New health initiative draws attention to uninsured children

The AFT has joined with several other organizations to form the Campaign for Children’s Health, an initiative to raise public awareness about the plight of this country’s 9 million uninsured children.

“Evidence and common sense tell us that healthy children are better learners. It is a moral imperative to ensure that all children have adequate healthcare coverage,” said AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese at the launch of the campaign.

The initiative will include activities over the next year to raise public awareness, including town hall meetings, a national essay contest for schoolchildren on the importance of healthcare coverage, and a national lobby day.

The campaign already has established an online petition that urges members of Congress and President Bush to begin work on legislation that will provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality healthcare coverage for all children. To sign the petition, visit the campaign’s Web site at www.childrenshealthcampaign.org.

National Nurse Act of 2006 gaining ground

Two Oregon nurses went to Washington, D.C., in September to educate members of Congress about the National Nurse Act of 2006, which would establish the Office of the National Nurse. The measure, endorsed by delegates to the American Federation of Teachers at the union's convention in July, has 26 co-sponsors to date.

Teri Mills, a registered nurse and instructor at Portland Community College in Portland, Ore., suggested the need to establish a national office in a New York Times op-ed piece in May 2005.

The Office of the National Nurse would offer grass-roots health education, teaching people of all ages how to stay healthy, prevent injuries, recognize early signs of illness, manage chronic conditions, and provide guidelines on when to see a healthcare provider.

“Imagine if the headlines from Katrina had read: The Office of the National Nurse mobilizes statewide teams of nurses to New Orleans in preparation for evacuation of the sick and elderly,” says Mills, who is an AFT member with the Portland Community College Faculty Federation.

Alisa Schneider, who is also a nursing instructor and AFT member at Portland Community College, has worked with Mills to form the National Nurse Team, a group of nurses that has been lobbying state and federal lawmakers to establish the national nurse office. Delivering prevention messages through mass media, and having local teams of nurses provide prevention education, worked well when C. Everett Koop was surgeon general in the 1980s, Schneider says.

“We need to bring that model back,” adds Schneider. “As nurses, it is our obligation to teach every American how to prevent disease.”

To read the bill and learn more about the National Nurse Campaign visit www.nationalnurse.org.

Upcoming NLRB supervisor ruling sparks a week of rallies, protests by union activists

Bad decision could undercut workers' rights

As a registered nurse, Lisa D’Abrosca feels that being an advocate for her patients is part of her job.

“Nurses need the protection and voice on the job that union membership provides,” says D’Abrosca, who has been a nurse at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., for two years. She is also the vice president of her union at the hospital, Local 5049/AFT Healthcare.

D’Abrosca knows the rights that unionized nurses and other workers currently have could be taken away by summer’s end if the National Labor Relations Board rules the way many in the labor movement anticipate.

The NLRB is expected to hand down a decision soon on a series of cases known as Kentucky River that would categorize many nurses, building and construction trade workers, and others as supervisors and thus ineligible for protections under the National Labor Relations Act. Although such a ruling could strip nearly 8 million workers of their union rights, the board has refused to hear oral arguments as it considers these cases.

In July, D’Abrosca was among thousands of union members and labor activists who took part in a weeklong series of protests nationwide sponsored by the AFL-CIO in anticipation of the NLRB ruling.

In Connecticut, union nurse members gathered in front of the NLRB regional office in Hartford. A half dozen of the nurses, including D’Abrosca, met with NLRB officials and presented a petition asking them to reconsider the board’s decision not to hear oral arguments on the nurse supervisor issue.

“This is a battle that will be fought on the national level, but our message should be conveyed,” says D’Abrosca. “Everyone in our hospital could be affected by this ruling, and it would be devastating to the nursing supply.”

More than 1,000 union members and activists descended upon NLRB headquarters in Washington, D.C., chanting, “We’re fired up, won’t take it no more,” and carrying signs that read “I won’t give up my voice at work” and “Don’t roll back workers’ rights.”

As protesters blocked the front doors of the NLRB and halted downtown traffic, AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff told the crowd, “This is just a small preview of the kind of massive disruptions that will occur across the country if the board rules against workers.”

In Milwaukee, Wis., the county labor council, which included members of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, staged a mock kangaroo court based on the NLRB’s refusal to hear oral arguments on the nurse supervisor issue. Hundreds of labor activists in attendance also marched to Puddlers Hall, the oldest union hall in the state.

Members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals were among hundreds of union members who rallied in downtown Portland to encourage the NLRB to hold public hearings before ruling on the nurse supervisor issue. They were joined by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who turned out to show support for protecting collective bargaining rights.