The nurses will not back down

Hi there, Meteor readers,

The 2016 nostalgia dominating my social feeds has me in my feelings today.

I’m thinking about all the protests that year, now overshadowed by the acute tragedy of Donald Trump’s victory that fall. In America, there were the Black Lives Matter marches condemning the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the students who took to the streets after Stanford rapist Brock Turner’s lighter-than-air sentencing. Overseas, there were the Black Monday strikes in Poland against proposed abortion bans, anti-corruption demonstrations in Brazil, and millions-deep marches following Brexit.

Maybe it’s because I was younger, or because I’d been lulled by the dulcet tones of Obama’s rhetoric, but my sense of indignation was fresher back then. Hotter. More vivid. This week, as the powers that be attempt to quash dissent both here and abroad, I’m channeling that energy anew.

Today, Meteor contributor Ann Vettikkal brings us a dispatch from the historic nurse’s strike in New York City. Plus, a tribute to an unsung civil rights hero, and your weekend reading.

2016 on the scene,

Nona Willis Aronowitz

WHAT’S GOING ON

“We’re here for our safety”: “What do we want? A fair contract! When do we want it? Now!” This past Tuesday morning, a sea of demonstrators in red surrounded Columbia University Irving Medical Center demanding a fair contract prioritizing patient and nurse safety. They chanted and struck cowbells; one sign read, “Staffing so unsafe, Florence Nightingale is rolling in her grave.” Shows of solidarity in the form of honks, cheers, and salsa music echoed throughout Washington Heights.

NURSES INVOKING THE GOAT, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

The largest nurses’ strike in New York City’s history has now entered its fourth day. On Monday morning, nearly 15,000 nurses walked out of the Montefiore Medical Center and multiple hospitals in the New York-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai Health System network. The nurse’s union, New York State Nurses Association, says management refuses to budge on key issues. (“Here’s a pebble, here’s a little grain of salt” is how one nurse characterized management’s response.)

The union says the strike is focused on protecting nurses’ healthcare benefits, safeguards against workplace violence, and safe staffing mandates, which ensures enough nurses are scheduled each day to deliver safe, quality patient care. Joe Solmonese, a spokesperson for Montefiore Medical Center, called their requests “reckless”; a statement from Mount Sinai said NYSNA refused to “move on from its extreme economic demands” for significant pay raises.

“The hospitals take advantage [of the fact] that we are the ones that actually care about our patients,” said Beth Loudin, a pediatric nurse and president of the bargaining unit at New York-Presbyterian, who was picketing on Tuesday. “They don’t think we would go outside and fight for the things that actually protect us and protect our patients.”

BETH LOUDIN AT THE PICKET LINE. CREDIT: ANN VETTIKKAL

Loudin became a nurse a decade ago because of her passion for listening and advocating for people in difficult times. She joined the union four years ago and eventually rose to leadership. She pointed to the gains a smaller nurses’ strike involving Mount Sinai and Montefiore won three years ago—which included hiring additional nurses, and implementing minimum nurse-to-patient ratios—as a precedent for this “historic” strike.

There are plans to head back to the negotiation table this evening, according to a NYSNA statement released this morning. In addition to their original demands, NYSNA charges that Mount Sinai “unlawfully terminated” and disciplined several outspoken nurses in the days leading up to the strike. Several politicians have shown their support, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who joined the picket and donned a red NYSNA scarf on the first day of the strike. “These nurses are here for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in a statement to the press. “They show up and all they are asking for in return is dignity, respect, and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve.”

This strike comes on the heels of many other nurses’ strikes across the country. Given that nursing is the number one occupation for women, these fights could meaningfully move the needle on the overall quality of life for women in this country.

“It’s now a wave,” Loudin said. “We’re here for the patients. We’re here for our safety. I hope that wave just continues to grow and grow and grow.”

—Ann Vettikkal

AND:

• A Senate hearing yesterday chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R.-La.) set out to disparage the incredibly safe abortion medication mifepristone. His star witness was his state’s attorney general, Liz Murrill (the same one who’s trying to extradite a California doctor for prescribing abortion pills to Louisiana women). Murrill’s testimony was riddled with lies, drawing on a non-peer-reviewed study that manipulates ER data in order to exaggerate the rate of complications from abortion pills. She was met with pushback from Democrats, including Sen. Patty Murray (D.-Wash.), who said the hearing was “really about the fact that Trump and his anti-abortion allies want to ban abortion nationwide.” She later told a Mother Jones reporter: “Their whole thing about safety…is just hogwash.” If you are considering taking abortion pills, reliable info about them can be found here and here.

• Pivotal civil rights activist Claudette Colvin died on Tuesday at the age of 86. Nine months before Rosa Parks’s famous stand, in 1955, then-15-year-old Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus for a white woman. Civil rights leaders ultimately nixed the idea of making an example of Colvin’s case, largely because she was unwed and pregnant, but lawyer Fred Gray credits her with giving organizers “the moral courage” to launch the Montgomery bus boycott later that year. “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down,” Colvin told NPR in 2009. “I couldn’t get up.” 

CLAUDETTE COLVIN IN 1998. CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

• • The network that brought us Heated Rivalry will soon gift us Slo-Pitch, an Elliot-Page-produced mockumentary about a beleaguered lesbian softball team. No word on when the trailer will drop but it looks like the pressure campaign is in, um, full swing.

• • Twelve states are suing the Trump administration for withholding more than $300 billion of funding for health, education, and research over their refusal to comply with Trump’s highly transphobic executive order on “gender ideology extremism.” If your state’s not on the list, time to call your attorney general.

• • Studies examining the heavy toll police violence takes on Black people’s health are usually focused on men, but a new study out of North Carolina State University shows how Black women’s health is affected, too. And the findings? Worrying about police brutality is associated with risk for cardiovascular disease in Black women. Stress over their children’s interactions with law enforcement, the author says, may be “a significant contributing factor” for heart issues. Most Black mothers know this particular worry all too well.

• • Our fave pop genius Robyn talked smack about Elon Musk on the Las Culturistas podcast, claiming she’s hated his douchey antics since at least 2018 when he launched his car into orbit. “There should be democracy in space,” she declared. A little low on the priority list, girl, but sure!

• • “Fuck ICE, eat pizza.”

WEEKEND READING AND LISTENING 📚 🔊

On systemic racism: Why this Texas county is the deadliest place for Black mothers to have a baby. (Capital B)

On frenemies: Dayna Tortorici untangles the many divisions that have torn feminists apart for 200 years. (n +1)

On “the last American dream”: Please enjoy this exceedingly delightful interview with comedian Robby Hoffman on masculinity, her Hasidic upbringing, and rich-people guilt. (Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso)