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18 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 2 1 NNU delegates passed the following resolutions: Ending the Covid-19 pandemic and preventing the next public health crisis This resolution committed NNU to building collec- tive power across the country and around the world as "a critical protection against the corporate prac- tices, political failures, and systemic inequities that worsened the impact of Covid-19" and that make us vulnerable to future pandemics. The resolution also called for greater investment in and public oversight of national PPE stockpiles; expanding public health capacity at the local, state, and federal level; pass- ing federal safe nurse-to-patient staffing limits; dramatically increasing funding for public health professionals—with a focus on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities; taking a multi-layered approach to preventing the spread of infectious dis- ease; ending vaccine apartheid; and more. Strengthening our rights to collective action This resolution included opposition to anti-union "right to work" legislation in Congress and states; opposition to corporate health care industry assaults on RN rights, pay, benefits, health and safety, and patient advocacy; support for increased NNU union organizing to pro- tect nurses and patients from the corporate health care agenda; and opposition to labor-management schemes and sectoral bargaining partner- ship proposals that are an impediment to the survival and growth of the labor movement. Against crisis standards of care to secure holistic RN nursing practice to protect patients This resolution included engaging in a campaign against profit-driven health care restructuring and permanent life-threatening crisis of care standards, including shifting care to less regulated or unregulated settings, self-service with personal technology, or ambulatory surgery centers or the home, and substituting unsupervised, unlicensed, and family caregivers for direct hands-on patient care from an RN. It also condemned the use of race-norm- ing technology in diagnosis and treatment of patients; use of electronic surveillance, record keeping, and data collection to impose additional charges for profits; degrading RN staffing standards through telehealth/telenursing, team nursing, and other schemes to remove direct- care nurses from their patients; expansion of nurse licensure compacts to additional states that erodes nursing practice and safe patient care; and employer use of surveillance technology and other tactics that substitute for the presence of direct-care RNs. Medicare for All in the wake of Covid-19 Reaffirming NNU's long-standing support for an improved Medicare for All-Sin- gle Payer health care system, this resolution declared health care a human right guaranteed for all people in the United States. It also called for elimination of all health disparities based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender iden- tity, sexual orientation, age, disability, where one lives, or immigration status; prioritizing public health to plan for and mitigate infectious disease outbreaks; winning Medicare for All legislation at both the national and state levels through nurse-led, grass- roots mobilization in coalition with labor and community allies; expanding existing Medicare to facilitate the transition to a universal Medicare for All; and reallocating money currently spent on policing, incarceration, and the military for national and state single-payer programs. Promoting gender justice in the workplace and beyond This resolution called for supporting legislative, legal, and collective efforts to end gender pay dis- parities; a continued fight for optimal PPE, safe staffing, and ending workplace violence; work- place leave for victims of domestic violence; protecting the personal safety for transgender and gender non-conforming workers, as well as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other workers of color; opposition to all federal, state, and judicial restric- tions on women's health services including reproductive care, forced sterilizations, and limits on birth control. The resolution also endorsed pro- grams and policies such as federal paid parental leave and universal and high quality childcare for all families, among others. Reaffirming NNU's commitment to racial justice Declaring racism and white supremacy to be a public health crisis, this res- olution called for supporting transformative changes to protect the health, safety, and personal security of all people to live in an environment free of violence and discrimination; challenging corporate health care industry practices that have a disproportionate impact on patients and communities of color, such as hospital closures and service cuts, patient dumping, indus- try pricing practices, medical debt lawsuits, and inadequate provision of charity care; increased federal, state, and local funding to Black, Brown, and Indigenous individuals to account for lack of access to health services and historic health care disparities and exposure to Covid-19 due to concentra- tion as essential workers. Further, it called for an end to racist immigration policies; opposition to all voter suppression laws and support for expanding voting rights; an end to use of weapons of war and militarized force against people protesting racial injustice; support for systemic changes in harmful and fatal policing practices; decriminalization of minor drug offenses and an end to cash bail, minimum sentencing laws, and for-profit private prisons; structural reforms to increase economic opportunity for communities of color including affirmative action, guaranteed incomes, decent housing, and public school funding; and support for reparations for Black Americans and greater investment in Black communities to address effects of structural rac- ism tied to centuries of slavery and segregation. Global health and international solidarity This resolution called for continuing to build the Global Nurses United net- work of global nurses unions; commitment to the global fight against privatization and cuts in public health services and programs; support for expanding working people's democracy and defeating right-wing authori- tarian repression; and much, much more. Be It Resolved AJUAN MANCE, 2021. ©NNU