In Brief: September 2016
Brooklyn Interregional
Brooklyn members gathered on September 7 for a combined Interregional/Candidate Forum, where nurses from Wyckoff, Brooklyn Hospital, Interfatih, Kingsbrook Jewish, Kings County, Maimonides, NY Methodist and Fresenius celebrated this year’s victories and planned for the challenges ahead. Maimonides member and NYSNA Board Member Nancy Hagans, RN, emceed the candidates forum, where more than a dozen political candidates spoke and then answered member questions on safe staffing, corporate healthcare mergers impacting Brooklyn hospitals and other issues.
A celebration of union solidarity in NYC
NYSNA’s very own Marisol Alcantara, the Democratic candidate for the 31st State Senate District, joined our union’s First Vice President Marva Wade, RN, and other members and their families for New York City’s September 18 African American Day Parade. NYSNA marched with Transit Workers Union Local 100 as the parade worked its way through the city’s Harlem neighborhood.
Solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux
NYSNA President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, traveled to North Dakota’s Standing Rock Reservation in late August to support Native American tribes in their struggle to protect ancestral lands (and our planet!) from gas pipeline development. She’s pictured here (on right) with Phrank White Bull, a council member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, and NYSNA Rep and Seneca Nation member Eliza Carboni. On September 9, the US Department of Justice issued a temporary injunction halting construction on portions of the pipeline.
Solidarity with LIU-Brooklyn faculty
NYSNA’s H+H Executive Council unanimously passed a resolution on September 7 in support of 300 faculty members at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University who had been locked out and had their health benefits terminated at the beginning of the fall academic term — before they had even had a chance to review and vote on the administration’s contract proposal. NYSNA members in Brooklyn hospitals held solidarity actions in support of the professors throughout the 12-day lockout.
The LIU Faculty Federation filed unfair labor practice charges against the university’s administration and declared victory on September 14 when its members rejected LIU’s concessionary contract proposal and won agreement to work under an extension of the old contract through next May. LIU now holds the ignoble distinction of being the first university to lock out its faculty — which is seen by some as a harbinger of the corporatization of higher education.
8 for 8!
Every NYSNA-endorsed priority candidate won their NYS primary on September 13. Our union’s member-to-member #NYNursesVote initiative made a difference for Pamela Harris, Latrice Walker, Tremaine Wright, Ellen Jaffee, Monica Wallace, Jamaal T. Bailey, Amber Small and Marisol Alcantara. These and other primary wins by NYSNA-endorsed candidates around the state will strengthen the voice of nurses and caregivers as advocates for our patients and the health of our communities. To ensure their victories in the November 8 general election, make sure you register to vote, and to find out how you can volunteer on a particular campaign, contact your NYSNA Rep.
2016 Secor Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to the 2016 Secor Scholarship winners! This year’s recipients are Josephine Azaru, a member and RN at Harlem Hospital, who is training to become a Family Nurse Practitioner, and Kerry Jones, the daughter of NYSNA RN Maureen Flanagan Jones, a clinical nurse specialist at Elmhurst Hospital.
The scholarship was established in 2007 through a bequest from long-time NYSNA member Jane Secor, PhD, RN. Every year, the fund awards two $5,000 scholarships to further nursing education: one to a NYSNA member and the other to a family member of a NYSNA member. More information and application forms are available at www.nysna.org.