SEIU:FINAL
7/3/08
1:19 PM
Page 12
A Labor of Love
Executive Director
Rose Ann DeMoro
has dedicated over
twenty years of her
life to empowering
Registered Nurses
12
REGISTERED NURSE
here was a time, a little over 15 years ago, when
CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro was
faced with the challenge of fighting to build an organization she believed in—a social union that promoted selfdetermination and empowerment of staff nurses working
together on a powerful vision and program of patient advocacy.
DeMoro, then director of collective bargaining and organizing for the
California Nurses Association, was facing a crackdown from the nurse
executive-dominated administration of CNA that cooperated with the
healthcare industry in an escalating wave of hospital restructuring
that jeopardized patient care standards and promoted the displacement of RNs and the deskilling of RN professional practice.
"We were discouraged from sitting in committees and learning
about politics within our own organization—even though we comprised virtually the entire membership," recalls Kay McVay, RN and
T
W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G
JUNE 2008
