Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540947
and that's just very important to me. I appreciate that CNA/NNOC is fighting for those rights, for our patients, and for all we do for the entire global community," said Janel Crowley, RN, of Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. "In a class I was in, [a nurse] from Tucson said that we're doing the work for seven generations behind us and seven generations ahead of us," said Monica Gonzalez, RN, of Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas. It caused her to think about how generations of nurses pass through the union, and how her own facility was one of the younger unionized Texas facilities and still learning from union nurses who came before them. But she realized at GNSA that she and her col- leagues are also able to "give a hand up" to the Fort Walton nurses. "I'm getting information [from longtime union nurses], but I'm also handing that information down to future generations of nurses. I just gave myself chills," said Gonzalez. Nurses are already voted the most trusted profession year after year in the Gallup poll. At GNSA, they were also reminded that trust in unions is also on the rise, with 9 out of 10 people under 30 trust- ing unions, according to a 2023 poll by the AFL-CIO. With all that trust, nurses are the right messengers for this moment, GNSA speakers emphasized. The public is looking for leadership on how to achieve a more caring, healthy, just world, and nurses are the leaders to get us there. "[Unions] are literally more popular than Taylor Swift," said AFL/CIO president Liz Shuler. "Every other institution is failing to deliver that change people need. Democrats aren't going to save us. 22 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 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 J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 5 MEET LOCALLY, ACT GLOBALLY Imagine a meeting of the United Nations, but instead of being attended by global government officials, the world's nurse and health care worker union leaders are sitting around a big table. That's exactly what happened when representatives from 28 of Global Nurses United (GNU)'s 35 member nations gathered in San Francisco on Oct. 5 to share information and strategies, helping each other better understand what nurses and patients are experiencing in each country. "What continues to be striking to me is that despite differences in language, culture, and health care systems, and levels of wealth and poverty, nurses around the world are facing many of the same issues," said NNU and CNA/NNOC President Cathy Kennedy, RN. Four of those shared issues, gleaned from a recent GNU survey, drove the day's discussion: the rise of global oppression, safe staffing, health and safety, and fighting privatization. "While responses will be local, our voice as nursing leaders must be heard globally." said Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere (Māori president) of the New Zealand Nurses Organization, as she kicked off the discussion about global oppression. Brazil's National Federation of Nurses (FNE) President Solange Cae- tano imparted a message of hope, sharing that under her nation's previous, authoritarian leader Jair Bolsonaro, "all social policies in health and education were dismantled." But working people rose up and were able to enact change. "It was only as a result of a lot of struggle from workers and public servants that we were able to bring Brazil back to a state where it could "I'm getting information [from longtime union nurses], but I'm also handing that information down to future generations of nurses. I just gave myself chills."