OVERLAND PARK, KS – More than 300 RNs at Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kan., have voted to align with Nurses United, the local arm of National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, AFL-CIO.

The result means that Nurses United will represent the RNs. The Menorah nurses are the first Kansas RNs to join the national movement of registered nurses.

"Finally our voice will be heard with this decisive win," said Sandra Baldy, an RN at the facility. "We are excited by the chance to make a difference for our patients and our profession with this step forward."

With the vote, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, the nurses unite with 150,000 RN colleagues around the country who have already joined Nurses United.

"We are delighted to welcome the Menorah Medical Center nurses to NNOC," said Malinda Markowitz, RN, co-President of NNOC/CNA and a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, a San Jose, Calif. hospital that, like Menorah, is owned by HCA. "HCA RNs joining together is a truly exciting development that bodes well for all HCA RNs and our patients."

Markowitz said the victory at Menorah would provide new momentum for December's planned convention at which the nation's three largest nursing unions plan on uniting into one organization dubbed the "RN Super Union."

At that event, to be held December 7 and 8 in Arizona, CNA/NNOC will join together with the Massachusetts Nurses Association and United American Nurses to form National Nurses United, which at 150,000 members will be the largest registered nurses union and professional association in U.S. history.

Nurses from Lee's Summit Medical Center in Missouri are still waiting to see if they, too, will have the chance to join the new national union of nurses. Objections over alleged legal violations have been filed with the NLRB that may result in a new election to determine the victor.