National Nurses United

Members on October 5, 2011 marching to Foley Square in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street

National Nurses United (NNU) is the largest union of registered nurses in the United States.[1][2]

Founded in December 2009, NNU brought together the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association. Its purpose is to give registered nurses a national voice and organizing power.

NNU's co-presidents are Deborah Burger, RN, Karen Higgins, RN, and Jean Ross, RN.

The union backs a single-payer healthcare plan for the United States.[3]

They have held numerous protests, including one in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and another on Wall Street.[4] Union leadership is organizing large-scale demonstrations demanding single payer healthcare at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.[3]

The executive director for the national organization, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, is long-time labor leader RoseAnn DeMoro, who headed the 60,000 member California Nurses Association.[5] Within its first year, NNU achieved many accomplishments, including organizing more than 8,000 registered nurses in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, Texas and Washington, D.C.

In 2011, NNU launched a campaign called the Main Street Contract for the American People. The national organization is working to create a movement – through demonstrations and legislative bills—that helps working-class people who are struggling during hard economic times. The campaign goal is to reclaim an economy with good jobs at living wages, healthcare for all, quality education, good housing, protection from hunger, a safe environment, and a secure retirement for everyone.

NNU supports a tax on financial transactions, which the organization says could raise at least $350 billion a year.[6]

Support for Sanders

Writing in The New York Times on January 28, 2016, Nicholas Confessore reported that "According to Federal Election Commission records [NNU's] "super PAC" has spent close to $1 million on ads and other support for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.[7] The NNU spending was classified as "Expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate."[8]

See also

References

External links

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