Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1521816
RNs in Motion ยป 3 Board of Directors OUR ROOTS, OUR GROWTH On behalf of the elected RN-members of our Board of Directors, welcome to National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United. We are proud to be at the helm of our organization in a period marked by unparalleled growth and tremendous change for our profession and for our patients. National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) was launched by California Nurses Association (CNA) in 2005 in response to nurses' requests to build a national movement of direct-care RNs, modeled on the success of CNA. Together, they are officially one organization. Since that time, NNOC and CNA have grown tremen- dously and now represent more than 130,000 RNs in nearly 300 hospitals located in more than 20 states across the country. These include 13,5 00 Veterans Health Administration RNs at 23 Veterans Affairs hospitals in 12 states and Washington, D.C. In 2009, CNA and NNOC played a lead role in bringing state nursing associations across the nation together into one national organization, National Nurses United (NNU). NNU stands today at nearly 225,000 RNs from every state in the nation and also includes the District of Columbia Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association. NNU pools the collective experiences and might of the most successful RN organizations in the United States and is now the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history. The establishment of NNU brought to life the dream of a powerful, national movement of direct-care RNs and that movement is growing in the United States and globally! In fall 2023, CNA/NNOC was honored to host our 120-year anniversary convention in San Francisco, Calif., a gathering of more than 2,500 nurses, labor leaders, and representatives from 35 countries. We shared our experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic and our struggles organizing for health care justice, workplace democracy and workers' rights, social justice, and the preservation of hands-on nursing care in the face of ever-pervasive technology. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, our members have held thousands of actions and won critical victories in many facilities on everything from personal protective equipment (PPE) to staffing. The Covid-19 pandemic underscored, like never before, the powerful role we play as patient advocates and the importance of organizing and solidarity. We will continue to tenaciously advocate in the facilities where we work and at the federal level for the highest infectious disease standards to protect our patients, ourselves, and our communities. WELCOME FROM THE