AFT Healthcare's new director of organization is Gary Stevenson. Stevenson has nearly 25 years of organizing experience, but among the many groups he has worked with on campaigns, he finds nurses and health professionals "remarkable for their spirit, their seriousness and their determination."

"Nurses and health professionals are a tremendous addition to the labor movement," says Stevenson. "They're up in arms, all over the country, about their working conditions and the limits those working conditions put on their ability to provide quality patient care. They know that their professional standards are being undermined by the corporatization of health care, and they're going to put a stop to that."

AFT Healthcare appointed Stevenson to the position at its July 11 meeting. Stevenson, who had been an AFT national representative for almost three years, served as assistant director of organizing for the Teamsters before coming to AFT Healthcare. He has extensive organizing experience in health care, in both the public and the private sectors.

Stevenson is optimistic and excited about the new opportunities for union growth offered by the health care sector. "There's great potential for organizing all kinds of health care professionals, from nurses to mental health professionals to lab technicians to the support staff who keep our hospitals and health care facilities running."

AFT Healthcare is going to be organizing everything from individual hospitals to large corporate systems, Stevenson says. "We'll focus not only on the important goal of organizing new locals and recruiting new members, but also on training a cadre of new health care organizers."