Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1477982
7 CNA/NNU 101 ยป What is CNA/NNU? X 2020 NNU begins monitoring the Covid-19 virus in January and over the following weeks, writes to almost every global and federal health and workplace safety agency and leader to adopt the highest standards and protections against the virus. Technical and nonprofes- sional health care workers at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia joined Caregivers Healthcare Employees Union (CHEU), CNA's affili- ated union, achieving a wall-to-wall union hospital. NNU sends hospital facilities requests for information to ensure their preparation for Covid-19, and creates a SARS-CoV-2 fact sheet to keep members informed. CNA/NNU teams up with the Asian American Studies Department at U.C. Davis to launch the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and a new collaboration focused on Asian-American nurses. The launch premiered a short film commissioned by CNA/ NNU about Filipino nurse activists, "The Strength of Many." NNU conducts the first of four national surveys in 2020 of RNs during the Covid-19 pandemic, documenting serious deficiencies in PPE and other protections for frontline health workers, and a general disregard for nurses and patient safety. For Nurses Week, NNU nurses speak out for Covid-19 protections at events all across the country, including the #ProtectNurses online art show, a 1,000-person online vigil in honor of fallen nurses, and a pro- test at the White House, placing one pair of shoes for every nurse who has died of Covid. CNA sponsors and wins A.B. 2537, a bill that requires California hospitals to create and maintain a three-month stockpile of new, unex- pired N95 respirators, gowns, and PPE to protect employees and patients. CNA sponsors and wins A.B. 2037, a bill requiring hospitals to provide increased public noticing of hospital and service closures so that communities have time to save their local hospital services. On Aug. 5, thousands of RNs hold more than 200 actions in 16 states and the District of Columbia demanding that hospital employers, elected lead- ers, 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. Nurses score a tremen- dous victory for the type of infection control measures they 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 protest the California Department of Public Health's use of Covid-19 as a pretext to allow hospitals to violate the state's landmark 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 14 other CNA-represented Sutter hospitals. NNU issues the report, "Deadly Shame: Redressing the Devaluation of Registered Nurses' Labor Through Pandemic Equity," an in-depth analysis of how nurses' care work is deval- ued, the resulting inequi- ties, their experiences on the pandemic's front lines, and ways to redress these issues through collective action. X 2021 RNs at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City, Calif. vote by a wide margin to join CNA/NNU, bringing union repre- sentation 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, the California Dept. of Public Health (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 intro- duction of CalCare/A.B. 1400 (Kalra), a bill to implement single-payer in California and guar- antee comprehensive, high-quality health care to all California residents as a human right. RNRN deploys nurses to assist with Covid-19 vaccine administration to underserved communities in Los Angeles, Calif. and Corpus Christi, Texas.