National Nurses United

Profile_FNL with art 11/6/10 2:09 PM Page 26 Neither blizzards, unjustified discipline, nor union-busting managers can stop RN Sandy Falwell from advocating for nurses and patients. By Lucia Hwang When the Going Gets Tough R egistered nurse sandy falwell will never forget the blizzards of 1996. The January snow piled up so high in Washington, D.C. where she worked at Children's National Medical Center that she and her coworkers were stuck in the facility for five days. Nobody could get to or from the hospital, so Falwell and her fellow neonatal intensive care unit nurses came up with their own emergency strategy for staffing: half the nurses worked past their shifts so that the other half could get some sleep. Then they'd switch. When nurses finally started to be able to return home, Falwell was so committed to her tiny patients and the other staff that she gave up her slot to a pregnant coworker. She did not go home until she was sure everything was settled and that her unit didn't need her. So imagine her surprise when the hospital days later accused her of abandoning her assignment and suspended her for three weeks. She believes that the hospital was targeting senior nurses and union supporters, since the RNs had been trying to organize. Without a formal grievance procedure, all Falwell could do was protest and appeal to higher administrators. Luckily, the human resources department 26 N AT I O N A L N U R S E finally cleared her of the false accusations and Falwell went back to work, but now with a different perspective and purpose. "What they made out of me was a rabid union supporter," said Falwell. "I remember walking into a meeting by myself with eight hospital administrators sitting there and thinking, 'If I can help it, I'm not going to let any other nurse feel that alone by themselves with no support.'" Falwell's false discipline story became a cause célèbre among the nurses at the hospital and elsewhere, helping the Children's RNs score an election victory that summer despite intense union busting by the hospital. "It was beautiful," she remembered about hearing of the successful vote. Contract negotiations, said Falwell, were "brutal" and consisted mainly of night shift nurses like her working all night and negotiating during the day, since they didn't yet have paid leave to conduct bargaining. They finally settled a first contract, and Falwell became the chief shop steward at Children's. "I was the only one who had fought back and won," laughed Falwell. "Somehow that makes you the chief shop steward." Her activism never stopped, and today Falwell is a veteran RN leader, not only still president of the bargaining unit at her facility, but also sitting on the executive council of National Nurses United 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 O C TO B E R 2 01 0

• Cover