For Immediate Release
October 31, 2011

Nurses Continue Support with First Aid Station at Occupy Site
 
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United said today that it is standing in solidarity with Occupy Oakland, its protest actions on November 2 and its continuing movement.
 
CNA encourages its members to participate on Wednesday by joining one of the series of events being planned, including a noon protest march starting from City Hall plaza as well as a labor rally scheduled at 5 p.m. also at the main Occupy Oakland site in front of City Hall.
 
Additionally, nurse members of CNA are continuing to provide basic first aid support at Occupy Oakland and at seven other Occupy Wall Street sites across the country, including San Francisco.
 
“Nurses are part of the 99%. We see the health impacts of job loss, home foreclosures, and poor nutrition related to the economic crisis. Nurses care for patients experiencing who delay or forego needed medical care because of the cost, and see more stress-related disease, inability to afford medications, and rising numbers of the uninsured,” said Martha Kuhl, an Oakland RN.
 
“In Oakland, a city that has been especially hard hit by the economic crisis, these problems are evident throughout the neighborhoods where we work and live as well,” Kuhl said.
 
Nurses have been actively involved throughout the year in actions highlighting the economic disparities in the U.S., and the need to hold Wall Street accountable. CNA and NNU have been calling for a tax on Wall Street financial transactions to raise revenues that can be used to help fund healthcare for all, good jobs, quality public education, and other social needs.
 
In addition, nurses this week will be in the forefront of an international day of action on Thursday, November 3 calling for the Obama administration to support the global movement for a financial transaction tax to heal the U.S. and global economies.
 
In San Francisco, nurses will convene at 11 a.m. Nov. 3 across from the Federal Reserve Bank at 101 Market St., for a march to the Wells Fargo headquarters at 464 California St.