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 Unions Merge to Gain Greater Voice in Health Care
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Delegates to the founding convention of the National Nurses United (NNU) yesterday created the largest union and professional organization of registered nurses in U.S. history and immediately pledged to work to expand union representation of nurses and give them a greater voice in health care reform.
The NNU unites three nurses unions: the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), United American Nurses (UAN) and Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Karen Higgins, an RN from Massachusetts, and one of three newly elected co-presidents of the NNU, said:
The promise of the future has arrived with all the unlimited potential, creativity, vision, and power represented by the delegates in the room, and the 150,000 members of the founding organizations.
