National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:October 2007 10/18/07 12:04 AM Page 9 HOUSE OF DELEGATES 2007 Nurses Gather for National Convention early a thousand registered nurses homed in on Sacramento, Calif. from Sept. 9–12 at CNA/NNOC's 2007 national House of Delegates convention to trade stories, learn how nurses can protect their practice and lead the movement toward winning real universal healthcare for all Americans, have fun, and raise some hell. Under an "RNs in Motion" theme, the convention was the largest ever held by CNA/ NNOC, with more nurse delegates and more states represented—including Illinois, Maine, Texas, Arizona, among others—than ever before. Nurses from Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom also attended. The four-day program featured distinguished speakers such as AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and noted author Barbara Ehrenreich, continuing classes geared toward educating nurses about technological encroachments on their practice and why universal healthcare is best achieved through expanding a better Medicare system for everyone, a panel of international nurses discussing their country's experiences with single-payer healthcare systems, and awards to outstanding members and allies. "This was the best convention ever," said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN and member of the new CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. "All the nurses I talked to said they felt really energized and inspired. It's awesome to be around so many other motivated nurses." Showing that nurses are used to thinking fast on their feet, the convention kicked off with an N OCTOBER 2007 emergency Monday morning march on the state Capitol to voice nurses' opposition to AB 8, a healthcare deal being struck between California Assembly speaker Fabian Nuñez, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the health insurance industry that would give the illusion of providing universal healthcare AFL-CIO while in reality just providing a Secretarycaptive customer base for insur- Treasurer ers and offering no guarantee of Richard access to affordable services. Trumka RNs such as Margaret Haugen first visited dozens of legislators' offices, urging them to vote no on the legislation which was about to come up for vote. "We are opposed to AB 8," explained Haugen, an RN at French Hospital in San Luis Obispo, Calif., to the staff of one legislator. "We're looking for something better, like single-payer, for California." Then hundreds of nurses, chanting "AB 8 has got to go" and waving pink flyers reading "Say no to AB 8, the bad healthcare deal," convened in the Capitol rotunda, spilling out into the hallway right outside where Nuñez was holding his press conference announcing the deal. Democratic leadership rammed through the weak bill, anticipating the governor's veto and an overall weaker result. CNA/NNOC is mobilizing the public to ensure all consumers get healthcare access and aren't forced to buy W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G insurance policies that are useless when they actually need them. Policies such as the one held by the sister of Barbara Ehrenreich, one of the convention's keynote speakers. Ehrenreich, who has written books about the country's working poor, described that her sister was so frustrated with escalating healthcare premiums that she was considering dropping coverage all together. As her sister said, "It doesn't do anything for us anyway. It doesn't cover vision or dental. We haven't gotten anything out of it. We just keep paying and paying." Ehrenreich urged the audience to go out and lead the charge for real universal healthcare based on a single-payer model. Because medicine has become so specialized, said Ehrenreich, "nurses are the only people who have the big picture" and understand how the system is broken. Another speaker, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, also encouraged nurses not to settle for the status quo under which so many working people struggle and suffer despite their hard work. He offered a historical context for today's stagnant wages, lack of retirement security, and concentration of wealth in a tiny percentage of the population, explaining that government policies have been changed to benefit the Wall Street elite instead of the average working person. "We are being told to literally work until we drop," said Trumka. "These policies are not accidental and can and must be changed." Convention attendees also heard from stillunorganized nurses from around the country describing their fights to unionize and from nurses from around the globe describing their universal healthcare systems and their shock at the U.S. system, or lack of one. (See sidebars) "I was really impressed," said Diane Ellis, a pediatric ICU RN and chief steward at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, Ill., of the convention and all she learned. "If I can get the nurses at my work to understand and get it, we will be awesome, because there's more of us than of them. It's a nice chance to step back. Usually you feel alone. Then when you come here, you see that you're not alone." REGISTERED NURSE 9

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