National Nurses United

News | Briefs 4 J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E Villaraigosa is LA's New Mayor O n May 17, a crowd of CNA nurses celebrated with Antonio Vil- laraigosa as he won election by 59 percent of the vote to become the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles, Cal- ifornia's largest city. CNA had endorsed Villaraigosa against incumbent James Hahn largely for his progressive positions on health- care and for his support of nurses, co- authoring the bill establishing safe hospital RN staffing ratios. His plans for reforming healthcare in Los Angeles in- clude enrolling all eligible babies for Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, or Healthy Kids insurance programs even before leaving the hospital, lowering pre- scription drug costs by buying for An- gelinos in bulk, cracking down on the spread of AIDS and HIV through an ex- tensive education program, and fight- ing for enforcement of lower hospital staffing ratios. Nurses were active in helping elect Villaraigosa, walking precincts for him and holding fundraising house parties. "Antonio has a proven record of ensuring access to quality health- care," said Jill Furillo, RN and CNA's Southern California director. "He's been an outspoken ad- vocate for nurses, and he's the only one to rec- ognize the important role that the mayor of Los Angeles can play in tackling our healthcare crisis." Villaraigosa has a by-his-bootstraps life story. Raised in Los An- geles by a single mother with three other siblings and gang violence all around, he could have led a very different life. His mother was largely responsible for keeping him mostly on track, and eventually he graduated from University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles. He gravitated toward politics, becoming a city councilman, an assemblymember, Assembly speaker, and now finally mayor. —Staff report Voice of RNs, Public Unions in Danger B usiness groups and foes of unions have qualified for the next election what is an especially damaging and spite- ful ballot measure: a proposal to prohibit unions representing public employees from spending their members' dues on political activities without first getting written consent. Dubbed the "Paycheck Protection Act" by its Chamber of Commerce supporters, the initiative could be voted on as soon as this November in the special election Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling to push through his slate of proposals. Teachers, firefighters, other public employees, and CNA members working for the University of California system would be affected. To RNs such as Kathy Daniel, who works for UCLA Medical Center in home health and is a CNA board member, the initiative is clearly meant to be such a large bureaucratic burden so as to disrupt organized labor's efforts to challenge politicians like Schwarzenegger, or to advocate for policies that help working people, but that the business community hates. "Organizationally, it would be a major pain in the butt," said Daniel. "And why is it just state and public employ- ees? If we have to do it, how come public companies like Chevron don't have to get permission from their share- holders before they spend money on political activities?" Daniel also pointed out that union members already have the choice of opting out of paying for political activities. Schwarzenegger has not yet come out in favor of the measure, but he often criticizes unions and his allies are bankrolling the effort. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Small Business Action Committee, headed by former Schwarzenegger staffer Joel Fox, has given $555,000 toward Lewis Uhler's signature-gathering activities. And in early June, the state Republican Party ponied up $200,000 for the campaign. Daniel says RNs and others in the labor movement need to do some serious grassroots education about why voters must not support this initiative. Unions can't be effective and not be political. "We need to be politically active if we ex- pect to be a vision and voice for nurses in the state of California," she said. "I don't think we'd be functional if we weren't political." —Staff report PHOTO: TAM NGUYEN, RN

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