Tucson Opinion: Senators, nurses need you to support the PRO Act

Although we have put our lives on the line for the past 15 months to care for thousands of Arizonans hospitalized with COVID-19, nurses have continuously been denied the necessary personal protective equipment, safe staffing and other infection control measures needed to properly care for our patients.

Throughout the pandemic, while governments and employers turned their backs on us, we have fought together against hospital managers to win workplace protections without fear of retribution. This will not only help keep all nurses safe, it will help keep patients safe.

That’s why it is critical that Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema support legislation that would make it easier for nurses and other workers to join a union. They need to demonstrate their support for working families by co-sponsoring the PRO Act.

Because we had the protection of a union contract, my co-workers and I were able to fight our hospital managers who refused to practice safe COVID-19 protocols. As one example, my hospital planned to reuse N95 respirators using the Battelle Decontamination System, which sprayed vaporized hydrogen peroxide over N95 masks, despite any scientific evidence that it would kill the coronavirus.

Hospital managers wanted us to wear these respirators for weeks at a time, even though they are supposed to be for single use only. As a nurse, this was unacceptable. Cutting corners like this put our lives and our patients’ lives in danger.

Our union pushed back on this process — and won! Hospitals are no longer allowed to use this process. I’m very proud that, as a union, we were able to organize and utilize our collective power to protect ourselves and our patients.

Unionized nurses across the country were able to similarly fight back against unsafe practices in their hospitals during this pandemic. While sadly too many nurses and other health-are workers were infected and died during this pandemic, more would have died if it were not for unionized workers being able to push for — and win — protections at their hospitals and from the government.

When the PRO Act passed the House of Representatives, it gave me a renewed sense of hope. But even so, this pandemic made clear that many companies, including health-care corporations, view their workers as just numbers on a piece of paper.

The PRO Act would allow non-union nurses and other health-care workers the ability to organize and bargain collectively, for the benefit of their patients and themselves.

Being in a union is something that has made all the difference in my career as a nurse. While my experience during the pandemic has been far from easy, it pales in comparison to that of nurses who do not have union protections.

Sens. Sinema and Kelly have an opportunity to stand for those on the front lines — like my colleagues and me — who have been touted as “heroes,” and pass laws that actually benefit our lives and those of our patients.

Legislation like the PRO Act would ensure that joining a union would be easier, not harder, for workers and recognize the enormous benefit that unions bring to both Arizona’s economy and the workforce. Prioritizing the strength of our country’s unions is the only way to ensure that workers and the public are protected, both now and during future pandemics.