AFT healthcare members celebrate the wins of the Code Red campaign

AFT nurses and healthcare professionals used the Sunday morning convention session to highlight the growing momentum behind their Code Red campaign, celebrating recent victories while laying out an ambitious agenda to improve safe staffing, protect patient care and hold healthcare corporations accountable.

Anne Goldman, nurse, vice president of the United Federation of Teachers for non-DOE and private sector members, and co-chair of the AFT Nurses and Health Professionals program and policy council, said the AFT has become one of the nation's fastest-growing healthcare unions, representing thousands of healthcare workers across a wide range of healthcare professions.

Goldman highlighted recent successes that have advanced the campaign's goals, including safe staffing laws in Connecticut, Oregon and Washington, as well as half a million dollars in back pay for New York nurses who worked understaffed shifts and staffing ratio language negotiated in numerous New Jersey contracts.

"We stand here together because of the power of our union," said Goldman.

John Brady, nurse, vice president of AFT Connecticut and co-chair of the PPC, said across the country, consolidation, privatization and corporate ownership are reshaping healthcare, often placing profits ahead of patients and the frontline professionals who care for them.

"The good news is that we are fighting back. We are organizing with patients, families and community allies to stop service cuts and protect access to care," said Brady.

[Adrienne Coles/Photo credit: Pamela Wolfe]