Recently, several thousand nurses working in New York hospitals organized a strike to help along their bargaining position in a fight with their employer hospitals to improve working conditions. They sought greater pay, but also wanted hospitals to hire more nurses and schedule more nurses per shift to reduce the workload burden on the current workforce. At the extremes, some hospitals were operating at 20% below typical nurse staffing numbers. The strike lasted roughly three days before the nursing union came to an agreement with hospital administrators, who agreed to meet most of the union’s demands.
A. Discuss the staffing choice faced by hospitals with respect to how many nurses to employ and deploy (prior to the strike). Identify the relevant stakeholders, their incentives or preferences, and their representatives, and rationalize (defend with logic) the choice made hospitals to understaff their nursing units. (10 points)
B. Imagine you are advising the nursing union on their negotiations with the hospital. Explain the dilemma facing the union in maintaining discipline during negotiations and potentially a strike. What organizational recommendations would you make to the union in structuring their deliberative process and collective decision-makings? How would these choices put the union in position to succeed in the negotiations? (12 points)
C. What processes and checks would you recommend that the union as an organization enact to ensure that union representatives do a good job representing the interests of the union? Discuss at least 2 potential sources of “agency slack”. (10 points)
