MASSACHUSETTS NURSE NEWSLETTER :: October 2006

President's Column

Beth Piknick

By Beth Piknick
MNA President

Let me start by saying that the past year, my first year as president, has been a whirlwind adventure. I come away from these 365 days more convinced than ever that the MNA is a powerful organization. We are a powerful union. The people in this room, individually and collectively, are powerful people.

I am awed by the work that this organization has done to move the issue of safe staffing forward, and I will never forget that night standing in the House chamber as the roll call was taken and our safe staffing bill passed by a 133–20 margin. Next year I hope to have that same feeling again, but this time in both houses and at the desk of our next governor: Deval Patrick.

I was proud that the MNA led the fight against the BU bioterrorism lab and has taken a stand against the farce that is the magnet program.

It was encouraging to see our efforts around occupational health and safety continue to bear fruit. This past year we were able to get our workplace violence bill and our safe patient handling bill out of committee for the first time, and our alliance with OSHA has provided helpful education to nurses throughout the state.

I was inspired by the tenacity and the strength of our members of Unit 7, who waged a relentless battle against the governor to finally win a new contract.

I was proud to watch my own bargaining unit at Cape Cod Hospital rally themselves and the public to wage a campaign to win contract language specifying RN-to-patient ratios in every unit.

And I am moved and inspired by the courage and unity of our brothers and sisters at UMass Medical Center, who just last week took an historic strike vote—the largest in MNA history—to take a stand in order to protect their pension and the integrity of their contract. I would ask all members of the UMass bargaining unit who are here today to stand so your colleagues can applaud you for the courage you have shown. Please know that we are all with you and that your fight is our fight.

So I am proud of the work we do and the power we have, but I wanted to take this time to highlight a concern I have and how that concern presents a challenge to all of us as we move forward.

My concern can be expressed by a comment made to me one time by a member, a leader of a local bargaining unit, who said, “I wish the overall MNA membership could feel and appreciate our power in the same way that those in the outside world perceive our power.”

What this person was expressing was her concern over the disconnect that exists within our organization. The local bargaining leadership and many members don’t always see the connection they have within their own facility to the MNA as a whole. They don't see the connection they have within their own facility to the public, the patients, patients' families, other organizations and our legislators.

In the past year, I have taken time to travel the state talking to local bargaining units. I have walked picket lines, attended regional events, and talked to those in the field about the MNA.

As an organization, we have begun to do the same. This past year, our division of communications conducted focus groups and a statewide telephone survey of our members. I would like to share some of the highlights of that survey.

The good news is that the vast majority of our members feel satisfied with their membership. They also have strong faith in their local unions and they hold their union contract as their most important asset that is derived from their status as an MNA member.

They also see the MNA as doing what our mission says we should be doing. They see us as a powerful advocate for the profession and for patient care. They also strongly support all the areas of activity that the organization is involved in.

But the survey also found that even though they are satisfied with their membership, they don’t feel connected to the MNA, particularly beyond their bargaining unit. They also don’t fully understand all that the MNA is and does, and how the MNA is actually addressing their concerns.

Members expressed a lack of connection to the regions and the state organization. They didn’t understand how the organization all fit together. They also questioned the importance of our elections and a lack of understanding of the importance of electing or running for a statewide office.

So this is our challenge in the coming year. We need to connect the dots of our organization. We need to make our members fully understand all of what the MNA is and does.
Our five-year plan approved at last year’s convention provides the blueprint for action to do all this.

With our new resources we now have the ability to reach out and support our members through increased staff and educational resources both in the division of labor action and the division of nursing.

Our mobile unit will allow us to be out in the field talking with and educating members.
Our print shop and expanded communications services will allow us to provide better materials and timely communication to keep members informed of our story. We will also be able to do more advertising to the general public about nurses and the important issues we face, which is something our members desperately want.

We have a new orientation video and are working on a new-member orientation program for the bargaining units to educate our members from the beginning of all MNA has to offer.
As demonstrated by our legislative efforts over the past two years, we have the resources and strategies to involve more and more members in the legislative process. This is one area, even for me, where the dots have truly been connected. More of our nurses than ever before are seeing the connection between political action and their workplace and they are participating like never before.

We started to expand our division of legislation to include regional grassroots organizers to carry this work deeper into the organization.

A big challenge for this organization and for any organization is to make it come alive. And life to an organization like ours is evidenced through the lifeblood of a lively and competitive election process. On all levels of the organization we need to communicate to our members the importance of running for office, on the local, regional and state levels. We need to communicate to members the importance of leadership positions and to make them want to vote for those positions.

Finally, we have a whole new generation of nurses coming up through the ranks. It is my hope that these nurses who come after us will already have the dots connected for them and that they will be able to see where they belong within the MNA.

In the coming year we will be talking with and will survey many of our newest nurses in order to learn more about their needs and how best to connect with them so that we can sustain this organization into the next generation of professional activism.

As I said earlier, we are a strong and powerful organization. We have accomplished so much and can do so much more if we stay united and if we keep working together to connect the dots. This will allow us to create a picture of nurses and nursing that shows us what we truly are—the voice of health care in Massachusetts.