Our First Leadership Conference was a Resounding Success!
California Pacific Medical Center
Last Saturday, October 12, 2013, two hundred NUHW-CNA rank-and-file and staff leaders gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn in Emeryville for our First Annual Leadership Conference, organized around the theme of “Standing Up for Patients and Workers.”
The meeting opened with a welcoming letter from Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who is the elected official representing the East Bay Area district where NUHW is headquartered in Northern California and where the conference was held.
Labor legend Dolores Huerta, co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers, discussed the important role that NUHW is playing in helping to turn around the labor movement. She was preceded by Deborah Burger, co-president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United who described the power of all healthcare workers being united to fight employers like Kaiser, Sutter, and others.
NUHW leaders also discussed our role in the national labor movement and how our history and lessons from the past in NUHW will inform our strategy going forward. You can read for yourself our report, The State of the Union, as well as view the inspiring videos that capture the heart and soul of our first five years.
Looking forward, NUHW leaders adopted a forward-thinking resolution in which we re-committed to each other to:
- Continue to win industry-standard contracts
- Continue to empower work-site leaders to build work power
- Continue to organize the unorganized and those healthcare workers trapped in undemocratic unions
- Continue to fight for healthcare for all and worker justice.
Rank-and-file leaders at the conference were extremely upbeat, energetic and confident and united to making NUHW-CNA the model union in the country, and made the conference even more successful than we ever imagined.
We look forward to our continued work together,
Sal Rosselli John Borsos
President Secretary-Treasurer