United American Nurses’ President, Ann Converso, and Illinois Nurses Association Representative, File Legal Action to Stop Merger with NNOC and MNA
December 1, 2009
On November 23rd, the current President of the United American Nurses (Ann Converso) and Joan Craft, (a VP of UAN and a representative for the Illinois Nurses Association), filed an action in the Northern District of Illinois seeking an injunction to prevent the impending merger of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the United American Nurses into a “Super Union” – the National Nurses United or NNU.
In their legal action, the plaintiffs contend that, “at first, UAN Staff, its General Counsel and certain merger proponents repeatedly characterized the transaction as a mere ‘affiliation’.” They go on to explain that, “Plaintiffs Converso, Craft and Executive Council member Kathleen Gettys, having had a more deliberate opportunity to review the provisions of the Merger Agreement, came to the firm conclusion that it was not an ‘Affiliation’ Agreement as it benignly had been captioned in the Merger Agreement and so described by pro-merger proponents.”
In their legal action, the plaintiffs are basically arguing that the net effect of the current merger of the three entities (NNOC, MNA and UAN) will effectively constitute the “dissolution” of the UAN, as it is “merged” into the larger organization (NNU). The plaintiffs are arguing that because the net effect of the merger will be “the dissolution of the UAN” the provisions in the UAN Constitution regarding “Dissolution” must be followed.