News: Organizing Victories | National Nurses United

Thousands Of California Nurses Dressed As Sufragettes Protest Meg Whitman

More than 3,000 registered nurses -- joined by women's rights and labor activists -- are gathering in Sacramento on Thursday to protest California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The two-hour march begins at the Sacramento Convention Center at 4:00 p.m. PT and convenes two hours later at the steps of the state capital. Many of the participants will be wearing period costumes from the early 20th century. —Huffington Post, 08/26/10 More »

California News

Wide Array of Women’s, Labor, Community Groups Join Nurses for Sacramento Suffrage Anniversary Aug

A growing cross section of California women’s, labor, and community groups will be joining thousands of registered nurses in Sacramento, Calif. August 26, to mark the 90th anniversary of women securing the right to vote with a modern day suffrage celebration. Participants will march, many in period costume, from the Sacramento Convention Center to a rally on the West Steps of the State Capitol. —Press Release, 08/16/10 More »

California News

Executives at health insurance giants cash in as firms plan fee hikes

The top executives at the nation's five largest for-profit health insurance companies pulled in nearly $200 million in compensation last year — while their businesses prepared to hit ratepayers with double-digit premium increases, according to a new analysis conducted by healthcare activists. —Los Angeles TImes, 08/11/10 More »

Nationwide News

Economists see flaws in Whitman’s policy proposals

Meg Whitman's economic policies are based on a flawed understanding of the challenges California faces, and the Republican gubernatorial nominee's proposals would make the state's troubles worse, according to an open letter to Californians signed by a group of mostly Democratic economists from throughout the state. —Los Angeles TImes, 08/10/10 More »

California News

Nurses fear even more ER assaults as programs cut

Emergency room nurse Erin Riley suffered bruises, scratches and a chipped tooth last year from trying to pull the clamped jaws of a psychotic patient off the hand of a doctor at a suburban Cleveland hospital. A second assault just months later was even more upsetting: She had just finished cutting the shirt off a drunken patient and was helping him into his hospital gown when he groped her. —Associated Press, 08/10/10 More »

Nationwide, Ohio News

New health law may bring pricier premiums

Employers and consumers sorting through their health insurance options may see a bump in their rates next year to account for the potential impact of some of the early elements of the federal health overhaul law, according to some health experts. Jeff Sher, an independent health insurance agent and consultant in San Francisco, said he's anticipating employee coverage at mid-size companies to go up 13 percent to 15 percent. "Then we're supposed to tack on several percentage points for health reform," he said. —San Francisco Chronicle, 08/09/10 More »

Nationwide News

America Goes Dark

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno. —New York Times, 08/08/10 More »

Nationwide News

In Superman’s Hometown, a Labor Dispute Over Health

Union workers at the plant have been picketing since being locked out in June, when negotiations over a new contract stalled. The dispute involves disagreements over pensions and health benefits. The memorial is a fitting backdrop for the contentious labor dispute that has shaken Metropolis — the self-proclaimed hometown of Superman, which sits on the Ohio River at the southern edge of Illinois. Many workers believe that the plant contributed to their fellow employees’ illnesses, which is a central reason the union is refusing to accept the plant operator’s plan to reduce pensions for newly hired workers and health benefits for retirees. —New York Times, 08/08/10 More »

Nationwide, Illinois, Ohio News

Workers’ compensation decisions too often favor employers

It has been 25 years since I wrote my first column about workers' compensation in Mississippi, and as I sit down to write about it again I keep coming up with French expressions like "déja vu" and "plus a change, plus c'est la même chose" ("the more things change, the more they stay the same"). —Hattiesburg American, 08/08/10 More »

Nationwide News

Whitman - nuance or flip-flop on issues?

Has California Republican Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who says she'll bring a fresh approach to state government, become precisely what she insists she is not - a calculating politician who changes positions and straddles the issues depending on the audience? —San Francisco Chronicle, 08/02/10 More »

California News

The nurses versus Queen Meg

Meg Whitman is a household name, at least among households with habitual readers of the business press, especially those who invest in technology stocks. She is the near-legendary manager of the Internet giant eBay. Under her stewardship eBay grew from a kicky startup Web site where people could sell and buy stuff, but which made no income to speak of, into the stellar success it is today. —Haaretz, 07/28/10 More »

California News

Fact check: Whitman capital gains plan questioned

Republican Meg Whitman wants to eliminate the capital gains tax in California if she is elected governor in November, a key part of her plan to boost state employment. Her sales pitch: Cutting taxes for the wealthy will encourage them to create private-sector jobs. —Associated Press, 07/28/10 More »

California News

Sullenberger Urges Hospitals to Adopt Aviation Culture of Safety

Hospital leaders attending the American Hospital Association's Leadership Summit in San Diego Thursday got a stern lecture from Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who advised them they should adopt the safety culture of the aviation industry. They must stop thinking of accidents “as inevitable and start thinking about them as unimaginable," he said. “We in aviation have learned a lot, and we’re anxious to share it with you.” —HealthLeaders Media, 07/23/10 More »

Nationwide News

HA Slammed Again by State Labor Division, This Time for Violating Rights of Whidden Hospital RNs

State Orders Hospital to Cease Charging Nurses for Parking and to Reimburse all Parking Fees Paid Since 2008. Ruling Follows a Recent Labor Division Complaint Against CHA for Violating the Rights of Cambridge Hospital Nurses for Once Again Failing to Negotiate and Unilaterally Slashing Benefits —Massachusetts Nurses Association, 07/22/10 More »

Massachusetts News

Rose Ann DeMoro Wants Hospitals to Scream

This past April, Rose Ann DeMoro—a former supermarket cashier from St. Louis—looked at billionaire California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and had an idea. DeMoro found a Los Angeles drama teacher, dressed her in a crown and faux ermine, and sent her out to tail Whitman across the state. Joined by tuxedoed bodyguards named "Goldman" and "Sachs," "Queen Meg" now spends her days taunting Whitman up close. "The new corporate aristocracy, they're used to unilateral control, no democracy," says DeMoro. "The script just wrote itself." —Business Week, 07/22/10 More »

Nationwide News

NARH Nurses Vote to Authorize Strike

The registered nurses of the North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) voted overwhelmingly yesterday to authorize their union leadership to call a strike if necessary in their ongoing negotiations with hospital management. In a unified show of strength -99 percent of the voting members voted in favor of the strike authorization. —Massachusetts Nurses Association, 07/20/10 More »

Massachusetts News

California Governor’s Race: Meg Whitman vs. the Nurses Union

In her gubernatorial campaign, California billionaire Meg Whitman fancies herself a turnaround artist, not unlike CEOs who take on failing companies and put them in the black. In her analysis of why the nation's most populous state and the world's 12th largest economy has a chronically dysfunctional government, one villain stands out: public-employee unions. —Time, 07/20/10 More »

Nationwide, California News

Nurses Welcome Religious Leaders’ Spotlight on Ascension Health Abuses

Leaders of the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) and its national union, National Nurses United (NNU), expressed their appreciation today to Interfaith Worker Justice for its new report, "Ascension Health: A Fall from Grace." (The report can be found online at www.iwj.org.) —Michigan Nurses Association, 07/16/10 More »

Michigan News

Nurses rally outside home of GOP nominee Whitman

Hundreds of unionized nurses wearing scrubs held a raucous rally Thursday outside the Silicon Valley home of GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman to protest her proposals for the state, which they say will hurt working people. Dozens of police officers descended on the leafy streets surrounding Whitman's two-story colonial home in Atherton. An estimated 1,100 protesters chanted "We're going to beat back the Whitman attack" as an airplane paid for by the nurses union circled overhead, trailing a banner that read, "Nurses say no to Whitman." —Associated Press, 07/15/10 More »

California News

Atherton police prepare for nurse rally at Meg Whitman’s home

Atherton police are bracing for the town's quiet streets to be flooded today with hundreds of nurses for a rally outside the home of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The California Nurses Association says the noontime rally — which is expected to draw up to 1,000 nurses to the former eBay executive's house on Edge Road near Menlo-Atherton High School — is a "response to a decision by candidate Whitman to mount an offensive attack directly against the" union. —San Jose Mercury News, 07/15/10 More »

California News