Labor on the Move: In Memoriam (10/30/07)

United American Nurses President Cheryl Johnson has passed away. Calling Johnson "a real pioneer for nurses," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said "She provided forceful and respected leadership to build a nurses' union that simply refused to sit quietly by as health care came under greater and greater corporate control." In 2001, Johnson - along with Sweeney and Metro Council President Jos Williams - was arrested for committing civil disobedience during the DCNA strike at the Washington Hospital Center; the hospital settled the next day. "Cheryl spoke from real experience, working her hospital shift even as she took on a second (and sometimes, third) shift as a leader," Sweeney added. "She was the quintessential nurse, grounded and passionate at the same time.  She never took herself too seriously, but she took every slight to nurses as deeply serious business." Johnson broke ground for nurses when she became the first nurse elected to the highest-ranking body in the AFL-CIO, its Executive Council.