The American Nurses Association

The American Nurses Association (ANA) has many years of experience in representing nurses during bargaining talks, having being in existence for over a hundred years (Workplace, 2005). It promotes the representation of nurses by the Constituent Member Nurses Associations (CMA) because it believes that for nurses to implement their practice, the environment in which they work is important. Collective bargaining encompasses the process of negotiating and then enforcing a legally binding contract between an employer and an employee group such as nurses. The nurses vote to let the bargaining agent, a union, bargain on their behalf. A combination of traditional and non-traditional collective bargaining practices can be used to allow nurses to acquire organizational autonomy and control over nursing practice (Budd, Marino and Patton, 2004).

The ANA considers itself the best nurses union and best nurses professional association because it "devotes 100 percent of its resources to researching and addressing issues specific to nurses and nursing" (Workplace, 2005) The ANA addresses such contract issues as staffing; professional development; health and safety; job security; professional practice and quality of care; restructuring; and mandatory overtime, wages and benefits. It also deals with grievances; collects data linking quality patient outcomes to care by a registered nurse; sets standards for professional nurses; provides

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for Nurses supports the right of nurses to strike, if necessary, as was shown in the support the ANA gave to the striking nurses at the Western Reserve System's Forum Health in Youngstown, Ohio in 2001 who were accused of being unprofessional (Wiseman, 2001). The ANA said that the nurses had the right to do whatever is necessary to advocate for their patients and to ensure a safe work environment. The Bill of Rights can be used in collective bargaining to improve the workplace negotiations for nurses by having it included as part of the provision of their working agreement, says Linda Warino, director-at-large of United American Nurses (UAN), the labor arm of ANA. The National Labor Relations Act makes it unlawful for an employer to either force someone to join a union or prevent them from doing so (Michigan, 2005). An employee cannot discriminate against someone because of their union affiliation or non-affiliation. A nursing unit cannot be forced to go out on strike by a union, the individual members must make this decision for themselves. Nurses who have gone on strike in the past have only done so as a last resort. Nurses who go on strike do not abandon their patients because of the 1974 Health Care Amendments to the

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