The California Nurses Assn. is about as “progressive” as unions get on most political scales – strongly pro-single-payer, pro-choice etc. We usually tend to support the most progressive Democrats we think we can. And we generally have good support from our members for those stands
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But, with a large membership from all parts of the state (and beyond), we have a significant minority of more conservative – or just less informed – members who give us some pushback on those more progressive stands.
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For reasons I make clear below, we intend to work hard to elect Jerry Brown and defeat Meg Whitman this year. Since I represent nurses from one of those more conservative areas (though far from the most conservative), I thought it wise to send out something to make sure that our members understand why this election is important.
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The text of that letter is below. <\/p>\n
Dear Enloe RNs:
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This will be a longish note on the California Governor’s election this year
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and its importance to nurses. I hope you can spare a few minutes to read
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it.
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Before I talk about that though, I want to dispose of something else. Every
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time the issue of our union’s involvement in electoral politics comes up, I
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will hear from nurses who feel that we “should not be involved in politics”.
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I often feel that what they really mean is that they disagree with our
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political choices, but I’ll take the statement at face value and respond to
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it on that basis.<\/p>\nIn the course of your nursing career, from student to working nurse, here
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are just some of the ways that the political process has affected you and
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your practice:
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As a student:
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Whether there is a place available for you in a nursing school. What
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requirements you have to meet to get in. What the qualifications of the
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faculty are. How much they get paid. What is included in the curriculum.
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What is on the test you take to get licensed.
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As a practicing nurse:
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What standard of practice you have to meet. What is within your legal scope
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to do. What happens to you if you are injured at work. What happens if you
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are accused of a legal violation. Whether lesser trained people can take
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parts of your scope of practice. Whether your patient has health coverage
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or not. Whether you have a right to join a union. Whether you have a right
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to a meal break or rest break. How many patients you have to care for.
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Whether the building in which you work is likely to stand or fall in an
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earthquake.
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That’s just a very partial list, but you get the idea: every one of those
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issues above is decided through the political process – by elected officials
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or those appointed by elected officials. Any nurse who does not want to
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participate in politics, or believes that an association representing nurses
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ought not participate in politics is saying that we should leave all those
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critical decisions about our working lives and professional practice to
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someone else.
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Enough about that.<\/p>\nThe election for governor this year presents an important choice on a number
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of issues that affect nurses. And it is going to be a very high profile and
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unusual contest. Former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman has already put $59 million of
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her own very large fortune into the race and – with 7 months still to go –
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is likely to put in a good deal more. The amount she seems prepared to
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spend will make this the most expensive governor’s race in the history of
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the country. It is an amount so large that it dwarfs normal political
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fundraising.<\/p>\nA couple of weeks ago, the Board of Directors of CNA voted unanimously to
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endorse Whitman’s opponent, State Attorney General and former Governor Jerry
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Brown. We intend to do all we can to support his election and it’s
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important that you understand why.<\/p>\nWe do not make political endorsements on the basis of party. We support
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candidates who support us on the issues we care about: the right to a safe
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workplace, the ability to provide safe care to our patients, the right to
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join a union, access to health care, the right to a break during your
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workday, fair compensation if you are injured at work. The kind of simple
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bread and butter issues that ought not to have a party label attached to
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them.<\/p>\nOn those issues, and others like them, everything we know about Meg Whitman
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tells us she is on the wrong side. Since she has never held elective
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office, rarely even voted, and provides few specifics of her plans, her
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record of actual action is thin. But what we know from her public
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statements and the histories of her supporters and advisors tells us that
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she can be counted on to take the side of business against the interest of
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workers or patients.
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Her key advisor and political mentor is former Governor Pete Wilson. Wilson
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played a similar role for the current governor. Wilson vetoed our staffing
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ratio bill the first time it passed and supported Arnold’s effort to roll
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back that bill in 2005. Under Whitman as governor, we could expect more
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attacks on safe staffing. The past two years we pushed through the
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legislature a bill to require lift teams in hospitals to reduce injury to
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nurses. Arnold has vetoed it twice and will again this year. Whitman could
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be counted on to veto it if elected. Brown could be counted on to sign it.<\/p>\nOne of our current top legislative priorities is “presumptive eligibility”.
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This is an effort to give nurses the same sort of protection that police and
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firefighters currently enjoy. If a firefighter develops lung disease, to
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give just one example, it is presumed be job related – he isn’t forced to
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prove it is. We think nurses should have the same presumption in the case
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of MRSA or a
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career ending back or shoulder injury. We will probably pass that through
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the legislature this year but expect Arnold to veto it. As would Whitman if
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elected. Brown would sign it if elected.<\/p>\nIn contrast to Whitman, Jerry Brown, of course, has a very long record in
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public office. One thing about such a record is that anyone with enough
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time (or money) to spend can comb through it and find things to use against
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a candidate – often distorted or taken out of context.
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But here are just a few items from that record of special interest to
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nurses:
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1. As governor, signed the very first staffing ratio bill in the country –
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it only covered ICUs, but in its time even that was revolutionary. If
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you’ve spent your career in a critical care area, that’s the reason you
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haven’t been forced to take 3 and 4 patients as still happens routinely in
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some states.
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2. As governor, signed the bill that gave collective bargaining rights to
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nurses at UC hospitals. Today, those nurses make up a substantial fraction
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of CNA’s membership and help to raise standards for all of us.
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3. As attorney general, has initiated investigations and suits against some
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of the worst practices of the insurance industry – denials of coverage,
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denials of care and cancelling policies after the patient becomes sick.<\/p>\nFor the last 7 years we have suffered under a governor who has been a
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consistent enemy to nurses and patients and has always favored big business
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over workers or consumers. We don’t need 4 more years of that.
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There is no way for us or any other union to match the financial resources
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that Meg Whitman brings to her campaign. And we shouldn’t try. Nor can
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conventional political fundraising level the playing field. Our campaign
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will be about people power and will depend on the volunteer help – the time
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and energy – of many people. There will be many opportunities to help out.
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Please let me know especially if you would like to be part of the campaign.<\/p>\nDavid Welch
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CNA Board of Directors
\n
Chief Nurse Rep, Enloe Medical Center. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Nurses Assn. is about as “progressive” as unions get on most political scales – strongly pro-single-payer, pro-choice etc. We usually tend to support the most progressive Democrats we think we can. And we generally have good support from our members for those stands
\n
But, with a large membership from all parts of the state (and beyond), we have a significant minority of more conservative – or just less informed – members who give us some pushback on those more progressive stands.
\n
For reasons I make clear below, we intend to work hard to elect Jerry Brown and defeat Meg Whitman this year. Since I represent nurses from one of those more conservative areas (though far from the most conservative), I thought it wise to send out something to make sure that our members understand why this election is important.
\n
The text of that letter is below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1990,204],"tags":[8685,8686],"class_list":["post-11510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990","category-204","tag-8685","tag-8686"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2ZE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}