It Could Happen Here - Against the War, For the Union: The Story of Shift Change

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Mia talks with John, Jehad, and Rosa, candidates of Shift Change’s slate for National Nurses United's Council of Presidents about healthcare work, Palestine solidarity organizing, and what brought them together to challenge their union’s leadership https://www.shiftchangennu.org/ Council of Presidents statement on interview: https://www.facebook.com/100090872020765/posts/pfbid027wzeDxjTLVmZ6Y17nzSm5FN9oHohZ1FcAYCSK1jN8Z4JB4WwndVHAERsk3utjQuPl/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We're going fast in this intro because we have a lot of stuff to get to. And the thing that we have a lot of stuff to get to about is the election for candidates for the Council of Presidents for National Nurses United. And in order to talk about that, I guess the reason we're talking about that i you know okay i should i should have ran this one through my head before we started this but yeah i'm here today with john jahed and rosa uh to talk about yeah there's slate movement thing i don't know uh called shift change and why they're running how they met. And yeah, some other stuff about the union. So all three of you, welcome to the show. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for having us. Yeah, so I guess the place we should start for this for, so we talked to Shift Change last year, but I think for people who don't remember that, or, you know, I mean, it's been, God, I don't know. I don't know how long I've lost track of time. Can you explain a bit about what you're running for? And specifically what it is sort of how it works? I'll just start real quick, like, in case it's not clear, we're all members of a large national

nurses union called National Nurses United. And so we're from individual parts of that union, which is kind of an umbrella over California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee, which I'm a part of. Razita is a part of Minnesota Nurses Association, which Jehed is a part of. NYSNA, which is New York State Nurses Association, which Senia Green is a part of. And thenNA, which is New York State Nurses Association, which Zinnia Green is a part of. And then we also have Michigan Nurses Association and the DC Nurses Association. And our group, Shift Change, is like a caucus, which is like whenever workers inside of a union get together because they want to change how the union works. And we're running what's something

called a slate, where we have to have groups of people running together for specific union offices. And so we have a lot of people running, not just us three or us four for the council presidents, but we also have candidates running for the board of vice presidents and also delegates for our convention. And hopefully that's a good basis for starting off the conversation. Yeah. And hopefully that's a good basis for starting out the conversation. Yeah. So I guess the first question I wanted to ask, because I think this is an interesting story, is how did you three meet? Because this is mostly a very different group of people from last time.

How did we meet? Oh, my. That is a good story. So if you're not aware or if you've been living under a rock, you know, there's there's a lot of violence that's happening in the world. And specifically, there's violence that's happening in Palestine. And John, I and Jahad all met as nurses who were looking to really be involved in Palestine solidarity work. And so we were met on a space. We connected there and, you know, our politics pretty much aligned that we believe that oppressed people should be liberated. And that was one of the largest ways that we met each other. And we became, I mean, I feel like Jihad and John

are part of my family. Definitely we have really connected on the solidarity front for that, but also as nurses organizing and really seeing where the fault lines are within our own union. We haven't talked about specifically the nurses organizing that's been going on for Palestine Solidarity stuff on the show before. It's really interesting. Even though we haven't met in person yet, we're looking forward to meeting in April at the Labor Notes conference. But despite the fact that we haven't met in person, there is a lot of chemistry among the group. And we have a lot of similar visions, especially when it came to organizing for Palestine.

So I joined Rosita and John and others in Nurses for Palestine chat group. And that group is active in highlighting the suffering of the Palestinian people and the politics behind it, and how nurses can be in the front lines, not only to take care of patients, but also for other healthcare workers around the world. And that's a huge part of this, because this genocide that's going on has claimed the lives of so many innocent civilians, as well as physicians and nurses and other health care workers, medics, etc. From that big group, or almost you can call it national, there are smaller chapters now in different cities. There are smaller chapters now in different cities. There's healthcare workers for Palestine, Twin Cities, where I am from, and Chicago and all the war crimes that have been committed need to be answered for.

So from that, we kind of sprouted a smaller group and with the election coming up for the National Nurses United, we thought we could take that more of a grassroots movement to make a bigger change because we believe all these smaller changes in the base should lead to a bigger change at the top. And unions are the perfect example where we can affect change and have the politicians and all the people up in the highest echelon of powers, if you will, listen and do what actually the base needs. what the nurses in the union want and their policies and statements should reflect what the nurses need. And that's what we hear. And that's why we call ourselves Shift Change. One thing I wanted to add on to that is that when we first all came together, there was a call from Palestinian trade unions to push our own trade unions here in the U.S., which

have historically not really taken strong positions on things like international conflicts or what's going on in Palestine in particular. And our union just adopted BDS language within the last year, the California Nurse Association National Nurses Organizing Committee. And that took an extraordinary amount of pressure from rank and file nurses to get the leadership to agree that this was an important stance. We noticed that unions had just gone through, you know, democratic reform processes who have been taken over by rank and file workers. workers uh the uaw with sean fain had adopted much more like much quickly much more quickly

resolutions in favor of um of peace and ceasefire and you know as workers were like against war of all kinds um and but in particular this is like a particularly egregious um situation where nurses have borne the brunt of like all the healthcare workers who are being targeted specifically in Palestine and Gaza. The majority of those healthcare workers are nurses. So we believe there's a direct connection between, you know, our work here and the support of those nurses over there. And I guess then going from that

to leading towards how our building a democratic rank and file union, not only will it enact these, be a way for us to enact the kind of positive policy changes we want, but it'll build a stronger union for everybody so that we can fight the bosses at the bedside, making sure that our patients are taken care of in our communities.

So I'll let it go. You know, so that, that, that's a bit of a, a segue into, uh, the next thing I wanted to ask about, which was, okay, so you've talked about sort of, you've, you've, you've talked about how you all met through like Palestinian solidarity, are you organizing and how that's one of the important things for why y'all are doing this but i wanted to yeah see if you can go into more detail about the specific things that brought you to running for this rosita why don't you give a little bit of an account of your story of how you first

heard about shift changes like a thing because i think that's kind of uh that I think that would be fun so I first heard of shift change last year um and you know I was very apprehensive I was like oh wow who's this new group that's coming in and you know I kept I was hearing from my very own union um that you know there was a group out there that was challenging and that maybe had gotten some things wrong. And, you know, they just, you know, needed to kind of be put aside. And so I did join one of the calls. There was an outreach call to kind of figure out whose shift change is. And I thought it was pretty interesting. I thought, you know, here are some very motivated union members who see that there's something that needs to change within our union, which is part of what we do as organizers. We see that there may be something that needs to change even within our own union.

And we as rank and file or we as union members should be able to have that voice to change it. And what I was seeing was that their voice was being really suppressed. Instead of saying, hey, how can we move towards what you're asking and really come to a place where we can understand where you're coming from? Instead, it was no, we're not going to listen to their voices. We're not going to, you know, even engage with with this group. There's a this rogue group out there that's like, you know, causing all this ruckus, which makes me, you know, I'm somebody who loves and gravitates towards ruckus. That's just my personality. So it just made me more curious.

And then, you know, when we started organizing for, you know, the Palestine Solidarity, John came in and I was like, oh, wait, I think I know this guy. Like, you know, he's one of those shift change guys. And it just made me more curious. And, you know, we've had great conversations. And I really, really understand, you know, the motivation. And because of some things that have happened to me within our union, that has made me really recognize, there are ways that we can make positive changes for our union. And as organizers, as nurses, we have to strive for those. And we have to have the ability to have our voices heard and to motivate each other to make those changes. Because if we are the union, then we should be able to change our union towards what we want to see

out of our union and that's probably the most important thing i was going to say uh jihad do you want to talk a little bit about your experience with the minnesota nurse association strike in 2022 and then um watching the nurses forward people because i think that kind of ties in well sorry before we do that we have to we have to do an ad break before or i'm also going to get watching the nurses forward people. Cause I think that kind of ties in well. Sorry, before we do that, we have to, we have to do an ad break before,

or I'm also going to get yelled at by my bosses. Ad break. Hey, ads. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, the running interview show where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs,

the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all.

It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline Podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things

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All right, we're back from ads hell yeah let's do this i thought my my two cents would be a good uh fit after what rosita just said everybody has their own unique experience and how they became interested uh i'm a member of minnesota nurses, and we went on strike two years ago to request and demand a better contract with the Fairview system here in the Twin Cities area. Eventually, there was a contract and it was ratified. After that, there was an election. And even though I'm a member, I'm an active member, I serve on some committees with M&A. And recently, I joined the Government Affairs Committee. You know, I haven't been really engaged in the politics of the union until a new slate, another troublemakers, if you will, another group of troublemakers, you know, who call themselves nurses forward, they ran against the current board. And actually, they won, they won in a landslide last November. And that was a huge change and an inspiration for

me, really, that rank and file nurses, and they're all, you know, nurses working on the floors, and I know some of them personally, and I trusted these guys knew what they're talking about, and they were running on a platform that made sense, where all the rank and file nurses have a say, and they are well informed, because there's a lot of stuff that goes behind doors that nurses are not brevity to and that you know makes things uh sound a little shady sometimes where you know uh unions are uh say uh endorsing a politician and this politician kind of drops the ball or uh does something that's not in the interest of the union, and yet they're still supporting them. We need to know why and how that came to be.

So that kind of gave me an inspiration. And the moment John came and recruited me, if you will, and I thought, sure, if we can do, affect some change in the local level, I think it's time to change at the national level. So we're hoping for the best here, and we're trying to do our best to get a good result. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I mean, that was something I remember from last time is this issue of transparency and this issue of the union acting. this this issue of transparency and this issue of the union acting i don't know if autonomously is the right word but the union acting just sort of doing stuff that members were just like finding out about afterwards yeah and i you know i don't know i don't know i think like that's

on a kind of basic i mean there's there's obviously a political level to it but on just the sort of basic what is a union level you you would think that your union wouldn't be doing that and yet comma i was just going to comment on that um i think one of the biggest parallels that i've been able to see is you know we spend a lot of time of ours as nurses fighting against the hospital industry right it's the big boss, as we call it, you know, we march on the boss or, you know, we have, you know, rallies around it, or we do petitions and, you know, we're constantly fighting this big entity of the hospital industry, which oftentimes keeps us in the dark about policies or about changes that they're making

or, you know, various things. And I can't help but to see the parallels between our fight with the hospital industry and then comes our fight with our own union. So, you know, how can we within our union change that so that we're not seeing both entities as the same? I don't want to be in a union that I also am feeling is the same entity that we are fighting at bedside. That transparency for us is extremely

important. That autonomy, that accountability is extremely important because why should we be having two parallel fights with our own union and with the hospital industry? I was going to say like that, that's what the,

what inspired us the first time around was that it felt like we were struggling both against like, you you've got to fight against management. Why do I have to also at the same time, turn around and fight like with union staff about basic stuff. That's like, all they have to do is like nurses are really smart i know it's hard like it's a shocking idea that nurses might know

a thing or two and the idea that we that they have to come up in focus group amongst themselves to tell us what our values are right like i think i can walk around my unit and i can tell i can find out what nurses values are real fast. I mean, we may not all agree on every single thing. Right. There's a there's a pretty wide amount of ideological alignment in our union. We're not all we're not all in lockstep about everything except for how important it is that nurses are actually leading and driving how the union works. And so we have, you know, the main core thing, and I think this is what's so important about union organizing in particular,

is that you can set aside disagreements on one thing, and you focus on the thing that's your shared material interest, regardless, because we all do the same kind of work. It's really important. Yeah, but that also makes it doubly important that the institution that you're using to do this is actually doing the things you want it to do and not fighting you at every step. One of the things that you mentioned

while we were talking about this was how this kind of stuff in the union was impacting Palestinian solidarity organizing. I was wondering if you could talk a bit about that. Oh, I can take that one on. Yeah, go for it. And then Jahad can actually add into it. So I was part of social justice committee. I was actually the chair for the entire

California for NNU. And one of the biggest things is, you know, of course, we're speaking out for our communities. We're speaking out for oppression against oppression and specifically for marginalized communities. So I thought it would be pretty easy for us to align ourselves with our resolutions that we had just passed in actually October the 8th of 2023. And I ran across a lot of barriers. I wanted our union, my union, to put out a statement about a ceasefire and to put out a statement about how bombing hospitals and killing our healthcare worker colleagues was wrong. And I was constantly, you know, barriers were put up. I was told I could not do a vigil. I could not initiate that. I could not speak on behalf of me being a nurse.

And so that infuriated me. I felt really, really betrayed by my union that we had just signed all these resolutions specifically talking about aggression, talking about apartheid. And yet I was being told that I could not speak up. And then I was ghosted on a few times. I would start sending emails. I was like, hey, what's going on? How then I was ghosted on a few times. I would start sending emails. I was like, hey, what's going on? How come I can't do this? And there would be no answer. Or I would say, hey, I want to do a vigil. Nope, you can't do a vigil. Nope, there's no signs that you can use. Nope, nope, nope. And so I just kept getting all these no answers. And a few of us

got together. We got a petition going and we sent it in. We're like, hey, look, these are all the reasons why we as nurses feel that we should be speaking out against what's happening right now and this is even in the early times even you know really in you know the end of October beginning of um of the next month and you know it took them a long time to get it out and it was a very middle of the road statement at that time I had asked the union to sign on and endorse one of the largest and one of the first union rallies in support of Palestine that had been called by the Palestinian trade unions specifically for us to rally around. And they

refused. And on that morning, I submitted publicly my resignation to the Racial Social Justice Committee. I felt that it was an absolute dishonor for me to sit in that position and to be the face of a committee that says it stands for social justice and yet was putting up barriers for us to speak out as nurses. And that really was a huge deal for me. out as nurses. And that really was a huge deal for me. It was a huge deal for many other people that saw that as a gesture of solidarity. But it was more, it was about my ethics and it was about my moral standing. I could not legitimately sit in that position while my union was stifling and censoring my voice. and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together.

You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field,

and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough.

So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly.

I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails.

I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts it's the one with the green guy on it it's a brave thing that you take a stamp like that and it's also it's the right thing to do and you should never have had to do this in the first place like jesus christ oh i don't know i mean i don't know it's just deeply and incredibly frustrating like just hearing hearing that and watching them just like ignore ignore the things that they ignore the resolution that they just passed and i don't know that's absolutely

terrible i hope they i hope they lose hypocrisy much yeah yeah well if i may add to what rosita just said uh first of all i have to say rosita is the bravest person i know and what her positions and her ethics are of the highest caliber. So I'm honored to be running with her during this time. You know, from example here in Minnesota, you know, nurses, as part of the Government Affairs Committee I was involved in, I came kind of toward the end, so I can't take credit for it, but it was the Keeping Nurs nurses at the bedside bill.

It was adopted. It passed the House. Now in Minnesota, we have all three branches basically in the hands of Democrats. It passed the House and the Senate, and yet the governor vetoed it. Why? Because there was pressure from corporate, you know, the bigwigs told them, if you do it, we're going to pull some investment or something. Or I don't know, maybe we won't have you on the board after you retire, something like that. So I don't know. But that kind of triggered us. It was really a stab in the back, if you will. But it's still, you know,

the union itself could do better. It can be more sensitive to its members' needs and their demands. For example, we were trying to get a resolution or a statement, it was back in October, about a ceasefire here through the union, even though it's, I would say, inconsequential for them to say, but they even refused to hear the suggestion or the movement to issue a statement. That was the old board. Toward the end of the reign of the old board, there was more effort, of the old board. There was more effort. I think it was mid-December.

And a week really watered down resolution was adopted calling for ceasefire. The new board came and the first or second meeting in January, in February, there was a much more robust resolution that was adapted at a much higher, you know, nays against versus, yays versus nays in that. There was no nays, actually, there were some abstentions like three out of 14. So, you know, there is a movement, There's a grassroots rank and file nurses who are pushing toward change.

The same thing. I'm also not only a nurse, but also a nursing faculty at Minnesota State University in Mankato. And I belong to another union, the faculty union. In the very beginning, there was just kind of deafening silence. Nobody wants to hear anything. It reminded me of the period after 9-11. If you speak anything against the government or anything, you critique what the government did or didn't do,

you are on the other side. You know, remember that if you're not with us, you're against us argument. And it's the same thing. It was the same thing here. I know people who lost their jobs because they were speaking out for Palestine or against the atrocities that the Israelis were committing. And that's from within unions and healthcare organizations, people who lost their livelihoods because of it, and they are labeled as anti-Semitic or anything like that. So they were trying to kind of silence people, scare them with all these labels and, you know, illegitimate ways of really conducting a civil discourse or having someone hear a different point of view.

So, you know, from that sprouted this huge movement among nurses and healthcare professionals that we want this to go wider, even at the national level during the primaries, where a lot of organizing was happening for uncommitted votes for the primaries for Joe Biden. And that made them feel, you know, the pressure. And as you can see, the U.S. vetoed a ceasefire resolution, I think, three times before. And yet this week, they allowed one to pass because there is a lot of political pressure because they are doing their own calculation, I understand. But still, there is a grassroots movement that affects this change. But still, there is a grassroots movement that affects this change. I just want to tie in to everything that we're saying around organizing. Because I think so much, a lot of people come to unions with the idea that this is how they, you know, you get a chance to build a platform to make a case for the right policies, right? And we, you know, we push things through legislation um and lobbying and then for some reason like the uh a governor decides that they're not going to pass it you

know our union like my part of the union california nurse association national nurses organizing committee this is really this part two was at one point powerful like was so organized and so powerful that they forced the state of California, which is one of the largest economies in the world, to pass a ratio bill that was, you know, that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, after it was passed, you know, those little nurses, I can't believe we were letting them do this. You know, our union at one point was powerful enough to help end Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career. And so when we talk about getting things passed, it requires a lot of power.

And a lot of people don't understand that power means getting people together to commit to take collective action. And that might mean occupying a capital. That might mean doing things that are a little bit outside the law, right? But we understand that if we don't have the power, then none of these idealistic things that we want to have see change in the world or happen in the world can happen. And we've seen, we're talking about this idea of you're either with us against us or against us. People who are advocating for building that power, and that power comes through defending our contracts, defending our co-workers through grievance fights,

making sure that we are taking aggressive action when it comes to strikes and getting strong contract language in the first place. People who are advocating for that are being labeled like the enemy inside the union. It's very difficult when you put so much of your time and energy into union work, which anyone who's a committed unionist can tell you of all the countless amounts of their free time that they spend away from their family, away from their friends, away from their kids, doing the work of making sure that the union is strong. To be kind of accused of being not on the team, right, or not being for everyone else, not being a team player when you're always committed to building the power of the team.

I mean, this is why we're running is because those of us who are making the case that we need to be an organized union we need a union full of people who know how to how to fight how to push back how to stand up for those of us who might be weaker than others to be labeled troublemakers or pains in the ass or they even call us anti-union or union busting which is really just it hurts right um it's very stressful but it's worth it to us because our principles and our commitment to our co-workers and building um a workplace that's uh you know a just place a place that takes care of all the people in our communities people who would otherwise be denied the care that they deserve um we know that we can

only do that by being organized, building relationships, and taking action together as a union to fight. And we know what that looks like. We have members of Shift Change who have been there when they've been occupying Capitol buildings, running politicians out of office. I want our union to be, I tell everybody this, I want our union to be strong and powerful. And I want it to be frightening to people who stand in the way of nurses and our patients. And this is all connected. You know, what we see, you know, our government willing to let happen to people halfway across the world. I always tell people, my coworkers, you know, what we let our bosses get away with the

least of us, they'll do to any of us if they have the chance. And so all of us come from the point of view that we have to build our power. That power has to be, you know, honed through our fights at our work, making sure that our working conditions are good because we know when nurses have good working conditions, patients get the care they need. And when we're powerful and strong at the bedside, we can be powerful and strong out in the community where we need to take our fights and we want to make the world a better place for everybody. You know, I don't think there's any coincidence that, you know, Rosita is, you know, an indigenous woman. Her family's from refugees, from American foreign policy abroad. She had learned to be a nurse in Gaza.

Xenia's family is from the Dominican Republic. Her family, like, fled, like, a U.S.-backed dictator there, Trujillo. And I don't think that there's any, to me, there's no, dictator there, Trujillo. And I don't think that there's any, to me, there's no, it's not a coincidence that we're all here doing this work of building the kind of powerful union that we know that all of our coworkers deserve, that our communities deserve, the whole world deserves. Four troublemakers. Hell yeah. Someone smarter than me once said good trouble. Didn't someone say once that they've been called MAGA supporters or something? They were telling everybody that we were, you know, weird right-wing Trumpy people. And I think that anyone who knows any of us would know that that is absolutely the furthest from the truth.

But it is what it is. You know, people will say whatever they have to say to scare people away from us because that's easier than doing the right thing, which is to make sure that our union is a bottom-up movement led by nurses. They're very afraid of us getting our stuff together because there's always – it's easier to get along with the boss than it is to get along with your coworkers sometimes. I think anyone will tell you that as long as we all know people who are friends with the boss because that's an easy thing to be. It's hard to stick up for people who otherwise can't stick up for themselves. Just in the, you know, for our elections.

So the fact that we're even running, our union doesn't want everyone to know about elections. And the way that it's kind of, we just give you the list that we're going to endorse, just vote for them and no questions asked. That's just how it should be. So the fact that, you know, there's not a lot of information about the elections that go on in the NNU. What does it mean? What does it mean to be in, you know, in a council of presidents? What does it even mean to be a delegate? We are often spoon fed the delegate position.

Just be a delegate and then not told exactly what that means. What does that mean for us? What does that mean in our resolutions? What does that mean when we go to convention? Those things should not be a mystery to us. We shouldn't have to poke and prod to get that information about elections. And so that's also one of the things that we're trying to highlight as well. We should be very informed. And I think that's also another of the things that we're trying to highlight as well. We should be very informed. And I think that's also another parallel between our U.S. government who chooses, you know, they kind of sometimes expect us not to go to the polls because it works in their favor to not be informed voters because it works in their favor. So we can kind of see that same parallel. And that's one of the things that, you know, I think John has made a great way of highlighting that and has, has really

essentially, you know, paved the way for making that information known, as well as Xenia. Xenia is, can I say this, she's a full badass, because she, she, her and John, like, I have to say, like, they are so on it of getting that information out. And it's extremely important because we want our nurses to be informed. We want all of us to be informed. Yeah. So on that note, when is the election? And if you're in the union, how do you vote? Ballots go out April 5th.

We have to have, you have to have your ballot in Oakland in the office by May. We're telling people May 17th because they're going to be counted the morning of May 18th. You will get, if you are a member, a dues paying member in good standing, you will get a ballot in the mail. But we are also telling people because we are finding that there's kind of like two lists of people, you know, in particularly our VA nurses, VA nurses are telling us that they have not been getting back, they didn't get ballots last election. And so we're encouraging everyone to send emails to the election officers to get a ballot if you haven't gotten one, to make sure that those

lists there's a list of people paying dues and they they faithfully take your dues out of your out of your check uh and then there's a list of people who receive ballots you know definitely um very normal and cool the sort of thing that we expect from any sort of union that is buying for the nurses. And so we have an election email. Can I... Does anyone have that off the top of their heads? I will pull it up real quick as we were talking. That's fine. We'll just...

Show notes. Yes. Yeah, it will be in the description. In the meantime, people can go to our website. We have a website where you can read about our story, our philosophy, our platform, all the things that people should know, and how to request a ballot and how to email the union and everything. The address is shiftchange, NNU, one word,.org. Awesome. Yeah, thank you three so much

for coming on the show and hope you beat them. I'm looking forward to us having a victory call where we can... Yeah, I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

Yeah, and this has been NakedH good happen here. You too also list dear listener can go make trouble for your bosses, your political leaders and people in your union. If they're not doing what you want them to do. Oh yeah, absolutely. It could happen here as a production of cool Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the i-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals.

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