After you win your election, the law prohibits administration from unilateral takeaways. You will decide what to ask for in your contract and vote on it. RNs have tremendous bargaining power. CNA members have negotiated better benefits, not worse as a result of CNA representation. In fact, in every first contract after voting for CNA representation, RNs have maintained and improved salaries and benefits.
Nurses gain a guaranteed active voice in their practice, with renewed respect and autonomy.
The strength of your contract will depend on the strength and participation of you and your colleagues. It will be you, the nurses at your facility, who will decide what to propose in your contract, which RN colleagues will serve on the nurse negotiating team and whether or not to ratify the resulting contract. CNA is a democratic organization run by registered nurses. CNA employs skilled and professionally trained staff to coordinate negotiations, enforce contract provisions, oversee a wide array of practice issues, provide training, and safeguard and promote legislative issues on behalf of all registered nurses in California. Often they claim they had no idea how strongly nurses felt, even though nurses have already given them many opportunities to respond to their concerns.