National Nurses United to Endorse Bernie Sanders
Sanders to join nurses for official endorsement event Friday, Nov. 15
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, announces today that it will endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Nurses cite how Sanders’ leading platform closely aligns with nurses’ values on a whole host of issues, including rebuilding America’s labor movement to restore workers’ rights and his trailblazing leadership to win Medicare for All.
The endorsement will officially take place this Friday, November 15 at a press conference.
“For nurses, our solidarity is a matter of life or death for our patients. We need a president who makes it easier for us to stand together and hold our employers accountable for putting people above profits,” said NNU President Jean Ross, RN, of Minnesota. “Bernie Sanders is leading all the candidates on labor, with his Workplace Democracy Act and as a cosponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.”
Livestream of endorsement event here: https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/vote-nurses-values
Nurses also say they are backing Sanders based on his longtime work with the union to pass legislation dedicated to protecting nurses and patients, including his support for federal safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, federal health care workplace violence protections, support for a strong Veterans Health Administration, and guaranteed, quality health care system with Medicare for All.
“We are so proud that together, in 2016, Bernie Sanders and NNU elevated Medicare for All to the national mainstream, where it has advanced to a top 2020 presidential race issue,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN. “Nurses are beyond tired of watching our patients suffer and die needlessly, simply due to inability to pay, and we know Bernie Sanders is, and has been, leading on Medicare for All through his advocacy and Senate legislation.”
NNU also applauds Sanders’ call for a Green New Deal for climate and environmental justice, an extensive program for racial and gender justice, college for all and canceling student debt, immigration reform, and other progressive policy proposals.
NNU views the primary campaign as just the first step in what must be a year-long effort to defeat the disastrous policies of the present administration. To win fundamental social change for workers, patients, and communities, nurses say that building the strongest possible broad movement, centered on the diversity of our nation, will continue to be their foremost priority.
NNU is the largest U.S. union and professional association of registered nurses with more than 150,000 members from coast to coast. NNU’s elected RN leadership voted to make the endorsement following questionnaires sent to all the candidates on issues of concern to RNs, a survey of NNU members, and candidate interviews.
