Nurses at Washington Hospital Center are gaining momentum in their
campaign against controversial pay cuts. Last Monday, nurses wore red
scrubs, the union color, in preparation for a strike that was scheduled
later in the week.
However, the one-day strike was canceled when management put the pay
cuts on hold and both sides agreed to resume talks after Thanksgiving.
Analysts have noted the growing strength of nursing unions, to be
expected as the country tries to increase its number of nurses, which
swells union membership. Nursing union members are increasingly willing
to walk picket lines for their causes, usually safe staffing ratios and
wage freezes. They have been effective, as the cost of hiring temporary
nurses is enormous and such events generate bad publicity for healthcare
centers.
National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses' union, has helped
organize strikes and other forms of protest at hospitals in California,
Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota. The union's executive
director Rose Ann DeMoro, a former Teamsters organizer who took over the
enormous California Nurses Association (CNA) in 1993, as increased the
unions membership fivefold. DeMoro is also the vice president of the
AFL-CIO, which includes National Nurses United as an affiliate, aims to
create a superunion of the country's 3 million registered nurses (RNs).
The union also held a high-profile campaign during the recent midterm
elections, attacking the GOP for its positions on health care reform. In
particular, Meg Whitman and Sharron Angle received much flack, later to
be defeated by Democrat Jerry Brown in California's gubernatorial race,
and Democratic incumbent Harry Reid in Nevada's Senate race,
respectively. The California Nurses Association and its 86,000 members
used their force to break the news about Nicandra Diaz Santillan,
Whitman's undocumented housekeeper, and her sad story. The Mexican
maid's emergence became a turning point in the election, which Whitman
lost by a landslide. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger experience first-hand
the enormous swell of the union's protesters, most of them dressed in
their medical uniforms. Nurses are proving that politicians and
political strategists preparing for the next election cycle should pay
attention to the increasing political force that nurses are acquiring.
?They have been very aggressive in legislative lobbying efforts,
influencing public policy through informational picketing, and
willingness to get out there and strike,?? said Joanne Spetz, an
economist at the University of California, San Francisco, who
specializes in nursing workforce issues. ?Love them or hate them, you
have to respect their success.??