Bonnie Castillo, National Nurses United Executive Director, Named to Top AFL-CIO Council
On March 22 2018, AFL-CIO elected National Nurses United Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, to its top leadership bodies, the AFL-CIO Executive Council and Executive Committee.
Concurrently, the Executive Council also passed a resolution honoring longtime Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro upon her retirement earlier this month.
Castillo, the union’s first Latina Executive Director, leads both NNU and its largest affiliate, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. NNU is the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses with 150,000 members, and has been one of the most successful organizing unions in the U.S.
“It is an honor to join with leaders of the labor movement across the country who represent the long tradition of advocating on behalf of all U.S. workers, their families, and their communities,” said Castillo.
“With an escalating corporate and far right attack on workers and our democracy, from Congress to Wall Street to many state capitols, the labor movement today has a solemn obligation to protect the rights and security of our people and our nation. On behalf of NNU, I am proud to have the opportunity to stand with them,” Castillo said.
Castillo also called on labor to place its priority on critical issues, such as Medicare for all, environmental justice, living wage jobs, opposing racial, gender, ethnic, and sexual orientation discrimination, and attacks on workers and unions, including the importance of union organizing all workers, not just electing candidates for office. “It is up to all of us to clearly redefine the political, economic, and social priorities of our country and fight for real social change,” Castillo said.
