National Nurses United

REGISTERED NURSE,™ (ISSN 0008-1310) The Journal of Patient Advocacy, August 2006 Volume 102/6 is published by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of organizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general coverage and commentary on matters of nursing practice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is published monthly except for combined issues for July and August, and January and February. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California. POST- MASTER: send address changes to Registered Nurse, ™ 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. To send a media release or announcement, fax (510) 663- 0629. Registered Nurse™ is carried on the CNA/NNOC web- site at www.calnurses.org. For permission to reprint articles, write to Editorial Office. To subscribe, send $40 ($45 foreign) to Subscription Depart- ment. California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organiz- ing Committee also produces California Nurse, ™ which it will continue to publish periodically. P L E A S E C O N T A C T U S W I T H Y O U R S T O R Y I D E A S They can be about practice or management trends you've observed, or simply something new you've encountered in the profession. They can be about one nurse, unit, or hospital, or about the wider landscape of healthcare policy from an RN's perspective. They can humorous, or a matter of life and death. If you're a writer and would like to contribute an article, please let us know. Our contact information is in the masthead. colleagues, if you don't think the Ken- tucky River decision on reclassifying us registered nurses as supervisors is a seri- ous threat to our union rights and every- thing CNA/NNOC stands for, think again. Already, several hospitals have made rum- blings about removing nurses from their bargaining units, and this is even before the anti-union National Labor Relations Board has issued a ruling! Drastic times call for drastic measures. We need to show hospitals that, frankly, we don't care what the NLRB says. We're willing to do whatever it takes, including acts of civil disobedience, to defend our right to advocate for ourselves and our patients by having a union. And that's just what we demonstrated in Chicago in early August. Hundreds of nurses from around the country converged there to protest in front of the headquarters of the American Hospital Association, the national "union" for hospitals and a pro- ponent of supervisor reclassification. To make the state- ment that we are willing to risk life, limb, and our personal liberty for our profession and our patients, a group of RNs were prepared to risk arrest to confront hospital associa- tion representatives. As it turned out, they successfully shut down noonday traffic on the Loop to make our point. Turn to the news briefs section in this issue for a full report on what happened. I also wanted to highlight a couple of other stories this month. The big news on our campaign to clean up political corruption in the state of California by passing Prop. 89 is that Phil Angelides, the state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate, has thrown his support behind the measure. The campaign is heating up, so if you can help, we sure need you. Start by joining Californians for Clean Elections at www.Yeson89.org. From there, you can learn how to organ- ize talks with community and church groups, fundraise and educate by hosting house parties, or write letters to your local paper in support. Speaking of outreach by nurses, one of our board mem- bers, Elizabeth Pataki, RN, has written a review of the newest edition of From Silence to Voice, a book that explains why we must do a better job of talking to the public about what we do and gives detailed instructions on how to do that. Check out this must-read for all nurses. Last but not least, we have a great feature that will make you go running to the nearest sink and soap dispenser: It's about how antibiotic misuse and hospital cost-cutting prac- tices are promoting the growth of more and more deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We hope it will make you think twice about skipping that hand wash or figuring that the equipment "looks clean enough." Lots of things going on. But remember, drastic times call for drastic measures! Deborah Burger, RN CNA/NNOC president LETTER FROM TH E PR ESI DENT executive editor Rose Ann DeMoro editor Lucia Hwang graphic design Jonathan Wieder communications director Charles Idelson contributors Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD photography Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes editorial intern Miranda Everitt Registered Nurse

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