Fired Fil-Am nurse unionist meets with Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C.–To Allysha Almada, a 28-year-old Filipino American registered nurse, the past three months feel like a roller coaster of emotions. She even had a meeting with President Barack Obama. And the ride’s not over yet.

First, there’s the excitement of leading a campaign to unionize 1,200 nurses at the Huntington Memorial Hospital where she works, one of the largest hospitals in the Los Angeles area.

After failed attempts to secure management’s support, Almada and her fellow RNs decided a year ago they needed a collective voice to reverse what they saw as a dangerous erosion of patient safety. So they’ve asked the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CAN/NNU) to help them form a union.

An outspoken advocate of quality patient care, she’s been a compelling presence at pickets and press conferences. In July, she appeared jointly with prominent public officials and church leaders in community meetings.

Her words were quoted widely in newspapers. Her image even appeared in an ad seen all over the city on public buses. “Save one life you’re a hero,” the ad said. “Save a hundred you’re a nurse.”

At every chance she gets, she talks ardently about poor conditions at the hospital, chronic short staffing, inadequate supplies, the urgent need for improvements and the nurses’ repeated demands for change.

Intimidation and retaliation

But the change that followed her organizing activity wasn’t something she expected. She and another co-worker got fired. Management said both nurses violated hospital policies. But to Almada and her supporters, it looked more like retaliation. “They are trying to silence and intimidate us,” she said. “They don’t want nurses to have a voice.”

At a rally called to protest the firings, Almada asserted: “I put my whole soul into caring for my patients, and management knows this. I’ve worked as a nurse educator, sat on a committee of nurse leaders who bring patient care concerns to management; I have special training in trauma and open heart. I care deeply about providing the best possible care, and that’s exactly why I spoke up to help ensure that RNs are supported. The next thing I knew, I was being fired.”

CNA/NNU has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to overturn the terminations. That was in early August.

She says she’s “sad” that the hospital – where she was born, where her mother (also a nurse) has worked for more than 30 years, where she volunteered as a teen doing office chores – has kicked her out of her “second home.”

She still remembers the “thrill” of graduating from nursing school five years ago and being hired right away as a nurse’s aide in Huntington’s Intensive Care Unit.

Feeling down, Almada knew deep inside the only way to go was up. But what followed next was totally unexpected. One day in September, she was reading an email on her cell phone: “The President cordially invites you to attend the White House Summit on Worker Voice to be held at the White House on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at nine o’clock in the morning.”

At first she thought it was a joke. But it was true. Two weeks later, she was shaking hands with the President of the United States.

But before flying to Washington, D.C., she was presented with a “Courage Award” at the Pasadena City Hall, in “recognition of her bravery in continuing to speak out for safe patient care and the right to organize a union.”

Meeting Obama

For Almada, who’s never been to the White House, meeting Obama personally was another thrilling moment. “I still can’t believe it,” she said, still giddy from the encounter that seemed like a dream. “I was excited and nervous when I handed him a stethoscope as a gift from my fellow nurses.” The message engraved on it reads: “Listen to Nurses.”

And that’s what the president and other top administration officials did. They listened to Almada (who represented CNA) and other workers from across the country talk about, as the White House release puts it, “how they can make their voices heard in their workplace in ways that are good for the workers and businesses.”

While in Washington, Almada spoke at a press conference with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The presidential candidate announced his sponsorship of the “Workplace Democracy Act,” a legislation that would help restore workers’ rights to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. “Because of what happened to me in Huntington, we need a bill providing more protections against retaliation,” she said.

During her three days in the nation’s capital, Almada also joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a press briefing. She described the hospital’s vicious, anti-union campaign. Then she walked the halls of Congress meeting with U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff and Judy Chu, and top aides to Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. “It’s very empowering for me to share the stories of Huntington nurses and what we’ve been through,” she said.

Filipino Pride

During a break from her Capitol Hill visits, she pauses to reflect on the past three months and what they’ve meant to her. Reminded that October is Filipino American History Month, she recalled with pride the Delano Manongs who fought for workers rights.

“Our history of struggle and resistance is a source of strength for me,” she said. “I just know we have to stand up for what is right and speak out against any form of unfairness and injustice.”

She credits her parents for raising her to be independent and open-minded. “They encouraged me to think for myself, to voice my own opinions even if they disagreed with how I express them because they still have a little bit of that don’t-rock-the-boat mindset,” she said. “My mom, however, won’t hesitate to speak out about something she feels strongly about. She just says it more politely.”

As to her union organizing, Almada’s family supports her all the way. “Of course they are concerned,” she said, “when I tell them how terrified I am when a big security guard approaches and stops me from handing out leaflets to my fellow nurses on their way to work.”

Taking charge

Almada’s mother, Rhea, is nonetheless in awe of her daughter’s spunk and self-confidence. “Alyssha has always been a take charge person, dating back to pre-school,” she recalled. “She’d be the one lining up the kids, telling them what to do. In high school, when a project needs to get done and no one is stepping up, she always took it upon herself to make sure it’s completed. And now with the nurses, she’s doing the same thing because she deeply cares. I just wish management would allow nurses to freely organize themselves in a fair way instead of being so vindictive.”

The eldest of two daughters (her younger sister is also a nurse), Almada admitted she got her dad’s stubbornness and her mom’s brains, that’s why she was not giving up the fight. “They instilled in me a sense of duty, which I have carried to this day,” she said.

“Yes, I still get scared going up against union busters. But I’m more scared of having to regret later on not doing anything at all. Fear of regret, that’s it. I don’t want to wake up every morning for the rest of my life knowing I could have done something yet l chose not to.

For now, Almada’s heady roller coaster ride continues; she’s still riding high as she braces for yet another thrill in her life. She’s getting married in a couple of weeks.

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TAGS: Allysha Almada, National Labor Relations Board, President Barack Obama, Rep. Judy Chu