From the Massachusetts Nurse Newsletter
February/March 2011 Edition
“Good evening brothers and sisters. My name is Karen Coughlin. I am a registered nurse at Taunton State Hospital, a unionized public sector employee with the Massachusetts Nurses Association Unit 7 of RNs and health care professionals, and most important of all, I am a proud union member who is here today to say the Massachusetts Nurses Association and National Nurses United will stand with our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we will stand with our brothers and sisters in Massachusetts, we will stand with each and every union member wherever they live and work. We will not back down; we will not allow anyone to strip from us our hard-fought union rights—no matter what it takes.
We do not apologize for our collective voice, we do not and will not accept any effort to weaken our ability to stand up for ourselves, or the patients and clients we serve and protect through the power of our union. We are here to say we are the people who make this government and this society run, we are the ones who keep you safe, we are the ones who care for and protect you, particularly the most vulnerable among us.
We are nurses, and physicians, and physical and occupational therapists, who are joining with firefighters, and policemen, and teachers and social workers and thousands of other public servants who work hard every day on your behalf. We are your friends and your neighbors who protect and care for you. We are not the enemy.
And to the Wisconsin legislators and those that agree with them; we are here to warn you, do not play politics with our future. You have a choice, kowtow to the corporate interests that have created the crisis we now face and punish the victims of their greed and mismanagement, or side with the working people in this country and restore a sense of fairness to our broken system. It comes down to that old adage from an earlier time of turmoil, which begs the question: “which side are you on?” Whatever side that is, you can be sure that there is a movement growing right now, a movement of working people from coast to coast, and continent to continent, and this we know:
We will not be silenced … We will continue the fight … And we shall overcome!”
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