Hundreds of Nurses Rally on Capitol Hill in National Day of Action
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| 500 nurses rallied for health care reform Wednesday on Capitol Hill. |
Here’s a great report on nurses rallying for health care reform in Washington, D.C., from Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally.
Spirits and energy ran high today as hundreds of nurses from all over the country gathered to participate in a National RN Day of Action in Washington, D.C., adding their voices to the nationwide demands for comprehensive health care reform.
The day’s activities included an animated morning nurses’ conference, followed by a march to Upper Senate Park that gained power along the way, gathering 500 nurses and another 500 patient advocates.
Speakers at the rally included Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC); Ann Converso, RN, president of the United American Nurses (UAN); Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE); Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.); Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); and M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell.
States May Lead the Way on Health Care Reform
This is a cross-post from the Daily Kos blog.
In Canada, it took the dogged determination of one province, Saskatchewan, and a visionary leader, Tommy Douglas, to pave the path to a national health care system, which they call Medicare.
For all the detractors of the Canadian system in the studios of Fox News and the board rooms of right wing think tanks, consider this one note: In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation conducted a national poll to select the greatest Canadian of all time. The winner in a landslide—Tommy Douglas.
West Virginia Striking Nurses Win Benefits
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Here’s a great news report from Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally.
In this tough economy, West Virginia nurses at the Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) system are breathing a sigh of relief after the Kanawha County Circuit Court rejected an appeal by their employer to deny unemployment benefits to the nurses who walked the picket line from October to December 2007.
Turns out the hospital blew a filing deadline that the courts apparently intend to enforce.
To the nurses of the West Virginia Nurses Association/UAN it’s a real vindication. Not only did the court refuse to allow the employer to skirt the law for its own convenience—it jammed up the hospital system’s union-busting practices.
West Virginia Nurses Association’s Economic and General Welfare Chair Rue Hairston, RN, says the nurses
are ecstatic about the decision because it’s the David and Goliath story. Goliath keeps coming and David keeps winning.
Nevada Nurses Vote to Join CNA/NNOC
The 1,100 registered nurses at three St. Rose Dominican hospitals in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nev., voted by a 3-1 margin last night to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC).
The RNs work at the Siena and Rose de Lima campuses in Henderson and the San Martin facility in Las Vegas. The hospitals are part of the Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) system, where the union already represents 10,500 other RNs at 30 sites in California and Nevada.
VA Nurses: One Step Closer to Restored Bargaining Rights
Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, says the organization applauds moves to return bargaining rights to Veterans Affairs nurses. RNs Working Together is a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, reached out to right a serious wrong when they recently introduced crucial legislation (S. 362 and H.R. 949) to restore the collective bargaining rights of VA health care professionals, including registered nurses.
For the past several years, health care professionals have been scrambling to meet soaring patient care demands from two wars and an aging population. Meanwhile, the professionals who provide the hands-on care to our veterans have seen their ability to have an effective voice in the workplace eroded by the Bush administration, intensifying the shortage in VA hospitals. The legislation sponsored by Rockefeller and Filner aims to reverse that trend.
Three RN Unions Join Forces in New Union
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In a move to create a powerful national voice for registered nurses, three of the largest nurse unions in the country announced today they are coming together in a new 150,000-member association.
The three groups are the United American Nurses (UAN), California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).
The new organization will be called the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee, UAN-NNOC (AFL-CIO), and will bring the MNA’s 23,000 members into the AFL-CIO.
A statement from the unions this morning said:
Under the principle that RNs should be represented by an RN union, we resolve to create a new union of staff nurse-led organizations named UAN-NNOC.
Newspaper Workers Hold the Line on Layoffs, and More Bargaining News
Hold the press—much needed good news at a daily paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
TNG-CWA, Long Beach Press-Telegram: In California, newsroom and circulation workers at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, represented by The Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA) Local 9400, reached a pact on a 30-month contract that offers layoff protection for a year and boosts pay by 2 percent after two years of bargaining.
