NEW YORK, Sept. 17--Leading nurse and healthcare union organizations in 13 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe are holding coordinated actions Tuesday, September 17 to escalate the call to stop the harmful effects of austerity measures, privatization, and cuts in health care services that they say are putting people and communities at risk, and call for safer nursing care.

Following the Secretary of State’s recent release of the official ballot initiative petitions on Wednesday, Sept. 18, the Campaign for Safe Patient Care will launch its drive for the 70,000 signatures needed to place the Patient Safety Act on the 2014 ballot.

1,000 to March in NYC September 17 to Demand Robin Hood Tax; “Sweet Honey in the Rock” to Perform. On the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and a day when the United Nations General Assembly convenes to address issues of poverty, public health and climate change, New Yorkers from every sector of the city are joining together to demand a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street to solve America’s revenue crisis.

In what is believed to be the biggest U.S. election win for non-union hospital registered nurses in seven years, RNs at a Los Angeles area hospital Wednesday night voted to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. With their hard fought election win – by a count of 279 to 261 in secret ballot voting conducted by the National Labor Relations Board – RNs at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, Ca. withstood what CNA characterized as a furious anti-union campaign by hospital management and its high paid anti-union consultants.

CANTON, Mass. — Last week, the Attorney General’s office certified a ballot e initiative that will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and other activities, to limit CEO salaries and to limit and claw back excess profits to ensure that taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to safe patient care and necessary services for all communities in the Commonwealth.

In yet another reprimand for Barstow Hospital and its parent company, Community Health Systems of Tennessee. On behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, an administrative law judge Monday found that Barstow has broken federal law and violated the rights of its registered nurses through its refusal to engage in good faith bargaining with the RNs and their union, the California Nurses Association.

In nearly 30 membership meetings the past six days across California and Nevada, registered nurses have overwhelmingly approved a new four year collective bargaining covering 12,000 RNs at 28 hospitals in one of the nation’s largest hospital systems. The nurses are members of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee-Nevada, both part of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of RNs.