Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1514246
RNs in Motion » 9 1995 CNA convention overwhelmingly votes to end ties with American Nurses Association (ANA). Adopts program to reallocate resources to organize RNs, strengthen contracts, confront hospital industry attack on RN jobs, and enact legislative and workplace protections. 1996 CNA wins Department of Health Services, Title 22 changes strengthening RNs' ability to advocate for patients in California. Provisions include floating protections and requirement that every patient be assessed by an RN at least once during a shift. 1997–1998 7,500 CNA Kaiser Permanente RNs wage 18-month epic battle, including six strikes, with HMO giant, beating back major takeaways and making significant gains in staffing protections. 1999 California passes first-in-the-nation law, sponsored by CNA, mandating minimum RN-to-patient ratios for all hospital units. CNA wins other major legislation, including whistle- blower protection for health care employees who expose unsafe hospital conditions. 2004 Ratio law implemented in all California acute-care hospitals. 2005 CNA organizes RN Katrina relief effort, sending more than 300 nurse volunteers to 25 health care facilities. Following the disaster, the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) is formed as a direct-care nurse disaster- relief group. National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) is founded by CNA in response to an overwhelming demand by direct- care nurses outside of California. 1,800 RNs at Cook County Health and Hospitals Association in Chicago, Illinois, vote to join NNOC. The CNA/NNOC House of Delegates overwhelmingly votes to seek affiliation with the AFL-CIO. 2006 Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) votes to join NNOC. 2007 Saint Mary's RNs in Reno vote to become the first Nevada hospital to join NNOC, making it the largest RN organization in Catholic hospitals across the United States representing direct-care nurses. CNA/NNOC wins breakthrough multistate organizing pact with Tenet Healthcare, one of the largest pacts for RNs in U.S. history, covering 6,500 RNs. 2008 1,100 RNs in three Las Vegas CHW (now Dignity/ CommonSpirit Health) hospitals vote to join NNOC. 2009 Unanimous vote creates largest RN union in U.S. history: National Nurses United (NNU). 7,000 Veterans Affairs (VA) RNs in 22 hospitals in 11 states become members of NNU. 1,300 RNs at three St. Rose Dominican hospitals in Las Vegas, Nev. vote to join NNOC. Nurses at HCA-affiliated Menorah Medical Center in Overland, Kan. vote to join NNOC. 2010 8,000 HCA and Tenet RNs in Nevada, Texas, Missouri, and Florida vote to join NNOC. 14,000 RNs sign up to volunteer for Haiti earthquake relief through RNRN, which sends nurses aboard USNS Comfort and to Sacré Coeur Hospital, the largest private hospital in the north of the island. 1,300 RNs at the University of Chicago Medical Center vote to join the union, followed by 1,600 RNs at Washington, D.C.'s largest hospital, Washington Hospital Center. 2011 NNU begins "Nurses Campaign to Heal America," calling for health care, good jobs, education, a clean environment, and retirement security for all, with revenue generated through a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street speculation.