Why Organize?

When health care professionals don't have a union and a union contract, a hospital administration can dictate all the conditions under which the employees work.

Rules can be changed without notice, paid time taken away, and floating increased. This impacts on us as employees. However, this also has a profound - and negative - impact on patient care.

When a nurse is floated into an unfamiliar unit with little or no orientation, when an exhausted nurse is forced to take care of far too many patients, when nurses are driven out of the profession because of declining conditions, the quality of patient care is affected.

HPAE is committed to the organization of all professional health care employees. In today’s health care environment HPAE believes that all employees must protect themselves and their patients. We believe that the only way to effectively do that is by organizing into a union that bargains for rights and protections in a legally binding contract.

HPAE's Organizing Program: You Can Make A Difference

The insurance industry’s “managed care” schemes and the preoccupation of hospitals with the “bottom line” have reduced standards of care for patients and working conditions for health care givers.

HPAE has been the leader in the fight for both quality care for our patients, and in winning the rights, protections and benefits that Health Care Professionals deserve.

To request more information on organizing your workplace click here.

Why Join HPAE?

"If you are unhappy with this hospital and the way we treat our patients, go work somewhere else."

That is what one supervisor told me and my co-workers when we complained about the harmful effects that insufficient staffing, shift rotation, and inadequate staff orientation were having on us and our patients. As health care professionals committed to delivering quality patient care, we knew that our concerns were not selfish or frivolous. But we also knew that leaving was not the answer.

After investigating our options, we decided to form our own Union in order to force hospital administrators to address our concerns in a legally binding contract. Our first contract eliminated shift rotation and guaranteed appropriate orientation and support for nurses. It also won our right to participate in setting hospital policies that affect our jobs and our patients. Our success inspired other employees of hospitals and health care facilities to organize their own local as part of HPAE.

As we enter the 21st century, the demands of managed care companies are dictating whether and how our patients and communities receive health care. Health care facilities balance their budgets at the expenses of employee safety and quality care. HPAE members are organizing in their workplaces and in the legislatures to force employers and policymakers to put the caring back in health care. Join us.

Ann Twomey
President