Labor & Employment Law

Won?t You Come See Us, Queen Meg?

By Mike Hall

After spending $90 million to capture the California Republican gubernatorial primary, billionaire and former eBay CEO ?Queen? Meg Whitman is now spending some of her cash to attack Golden State nurses and their union, the California Nurses Association (CNA).

But she has refused CNA?s offer to meet face to face and defend her attacks and her Wall Street corporate agenda and its impact on nurses, patient safety and health care. So yesterday, more than 1,000 CNA nurses dressed in red scrubs went to her palace?oops, I mean multimillion-dollar Silicon Valley home. Says Malinda Markowitz, CNA co-president:

Since Meg Whitman refuses to talk directly to nurses, without the filter of her handlers and high-priced consultants, our members are coming to deliver a message to her: RNs and CNA will not be pushed around or bullied like one of her subordinates or subjects. California’s nurses will not accept her high-handed attacks on us, or her plans to reduce public safety protections for California patients, workers and families.

The nurses marched to the gates of Whitman?s Atherton castle?uh, I mean house?chanting ?CEO, gotta go!” and “We gotta beat back the Whitman attack.” Whitman?s agenda includes cutting 40,000 state government jobs, dramatically reducing public employee pensions, deregulating industry and cutting welfare benefits.

Geri Jenkins, also a CNA co-president, says Whitman?s drastic job cuts would include nurses and other health care workers.

That’s not an agenda that’s patient-friendly.

While Whitman, whose corporate experience includes a stint on the board of Goldman Sachs, wasn?t home, the other Queen Meg made an appearance. The satirical imperial character that made her debut in the primary was flanked by two snappy-suited bodyguards, Goldman and Sachs, according to their sashes.

Queen Meg began shouting at a person dressed in a large California-shaped custom, ?You?re all mine, you?re all mine. I?m buying you fair and square.? She then pummeled “California” and shoved the state to the ground. But thanks to the timely intervention of two paramedics who revived the state, California regained its feet.

Click here to join Queen Meg?s Facebook page and here for Queen Meg videos. Be sure and visit the California Labor Federation?s Wall Street Whitman website for more information.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 16, 2010 (boomark / email).