Caring for All New Yorkers

Caring for All New Yorkers – that was the theme of NYSNA’s 2015 Convention. And we turned that mission into action. We rallied with the community against the “bomb trains” filled with unstable fracking oil running through Saratoga Springs. Hundreds of leaders attended educational strategy sessions on POA campaigns, hospital restructuring, and organizing. We met with lawmakers to chart out our path to victory for safe staffing and healthcare for all. And on our way we home, we stopped our buses at the offices of Interim Health to rally against their outrageous racist “no Haitians” want ad.

You can see photos of our convention here and here, press coverage from our rally to raise awareness about the fracking trains here, and coverage of our rally in solidarity with Haitian RNs here.

Here are the official actions we took at the convention to chart our course over the next year:

• NYSNA’s Council on Nursing Practice passed a resolution on “Reclaiming our practice” recommending that the Board of Directors takes steps against management attempts to introduce lean production methods from factories into our units. The resolution calls on us to organize our new Professional Practice Committees to insist on a voice in hospital decisions, and share strategies from across bargaining units to resist management’s attacks on our practice.
• NYSNA’s Congress of Local Bargaining Unit Leaders discussed our successes in the past year and recommended to the Board of Directors resolutions on “Building a Movement of Nurses” and “Defending the Public Sector.” The resolutions set a goal of recruiting a leader on every unit and every shift of our facilities, to continue our efforts to resist privatization, to launch new advanced classes for NYSNA Stewards, and to reach out to nursing students.
• NYSNA’s President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN reported to the Voting Body on resolutions we passed last year, including our expanding steward training program, our work among student nurses, and our successful efforts to build an alliance of unions opposing climate change.
• The Voting Body approved Honorary Recognition, NYSNA’s highest honor, for past president Patricia DiLillo, RN for her work to transform NYSNA into a democratic organization.
• The Voting Body approved posthumous Honorary Recognition for Joan Cumberbatch, RN, Nadia Jakoubek, RN, and Bernadette Bellantoni, RN, for their years of work to build NYSNA.