Union nurses to be joined by local elected, union, and community leaders

Registered nurses with California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) are hosting a town hall on Thursday, August 14, in Bakersfield, California, to discuss strategies that Bakersfield and communities in the Central Valley can adopt, in response to the Trump administration’s and U.S. Representative David Valadao’s unprecedented attack on local health care access.

Local elected officials — including California Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, who is running to oust Representative Valadao from his seat — will be in attendance for a panel discussion on the policy and political solutions that would mitigate the harm done to California’s state budget as a result of the federal budget reconciliation bill.

The town hall, hosted by National Nurses United and their affiliate California Nurses Association, is consponsored by 24 organizations, including United Domestic Workers, California Teachers Association, the Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings Counties Central Labor Council, and the Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties Central Labor Council. Additionally, representatives of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 national and international labor unions representing nearly 15 million working people, will be stopping at the town hall as part of its national “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security” bus tour.

Community members are welcome to attend or watch the livestream or on National Nurses United’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nationalnurses/live_videos.

What: Union nurses town hall to discuss community response to Medicaid cuts
When: August 14 | 6-8 p.m. | Doors will open at 5 p.m. Food and refreshments will be served until the start of the program.
Where: Martin Luther King Community Center, 1000 S. Owens St., Bakersfield, California.

Speakers (partial list): California Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains; California Senator Melissa Hurtado; Visalia Unified School District Trustee Randy Villegas; CNA President and Bakersfield Memorial Hospital RN Sandy Reding; Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties Central Labor Council President Tania Salinas.

The federal budget reconciliation bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025, represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in U.S. history — stealing more than $900 billion in Medicaid funding from everyday Americans and slashing insurance for 10 million people to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.

As many as 3.4 million people in California could lose their health insurance, including the parents and babies who depend on MediCal for safe deliveries (Medi-Cal finances nearly half of all births in the state). Representative David Valadao represents California’s 22nd Congressional district, which has the highest share of Medicaid recipients of any House Republican. Despite this, he still voted to take away health care from 65,000 of his own constituents.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.