10 Reasons to Oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline
Here's a commentary by National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. With the clock ticking down on a final decision by the Obama administration on Keystone XL, it’s time to update why the nation’s largest nurses organization is opposed to a project that looks more like a pathway to pollution than a gateway to our gas pumps. Citing the threat to public health and how the project would hasten the climate crisis, nurses have been on the front line of protests against Keystone, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport 830,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil every day from Alberta, Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, largely for export.
By RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United
AFL-CIO's Trumka: Keep VW Union Vote In Perspective
Workers at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., last week narrowly rejected joining the United Auto Workers. That was a setback for labor which was looking for an organizing victory in a southern state. The AFL-CIO is holding its winter meetings this week in Houston. The movement says its efforts to organize across the South continue despite the high profile defeat at the VW plant. RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, tells of sizable organizing gains her union has made in the South over the last few years.
NPR
Unions Say No Retreat in South After VW Defeat
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the National Nurses United, said her union has organized 7,000 nurses over the past three years in Florida and Texas combined. The frustrations that drove those nurses to organize are no different than gripes that nurses in California had before they joined the union, Ms. DeMoro said. “Nurses are angry everywhere,†she said, calling claims of regional divides “artificial.†The union is currently trying to organize 4,000 nurses in Orlando who work for one of the state’s largest not-for-profit hospital systems, she said, and added that they are receptive.
The Wall Street Journal: Washington Wire
Harry Potter, Walking Dead celebrities team up to promote Wall Street tax
Forget flesh-eating zombies and Lord Voldemort, celebrities seen in Harry Potter movies and the Walking Dead TV show are now going up against some real power. In a short film released February 18, some big film stars promote a financial transaction tax, which Wall Street lobbyists and their European counterparts fiercely oppose. The three-minute film’s director is David Yates, who made the last four Harry Potter movies. Actors include: Andrew Lincoln (star zombie-fighter on the hit AMC TV show “The Walking Deadâ€), Bill Nighy (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel†and “Love, Actuallyâ€), Javier Cámara (star of Pedro Almodóvar films “Talk to Her†and “Bad Educationâ€), Clémence Poésy (“Harry Potterâ€), and Heike Makatsch (“Love, Actuallyâ€).
Robin Hood Tax/NNU
Feb 18, 2014
Bill Nighy and Andrew Lincoln star in video supporting Robin Hood tax
David Yates, director of the Harry Potter movies, has enlisted actors Bill Nighy, Clémence Poésy and The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln for a short satirical video calling for a Europe-wide banking transaction tax. Known as the Robin Hood tax, the film coincides with a meeting of European finance ministers this week to discuss the introduction of the tax, which could help ease poverty in developing countries to the tune of £20 billion.
The Independent
Alta Bates Summit RNs Warn Staffing Shortages Pose Increasing Risk for Oakland, Berkeley Patients
Over the past year alone, Alta Bates Summit RNs have submitted to hospital managers some 500 reports of what they say are unsafe assignments required of the RNs. Yet hospital officials routinely ignore the problems and fail to fix the problems that are now widespread affecting units throughout the Oakland and Berkeley hospitals, RNs note.
California Nurses Association / NNU
Feb 14, 2014
Big Valentine Gift for 800 San Francisco Sutter RNs, Patients
It’s official. The federal government has upheld the vote by registered nurses at San Francisco’s largest private hospital, and largest non-union facility, Sutter’s California Pacific Medical Center’s Pacific campus with 800 RNs, to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.Federal Board Upholds Vote by Sutter California Pacific, SF’s Largest Hospital, to Join CNA
California Nurses Assoctiation / NNU
Feb 14, 2014
Alta Bates Summit RNs Warn Staffing Shortages Pose Increasing Risk for Oakland, Berkeley Patients
Registered nurses at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center will hold a press conference Thursday outside the hospital’s Oakland facility to alert the public to an escalating crisis in safe patient care because of chronic short staffing that RNs say is ignored by hospital management.
Feb 12, 2014
Affinity RN Welcomed Back To Work After Unlawful Termination
Carrying bagpipes, flowers, and paper lanterns, a group of Ann Wayt's RN colleagues will be on hand to greet her and will accompany her into the hospital. Nurses from units throughout the facility will send a flower every hour of her initial shift as an ongoing reminder of their support.
National Nurses United NNOC-Ohio
New York Hospitals Set to Move Dialysis Care to Private Chain, Despite Track Record
Now New York State’s Public Health and Health Planning Council is set to vote Thursday on a deal to turn over dialysis at four of the city’s public hospitals to a for-profit franchise called Big Apple Dialysis despite government data showing the company’s centers did not perform as well as the hospitals themselves.
The New York Times