National Nurses United

Federal Lobby Days—RNs meet with senators to demand protections for frontline health care workers APRIL 15 South Carolina is the first state to begin reopening APRIL 20 NNU nurses hold protest in front of White House and read names of nurses who died from COVID-19 APRIL 21 Suspended Providence Saint John's nurses reinstated APRIL 21 26 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 A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 0 N urses have long known they face common threats all around the world, from short staffing to privatization of care. Now, a deadly virus with no borders have underscored the importance of standing together globally. That's why the world's nurses have come together online over the past few months, sharing information, and taking unified action on COVID-19 protections, in a fight for their lives. Global Nurses United webinars in late march, Global Nurses United (GNU), an international federation of nurses' unions cofounded by National Nurses United, held a webinar to sound the alarm on deadly missteps and, in some cases, negligence by governments, health care employers, and inter- national agencies. The crisis was brought home by the tragic death from COVID-19 of a GNU affiliate leader in the Dominican Repub- lic, Virgilio Lebron General Secretary of the Asociación de Enfer- mería del Instituto Dominicano de Seguros Sociales (ADEIDSS). GNU leaders were outraged that after sending a letter to the World Health Organization on Jan. 30, 2020, demanding the high- est level of protections for nurses, the WHO had done nothing to strengthen its guidelines—and hadn't even responded to the letter. Being left unprotected was incredibly distressing, said nurses around the world on the GNU webinar. "Two Italian nurses have committed suicide," said webinar guest Andrea Bottega, national secretary of Italy's NurSind union, that coun- try's largest nurses union. According to Bottega, a lack of protective equipment for nurses and health care workers in Italy, as well as lack of early testing, resulted in huge numbers of Italy's nurses and health care workers contracting COVID-19. Bottega said desperate nurses had been trying to make protective gear from garbage bags. Rafael Reig Recena, secretary general of Trade Union Action of the Nursing Union (SATSE) of Spain, said that in Spain, "personal pro- tection equipment, even the most basic" was not available, in many cases, for health workers, due to "bad organization and lack of govern- ment foresight." Spain did take the step in March of nationalizing all its private hospitals to control a coordinated response to COVID-19. "There is one thing that we should all be very aware of: the day after this pandemic ends. That day, we must hold our authorities account- able for their bad management," said Reig Recena, stressing that unions must take principal part in that claim. "Our governments will try to convince us that this never happened, that the nurses were never sent unprotected to a fight where they risked their lives every day." Yet, some countries had managed to curb COVID-19, GNU leaders emphasized, proving that strong government, employer, and union efforts work. Sun Ja Na, president of the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KHMU), described how South Korea turned an initial explosion of cases into a relative decline. Taiwan's quick action also kept cases low, despite its proximity to China. "As Taiwanese people, we are very proud of our country for good infection control so far," said Sabrina Chang of the Taiwan Nurses Union, "but we are more worried about our government being so oppressive on health workers' labor rights, which also has a big impact on keeping nurses and our patients safe." In both Taiwan and South Korea, according to union leaders, widespread testing for COVID-19, as well as ample protective gear for nurses and health care workers, played a big role in slowing the spread of the virus in those countries. But a pandemic cannot be stopped with uneven global action. Since the virus has no borders, so we can't do things right in just a few places, say nurses; we must do things right everywhere. Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) Facebook Live given their countries' shared border, nurses from Canada and the United States have a special relationship. To share ideas and Spreading SOLID Nurses join forces globally to share information and take action on COVID-19 protections. BY KARI JONES South Korean nurses in solidarity video

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