News & Events
Members of MNA to staff Occupy Detroit
10.31.2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Oct. 28, 2011
Contact: Dawn Kettinger (517) 614-6810
dawn@progressmichigan.org
Members of Michigan Nurses Association to Staff Occupy Detroit Medical Tent on Saturday
Advocates to provide basic care as needed for participant
LANSING – Members of the Michigan Nurses Association will staff the medical tent at Occupy Detroit again Saturday in solidarity with protesters who are focusing public attention on the same vital issues that inspired the nurses to take patient advocacy to a new level with their Main Street Contract for the American People campaign.
“Nurses naturally take care of people, and we’re happy to help Occupy Detroit make basic medical care available to participants,” said Margaret Barden, a registered nurse who lives in Romulus and works at University of Michigan Hospital and volunteered at Occupy Detroit on Saturday. “We all share the same ultimate goal of making our country a place where everyone can prosper, not just the few. My fellow nurses see firsthand the suffering that our ruined economy has caused – we see it in our patients every day. Nonviolent demonstrations like Occupy Detroit are bringing much-needed attention to Wall Street’s role in problems like unemployment, foreclosures and hunger in our communities.”
The Michigan Nurses Association, in conjunction with National Nurses United, launched its Main Street Contract campaign earlier this year to heal the devastation caused by reckless Wall Street corporations and elected officials in both parties who sold them control of our political system.
The Michigan nurses support the Occupy Wall Street movement’s nonviolent efforts to focus attention on these and other related issues. The nurses volunteering in Detroit join their counterparts in providing medical support at Occupy events around the country.
The Main Street Contract campaign supports priorities such as jobs at living wages; guaranteed health care for all; a secure retirement, with the ability to retire in dignity; and a just taxation system where corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share. A minimal tax on Wall Street transactions would fund investments in these priorities.
“Nurses realize that to truly improve our patients’ lives, we need to go beyond advocating for them at the bedside,”said Jeff Breslin,a registered nurse at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing and president of the Michigan Nurses Association. “It’s time to change the system that has allowed out-of-control corporations to rake in record profits while the rest of us pay the price. Taxing Wall Street will help solve that problem by raising billions of dollars to invest in creating jobs and repairing the damage that’s been caused to Michigan’s families and communities.”
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The Michigan Nurses Association, www.minurses.org, represents 10,000 registered nurses across the state, advocating for them and their patients. Visit fightformainstreet.org for more information on their Michigan Main Street Campaign.
