Thousands Rally For Striking Nurses

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Over 2,000 striking nurses and their supporters massed outside Washington Hospital Center at noon Friday in a strong show of support for the nurses’ one-day strike. “Your strike today is powerful,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “It’s like what our brothers and sisters are doing across the Midwest and in cities and towns nationwide. They’re standing up to the corporate CEO agenda that’s bent on beating down America, on trampling on our middle class and on turning us into a nation of haves and have-nots.” Vanessa, a nurse at WHC for more than four years, said that being forced to strike “upsets me because it makes me feel like we’re not appreciated for the life-saving work we do each day. Our primary goal is to provide our patients with top-quality care and assistance, but our employer sees fit to ignore our concerns to turn a profit. It’s not right.” Walking the picketline and nursing a sore throat, a hoarse but indefatigable Jackie Jeter, President of ATU 689 and the 2011 Evening with Labor Trade Unionist of the Year, said that “We’re all in the same boat,” and UFCW 1994’s David Owens added “If it happens here, it can happen to us.” Chuck Clay, President of IATSE 22, told Union City that “This is all of us. We can’t be divided and conquered. We’ve got to stand together or we’re going to fall together.” According to Tiera, a nurse at WHC for the last three years, “Right now the hospital is an unsafe environment for patients to receive the critical care they need. There simply aren’t enough nurses to cover the number of patients properly – at times it could be just you and six critically ill patients. There’s not really a team in there to back you up - its just the nurse. It’s a big responsibility and danger, yet management seems to care more about their profit margin.” NOVA Labor President Dan Duncan, supervising his crew of Seafarer rally marshals, told UC “I’m a cancer survivor; the nurses worked for me and now they need our support.” Said Teamsters 639’s John Gibson, “This is a fight that we all have across America and we’re all gonna take ‘em on. This is the same kind of union-busting our local has been facing with Daycon. Their goal is the same as everyone else in big corporate America, bust unions and make big profits for the company and put less in the worker’s pockets.” The nurses, who have been battling for a year for a contract that will maintain the staffing levels necessary for safe patient care, walked out at 7A Friday and plan to return to work Saturday at 7A, though the hospital has said it plans to lock them out for an additional three days. The rally featured support from across the labor movement, as well as from community and religious allies and former patients. Stay tuned for more reports and photos from the strike on the website, Twitter and in Union City. PLUS: click here now to view a selection of photos on Flickr. - report/photos by Chris Garlock and Adam Wright