HPAE: New Jersey’s Professional Health Care Union

The Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) is the largest union of Registered Nurses and health care professionals in New Jersey. With close to 11,000 members, we are also the fastest growing health care union in the state, as our membership has more than tripled in size since 1981.

HPAE began through the efforts of the nursing staff at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey when they organized an independent association at the hospital in 1974.

Issues such as shift rotation, floating, low wages and a general lack of respect from management were what drove the Englewood nurses to organize. Their union was tested early, as Englewood's management made repeated efforts to break their union; even stooping to such petty tactics as suspending the union president for refusing to wear a nurse’s cap!

Nurses at other area hospitals, such as Pascack Valley, Jersey Shore Medical Center, and Palisades Medical Center reached out to the Englewood nurses for help in forming local unions. Each local group then came together to form what had now become the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE).

Affiliation

The leadership of HPAE felt they needed to affiliate with a strong, national union in order to have the resources to “spread the word” concerning the benefits of unionizing.

With this goal in mind, HPAE members voted to affiliate with the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (FNHP) now AFT Healthcare, the health care division of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO in 1980.

After affiliation with AFT Healthcare, HPAE’s growth continued. That growth included not just nurses but other health care workers who wanted the benefits of collective bargaining. HPAE local unions now include:

• 1400 professional staff employees at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), including research staff, medical technologists, and pharmacists
• 800 UMDNJ registered nurses
• Over 800 registered nurses at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey
• Registered nurses, technical staff and support staff at Bayonne Hospital
• Registered nurses and professional staff members at Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, New Jersey
• The registered nurses of the Virtual Health System
• Registered nurses and technical staff of the American Red Cross
• Registered nurses at Temple/Episcopal in Pennsylvania, PA
• Registered nurses at the Wanaque Center in Haskell, NJ
• Registered nurses at Runnells Specialized Hospital
• Registered nurses at Essex Valley Visiting Nurses Association
• Registered nurses at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, NJ
• Registered nurses at Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin, NJ
• Registered nurses at South Jersey Healthcare in Vineland, NJ
Those organizing with HPAE have done so for two reasons: HPAE’s professional yet aggressive approach to bargaining, and the fact that we are a democratic union run by and for its members. Join us!