UAN affiliates with AFL-CIO

-jt · Jul 27, 2001

Remarks by John J. Sweeney

President of the AFL-CIO

at the UAN National Labor Assembly

Washington, DC

June 28, 2001

"Thank you, Susan [bianchi-Sand], for those kind words and the contribution you continue to make - not just to the UAN and the union movement - but to working women and working families all across our country......

This is truly an historic moment, and I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has worked so hard to bring us to this point..........

I want to thank Cheryl Johnson for her guidance of the UAN and her support for this affiliation - there isn't a better frontline nurses or a more committed union leader in America, and we're delighted to welcome her as a leader in the AFL-CIO..........

I also want to thank Mary Foley for her leadership of the ANA and for her personal friendship - Mary and Cheryl and I went to jail together during the nurses' strike at Washington Hospital Center last year . . . Mary, I want you to know I'll go to jail again with you and Cheryl anytime, and that's a promise.............

I don't want to neglect the other officers of ANA and UAN and members of the Task Force on Affiliation, because you're all terrific - Ann Converso, Jeanne Surdo, Deborah Thoms, Walter Fredrickson, Ed Goldberg, Linda Warino . . . John Karebian, Ken Fitzsimon, Evelyn Sommers, Linda Stierle, Barbara Blakeney, and Martha Orr - thank you all for the confidence you've placed in us..........

As a side note, congratulations to you, Martha, and to the New York State Nurses Association on your Centennial - 100 years of caring and giving and fighting and winning in my home state.............

And to all of you gathered here, congratulations and thank you, too. As you know, the AFL-CIO Executive Council authorized me to issue a charter to the UAN. With this vote, you've taken the next step. It's a great milestone, and I look forward to the ANA's issuing its formal blessing later this week. This was, I know, a monumental decision for all of you. On behalf of the other officers - Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson - and all the affiliates of the AFL-CIO, I am delighted to welcome you to the AFL-CIO. ..........

It took a lot of hard work and more than a year to get it done, and I want you to know that you have not misplaced your trust and we're going to be even better together.............

So we're off - with high expectations of our new partnership, with the UAN as a full-

fledged affiliate of the AFL-CIO, larger than half the other 64 unions in our Federation, with instant credentials and a major voice, in all the work of the American labor movement and nowhere more than in our work in health care, where we're going to be a formidable force for change-a force that together represents more than 1.2 million health care workers, including 300,000 registered nurses, and 40 million consumers of health care who are union members and family members..............

It's a strong new alliance that comes none too soon, because the problems we all face in health care and the problems faced by frontline nurses are mind-boggling --- drug prices and the cost of care going up, quality going down, 43 million Americans uninsured, the lack of accountability, short-staffing, rising acuity, professional standards under attack ........

...and a critical national shortage of nurses, brought on by health care providers who would rather scour the world for cheaper labor than to invest in developing and maintaining a superior RN workforce here at home.............

As recent studies dramatize, that attitude by employers is having a disastrous effect on our health care system and on nurses --- the Harvard study showing how short-staffing is putting patients at risk, the University of Pennsylvania report showing only 35 percent of nurses say the care on their ward is "excellent" and your own ANA survey documenting the tremendous stresses on nurses that are driving so many out of the profession...............

With this affiliation, you've chosen the right direction toward solving these problems- the American labor movement has long been involved in the dual struggles for dignity, rights and respect for caregivers and for affordable, high-quality, accessible, healthcare for everyone..........

And I am personally invested in the struggle --- my home union, SEIU, has long been on the frontlines of health care policy, bargaining and organizing, and I was chair of the AFL-CIO Health Care Committee before I was elected president of the Federation. And of course you join many other strong, committed unions also representing nurses, especially SEIU, AFT, AFSCME, UFCW and AFGE............

I've been involved in health care long enough to know we can't solve all of our problems overnight, but I've been involved in the union movement long enough to know we can't solve any of them if we don't stand up and fight. And we can do that even better together..............

We proved we know how to do it at Washington Hospital Center, and just this week the courageous nurses at the Fairview Hospitals in the Twin Cities proved they know how to do it --- and congratulations to those 1,350 fighting RNs........

And believe me, the nurses are going to win at Forum Health in Youngstown too.............

As important as these victories are, we have an even bigger fight on our hands --- these three strikes all have something in common. They have all been prolonged because the hospitals have been able to use public funds to pay U.S. Nursing Corps to airlift in replacement RNs........

Together, I want us to go after this rent-a-replacement operation and put a stop to the outrageous use of public tax dollars to pay for scab nurses.............

We also need to look for national solutions to the problems facing the nursing profession and to the crisis in our health care system, and to that end the AFL-CIO will convene a summit meeting of top nurse union leaders this fall to collaborate on a strategy of mutual support and aggressive organizing.............

The truth is that even if we are able to come up with all the answers to all of our problems, we can't implement them without more members and more strength. That's why organizing is the top priority of the AFL-CIO and I know it is shared by UAN and all of you...............

Let me closed by asking for your support as a full participant in our Federation and our shared mission. One of the great strengths you bring to the AFL-CIO is a nationwide membership, and I want to urge you to take your skills and your spirit, your professionalism and your pride into our State Federations and local Central Labor Councils..............

Just as nurses need support from other workers, other workers need and deserve support from you --- whether they are orderlies and nurses aides in hospitals and clinics, or home health workers, or even plumbers or auto workers or teachers..............

I'm excited about the role UAN can play in speaking out for a union voice for women workers and for professionals.............

I'm excited about our new partnership and the role UAN can play in helping us reach our goal of restoring the voices of working families in our workplaces, our communities, our government and in the global economy............

The sooner we roll up our sleeves and get at it, the sooner we'll get there --- and I know the leadership and members of UAN are ready to do just that............

The 64 unions and 13 million members of those unions are ready to join you.............

Let's get at it. And I look forward to hosting you all at AFL-CIO headquarters tonight..........

Thank you and God bless."

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