For Immediate Release March 9, 2007
California Nurses Association/NNOC Joins AFL-CIO following Endorsement of Single Payer Healthcare,
Affiliation Unites 325,000 RNs in Federation
The California Nurses Association, and its national arm, the National Nurses Organizing Committee was granted a charter Thursday to join the AFL-CIO, uniting 325,000 registered nurses into the leading voice of America's working people. CNA/NNOC represents 75,000 RNs in all 50 states.
Significantly, the affiliation came two days after the Federation adopted a sweeping new healthcare policy statement endorsing a single- payer type system premised on "updating and expanding Medicare benefits" to all Americans.
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA/NNOC, said it was thrilled to be joining the AFL-CIO and also praised the Federation's new healthcare policy.
"We look forward to being a part of a Federation that has distinguished itself as the national voice of working people in the U.S., and is the leading national champion for all Americans on a broad range of critical issues, including jobs, retirement security, economic opportunity, workplace safety, civil rights, civil liberties, and public safety."
The AFL-CIO's new policy statement on healthcare symbolizes that leadership role, DeMoro said. CNA has been actively campaigning for enactment of bills in Congress, HR 676, and California, SB 840, that represent the type of reform endorsed by the AFL-CIO.
In statements after the policy was adopted, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, chair of the AFL-CIO's Legislation Committee, welcomed the new policy as "a roadmap to universal coverage" and the Federation's health policy specialist Gerald Shea specifically cited HR 676.
Labor has been at the center of a growing grassroots movement to enact HR 676. The bill has been endorsed by 245 union organizations in 40 states including 64 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 17 state AFL-CIOs.
CNA/NNOC, DeMoro noted, "is especially pleased to be a part of the 325,000 RNs now represented by the AFL-CIO who will have such a prominent voice in that effort." RNs, she said "who are at the heart of our healthcare system, have an especially unique role to play with all of labor and our many community allies to transform our current dysfunctional system to achieve guaranteed, universal healthcare for all, based on an improved and expanded Medicare."
In addition to building "a stronger movement to end the nation's national healthcare nightmare," DeMoro praised other positions taken by the AFL-CIO, including mobilizations to:
Enact the Employee Free Choice Act, recently passed by the House, to protect the democratic rights of workers to form unions
Support the United Steelworkers' Goodyear workers in their efforts to protect the health and welfare of their members
Protect public health and defend public healthcare workers, as in the current fight by AFSCME and CNA/NNOC to overturn budget cuts in Chicago
Overturn the attempt by the Bush Administration to privatize Social Security
Confront moves by the Bush Administration's labor board to erode workers' rights, as in the "Kentucky River" challenge to the union representation rights of registered nurses
Challenge globalization and the de-industrialization of America
Defeat some of the most reactionary members of Congress and state legislators in the 2006 elections
"As CNA/NNOC is steeped in analytical work which is central to our advocacy for RNs and patients, we particularly appreciate the creative leadership of the AFL-CIO in developing and promoting an alternative economic model to the disastrous policies espoused by a number of politicians that have eroded the safety net and security of so many Americans."
"CNA/NNOC is excited to be joining the AFL-CIO and all appropriate bodies of the federation at this critical juncture, and the opportunities we have to build a militant, united labor movement that is so essential to the future of our nation and the international labor movement," DeMoro said.
For more information about CNA/NNOC, see www.calnurses.org.