23,000 Nurses Take Stand for Patient Care
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From Santa Rosa to Fresno and from Sacramento to San Jose, 23,000 registered nurses walked picket lines, joined rallies and sent a strong message yesterday to three large employers that they will not accept reductions in patient services or cuts to nurses and other caregivers. The one-day strike by members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) ended this morning at 7 a.m. PT.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who joined nurses on the picket line at Sutter Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, praised the RNs as “the last line of defense for patients.” Trumka said the 23,000 nurses who took a stand were joined by “millions of patients” and had the support of working people across the country.
The walkout affected Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente, as well as Children’s Hospital in Oakland.
Nurses Rally for Wall Street Tax, Get Thanks from Gov. Brown
More than 1,000 registered nurses attending the National Nurses United (NNU) convention rallied outside the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco yesterday. The action was part of NNU’s ongoing campaign for a tax on Wall Street’s financial speculation to provide revenue for Main Street reforms, including jobs at living wages, guaranteed health care for all and freedom from hunger, homelessness and retirement insecurity.
Martha Kuhl, RN, at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, told NNU blogger Jonathan Farrell, “This economic recession has had an impact upon the well-being of many people.”
Each day our nurses are witness to heart-wrenching accounts of people impacted by the results of the downturn in the economy….If the government can make the effort to bail out the banking industry, why not help bail out the failing health care system or other important outreach services?
Addressing the convention Wednesday, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told the delegates:
The big problems we face are the direct result of the mortgage banks meltdown. It was not created by nurses, or teachers or firefighters or the police. It was created by the bankers and mortgage lenders…the [problem] is not too much regulation, but too little.
Steelworkers Ratify Pact with RG Steel—and More Bargaining News
The United Steelworkers (USW) at RG Steel ratified a new contract—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
USW, RG Steel: The United Steelworkers ratified a new agreement with North America successor RG Steel that covers some 6,000 workers at five facilities in Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia.
1,000 Help Unmask Right-Wing Billionaires’ Secret Strategy Session
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More than 1,000 activists, including members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), AFSCME, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and Common Cause, helped shine a big spotlight on a closed-door gathering of right-wing billionaires and extreme conservative leaders and politicians in Palm Springs, Calif., yesterday.
The strategy meeting was organized by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch who have been instrumental in orchestrating the tea party movement and funding much of the modern right-wing infrastructure.
Past participants in the secret conclave have included media personalities like Glenn Beck, members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.
The event has taken on even greater importance in light of the Supreme Court’s 2010 “Citizens United” decision, which enabled the Kochs and their allies to spend unlimited resources on the 2010 elections. The lawmakers they helped elect are backing a corporate agenda that includes repealing health care and Wall Street reform, privatizing Social Security and rolling back worker and consumer protections.
NFL Players File Complaint Against Owners—and More Bargaining News
The NFL Players Association charged team owners with collusion to restrict thelr rights, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
NEGOTIATIONS NFLPA, NFL: The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) confirmed it has filed a complaint with a special master, alleging NFL team owners colluded to restrict the rights of players. Meanwhile, NFLPA members are visiting Capitol Hill this week to discuss with lawmakers the potential lockout by team owners and the devastating economic impact it would have on communities. The NFL is able to negotiate lucrative television deals because Congress granted it an antitrust exemption.
AFT-NEA, Minneapolis School District: After 18 months of negotiations, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (AFT-NEA) reached a two-year tentative agreement with the school district. While the deal provides no raises, it maintains step increases and health care coverage at no additional cost to teachers.
Queen Meg’s Crown Jewels and Other Items Up for Auction
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You can own a piece of royal history, or even better, give a little something from the Queen herself as a holiday gift. Slow down, we’re not talking about some stuffy old English monarchial memorabilia. We’re talking about the one and only U.S.-born Queen Meg.
Surely you remember Queen Meg, the California Nurses Association’s (CNA’s) satirical imperial parody of free-spending billionaire Meg Whitman and her failed bid to buy California’s governorship.
The good queen has graciously donated some of her most prized possessions for a Royal Holiday Auction to benefit the Nicky Diaz Legal Defense Fund. Diaz is Whitman’s former housekeeper who worked for Whitman for nine years. She says Whitman knew she was undocumented for several years before Whitman fired her shortly before she announced her candidacy in 2009.
Nurses to Whitman: ‘Women Vote for Women Who Vote!’
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More than 1,500 people, including many women in early 20th century fashion, marched and rallied in Sacramento yesterday to mark the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote.
The rally, sponsored by the California Nurses Association (CNA), also spotlighted how Republican gubernatorial candidate, billionaire CEO Meg Whitman, hasn’t exercised that right during most of her adult life. She has admitted her voting history is “atrocious.”
Susan Segal, a nurse at Oakland Children’s Hospital, told the San Francisco Chronicle:
Not only did she not bother to vote, but then she has the chutzpah to want us to vote for her.
Join California Nurses to Celebrate Women’s Vote, Protest Whitman
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On Aug. 26, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) will host a 90th anniversary celebration of a woman’s right to vote with a huge march and rally in Sacramento.
One person not invited to the celebration is Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor of the Golden State. Queen Meg, who is spending $150 million of her own money to move into the governor’s mansion, has admitted that she hasn’t voted in nearly 30 years. CNA/NNU says Whitman has:
“disgraced the suffragists’ legacy and now thinks she is entitled to be governor because of her wealth and privilege as a billionaire corporate CEO.”
While celebrating the legacy of the suffragists, the nurses plan to protest Whitman’s bid to buy the governorship.
Businessweek Profiles CNA/NNU’s DeMoro
In a major profile of Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), Bloomberg Businessweek writes:
DeMoro is expert at dishing out political pain with a flourish, a talent that has endeared her to her 86,000 constituents in the California Nurses Association. Under DeMoro’s leadership, the union has recast itself from a special-interest trade group to a consumer and patient advocate that lobbies hard—and volubly—for universal health care and patients’ rights.
“Nurses are the last line of defense for patients,” says DeMoro from a seat in her cactus-filled office at the union’s Oakland headquarters. “This isn’t about just bread-and-butter issues for registered nurses, this is about living in a good and a just society.”
CNA’s ‘Queen Meg’ Draws National Attention
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The California Nurses Association’s (CNA‘s) satirical imperial “Queen Meg,” a parody of free-spending billionaire Meg Whitman and her bid to buy California’s governorship, caught the attention of Time.com today.
According to the lead feature on the site’s Politics section, “the former eBay CEO is willing to spend a mind-boggling $150 million of her own money” to move into the governor’s mansion in Sacramento. Of course that’s likely a step or two down from her palatial Silicon Valley digs.
