In nationwide protests, nurses demand health care employers protect free and fair elections

Nurses call out failure of hospital and health care industry to protect patients, communities amidst authoritarian surge

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, one week before the midterms, registered nurses in six U.S. cities demanded the country's major hospital groups do their part to protect free and fair elections. The protests were organized by members of National Nurses United, the nation's largest union of registered nurses.

In an homage to South Korea's Light Stick Revolution, nurses and allies held up light sticks to symbolize the light they're shining on the violence and harm committed by the Trump administration. During the rallies, speakers detailed a long list of "red lines" crossed by the Trump administration and the failure of executives in the health care and hospital industry to stand up against these human and civil rights abuses.

"For far too long, nurses have singlehandedly fought to care for our patients in a broken, profit-driven system while our employers refuse to invest in safe patient care conditions," said NNU President Jamie Brown, RN. "Health care corporations and their executives claim to support us and our patients, but we've seen how they've rubber stamped the Trump administration's cruelty, letting lawless ICE agents into our hospitals to terrorize our patients and using A.I.-powered tech from notorious companies like Palantir to suck more and more profit from our broken health care system."

Photos and videos of the nationwide protests can be found here.

NNU President Brown, RN continued: "As the most trusted profession in the United States, we believe our duty is to pressure our employers, some of the wealthiest and most powerful health care corporations in the world, to stand with nurses and working people as we fight for every vote to be counted. We need free and fair elections, so we can take on the billionaire class, improve our patients' lives, and win a society where everyone is guaranteed a healthy life."

The protests took place in Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Ill.; Englewood, Colo.; and Oakland, Sacramento, and Ontario, Calif. outside the headquarters of Risant Health, CommonSpirit, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, Prime Healthcare, and HealthONE Swedish Hospital, which is owned and operated by the country's largest for-profit hospital group, HCA. Across the country, nurses were joined by allies, including other labor unions, immigrant rights groups, and health advocacy groups.

"The Bay Area has a critical role to play in defending democracy this fall," said Celi Tamayo-Lee, member of Bay Resistance. "Authoritarians have historically been stopped across the globe because people mobilize en masse and shut down the economy. If the results of this midterm election are not honored across the country, we in San Francisco are prepared to launch our campaign of mass action and non-cooperation."

"The ruling class wants you to believe that immigrants are the source of all our problems," said Gladis Ibarra, co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. "That couldn't be further from the truth. The real problem is the billionaire class that continues to exploit workers and wants us pointing fingers at each other instead of at them."

"We're hopeful to see patients and workers getting organized and united to demand more from our corporate hospital systems in Colorado," said the Center for Health Progress. "Instead of abandoning us in an endless pursuit of profit, hospitals should be publicly resisting the authoritarian forces that threaten our well-being. Center for Health Progress, a statewide member-led power building organization, joins NNU in calling on HCA and other billionaire health systems to defend our democracy."

"As residents and fellow physicians, we work with nurses each day to ensure every patient feels safe, supported, and well cared for," said Dr. Allison Whitaker, psychiatry, co-president of the Housestaff Association of the University of Colorado Hospitals. "We stand with all the nurses advocating for themselves so they can serve patients with the excellence and rigor we all aim to deliver. Organizing health care workers across Colorado is an important step in putting patients over profits, and we are proud to be in solidarity with the hardworking nurses here today."

"Colorado has some of the best election laws in the country that make it convenient and secure for voters to make their voice heard," said the Colorado AFL-CIO. "We're committed to ensuring our members, and every eligible voter in Colorado, has the freedom to exercise their right to vote in this election without intimidation."

"As resident physicians, we see firsthand the devastating consequences for our patients when billionaires and their political allies prioritize profits over people's health," said Dr. Olivia Ladd-Luthringshauser, a pediatric resident physician in Washington, D.C., and a regional vice president of Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR)-SEIU. "With health care under attack once again in the upcoming elections, hospital executives have a responsibility to stand with us and the communities we serve to defend our democracy and right to vote."

Photos and videos of the nationwide protests can be found here.

Amidst escalating power grabs by the Trump administration and well-documented concerns about election interference, NNU nurses promised vigilance and action should there be any election interference, including: interference with ballot boxes, refusal to count ballots in some geographic areas, purging of voters rolls, deployment of federal agents to early voting locations or polling places to intimidate voters, and refusal to seat a newly elected, democratically chosen Congress in January.

National Nurses United and its affiliated California Nurses Association were lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the federal government and its "Unlawful Voter Initiative." Last week, a federal court ordered a preliminary injunction that stops the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from conducting its voter intimidation tactics in nine states, including using armed agents to go door to door to question people's eligibility to vote and stops elections-related field operations targeting people that it knows, suspects, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.