10,000 Nurses, Community Supporters to Converge at 61 Congressional Offices in 21 U.S. States Sept. 1 - Call for Tax on Wall Street to Heal America

WASHINGTON, August 30, 2011 -

- RNs to sponsor soup kitchens, speak outs on the need for jobs, healthcare, education, housing - and outline plan to pay for it

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, nurses, joined by others demanding action on the economic crisis, will call on U.S. Congress members in their local offices Thursday  to support a tax on Wall Street financial speculation, a revenue source fast becoming an international norm, to pay for healing the nation.

Events, from soup kitchens to help feed the hungry, to community speak outs, to street theater are planned from urban centers like Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Orlando, to smaller towns, such as Corpus Christi, Texas, Marquette, Michigan, and Dayton, Ohio. National Nurses United, the largest U.S. union of nurses, is sponsoring the actions.

Nurses will visit home offices of Republicans and Democrats, with a common message - American families are hurting, and they need jobs, healthcare, housing, quality education, nutrition, and a secure retirement.

The RNs will urge Congress members to pledge to “support a Wall Street transaction tax that will raise sufficient revenue to make Wall Street pay for the devastation it has caused on Main Street.”  

A tax on Wall Street trading of stocks, derivatives, currencies, credit default swaps, and futures - which many other nations have now adopted - could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for programs that “are desperately needed to reduce the pain and suffering felt by so many who feel abandoned in communities across this nation,” says NNU Co-president Deborah Burger, RN.

“America’s nurses every day see broad declines in health and living standards that are a direct result of patients and families struggling with lack of jobs, un-payable medical bills, hunger and homelessness. We know where to find the resources to bring them hope and real solutions,” said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN.

“It’s time for Wall Street financiers, who created this crisis and continue to hold much of the nation’s wealth, to start contributing to rebuild this country, and for the American people to reclaim our future,” says NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.

List of all actions nationwide: www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/sept-1-event-list

Link to a multimedia release with audio, video clips and photographs: www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nurses-to-converge-on-60-congressional-offices-in-21-states-sept-1—-call-for-tax-on-wall-street-to-heal-america-128378993.html

Charles Idelson, +1-510-273-2246, or Carl Ginsburg, +1-917-405-1060, both for California Nurses Association