Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1521816
RNs in Motion » 11 RNs at two Tenet South Florida hospitals, Florida Medical Center and Palmetto General Hospital, celebrate new contracts. Texas RNs at HCA-affiliated Bayview Behavioral Health in Corpus Christi join NNOC. 2017 It's a good year for organizing in Maine, as Hospice of Southern Maine workers and Maine Coast Memorial ancillary staff unionize with NNOC. As the new presidential administration quickly moves to ban refugees and travelers from certain countries, impose massive deregulation, and fill federal court seats with conservative judges, nurses and other progressive activists gather to strategize at the second People's Summit under the rallying theme "Beyond Resistance." Nurses from Texas, Appalachia, and Washington, D.C. win new contracts. RNRN deploys more than 50 volunteer nurses as part of larger AFL-CIO mission to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, working in teams across the country to assess residents' medical needs and educate them about how to access clean water and avoid infectious diseases. RNRN volunteers also deploy in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma in Florida and Harvey in Texas. 2018 RoseAnn DeMoro, founding executive director of modern-day CNA/NNOC, retires after 32 years. Bonnie Castillo, RN, a nurse leader who has served in numerous capacities within CNA/NNOC and NNU, becomes the new executive director. Nurses join with labor unions across the country to protest the Janus v. AFSCME U.S. Supreme Court decision, which turns all public-sector bargaining units into "right to work" environments where workers can refuse to pay dues but still be represented by the union. Nurses protest the forcible separation by immigration officials of asylum-seeking families from their children at the United States–Mexico border. RNs at two Tucson hospitals and additional RNs at University of Chicago Medical Center celebrate unionizing victories with NNOC. VA nurses rally against major administration attacks on their union rights by eliminating "official time" for VA nurses who represent coworkers and leaving their negotiated contract in limbo. RNRN deploys nurses to assist in the wake of several disasters: the eruption of Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala, Hurricane Michael in Florida, and the devastating Camp Fire in Paradise, California. RNs at Stanford Health Care's ValleyCare in the Tri-Valley Area of California vote to join CNA, joining RNs at the Pleasanton campus who voted to affiliate with CNA earlier. 1,000 RNs at Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital, Tenet facilities in Tucson, Arizona, vote to join NNOC/NNU, making these the first unionized RNs in the state of Arizona. RNs at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia, California, vote overwhelmingly to join CNA/NNU. This vote represents the largest number of nonunion nurses in Southern California to join a union in at least five years. 2019 Federal nurse-to-patient ratios bills, sponsored by NNU and based on California's mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios law, are reintroduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown in the Senate and Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the House. In a historic victory, RNs at Chinese Hospital in San Francisco vote to join CNA/NNU. This vote represents one of the last remaining nonunion hospitals in San Francisco. RNRN sends nurses to provide basic humanitarian aid to immigrants at a shelter in Tucson, Ariz., and to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Grassroots momentum for Medicare for All, led by nurses, results in the U.S. House of Representatives holding its first- ever hearing on NNU-endorsed Medicare for All legislation, and the bill's cosponsors grow to 118 members. CNA/NNOC hosts Global Nurses Solidarity Assembly in San Francisco, California, a three-day gathering of 1,500 nurses, labor leaders, and representatives from more than 25 countries to address a range of topics including global health, environmental and racial justice, and the fight for humane immigration policies. In a widely bipartisan vote, the U.S. House passes the groundbreaking H.R. 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, a bill strongly endorsed by NNU. The legislation holds employers accountable, through federal OSHA, for having a prevention plan in place to stop workplace violence before it occurs. Continuing the organizing wins at Tenet facilities in California and Arizona, 500 RNs at The Hospitals of Providence East in El Paso, Texas vote to join NNOC/NNU. 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. RNs at Research Psychiatric Center, HCA, in Kansas City, Mo., vote to join NNOC/NNU. NNU sends hospital facilities requests for information to ensure their preparation for Covid-19 and creates and distributes a SARS-CoV-2 fact sheet to keep members informed. NNU conducts the first of several national surveys 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 across the country, including the #ProtectNurses online art show, a 1,000-person online vigil in honor of fallen nurses, and a protest at the White House, placing one pair of shoes for every nurse who died of Covid.