Houston Nurses Want Healthier Work Conditions

Labor Movement: Nurses at a Houston hospital have thrown open a window that could permit widespread unionization of the nursing profession in Texas, and indeed in other states as well. On a narrow 119-111 vote, registered nurses at Texas Cypress Fairbanks Hospital decided to join the California Nurses Association’s National Nurses Organizing Committee. The 80,000-member union moved into Texas last year. They are the first hospital nurses to unionize in Texas. Texas Cypress Fairbanks is part of Tenet Healthcare Corp., based in Dallas.

It’s unclear how the move might affect costs for hospital care. Union supporters told the Houston Chronicle newspaper that wage and pension issues are important but are secondary to patient-care concerns, including higher nurse-to-patient ratios. But union organizing is likely to increase at other Tenet-owned hospitals, according to experts cited by the Chronicle.