Its been a long couple of years.
I’ve been getting asked about my lawsuit and the union arbitration by many people and the matter has been resolved.
From my family and myself, I would like to offer my deepest thanks and appreciation to the frontline RNs, medical staff, and essential workers who have supported us through this incredible difficult and challenging time. As a union reformer and activist, the events surrounding the COVID 19 pandemic nearly cost me my career, and became the darkest I have ever experienced as a father, husband and an RN. Thank you profoundly for helping us stay strong through these trials.
I am aware that throughout the country and in nearly every hospital, we are all experiencing the direct impacts of what can only be described as corporate, mismanaged, healthcare. This privatized, profit-generating commodification of medicine and ourselves as employees has led to the demoralization and moral injury of the people most important to the public health in over 100 years. In short, it exchanges safety, security, purpose of mission, and clinical decision making for money. The effects are being reported across the entire US healthcare industry in no uncertain terms.
I have been able to return to the workforce as a local traveler since October of 2021. I have nearly finished paying the debt that nearly one and half years of unemployment have caused for myself and family. I do not regret at all standing alongside of my coworkers and fighting for workplaces safety, for the health of our patients, and for a new vision of healthcare democratically controlled by the frontline workers and the communities we serve. The last two years have only driven the importance of that task to profoundly deeper and more urgent levels.
Take some strength knowing that we are not alone and that without us, there is nothing that management can offer to heal or protect public health, perhaps the most important task in the world. I will be reapplying myself to that goal as many of you already are now. We do not have to be afraid.
Thank you again from myself, my family and the essential employees in healthcare. The Million Nurse March takes place on May 12, 2022 in Washington DC and I hope to see you all there.
Cliff Willmeng, RN