Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1399555
11 11 Sparked by the murder of George Floyd, nurses joined Black Lives Matter social justice activists in massive spring and summer protests to declare police violence and structural racism against Black and other people of color a public health crisis and demand a radical transformation of our society to end these inequities. On Aug. 5, thousands of RNs hold more than 200 actions in 16 states and the District of Columbia demanding that hospital employers, elected leaders, and the government take immediate steps to save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. TIME Magazine names NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN to the 2020 TIME 100, its annual list of the most influential people in the world. Mission Hospital RNs in Asheville, N.C. vote by a land- slide to join NNOC/NNU, defeating a heavily funded anti-union campaign by hospital chain behemoth, HCA. This was the first private-sector hospital union election win ever in North Carolina, and the largest at any nonunion hospital in the South since 1975. Nurses score a tremendous victory for the type of infection control measures we have been demanding since the start of the pandemic when the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) directs all general acute-care hospitals to begin Covid-19 weekly testing of all health care workers and all patient admissions. In dozens of actions throughout California, RNs pro- test the CDPH's use of Covid-19 as a pretext to allow hospitals to violate the RN-to-patient safe staffing law by issuing "expedited waivers." RNs at Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento vote overwhelmingly to affiliate with CNA, joining 8,000 RNs at 13 other CNA-represented Sutter hospitals. NNU issues the report, Deadly Shame: Redressing the Devaluation of Registered Nurses' Labor Through Pandemic Equity, providing an in-depth analysis of how nurses' care work is devalued, the resulting ineq- uities, our experiences on the pandemic's front lines, and ways to redress issues through collective action. 2021 RNs at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City vote by a wide margin to join CNA/NNU, bringing union representation to the state's northwest coast. Newly elected President Biden advances NNU's demands by activating the Defense Production Act, and calls for a federal OSHA emergency temporary standard on infectious diseases. In response to RNs' intensive organizing, CDPH announces it will no longer approve "expedited waivers" allowing hospitals to violate the state's ratio laws during the Covid pandemic, and will end all existing waivers. RNs at John Muir Behavioral Health Center, a psychiatric hospital in Concord, Calif., vote to join CNA/NNU. CNA sponsors the introduction of CalCare/A.B. 1400 (Kalra), a bill to implement single-payer in California and guarantee comprehensive, high-quality health care to all California residents as a human right. Nurses applaud the introduction of the Medicare for All Act of 2021, H.R. 1976, introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and cosponsored by more than half of the House Demo- cratic Caucus including 14 committee chairs and key leadership members. The nurses' fight for protection from workplace vio- lence gains support with reintroduction of the Work- place Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (Rep. Joe Courtney, D-CT). NNU issues a new nationwide survey of 9,200 RNs revealing that a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, employers are still failing to provide safe staffing, optimal PPE, and testing. On April 1, all California hospitals must comply with A.B. 2537, requiring a three-month stockpile of PPE to protect employees and patients. CNA nurses, many of whom are themselves of Asian descent, protested and showed solidarity against sky- rocketing anti-Asian violence and hate incidents which had been ongoing but accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. 11