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MNA Makes Bold Change in Leadership & Direction
Board Appoints New Executive Director and President
As Organization Adopts Progressive Agenda to Address
Crisis in Health Care
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) Board
of Directors today announced a change in its leadership to reflect
the organization’s commitment to pursue a more progressive and proactive
agenda to address what the organization believes is a growing crisis
in health care caused by corporatization and managed care.
The Board also voted to continue its efforts to pursue independence
from its national organization, the American Nurses Association,
which the MNA sees as too moderate in its positions to adequately
address the needs of staff nurses on the frontlines of health care.
The Board has appointed Julie Pinkham, RN, as the
new executive director of the 20,000 member Association to replace
Mary Manning. Pinkham, who has been a staff member at MNA
since 1989, has spent the last five years as the Director of the
Association’s Labor Relations Department. During her tenure,
Pinkham has revitalized and grown the MNA’s unionized membership,
leading a series of successful organizing drives, and drawing national
recognition for the MNA’s strong positions and activism around issues
of safe staffing, mandatory overtime and occupational health and
safety. Under her leadership, the MNA has become one of the
leading and most progressive voices for staff nurses and patients
in the era of managed care and health care corporatization.
The Board also appointed Denise Garlick to be the
President of the organization. Garlick, a staff nurse and long-time
member of the organization’s Cabinet for Labor Relations, was in
line under MNA bylaws for the MNA Presidency following the resignation
today of President Karen Daley and four other Board members.
In addition to Garlick, the Board appointed Nora Watts and Liz Joubert
to fill those vacant positions, and are working on finalizing the
two additional appointments.
“I am humbled and honored to assume leadership of
this organization,” said Garlick. “The changes that were made
today in our organization demonstrate a new and revolutionary change
in MNA that has been building for a long time. Our membership,
predominantly staff nurses toiling at the bedside under horrendous
conditions, have demonstrated to us that they want the MNA to take
bold steps and take strong stands to protect their patients and
themselves. This is truly a day of celebration for every staff nurse
in Massachusetts, and ultimately for our patients.”
The leadership changes at the MNA come on the heels
of closely watched vote at its annual business meeting in November,
where the vast majority of the organization’s membership voted to
support disaffiliation, but narrowly missed the two thirds margin
required to pass a bylaw change allowing disaffiliation from the
ANA. The Board has voted to schedule another meeting
within six months for another vote on the disaffiliation issue.
“Our membership has spoken and we have heard them,”
Garlick concluded. “They want an MNA that speaks loud and clear
on issues impacting staff nurses and those who support staff nurses.
This organization is now poised to raise that voice clearly and
unequivocally.”
Read additional news coverage on this important
issue:
Read what the ANA has to say about the new leadership at the MNA:
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