Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/447719
News Briefs 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E days, in locales ranging from small towns in the San Joaquin Valley to Boston to Cleveland. Some were planned in advance, but many were called on the spur of the moment be- cause Schwarzenegger would often not disclose where he planned to be on any given day until that morning. RNs such as Kelly Di Giacomo, who earned the nickname the "nurse ter- rorist" when Schwarzenegger's secu- rity forces detained her at a movie premier because she was wearing nurses' scrubs, joined the "Patient Protection Squad," a cadre of RNs who committed to showing up on short notice to protests. "I think our protests really kept pressure on him and exposed what he was doing, which was hitting up all these corporations and rich peo- ple for money to pass initiatives that would hurt ordinary, working Cali- fornians like us," said Burger. "The media wouldn't have covered his fundraisers as much as they did if we weren't outside chanting and causing a ruckus." By the time CNA held its bi- ennial convention in September, Schwarzenegger's approval rat- ing had plummeted to as low as 37 percent. And CNA was about to get some help fighting star power with star power. Celebri- ties Warren Beatty, his wife An- nette Bening, and Sean Penn all attended CNA's convention, and Beatty delivered a stinging indictment of Schwarzenegger as the keynote speech. As election day approached, CNA's campaign was literally in overdrive. Nurses toured the entire state in an RV to edu- cate fellow RNs and commu- nity members about the initiatives on the special election ballot, and the weekend before Nov. 8, Beatty and Bening boarded a bus to tail Schwarzenegger on his final campaign tour of the state. They even stole his limelight when they tried to attend a talk he was giving but were denied entry. On election night, CNA threw an "Aloha Arnold" luau bash in Trader Vic's restaurant at the Bev- erly Hilton, right next door to where Schwarzenegger was hosting his party. As partygoers watched live election results on a screen, the numbers steadily tilted toward de- feat of many of the initiatives. When the results showed around midnight that Prop. 75, a measure that would have hamstrung labor's involve- ment in the political process, was losing, DeMoro cut into a roast "cor- porate" pig. Letters of thanks and congratula- tion poured into CNA Wednesday morning. As one man wrote: "I have no doubt that if CNA had not shown the courage to take on Schwarze- negger when he was riding high, and the persistence to confront him wher- ever he showed up, we would have had a different outcome yesterday. Thank you for rescuing our state." Schwarzenegger dropped his ap- peal of the ratio law just two days later, claiming that his administra- tion's worries that hospitals would close because they could not com- ply with the law were unfounded. Having won both the election and the ratio fight, CNA RNs are already moving onto initiatives to take all money out of politics, to end tax loopholes for corporations, and to establish universal, quality, single- payer healthcare. "For more than a year, California nurses have been the conscience of California," said DeMoro. "This fight is just one chapter. We will continue to campaign on behalf of genuine re- form tomorrow and the day after." —Staff reports Tri-City RNs Pick CNA I n another organizing vic- tory that consolidates the power of northern San Diego nurses, about 700 RNs with Tri-City Medical Center decided in November to affil- iate with CNA. Tri-City RNs listed major staff turnover and its subse- quent negative impact on pa- tient care as one of their top reasons for organizing with CNA. "We want to retain and re- cruit experienced nurses to provide the quality care this community de- serves," said Brenda Ham, a 23-year medical-surgical RN at Tri-City. The hospital is publicly-owned and run by a local healthcare district, the Tri-City Healthcare District. Tri-City RNs won recognition through a "card check election," in which a majority of them submitted cards saying that they wished to be repre- sented by CNA. CNA will now move quickly to open negotiations with the hospital for a first collective bargaining contract.