

Steven Greenhouse:

One of the nation's largest nurses' unions -- the National Federation of Nurses -- plans to announce on Thursday that it will affiliate with the far larger American Federation of Teachers.

Barbara Crane, the president of the nurses' federation, said her group's national board voted to join forces with the teachers' union to give the nurses more political clout and money to try to unionize more nurses.

"We were not going to be able to achieve some of our goals unless we found a partner," said Ms. Crane, whose union represents 34,000 nurses in Montana, Ohio, Oregon and Washington. "We wanted a professional union that believes in growth through organizing."

Competition has been growing among various labor groups wanting to expand the unionization of the nation's three million nurses, including the Service Employees International Union, which represents 90,000 nurses, and National Nurses United, a union that represents only nurses, 185,000 of them.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 21, 2013 2:47 AM
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