Nurses From Across Nation Join Solidarity Caravan In Support Of Striking Kentucky RNs

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 12 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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Registered Nurses from the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association have donated $10,000 in support of RNs striking in Kentucky and West Virginia, and will send a delegation of a dozen nurses from around the nation as part of a solidarity caravan to join the action against Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH).

The caravan is being organized by RNs Working Together, a coordinating committee of the AFL-CIO, and will first protest at the corporate headquarters of ARH in Lexington, then go walk the picket lines in Harlan, Hazard, Middlesboro, McDowell, and Williamson, Kentucky and Beckley and Hinton, West Virginia. In Beckley on Saturday, the nurses will participate in a food donation for the nurses on strike in West Virginia.

NNOC/CNA's delegation is led by Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the Council of Presidents, and includes RN members from NNOC/CNA's Kentucky affiliate, the Nurse Professional Organization. The nurses are joining the solidarity caravan because they know that the key issues of the strike-patient safety and safe staffing-are vital to quality patient care and central concerns in our nation's attempt to deal with our healthcare crisis.

"These nurses in Kentucky and West Virginia aren't striking for themselves or for their patients," said Geri Jenkins. "They are striking to improve the care that every patient in this country receives. When a patient enters the hospital, they should know that there will be adequate staff and safe patient care procedures to take care of them. Whether they're in Appalachia or anywhere else, we will not stand by and watch hospital owners cut corners on patient care in order to pad their bottom line."

Representing 75,000 registered nurses in all 50 states from coast to coast, the National Nurses Organizing Committee and California Nurses Association is the nation's largest and fastest-growing union of direct-care RNs. To learn more about NNOC/CNA or our fight for guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model, visit us at http://www.CalNurses.org.