National Nurses United

A t a time when public health and safety are threat- ened in so many ways, from a lack of healthcare, to polluted communities, to increasing extreme weather events, it is critical that some of the best minds in the country come together to develop strategies and solutions. We are, of course, talking about regis- tered nurses. RN leaders from National Nurses United (NNU), the country's largest union of registered nurses, gathered in Minneapolis Oct. 5 to 7 at its triennial national convention. This year's gathering was hosted by the Minnesota Nurses Association, an affiliate of NNU, and RNs hailed from California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. "Nurses all have the same objectives," said conference delegate Vanessa Soldo-Jones, RN, of Minnesota. "It doesn't matter your state or your hospital system. All of our main goals are the same: patient safety, protecting our practice, protecting the community. And we can only do that if we are one union strong across the coun- try." In her opening remarks, NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castil- lo, RN rallied nurse attendees to understand and live up to their spe- cial role as both patient and social advocates. "Every single day, you enter a warzone," said Castillo. "The only predictable thing is the employer that expects us to do the impossible with less. We are fighters and defenders of the public. The toll on our bodies, our backs, and our psyches is heavy. We are nurses, but we are more. We are union nurses." Nurses learned about various aspects of the union's work, from hearing the stories of RNs who volunteered with the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) program in Puerto Rico to the insights of NNU RN leaders who have had a chance to visit and compare and contrast Canadian, Cuban, and United Kingdom health care systems. Jean Ross, one of the NNU copresidents, shared her experience being unexpectedly admitted as a patient into a Liverpool hospital this summer. She had gone to the ER because her bad chest cold triggered her asthma, making it hard to breathe, and the hospital wanted to observe her for 24 hours. When it came time to settle the bill, Ross said it was obvious that workers in the U.K.'s nationalized, socialized NHS were uncom- fortable with money having any role in health care. Nurses chuck- led as Ross recounted how the billing office was hard to find, and that nobody seemed to staff it regularly since she had to ring a bell and wait. The employee who finally answered kept apologiz- ing for the slow process because she said, "she'd never done it before," said Ross. "She was very embarrassed about having to bill me." The grand total for 24 hours in hospital? $400. In addition to the presentations, convention delegates passed five key resolutions which will serve to provide clarity and guid- ance for organizational goals as we advance our public health and safety work across the United States over the next few years. Resolution in Support of Improved Medicare for All, Single-Payer nnu nurses have spent years fighting for health care as a human right, both at the state and national levels. This year, we solidified our commitment with a resolution reaffirming our view that enact- ing an improved, expanded Medicare for All system is the way for- ward, that nurses will organize to eliminate insurance companies' role in health care, and that NNU will only endorse candidates who support Medicare for All/single-payer. "At our founding NNU convention in 2009, we adopted five reso- lutions, and one of them was winning healthcare for all as a human right," said NNU Secretary-Treasurer Martha Kuhl, RN. "In nine years, we have made great strides forward for Medicare for All. I urge all of us to not just pass this today, but to return to our homes, neighborhoods, and communities and continue this struggle. This is our fight and we must engage daily." Resolution on Defending Our Rights to Collective Action the organized power of working people is the biggest roadblock to corporations' ability to maximize profits at all costs. So it's no sur- prise corporate interests are attacking unions, including the recent supreme court case Janus v. AFSCME encouraging public-sector union workers to legally shirk their dues, as well as so-called "right to 20 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 High Stakes At 2018 NNU convention, RN leaders lay claim to protecting patients, nursing, the planet. By Kari Jones

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