National Nurses United

RAD:Sept 10/27/09 10:09 AM Page 10 A SHOT IN THE ARM (continued from page 9) from France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Italy, Canada, and other industrial nations which have single-payer or other national systems. In those countries, no one dies or goes bankrupt due to lack of coverage, no one's health is held hostage by profiteering insurance companies, and in every one of them labor played the leading role in winning national healthcare. With the AFL-CIO, which more than any organization in the nation led the fight for enactment of Medicare, now on record, we have a critical foundation for stepping up that effort nationally in the months to come. We also burnished our r eputation as activists within the labor movement with a march through downtown Pittsburgh to accompany our single-payer reception and screening of Michael Moore's latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story. The movie is a poignant and painful portrait of the real life of so many Americans today. It's also a stunning rebuke to three decades of Washington and Wall Street policies in Washington that have driven down economic security for American workers and families while shifting wealth to the haves at the expense of everyone else. As Moore said in comments at our r eception "the richest 1 percent of our country have more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined." A situation accompanied by an assault on the nation's social safety net, evident in the rising tide of home foreclosures, job losses, and the ever-worsening collapse of our healthcare system. The growing loss of health coverage by American workers, said Moore, who continues to advocate for single-payer, is joined b y the obscene amount of money spent on lobb ying and campaign contributions by the healthcare industry to keep the status quo intact. In addition to reuniting with CNA/NNOC (We also hosted the national premiere of SiCKO, his brilliant critique of the healthcar e industry), Moore also chose to debut his film, not in Hollywood or New York City, but in Pittsburgh at the AFL-CIO convention as a sign of his respect and affection for working people and their unions. One of the many moving sequences of his film is when Moore—after talking about the privileges he gr ew up with and took for granted in his union family—accompanies his father to the former site of his dad' union s plant in Flint, Mich. Today all that is left is rubble, amidst a sea of industrial decay. "It's a special honor for me to be here tonight" because of the struggle of unions, said Moore at our reception. "They created the middle class. Because of the United Auto Workers, my family had free healthcare, four weeks of paid vacation, a secure pension. That's because of the w ork y ou do and because unions fought for these [achievements] that everyone's standard of living rose." The idea that strong unions are essential to reversing the assault on our standards and our safety net and lifting conditions for all Americans is an underlying theme of Moore's latest film. Finally, that 's a point that Pr esident Obama, who spoke to the convention the next day, made as well. While his healthcare program falls considerably short of the guaranteed healthcare reform our nation so desperately needs and k eeps the insur ance industry at the apex of power, his speech, openly embracing "a strong labor mo vement" and reaffirming his support for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act as key elements for rebuilding our nation, are certainly a r efreshing change in the White House. The challenges that lie ahead are huge, but with the achievements we have made, our unprecedented influence in labor and the nation and the emergence of our national nurses movement, we have great opportunities as well. I Rose A nn DeM oro is ex ecutive dir ector of CNA/NNOC. NeedCECredits? Wanttolearnaboutthelatest challengestonursingandtheirsolutions? Sign up today for one of the continuing education courses we are offering this fall! Free for direct-care staff RNs. CALIFORNIA AREA Health Information Technology: Panacea or Trojan Horse? Various dates starting in October Many healthcare reform proponents claim that new health information technologies are the medicine for what ails us, that they will contain costs by increasing efficiency. Why is this claim so frequently repeated despite contradiction by the Congressional Budget Office? This class will examine the interests that stand to gain from broad adoption of health IT (HIT). In addition, the types of HIT tha are increasingly t 10 REGISTERED NURSE affecting RNs will be explored, along with likely impacts on nursing practice over the long term. The class will conclude with strategies for patient advocacy in the face of technological restructuring. If you attended last season's technology class, The Healing Touch, this course will expand your understanding in new directions; you will still find much of interest here. Instructor: Linette Davis, CNA/NNOC educator This course is approved for 6.0 cehs For more information and to sign up, look for "CE classes" under the nursing practice section of our website at www.calnurses.org. W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G SEPTEMBER 2009

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