Protesting NLRB’s Anti-Union Assault on Democracy and Dictionary Meaning

In a ruling released yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board, now stacked with Bush administration appointees hostile to unions and the rights of working people, declared that hospital RNs across the country who exercise professional clinical judgment in the interests of patients are “supervisors,” and thus ineligible to join unions. In a dissent to the 3-2 ruling, two NLRB members warned that the decision could ultimately disenfranchise every professional employee in the nation, up to one-fourth of the total U.S. workforce by 2012, of their rights to form and join unions. Registered Nurses, other labor activists, and community supporters are gathering to protest this decision today, Thursday, October 5, in Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Louisville (Kentucky) and Bangor (Maine). The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is sponsoring the joint action. Chicago 12-1pm 1900 West Polk Street Los Angeles March: 11:30 a.m., 1401 NW corner of Wilshire and Whitmer, across from Good Samaritan Hospital Rally: 12:30 p.m. National Labor Relations Board office, 888 So. Figueroa St., Corner of 9th and Figueroa St. Louis 4:30 pm Robert A. Young Federal Building, 1222 Spruce St., SW corner of Tucker Blvd. and Spruce St. Louisville 4 pm Louisville Medical Center, Broadway and Floyd, Northeast Corner Bangor 4:15 pm Cascade Park, near Eastern Maine Medical Center