National Nurses United

J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 5 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15 F rom attacks on labor and public health care, to attacks on our immigrant and trans patients, this moment is a real emergency for our democracy. Fortunately, there's a work- force that's always ready to act in an emergency: registered nurses. As your new executive director, I could not be more honored to help lead the charge for a more caring world by your side. After holding many positions with the union for more than a decade—including labor rep, public sector director, California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organiz- ing Committee political director, and National Nurses United political director— one thing I am very certain about is that our union nurses are built differently. From a refusal to ever enter into labor management partnerships, to an unbreakable will at the bargaining table, NNU nurses will never just concede to our billionaire employers. That's a very good thing, because the current emergency for our democracy is absolutely a power grab by the billionaire class. The only way to fight back is by being more united and organized than ever before. All around the world (see story on p. 20), the billionaire class is trying to push through an agenda to break working-class power. In the United States, they're trying to crush our movement by gutting Medicaid and other public health protections, strip- ping protected union rights from 15,000 of our Veterans Affairs RNs and other federal workers (while threatening to revoke union rights for us all), and rolling back every possible protection, including the right to free speech and the right to due process. They are purposely stoking division, vili- fying our trans patients, and sending ICE into our communities and our hospitals, armed for war. The billionaires know that if working-class people are divided and fight- ing with one another, then we can never fight back against their greed. Some of you may be immigrants your- selves, or the children of immigrants, and I know it's impossible not to feel the weight of what's happening on a deeply personal level. I am a proud immigrant myself. My single mother and I came to the United States from India when I was a child, to build a better life for ourselves, which is the experi- ence of so many immigrants. When my mother worked multiple jobs, I would wait for hours at the front door, until she had safely reached home late at night. As an immigrant, you are constantly fearful of what could go wrong. Many people aren't aware of the dedication, resources, and time it takes to pursue a path to citizenship or legal status. It took my mother and I 10 years. I cannot even fathom the children who are waiting for their parents to come home from work, or from a court appointment on their path to pursuing citizenship, but they never do because they have been kidnapped by ICE. What's happening now is not just fear, it is terror. As patient advocates, who fight to advance all forms of justice, nurses will not stand for it. That's why NNU RNs have been fighting back so fiercely against the billionaire power grab and efforts to divide working people. You've lobbied in Washington, D.C., and in key districts across the country, to let Congress members know cuts to public programs will kill patients and to call for critical protections, like Medicare for All, a fully staffed Veterans Health Administra- tion, and restored collective bargaining rights to VA nurses and other workers. Nurses have also spent every day of this administration flexing working- class power at the bargaining table and on the strike line. From New York to California, and Minnesota to Louisiana, NNU nurses continue to educate, agitate, and organize. We also know moving forward means growing our numbers, and we're proud that from 2020 until today, NNU affiliates have added more than 55,000 nurses to our ranks. That includes our newest members from HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital, who just voted to join CNA/NNOC in September. Contending with so many battlefronts at once and nursing the United States and the rest of the world back to health will not be simple. But union nurses can take comfort in having the moral authority, the fighting spirit, and the multitasking skills to lead at this moment. When we stand together, the billionaires must concede to our movement, not the other way around. We will push through this fight together, as one united force, until what's broken is healed—for good. Puneet Maharaj is executive director of National Nurses United. Puneet Maharaj Executive Director, National Nurses United Nurses for the People Our new executive director Puneet Maharaj reflects on growing working-class power to meet this critical moment. The current emergency for our democracy is absolutely a power grab by the billionaire class. The only way to fight back is by being more united and organized than ever before . . . Union nurses can take comfort in having the moral authority, the fighting spirit, and the multitasking skills to lead at this moment. When we stand together, the billionaires must concede to our movement, not the other way around.

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