Member Benefits
How to Join
En Espanol
AFT nurses and healthcare professionals from across the country gathered in Detroit April 13-15. They came carrying the weight of understaffing, growing patient demand and a healthcare system under attack but left with something stronger: a shared sense of purpose and concrete plans to act. The “Together We Care” 2026 professional issues conference wasn’t about passive listening. It was a rehearsal for what comes next.
On the first day of the conference, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell from Michigan joined health professionals in an early morning meeting, where she talked about moral injury, mental health stigma, and the human cost of a system that places the burden of all its shortcomings on workers and patients. Safe staffing, she made clear, isn’t just a policy goal—it’s a matter of dignity and survival.
Dingell also talked about a promise she’s been working to fulfill for a long time. She told everyone in the room she promised her husband, Rep. John Dingell, on his deathbed that she would fight to guarantee healthcare to all people. If you’re sick in this country, she said, you should be able to see a doctor when you need to and get the medicine you need without worrying about whether you can afford it. She will not give up, she said. She was clear it will take all of us to make that a reality, saying, “I need people like you to help me in that fight.”
Dingell was blunt about what’s at stake right now, with Republican budget proposals that are hurting families already struggling to afford care. Her message to the room was a call to action: Get out there, counter the fear and make it clear that people’s lives depend on getting this right.
Power is built, not given
In panel after panel, one theme emerged: Change doesn’t happen just because it’s needed. It happens when people organize and build the power to win.
Alex Tiefel, a physician assistant at the University of Michigan and a steward for United Physician Assistants of Michigan Medicine, experienced this firsthand. She described a campaign where members won reduced physician assistant workloads. The employer didn’t simply hand over a weekly workload reduced from 50 hours to 40, it was won through long, hard fights. Tiefel’s message was direct: “Workload is a safety issue.”
Attendees also heard from Dr. Charlotte Yeomans, president of Northwest Medicine United, who shared a story of union growth that most organizers would consider remarkable. In just 16 months, her local grew from a single bargaining unit of 60 physicians to over 360 providers across multiple systems throughout Oregon and Washington state, with nine ratified first contracts along the way. “This is not a fluke,” she said. “This is scalable power, and we’re picking up momentum.”
Her strategy? Think beyond the workplace. Treat every contract negotiation as an organizing tool, and every public action as advertising to the next hospital system that hasn’t yet unionized. “When you represent enough people to build real regional density, you can start to influence policy outside of yourselves,” Yeomans said.
Cheryl Bodmer, a surgical technologist at Michigan Medicine and vice president of United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals, showed how even deeply frustrating bureaucratic systems—like a broken leave management program—can be transformed when workers collect data and demand accountability. “Our biggest achievement is just getting this issue formally recognized by leadership,” she said. “It shows that collective action can be powerful.”
Teri Carvalho Luke, president of the Hawaii Nurses and Health Professionals, spoke about building a brand-new union from scratch—something she described as “very challenging and difficult.” But the reason they did it was simple: necessity. “Nurses in Hawaii tend not to be engaged. And yet we are all finding our voice,” she said. “As a whole nation, nurses and healthcare professionals are standing up to what’s going on ... and it’s exciting to know we’re not alone.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten, who addressed the conference on the first day, put the numbers on the table: Since the last convention two years ago, the union has organized 163 new units and won landmark contracts with Providence and Kaiser. That growth doesn’t happen by accident. “What you win at the bargaining table, you could lose at the ballot box,” she warned. Organizing, she reminded the crowd, must extend into electoral engagement, because lasting change requires power in every arena.
Courage in difficult spaces
Some of the conference’s most urgent conversations centered on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents bringing fear and intimidation to places that should be safe places for healing. Healthcare workers shared firsthand experiences of the impact of ICE agents in healthcare settings, and they described how they responded collectively to protect patients and each other.
Beginning in fall 2025, ICE agents began showing up in hospitals, sometimes bringing patients for treatment, and healthcare workers like Kraig Hunter found themselves in deeply unsettling territory.
“We encountered officers without proper identification. Found them in unauthorized areas—sometimes just wandering units,” said Hunter, who is a member of the Oregon Nurses Association. “As nurses, our responsibility is simple: We treat everyone who comes through our doors. No exceptions and certainly no judgments.”
When nurses raised concerns with hospital administration, they were initially told the incidents weren’t happening. Only after sustained pressure from ONA—through formal letters and public actions—did the hospital implement a clear protocol.
Anne Tan Piazza, ONA executive director, described the union’s demands: confirmation that law enforcement does not make healthcare decisions; HIPAA protections for all patients, including those in custody; non-retaliation guarantees for nurses who advocate for patients; and a labor-management structure to address issues in partnership.
The pressure extended beyond one hospital. Working with advocates and lawmakers, ONA helped craft and pass the Health Care Without Fear Act, modeled after California law and signed into law by Oregon’s governor just weeks before the conference.
“The premise is absolutely true,” Piazza said: “Healthcare has to be a place of safety, dignity and trust for every patient—without exception.”
Another urgent thread running through the conference was the erosion of public health infrastructure through misinformation, censorship and political interference in science.
Dr. Alfredo Morabia, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, and former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Public Health, described receiving letters from federal employees—immediately after a January 2025 executive order—asking to have their names removed from published articles and to have specific words like “equity” and “diversity” deleted from the scientific record.
“Once you accept removing one word, why not a full sentence? Why not change the title? And then you start transforming the scientific record—doing censorship,” he said. His prescription: “Defend your values, your rights. Defend who you are, because this is what matters; this will end, but you will still be there. It’s very important to keep your integrity.”
Julia Barcott, a member of the Washington State Nurses Association’s professional nursing and healthcare council, reminded conference participants that together they are powerful. “Collectively, nurses and healthcare workers are a force to be reckoned with. Through our professional organizations and unions and networks, we can influence policy, protect public health infrastructure, hold institutions accountable and ensure science—not politics—guides healthcare decisions.”
Beyond the workplace: The power of community
Perhaps the most expansive conversations of the conference asked healthcare workers to think beyond their units and hospital systems. From Minnesota to New York, panelists described how coalitions between labor, faith communities and neighborhood organizations have protected hospitals, supported immigrant families and built lasting networks of mutual aid. These weren’t transactional partnerships—they were rooted in shared values and a commitment to show up for one another over time.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, director of The Beacon, said, “Most faith leaders who are on the progressive side care deeply—and don’t know what to do. Don’t be afraid of the clergy in your community. Invite somebody for a cup of coffee. Just get to know them.” She also offered a reminder about the nature of successful movements throughout history: they remain nonviolent—not just as a philosophical stance, but as a strategic one. “The ends don’t justify the means. If we’re going to build a society based on justice and dignity, the way we go about it matters.”
Redetha Abraham-Nichols, president of United University Professionals’ Downstate chapter, offered a simple model for faith-labor partnership: lead with service. “Ask, ‘How can I be of assistance to your community? What can we do together?’” She continued, “We are all here to serve, and any door that is not open is not open because we allow it to be closed.”
The conference discussions repeatedly acknowledged that we don’t need to have all the answers. We win when we show up—consistently and with humility. Real leadership means engaging skeptics, bringing people in and building a culture where every member sees themselves as part of the solution. It means recognizing the broader moment—a political and economic landscape that will shape the future of healthcare, workers’ rights and democracy itself.
[Adrienne Coles]