National Nurses United

The Global Nurses Solidarity Assembly ended on a high note with nurses telling their own stories about the inspiring victories and fierce struggles they faced in their fight to organize, improve abysmal working conditions, and provide the best care for their patients. Emceed by actress Laura Gomez, nurses from Guatemala, Ireland, the Philippines, and the United States revealed the grim reality of what they're up against but also showed what can be accomplished when nurses work together in collective action. Here are edited excerpts from their stories. Lauren Buol, RN, North Dakota I am one of the 295 newly organized nurses from North Dakota. North Dakota has been a right-to-work state for 72 years. That's an entire lifetime of attacks on organized labor, so union density in North Dakota is low. Most people don't have any experience of what being in a union means. When I first started at St. Alexius almost five years ago, we were the go-to community hospital. But then our facility was bought by a new owner, Catholic Health Initiatives, and started making changes. They hired a consulting firm specializing in "increasing productivity by decreasing cost," which meant laying off 291 full-time employees, hospital-wide. With all of our support staff gone, "increased produc- tivity" meant doing more with less. There were no limits on the amount of days we could get called off for low patient volume, so we had nurses losing 32 of their 36 hours per week. We called meetings with management and adminis- tration to address issues, including safety concerns, retention, staffing changes, and our image in the community. When management continued to ignore us, we called the Minnesota Nurses Association. After our first conversation in March 2017, we hit the ground running. But despite a really powerful organizing cam- paign, we had a heartbreaking loss—by only four votes. After the initial shock wore off, we remembered something critical: We could file again in a year! So every day forward, we just never stopped organizing. We beat management's union-busting campaign by being better organized than them, and connecting with our coworkers as real people who know they deserve better. I will never forget the vote count. We won with almost 70 percent of the vote, at 185 to 81. We sent a clear message that day that nurses have rights—and we won't be scared into silence or inaction. Our bargaining unit was the largest bargaining unit to organize in North Dakota in over 40 years. We inspired nurses at surrounding hospitals and workers in other industries that it's possible to organize—by showing them what worker power looks like! Jocelyn Santos-Andamo, RN, secretary general, Filipino Nurses United We have a nursing crisis in my country. Our working conditions and salaries are so terrible that most nurses leave to work abroad. In my nursing class of 82 students, guess how many are left in the Philip- pines? Six, including me. Nearly 19,000 nurses have left the Philippines every year since 2012. Who will take care of the Filipino people if all the nurses are gone? Nurses leave the Philippines because we are extremely over- worked, underpaid, and exploited. In some hospitals one nurse is assigned to 30 to 50 patients or even as high as 60 to 100 patients per shift. This means that patients have to bring in a relative or com- panion to provide bedside care. Nurses spend most of their time in the nurses' station charting or carrying out doctors' orders. Most salaries are too low for Filipino nurses whether they work in the public or private sector. Some [U.S.] nurses make more in two hours than a Filipino nurse in a local government unit in a rural area makes in one month. We founded Filipino Nurses United because our government won't address the problem of starvation wages, inhumane working condi- tions, or the inadequate health care system. We are fighting to end contract work and uphold security of tenure. We are also fighting for safe staffing ratios and to make continuing education free for nurses. Our struggle to improve the salaries and working conditions of nurses is a huge challenge because of the government's labor export policy that encourages nurses and Filipinos to work abroad. Filipino nurses share important and critical concerns with nurses around the world: the increasingly repressive tendencies of our gov- ernments when we assert our legitimate and just demands, health care privatization, deregulation and liberalization that jeopardize people's health and general welfare. Despite a culture of impunity with even human rights defenders being killed, we remain firm and solid in our convictions for justice and truth. We stand in solidarity with nurses around the world as we fight for nurses' rights and welfare and for people's right to health care. Shaneisha McMillan, RN, Johns Hopkins Hospital What would you say if I told you that this prestigious, famous, illustri- ous hospital that made $85.4 million last year is so cheap that it won't 24 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 J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 Nurses Rising Organizing for Health and Justice Around the Globe A Whole New World Lauren Buol, RN Jocelyn Santos-Andamo, RN

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