Nurses Challenge NLRB Supervisor Ruling

Nurses stormed Capitol Hill this week to push Congress to overturn the decision by the National Labor Relations Board to allow employers to reclassify many nurses – and potentially millions of other workers – as supervisors, denying them their union rights.

Thousands of "charge nurses" such as Lori Gay of Salt Lake City could lose their right to representation even though their supervisory role amounts to minutes a week. "As a charge nurse, I'm in charge of the pencil," Gay told the U.S. House Education and Labor Subcommittee On May 8. "Typically, I spend 10 minutes at the end of my shift filling out an assignment sheet for the oncoming shift, making sure every patient has a bed and a nurse.  I record the traffic in and out.  It's as simple as that.  I don't have the authority to hire, fire, evaluate or promote other nurses."

Subcommittee chairman Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation, drafted with input from the AFL-CIO, saying that only someone who engages in supervisory duties more than half the time is a supervisor.