NEW YORK NURSE: July/August 2011
The National Federation of Nurses (NFN), NYSNA’s national union, held its first national convening convention May 16 and 17 in Chicago. The meeting began with an inspirational address from Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), about how labor, in solidarity, can defeat the national assault on workers’ rights.
The first day also included a “listening session” in which delegates talked about how the NFN can best meet the needs of its members. Key themes included inadequate staffing levels that lead to injury, burn out and mistakes as well as hostility and horizontal violence among nurses. Staffing and violence are two of NFN’s national priorities.
The assembled delegates elected candidates to NFN’s executive board. Julie Schuff, chair of the Oregon Nurses Association Cabinet on Economic & General Welfare, will continue to serve as NFN vice president and Rose Marie Martin, of the Ohio Nurses Association, will continue to serve as treasurer. Both officers have been elected to four-year terms.
On day two, the NFN assembly passed several key resolutions, including resolutions to:
“This historic convention was a thrilling and moving experience for our dynamic delegates as they pledged to work together to build unity and strength within the labor movement. It was solidarity in action,” said Diane C. Earl, an RN at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta, NY, who was elected as NYSNA’s new director on the NFN’s executive board at the national union’s meeting. Earl will begin her four-year term in January 2012 and is taking over for outgoing director Winnie Kennedy.
For more information about the resolutions passed at the NFN assembly meeting, visit www.nfn.org/constitution.