National Nurses United

10 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U N E 2 0 1 5 WRAP-UP REPORT California michael jackson, a San Diego RN and board member of National Nurses United, won unanimous election May 6 as president of the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN). BRN responsibilities include imple- mentation and oversight of regulations govern- ing the nursing profession, including landmark rules in California protecting the independent patient advocacy role of RNs and other patient protections, as well as nursing education, licen- sure, practice, and discipline. With more than 400,000 licensees, the California BRN is the largest of its kind in the country. "I'm honored to be able to serve California patients, and Cali- fornia nurses, in this vital role," said Jackson, who was appointed to the BRN by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012. "The BRN is an important resource in protecting and expanding the abili- ty of RNs to ensure the highest quality of care California patients need and deserve." Jackson has worked as a clinical nurse II in the emergency department at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center since 2000. He has also been an adjunct clinical faculty member in the registered nursing program at Southwestern Community College, Mira Costa College, and California State University San Marcos. Additionally, Jackson served as a lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1989 to 1993. Because of its consumer orientation and support for RNs, the BRN has been under frequent attack by the hospital industry, and was one of the agencies targeted for elimina- tion by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the behest of the hospitals. "We could not be more proud to see Michael Jackson in this important posi- tion," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of NNU and the California Nurses Association. "Having a strong leader like Michael as president of the BRN is good news for all Californians." Texas on may 28, the Lift Up El Paso coalition, which consists of local registered nurses, community and faith-based organizations, and unions fighting for raising the minimum wage, gave a tour of establishments that exemplify the wage theft problem in El Paso as part of the lead-up to a June 1 vote by the city council to hold local businesses account- able for fairly paying their workers. Wage theft is a serious issue in El Paso where, according to a 2011 report conducted by Lift Up El Paso, 20 percent of low-wage workers receive less than minimum wage, 67 percent of low-wage employees who should receive overtime pay do not, and 12.5 percent of low-wage workers are victims of wage theft. Women were also found to suffer more wage violations than men, with more than 27 percent of surveyed women paid below mini- mum wage compared to 14 percent of men. Sadly, enforcement of state and federal employment laws is ineffective, making city government uniquely able to ensure that judg- ments against bad-actor employers are paid. "No employee should be left unpaid after a hard day's work," says Yadira Cabrera, a Las Palmas Medical Center RN and a National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas union leader at the hospital. "As a nurse, I know firsthand what happens when wages don't allow for covering basic needs. It means people in this community can't afford to seek medical attention when they need it, and their health suffers. That's why I support the wage theft ordinance that makes em ployers more accountable, pre vents them from committing such thefts by establishing harsh- er penalties, and strengthens workers' rights." The upcoming ordinance, similar to one recently passed in Houston, proposes not just a ban on city contracts with wage offenders (a measure that impacts only some businesses), but also a withholding of city permits and licenses or refusal to renew permits and licenses (an extra measure Lift Up El Paso insists is necessary to ensure that wage offenders not affected by a contract ban are also held accountable). Veterans Affairs veterans affairs rns scored a huge victo- ry on May 26 when VA senior management notified NNU that they are no longer moving forward with the Real Time Location System (RTLS) for tagging, monitoring, and tracking registered nurses. This news came just two weeks after more than 100 RNs led by Irma Westmoreland, RN and chair of NNU-VA, protested on May 12 at the Veterans Affairs Central Office that RTLS was just another form of bullying and harassment and demand- ed that the program to track RNs be stopped. RTLS was initially introduced into the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as a system to track equipment. However, senior management at Veterans Administration Central Office (VACO) in Washington, D.C. for more than a year had wanted to take RTLS one step further by using the technol- ogy to track all RNs and employees through- out the country in each VA medical center. The NNU-VA bargaining committee consis- tently told management that spending $550 million to track RNs and other employees is waste of taxpayer dollars when the money could be used to hire thousands of RNs and address understaffing. —Staff report From left: NNU board member Michael Jackson, RN (fifth from left) is elected president of Cali- fornia Board of Registered Nursing, whose mem- bers also include past NNU board member Trande Phillips, RN (fourth from left) and former CNA staffer Betty Woods, NP (far right); El Paso RNs rally in support of city law to punish employ- ers who commit wage theft. NEWS BRIEFS

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