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NewsBriefs:October 2007 10/18/07 12:04 AM Page 10 NewsBriefs HOUSE OF DELEGATES 2007 WHY BARGAINING, ORGANIZING, AND POLITICS MATTERS editor's note: The following speech was made by CNA/NNOC's Director of Collective Bargaining Mike Griffing at the 2007 House of Delegates convention. The action he refers to in his opening remarks was a march into the Sacramento Capitol the previous day by some 800 nurses and their allies in support of single-payer healthcare for all and against efforts by lawmakers to pass a bill that would benefit insurance companies while providing few or no healthcare improvements for Americans. ood morning sisters and brothers, It's great to be up here looking out at all of you lawbreakers. That's right. You all broke the law yesterday by chanting and singing and making all that noise in the hallowed halls of the Capitol yesterday. You were all guilty of a misdemeanor. Now, don't worry. You don't have to go over to the Sacramento police department and turn yourselves in. We met with our lawyers for three hours yesterday and it turns out there's a loophole in the law. Apparently when you commit a misdemeanor with 800 other people, it's okay! In the last few years, we've accomplished a great deal in bargaining, in organizing (both internal and external) and in our political work. It's such an honor being involved in a union like ours that thinks big and accomplishes big things. The other day I was being interviewed by a reporter about some of our recent contract settlements and fights. At the end of the interview the reporter said that she had talked to "a nurse" who stated that CNA/NNOC should be less involved in politics and more involved in facility representation. The reporter wanted to know my thoughts on the subject. Now, I could have said that the nurse was put up to the call by management. And if there was such a call, I would bet that management was involved. But I didn't say that. After all, I've heard those same or similar comments by members myself. In fact there G 10 REGISTERED NURSE may be people in this room today who hold this belief. I also could have pointed out that some of the very contract gains I was talking to the reporter about demonstrated forcefully that we were indeed taking care of business at our facilities. Instead, I decided to take on the issue directly. I told her that CNA/NNOC operates on the premise that there is a symbiotic relationship between our bargaining power in the healthcare industry and our political power. That is, our bargaining power and our political power mutually reinforce and build on each other. I wish we could ignore politics and build the power of the nurses and this organization strictly through our bargaining and organizing. I also wish we had a rational healthcare system and national staffing ratios. But the fact is that neither one of those things is likely to happen without a great deal of political work. As much at it might please some of us to dream about a general strike to win singlepayer, I'm afraid that some dreams are indeed impossible, at least in the short run. So if there's no general strike in our W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G immediate future, what are we to do? Well, that gets back to this relationship between our industrial power and our political power. Now, when I say industrial power I mean the power we have in our relationships with employers in the healthcare industry. Our industrial power derives from the strength of our internal organization and the success of our new organizing program. The more nurses we have organized into strong facility organizations, the greater our industrial power. By this definition, in California we are a powerhouse whereas nationally we have work to do (as do all of the major healthcare unions). We could not have won the ratios or beaten Arnold Schwarzenegger without organizing and mobilizing our members to publicly demonstrate our support for ratios and our opposition to his program. And we could not have mobilized our members without strong facility organization. Winning the ratios and beating Arnold were huge political victories. They demonstrated our political power and enhanced our political power. We translated that political power into bargaining power. In the aftermath of our win over Arnold, we were able to settle contracts covering 20,000 nurses who work for some of the biggest and most powerful healthcare corporations in California. And we settled those contracts with major gains in wages, benefits, and staffing without a single strike. There is no doubt that these employers decided against taking on the organization that led the fight against Schwarzenegger. The Arnold fight was a good example of the interdependent relationship between our industrial power and our political power. It's important to note, however, that it was our industrial power that led to our political power. This is not one of those OCTOBER 2007