Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1531149
12 ยป RNs in Motion Following the deaths of two children in federal detention facilities, RNRN sends volunteer RNs to Tucson, Ariz. to work in the Casa Alitas Shelter, which provides basic medical support to migrants and asylum seekers. CNA/NNOC hosts Global Nurses Solidarity Assembly in San Francisco, Calif., gathering 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. NNU deploys RNRN volunteers to the Bahamas to assist survivors of Hurricane Dorian. Nearly 500 RNs at Hospitals of Providence East Campus in El Paso, Texas, vote to join NNOC. 2020 NNU begins monitoring the Covid-19 virus in January and demands that federal and global agencies adopt the highest protections against the virus. NNU sends hospital facilities requests for information to insure preparation for Covid-19, and creates a SARS-CoV-2 factsheet to keep members informed. CNA and NNU team 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. For Nurses Week, NNU nurses speak out for Covid-19 protections at events all across the country, including a 1,000-person online vigil in honor of fallen nurses and a protest at the White House. CNA sponsors and wins A.B. 2537, a bill that requires California hospitals to create and maintain a three-month stockpile of new, unexpired N95 respirators, gowns, and personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect employees and patients. CNA wins passage of A.B. 203, a bill mandating increased public noticing of hospital and service closures so that communities have time to save their local hospital services. Sparked by the murder of George Floyd, nurses join Black Lives Matter social justice activists in massive spring and summer protests to declare police violence and structural racism a public health crisis. 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. Mission Hospital RNs in Asheville, N.C. vote by a landslide to join NNOC, defeating a heavily funded anti-union campaign by hospital chain behemoth, HCA. Nurses score a tremendous victory when the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) directs all general acute-care hospitals to begin weekly Covid-19 testing of all health care workers and all patient admissions. RNs at Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento vote overwhelmingly to affiliate with CNA, joining 8,000 RNs at 13 other CNA-represented Sutter hospitals. 2021 RNs at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City vote by a wide margin to join CNA, bringing union representation to the state's northwest coast. In response to RNs' intensive organizing, 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. CNA sponsors the introduction of CalCare, A.B. 1400, a bill to implement single-payer in California and guarantee comprehensive, high-quality health care to all California residents as a human right.