National Nurses United

RAD:1 10/17/07 9:56 PM Page 26 THE ROADS WE'VE TAKEN (continued from page 15) Like public health, the epicenter of the battle over pensions starts in the public arena, to which our University of California nurses can attest. There is a constant drumbeat to roll back public pensions. We have to stay focused on that battle, because it is a battle we dare not lose. To win, we have to use our collective power. We know that, and they know that. KENTUCKY RIVER our gathering comes almost exactly one year after the Bush administration's labor board presented a huge gift to hospital employers with its disgraceful ruling that RNs who exercise professional clinical judgment in the interests of patients may be considered "supervisors" and thus ineligible to join unions. Fortunately we were neither surprised nor unprepared for the Kentucky River decision. The Bush labor board has been a champion of corporate employers for a long time with a long series of decisions intended to virtually eliminate the ability of nurses and other working people to collectively organize. We spent months getting ready, putting employers on notice about what they could expect if they tried to abrogate nurses' most fundamental rights—and make them choose allegiance to their boss over loyalty to their patients. How did we respond? By nurses mobilizing in their own interest, with the significant help of our colleagues in the AFL-CIO. With mass protests across the country and other clear, unequivocal messages to employers— even before the decision was handed down. We marched through the streets of Chicago, and pounded on the doors of the national headquarters of the American Hospital Association. And when they cowered in fear and locked us out, we took over one of the busiest streets in one of the busiest downtowns in the world in a sit-down protest. Our actions that day, and in the weeks before, and the weeks following the decision, set a tone that has made a number of employers fearful of challenging our—your—collective power, and enabled us to win strong language in contract after contract protecting the rights of our members to keep their union—most recently for Catholic Healthcare West nurses. This fight is far from over. Some employers—most recently Maine Health—continue 26 REGISTERED NURSE to try to exploit the ruling. But with our AFL-CIO allies we are well equipped to carry that fight into those boardrooms, and I am always confident that we will win. And when we struggle, with our best thinking and our best efforts and our hearts, we build something that becomes greater than all of us collectively. And we can build and grow beyond our immediate struggles and make a social difference in ways previously unimaginable. REGISTERED NURSE RESPONSE NETWORK we have just passed the second anniversary of one of the greatest calamities and moments of shame in our national history— the abandonment of a major metropolitan area with the unnatural disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina. Amid that horror came one of the proudest moments of our great history when our organization, and many of you in this room, acted and fulfilled your highest calling as patient and social advocates. We were able to send 325 RN volunteers to overwhelmed and understaffed hospitals, clinics, and makeshift mobile units across the Gulf Coast. We cared for thousands of people who lost their homes, their families, and their sustenance, many of whom had already endured years of neglect and a lack of access to basic health services. Along the way, our RN volunteers received a sober reminder of the brutal social inequities of our society—and the need for a humane, national healthcare system. As the flood waters receded, we created a permanent, national program, the Registered Nurse Response Network to channel the power of nurses helping nurses, patients and communities, following similar disasters. We continue to recruit hundreds of new volunteers ready to lay their expertise and lives on the line as well, preparing us to prevent the kind of human suffering we witnessed in 2005 in the Gulf. The healthcare crisis is not limited to New Orleans, it is present in every city across this country. CHICAGO FIGHT chicago is ground zero of the fight to save public health. NNOC nurses in Illinois have become the preeminent advocates for that historic battle. Facing major cuts in the financing of the public healthcare system, our union beat W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G back the local government's plan to severely downsize the nursing force. At the same time, we vigorously resisted the elimination of vital health services and exposed their impact on the public through member mobilization and media campaigns. In the process, our members have emphasized single-payer as the ultimate solution to the public heath crisis in Cook County and other public health systems throughout the nation. The Chicago area's notoriously corrupt "business as usual" politics are being challenged—and NNOC nurses are at the forefront of that challenge. MAINE since maine nurses voted unanimously to join CNA/NNOC last year, the Maine State Nurses Association has become a fully integrated part of the organization. In the short time since they joined us, Maine nurses have: Initiated a statewide campaign for safe RN practice and ratios legislation Become a major proponent of true healthcare reform through expanded coalition work and the promotion of SiCKO throughout the state. Been recognized as a labor leader in defense of professional employees' collective bargaining rights. Unions throughout the state have been attacked, including us, but we're now leading the fight through our campaign against the largest regional healthcare employer, Maine Health, which is seeking to wipe out the only nurse bargaining unit in Southern Maine. Now more than half our members statewide are in the process of bargaining new contracts in Maine. Their goal—our goal—is simple: CNA/NNOC contract standards coast-to-coast! TEXAS the past two years have seen a remarkable growth of our national movement, the NNOC. From sea to sea, RNs have been flocking to our ranks, joining our efforts to reclaim our profession and build power for registered nurses. One of our most dramatic recent successes is surely the Lone Star State of Texas. Texas nurses have adopted the NNOC as their union, and in less than a year and a half have built a powerful organization that has the hospital industry reeling and has set the state on fire. Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso—from every corner of the state, RNs have shown courage and tenacity by OCTOBER 2007

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