Labor Profile: Sandra Falwell, DCNA/NNU

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Sandra Falwell (r), National Nurses United Vice President, past President and Vice- President at the DC Nurses Association (DCNA) and a member of the Metro Council's Executive Board -- knew from a young age that nursing was her calling. "When I was growing up, there were really only two professional jobs available to women of color, teaching and nursing, and I didn't want to be a teacher," she told Union City. After graduating from Harrisburg Hospital School of Nursing in 1970, she began her career in the nursing industry at the Washington Hospital Center but found a home at Washington DC's Children's Hospital, where she has worked since 1975. Falwell works in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit as a result of her experience with the premature birth of her son. "When you take a premature infant, who doesn't look like it's going to make it, and turn it into a normal, healthy kid... it makes it all worth it," she explains. A long time activist, Falwell got her start in the union when she was part of an organizing drive by senior nurses that voted in DCNA in 1995 and won their first contract in 1996. Like many other unionized workers in metro Washington, the DCNA is battling attempts by hospital management to take advantage of the economic crisis to push for budget cuts and take backs that target unionized workers. Despite four decades as a nurse and 15 years as a labor activist and leader, Falwell is more committed than ever to fighting to get the best for her fellow employees. "Voting in the union in 1995" is still her favorite memory, the moment that marks the start of her continuing involvement in the organized labor movement. Married, with two grown children, Falwell enjoys cruises in the Caribbean and snorkeling when not in the neo-natal unit or defending nurses rights. - Ben Garlock; photo by Chris Garlock