The following statement was issued by UE's national officers today. UE members and allies are urged to join NNU picket lines. To find picket lines in California, Arizona and Florida click here. For the picket line in Illinois click here.
UE supports the more than 8,000 nurses represented by National Nurses United (NNU) who are on strike today. Nurses are striking for safe staffing, optimal patient care and improved recruitment and retention at 16 different facilities in Arizona, Florida, California, and Illinois. The largest group of hospitals affected by these one-day strikes are part of the giant private for-profit hospital chain Tenet Healthcare.
NNU nurses have a long history of standing up for their profession, their families, and our communities. Their insistence that safe staffing levels improve patient care and health outcomes is supported by extensive documentation, and their demands for safe staffing should be embraced by anyone who believes health care is a right not a commodity. These one-day strikes and the support the strikers will receive from the community should serve as a warning to hospital management and large corporations that the days of workers accepting crumbs are gone. From teachers to autoworkers to nurses, workers are demanding and securing justice for ourselves and the communities we serve and in which we live and work.
We applaud the members of NNU and the union leadership for taking bold action to reinforce the message that health care is a human right and that safe and dignified work for nurses and health care workers is central to building a health care system that cares more for people than it does profits. All working people have a stake in nurses’ working conditions and we encourage UE members and our communities to support this strike.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
Peter Knowlton
General President
Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer
Gene Elk
Director of Organization