HNA’s House of Delegates (HOD) met in September to vote on withdrawing from HNA’s affiliation with American Nurses Association (ANA). Through a democratic process, the HOD Board of Directors unanimously agreed to withdraw from its membership with ANA for the best interest of our membership and to keep the integrity of HNA as a labor union.

One of the reasons for this was ANA’s refusal to renew its affiliation agreement with United American Nurses (UAN), the only labor arm of ANA.  This refusal makes it likely that ANA is a non-labor organization in the eyes of the law.  It could be a felony, resulting in a prison sentence and fine, for HNA to send union dues obtained from an employer to a non labor organization (ANA). 

Other important reasons for deciding to withdraw from ANA include:

• ANA is illegally demanding 100 percent of all dues paid by HNA. This is a dues increase without a membership vote.  ANA’s Board of Directors is also increasing its dues without a vote from their HOD—a requirement by their own bylaws. This would put a tremendous financial burden on HNA—either passed on to members or making HNA go bankrupt.
• HNA needs to protect employers who are complying in good faith with the dues deduction provisions of their contract.  HNA does not want them to incur any liability because of ANA’s change of course.
• ANA wants to take employer money for revenue in ways incompatible with labor organization status. It is illegal for unions to send deducted dues money to any organization that takes money from an employer except under very narrow conditions.