The world values Nurses.  As a Nurse’s Union, your voices are both powerful and critically important in raising issues that impact all of our communities with such credibility and respect of those who hear you.

Before the pandemic even struck, the World Health Organization designated 2020 as “The Year of the Nurse.” The world would soon learn in a powerful, unexpected way just how critical you all are. I’ve had the unique privilege to see up close what many never see. I heard directly from so many of you what it has been like in this battle. A battle where, despite hospitals’ failure to adequately protect you, you did everything in your power to save lives and to comfort those who needed it. You never “got used to it”—every patient continued to burrow straight into your hearts.

You were and continue to be heroes in the true sense of the word, not as a tagline for hospitals to use as a public relations message. Your employers’ lack of planning, our public health agencies’ poor oversight, nurse-to-patient ratio waivers at the worst time possible, and our nation’s unpreparedness meant that you were treated like “lambs to the slaughter,” as one member put it.

Like you’ve always done, Union Nurses took the lead where others failed. Together, you…

• Rallied early in the pandemic for PPE and safety
• Lobbied for and won SB 275, our PPE stockpile bill, and SB 1159, the Workers' Compensation Presumption Act
• Spoke out by telling your own stories and in 200+ media interviews
• Held a 10-day strike to protest unacceptably low staffing levels and to advocate for your patients
• Prepared for another 10-strike to push hospitals on safety issues
• Won contract language to push your employers to better prepare for public health emergencies
• Won contract language for a Pandemic Safety Task Force to address the current and any future pandemics

Many of you fell ill. Sadly, yet avoidably We lost one of you to COVID. Some were unjustly disciplined for speaking out publicly to call attention to all that you and your patients were going through. Yet, against all odds, you continue to take the lead in maintaining a culture of compassion, extraordinary commitment and safety in your hospitals.

I will never be able to express enough gratitude, pride and respect for you and all that you have accomplished—both for your patients and for your profession—during this dark time and every day.

Your spirit and resilience are admirable and touching.

With so much gratitude,

Rosanna Mendez Executive Director SEIU Local 121RN