If California nursing labor activist Rose Ann DeMoro wasn’t so successful manipulating California media outlets in painting her union member’s agenda for the public good and that anyone who dares speak out against her union’s agenda is anti-patient, then it’s doubtful we’d be interested in giving her a second look. The allegations against her of nepotism, bullying and tainted elections would be between her and her members. However, since every paper in the golden state is now holding her up as modern day Joan of Arc that has single handedly stopped Gov. Schwarzenegger ’s misogynist (anti-woman) conservative anti-consumer, anti-patient, anti-student, etc. agenda, it’s now become relevant to take a closer look.

First off, despite waxing endlessly about the subject, DeMoro is not a nurse, never has been, has never changed a bed pan, plugged in an IV or helped a patient in any way. Her background has solely been as a union activist. She cut her teeth in union organizing with those fun-loving Teamsters. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this, putting her mission on a pedestal because she is representing unionized nurses instead of unionized toll takers misses the mark. But the press has fallen completely for her pro-patient spin in her fight to win more jobs/money/etc for her members. In fact, her success is sure to attract copycat tactics as other unions position themselves similarly as either pro-customer (retail clerks), pro-commuters (toll takers), pro-health and cleanliness (sanitation workers) and so forth. Who can blame them? If you can position your drive to make more money for your members to instead be a fight for the good of all people, then why wouldn’t you?

Now back to DeMoro. As with other major lobbyists, DeMoro enjoys the benefits and trappings of the power that comes with being able to create work stoppages at will. She has put her husband on the payroll with a $100,000/year job as a researcher. He holds this job even though he has failed to pay state income taxes since 1997 and has even been suspended from doing business in California. (Given California’s budget woes are due to a falling revenue base combined with increased spending I find Mr. DeMoro’s tax paying lapses to be exceptionally ironic to say the least).

Finally, DeMoro has played the sexist card as well or better than anyone else in politics. If an outsider uses any female characterization to describe the union’s members (no matter the context) then they would at best be labeled a sexist, at worst a woman-hating sexist. However when it suits DeMoro she throws out the feminine card and characterize any position contrary to her union as an attack against all women (ed. note: tell that to the 30,000 or so male nurses in the union). DeMoro even credits their successful track record to the “women’s culture” that emphasizes collaboration rather than competition within the union with the implication that a male culture within the union would not do so well. Somehow none of this is a gender generalization.

All of this (other than the financial shenanigans of her husband) is certainly well within her rights as a special interest group working solely for the interests of its members. But it is the public perception (permeated by the majority of California’s newspapers) that she and the union are somehow the forces of lightness and good fighting against the forces of darkness and evil that makes Independent Sources pine for a “fair and balanced” reporting of California politics. Okay, we can dream can’t we?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 at 7:51 am by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.