Some 200 or more registered nurses and
other working people from California to Maine will hold a march and rally
in Chicago next Tuesday, August 8 to protest an imminent threat to nurses'
democratic rights to union representation and their ability to safely
advocate for their patients.
The protest begins with a rally at Daley Plaza followed by a march to
the headquarters of the American Hospital Association, the national
umbrella of the hospital industry. The AHA is pushing for a ruling,
expected any day, from the federal labor board that could declare hundreds
of thousands of RNs as "supervisors," and thus ineligible for union
representation, and the protection it provides for their patient advocacy.
Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses
Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), the action will be joined by scores of
nurses from other nurses' organizations and activists from other unions and
health care advocacy groups.
Participating organizations include the Massachusetts Nurses
Association, Chicago Jobs With Justice, Maine State Nurses
Association/NNOC, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, Nurses
Professional Organization- Kentucky/NNOC, Physicians for a National Health
Program, Communication Workers of America District 4, United Steel Workers
District 7, and Pennsylvania Assn. of Staff Nurses and Allied
Professionals.
At issue is an imminent decision by the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB), which the Bush Administration has stacked with management attorneys and members who are hostile to unions, on a series of pending cases. The AHA, joined by the national Chamber of Commerce and other corporate
interests, want to eliminate the rights of nurses and other lead employees
who assign and delegate work to others to form and join unions.
For nurses, the decision could unfairly strip the ability of RNs to
advocate for their patients, without the threat of retaliation, and their
colleagues, threatening patient safety and prompting chaos in hospitals
across the country.
California Nurses Association
calnurses/