With a runoff vote only two weeks away, one Chicago politician figures almost as prominently in the city’s mayoral campaign as do the two candidates themselves, incumbent Rahm Emmanuel and his challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Year 15 of the new millennium opened with a most momentous achievement for registered nurses and patients – a precedent-setting agreement in the largest RN contract in the nation, for 18,000 Kaiser Permanente RNs and NPs that will likely raise the bar for nurses from coast to coast. The new pact could not have been realized without the unified determination of Kaiser nurses, with the broad support of other RNs and our unparalleled organization, to defend the role of nurses and their professional expertise as patient advocates.

With a large turnout Thursday, registered nurses at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital voted by 98 percent to authorize their nurse negotiators to call a strike, if needed, to protest the hospital’s refusal to act on their concerns for improved patient care staffing and management demands for significant cuts in health coverage for the nurses and their families.