Code Red is a real solution for healthcare workers

During the general sessions on July 24, AFT President Randi Weingarten took some time to introduce delegates to the work of the AFT’s divisions, starting with the healthcare division. Weingarten noted that the AFT is now the second-largest nurses union in the country.

Weingarten highlighted Code Red, the campaign that provides real solutions for healthcare workers as well as patients and communities. She noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers were celebrated as heroes, but many healthcare corporations betrayed those workers, failing to protect their safety and health.Despite this, healthcare workers had no choice but to show up for work even though no one knew what would happen if someone contracted COVID-19—and yet health professionals were there. That’s who our members are, said Weingarten.

In response to the indifference of healthcare corporations and to address the moral injury that many healthcare workers endured—and are still enduring—the AFT launched Code Red as a multiyear campaign to bring about change, including increasing staffing and eliminating workplace violence.

“We’re fighting to combat burnout. We’re fighting to combat violence. We’re fighting to improve patient care—and we’re winning,” said Weingarten. “This Code Red campaign is about real solutions for our healthcare workforce, for our patients, for our communities.”

“We need to be able to imagine that future and act on it, not just fight the bad guys, … but act on the future we need and we want for this country,” Weingarten told delegates.

Weingarten invited AFT Connecticut President and AFT Vice President Jan Hochadel and AFT Connecticut Vice President John Brady to share their success story from the convention floor. Hochadel, who is also a Connecticut state senator, “had to herd cats” to muster support for safe staffing legislation, while Brady mobilized hundreds of workers who testified until 2 a.m. about the need to make care safer in their state.

“That was our members showing up and speaking their voice,” said Brady. “And it wasn’t just our healthcare members. Our educators, our public employees and our retirees showed up because guess what? They either know a nurse or a nursing assistant or they’ve been a patient in a hospital.”

Ultimately, AFT Connecticut won strong legislation with staffing committees on which a union member serves as co-chair and the union has the majority vote.

[Adrienne Coles/photo Suzannah Hoover]