Tanya King of the Massachusetts Nurses Association is seen here signing up Councillor Yancey on the petition for the 2014 ballot question which would have held hospital administrators accountable for safe staffing to protect patients. Charles Yancey has fought for decades for our schools, our safety and our health. He has been our strongest voice on the Boston City Council in opposing Boston University’s drive to work on our planet’s deadliest germs in its laboratories on Albany Street in the heart of the community and near Boston Medical Center, our premier safety-net hospital.

The fight for a just, healthy society has grown much more intense in recent weeks, as reflected in all the actions in which thousands in the Boston area have participated.

What Happened to the Labor Party? In 1996, thousands of trade unionists and activists decided to build an independent party. Why did the effort fail? Mark Dudzic & Derek Seidman, Jacobin, October 11, 2015 In the 1990s, hundreds of US labor activists came together to form the Labor Party. The initiative was the brainchild of Tony Mazzocchi, the passionate leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (which, after two mergers, is today part of the United Steelworkers). ... What

Boston Celebrates Labor Day

A Decade After Katrina, RNs Reflect on What We’ve Learned and Refuse to Learn. National Nurses United, August 26, 2015 On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction along the Gulf Coast, registered nurse volunteers with the disaster relief program, Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), which sent hundreds of RN volunteers to provide disaster relief to the region in the wake of the deadly storm, say that critical lessons which exacerbated the 2005 crisis – global climate change, our lack of a national healthcare system, and failure to invest in public resources and infrastructure – have still not been learned. ... A Decade

New York’s State Assembly in May overwhelmingly passed a bill to establish a single-payer-style health care system.

The bill isn’t expected to pass the Senate or be signed into law anytime soon. But getting it through, with unprecedented support from big unions, shows that state-level campaigns are still a fertile ground for health care justice organizing, despite the recent setback in Vermont.

NNU Statement on Black Lives Matter and the Health Impact of Societal Racial Disparities - National Nurses United, July 23, 2015 National Nurses United joins with the AFL-CIO and activists across the United States in urging all presidential candidates to address the pervasive problems of racial and economic justice that have so stained our nation. For nurses, the national dialogue this week about structural racism is a reminder that health, which includes personal safety, is a broad thematic that affects all corners of the national debate ... NNU