Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1520619
7 NNOC 101 » What Are NNOC and NNU? Nurses applaud the Medicare for All Act of 2021, H.R. 1976, intro- duced by Rep. Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Dingell (D-MI), and cosponsored by more than half of the House Democratic Caucus including 14 committee chairs and key leadership members. Some 2,000 RNs at Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state's largest hospital, vote overwhelmingly to unionize. The U.S. House of Representatives passes the NNU-supported bill, H.R. 1195, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (Rep. Joe Courtney, D-CT). NNU condemns the CDC rollback on Covid infection control, calling the new guidelines unjust and disproportionately harmful to workers of color, their families, and communities. On International Nurses Day, NNU nurses gather in front of the White House to lay out more than 400 pairs of empty shoes, representing the nurses who lost their lives on the front lines of Covid. The Medical Debt Protection Act, a Maryland bill spearheaded by NNU with a broad coalition of Maryland activists, becomes law at the end of May. NNU nurses win land- mark OSHA Covid-19 Health Care Emergency Temporary Standard, the first enforceable national Covid-19 standard to pro- tect health care workers and patients. Some 10,000 RNs at 18 HCA hospitals in six states ratify new contracts that include landmark health and safety lan- guage and many other improvements. RNs at HCA's Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., vote to ratify their first-ever union contract. RNs at Community First Medical Center in Chicago, Ill., ratify their first union contract. NNU launches the Division of Social Justice and Equity to grow nurses' collective power to transform the systems, institutions, policies, and practices that perpetuate inequity and injustice. NNU begins advocacy against hospital industry schemes to treat acute care patients remotely, rather than in a hospital, with the release of an animated video, "Home All Alone." Frontline RNs from across the country, including NNU President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN testify at a congressional briefing on the understaffing crisis in hospitals, accompanied by the launch of a new NNU staffing report. X 2022 NNU members kick off the new year with a National Day of Action, including a candlelight vigil in Washington, D.C. RNs at Longmont United Hospital in Longmont, Colo., win recognition in March, becoming the first private-sector NNU-affiliated hospital in Colorado. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) reintroduces the NNU-supported bill, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, in the U.S. Senate. The House version passed in April 2021 and would hold employers accountable for pre- venting violence in the workplace. Nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin vote to join NNOC, making it the largest private-sector unionized hospital in Texas. Coral Gables Hospital nurses in Florida win their first contract in record-breaking time, less than three months after voting to unionize in July. RNs at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, ratify their first-ever contract. New York State Nurses Association, with nearly 42,000 members, votes to affiliate with NNU, growing NNU's member- ship to nearly 225,000 and bringing NYSNA into the AFL-CIO. Nurses vote to join NNOC at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital, the largest hospital in Wichita, Kan., and the first private-sector hospital to become unionized. NNU applauds passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the VA Employee Fairness Act (H.R. 1948), sponsored by Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA). This bill would give Dept. of Veterans Affairs nurses and other clinicians full collective bargaining rights. New Kaiser master contract sets the high- est standards in the nation and includes an agreement to hire more than 2,000 RN and NP positions.