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NNU – Nurses Endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders
Press Release
Nurses Endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for President
National Nurses United Press Release, 8/11/15
Contact Information | Media Center
First National Union Endorsement for Sanders
Noting his issues “align with nurses from top to bottom,” National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, today endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President.
“Bernie Sanders has a proven track record of uncompromised activism and advocacy for working people, and a message that resonates with nurses, and, as we have all seen, tens of thousands of people across the country. He can talk about our issues as well as we can talk about our issues. We are proud to stand with him in his candidacy for President today,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro.
NNU, which represents some 185,000 nurses from California to Florida, including nurses who live in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, becomes the first national union to endorse Sanders.
The announcement was made at a National Nurses Conversation with Bernie Sanders attended by hundreds of RNs in the Oakland, Ca office of NNU, and watched on live stream, with questions asked, by nurses at 34 watch parties in 14 states. The festive “Brunch with Bernie” even included ice cream donated by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
“Bernie’s issues align with nurses from top to bottom,” DeMoro continued. Among them – “insisting that healthcare for everyone is a right not a privilege, protecting Social Security and Medicare from those who want to destroy or privatize it and working to expand both, holding Wall Street accountable for the damage it has done to our communities, understanding the threat to public health from the climate crisis, environmental degradation, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, support for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for hospital patients, and on and on,” DeMoro said
The NNU Executive Council voted to endorse Sanders. Factors for NNU backing, said DeMoro, included:
- Sanders’ long history of support for NNU, nurses and patients,
- A 100 percent scorecard on a questionnaire NNU sent to all the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates,
- Overwhelming support for Sanders among NNU members in an internal poll, and
- Sanders’ response to issues before the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
NNU, said DeMoro, has adopted a call to “Vote Nurses Values – caring, compassion, community. Nurses take the pulse of America, and have to care for the fallout of every social and economic problem — malnutrition, homelessness, un-payable medical bills, the stress and mental disorders from joblessness, higher asthma rates, cancer, heart ailments and birth defects from environmental pollution and the climate crisis. Bernie Sanders’s prescriptions best represents the humanity and the values nurses embrace.”
DeMoro noted that in a presentation July 29 to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, on which DeMoro sits as a national vice president, “he made it clear that you will never have to wonder which side he is on. As he told the union leaders, ‘I see myself as part of you. This is not a conventional moment, we are fighting for the future of this country’.”
A central focus for nurses, DeMoro noted, is “our dysfunctional healthcare system. Too many Americans, even with the Affordable Care Act, remain priced out of access to the health care they need even if they have insurance due to lack of effective price controls, and a still broken system based on private profit not patient need. Sanders has long championed the full, humane reform we need, an updated, expanded Medicare for all.”
She noted Sanders’ statement July 30th in Washington at a rally, hosted by NNU to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid, at which Sanders said, “Let’s end the international embarrassment of the U.S. being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. The time has come to say that we need to expand Medicare to every man, woman, and child as a single-payer national healthcare program.”
Nurses also welcome Sanders call, evidenced in a bill he authored, S 1731, calling for a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculation, on trades of stocks and other financial instruments, that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually to pay for healthcare for all, free college tuition to expand access to education, more jobs at living wages, ending AIDS, real action against the climate crisis, and other basic needs.
“Economic inequality remains the fundamental issue of our time. It is a major reason why the U.S. lags so far behind many other industrial nations not only in poverty and social injustice, but in a broad array of health outcomes, from maternal and infant mortality to life expectancy. Sanders’ leadership in calling for Wall Street to pay its share for rebuilding our national and global communities is a reminder of why we need his vision leading America,” DeMoro said.
Sanders also stands out, said DeMoro, in his outspoken opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, “which includes a terrible handout to pharmaceutical giants that will further drive up drug prices, a life and death issue for millions of people.”
Nurses and Midwives Oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership
Nurses and midwives oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership
The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) has joined with nurses, midwives and healthcare workers from across the Pacific, Latin America and North America, to condemn the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
The NSWNMA and other nursing organisations have signed on to an open letter to trade ministers and government leaders, to highlight the substantial threat the TPP poses to equitable and accessible healthcare.
General Secretary of the NSWNMA, Brett Holmes, said thousands of nurses and midwives in Australia shared grave concerns, along with many organisations across the 12 countries throughout the Asia Pacific region involved in the TPP.
“We’ve been given assurances from the Minister for Trade that our healthcare system will be unaffected, but these assurances don’t stack up to academic rigour. As healthcare professionals, we base our actions on evidence not hearsay, that’s why we’re imploring the Abbott Government not to sign onto the TPP until the text is released in full and the community can have an open debate,” Mr Holmes said.
“In Australia, nurses and midwives have a legal obligation to speak up when healthcare is being put at risk. We’re not opposed to trade, but we do oppose the profits of multinationals being put before our community’s health needs and the TPP is doing just that.”
Professor Caroline Homer, President of the Australian College of Midwives, said that consideration of the consequences for communities and families in the TPP must come before the influence of multinational companies.
The open letter explains how the TPP will result in the cost of medicines rising, as access to generic medicines is delayed and pharmaceutical manufacturers are given unprecedented access to government decision-making bodies. The inclusion of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) processes will prevent governments from making the policy decisions that save lives.
The letter also raises concerns about harmful effects, such as limits on government’s ability to regulate healthcare providers; restrictions on adequate food labelling; and opening the door for private healthcare multinationals to have a greater influence on healthcare policy.
“The principles of universal healthcare are based on equitable access to affordable healthcare. The TPP undermines those principles. Nurses, midwives and health workers know what happens when profit is put before people in the health system,” said Rosa Pavanelli, General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI).
“In an age where governments around the world are commenting about the increasing costs of healthcare, their trade ministers are negotiating a deal that will see the cost of healthcare rise purely to the benefit of multinational companies’ profit margins.”
“With the USA Fast Track legislation debate highlighting the mainstream anger in the USA and around the world, healthcare workers are desperately concerned that people’s health is being pushed aside in the interests of profit and wider geopolitical manoeuvring,” said Ms Pavanelli.
“The secrecy of this deal is hiding the true impacts. This is why we call for a halt to negotiations, for the text to be released and to allow qualified healthcare academics to make open assessments of the impact. Healthcare decisions belong out in the open within our democratic structures, not to be traded as if it is a shipment of wheat.”
A recent Australian academic review has found multiple concerns about the impact of the TPP. This was based on the available knowledge of the TPP, through leaks.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Brett Holmes, General Secretary NSWNMA 0414 550 324
Michael Whaites, Oceania Sub-regional Secretary of PSI 0414 550 386
Nurses: A Force for Change – A Vital Resource for Health
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Americans Rate Nurses Highest on Honesty, Ethical Standards
Thank you people in America for this feedback!
Congratulations Nurses for this recognition of your honesty and ethical standards!
Nurses, you are the conduit of care that allows any profession, hospital, business, organization or technology to touch people. – Nurses Moving Forward
Below is a summary video of the 2014 Gallup Poll based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 8-11, 2014 that revealed Americans rate Nurses highest on honesty and ethical Standards.
Story Highlights
- Nurses continue to be rated the most honest and ethical
- Members of Congress, car salespeople get lowest ratings
- Ratings of bankers and business executives declined this year
See the complete article by Gallup >>>
View complete question responses and trends inside the article!
Learn More about Gallup Poles — How Does the Gallup Poll Social Series Work? >>>
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