[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 48 (Thursday, March 17, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H3786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1100
            HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF KATHY J. SACKMAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Gomez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise in memory of Kathy J. Sackman, a 
pioneer in the labor movement, as well as a registered nurse and 
founder of the United Nurses Association of California/Union of 
Healthcare Professionals.
  I had the honor of serving with Kathy when I was her political 
director for a number of years, and she was a nurse's nurse. She was a 
frontline nurse who worked in critical care units and saw that the 
adverse treatment of nurses led to worse outcomes for patients. She 
started in Pittsburgh and then moved to California, and she was a 
registered nurse in Fontana.
  I asked Kathy simply one day, why did you start the United Nurses 
Association of California/Union of Healthcare Professionals? And she 
said simply, I saw that the nurses were being treated very differently, 
very differently than the doctors. We didn't even have dental, and they 
did. She said, it seemed small then, but it was something big because 
it represented just the fact that nurses, people that work in 
healthcare, didn't even get the proper benefits that they deserved. So 
they decided to organize.
  That organization now is 32,000 strong, representing not only 
registered nurses but also nurse midwives. It is something that she 
left a living legacy that will continue for years to come.
  One of the things that we tried to remind people, she told me, is 
that the wins that we have achieved tend to be forgotten over the 
years; that the pay for nurses; that the staffing ratio for nurses; 
that the way nurses are viewed today has always been so. And she said 
that that was not always the case. And that is why they fought to 
organize, they fought for their patients.
  But she also understood that if you don't treat the nurses well, then 
the patients are not treated well. If you have 10 patients for one 
nurse, well, there is no way that those patients can get the quality 
care that they deserve. So she led, as well as other nurses, for the 
fight for staffing ratios in California that have improved the outcomes 
for patients across not only southern California, where she started the 
Nurses Union, but throughout the entire State and the country.
  One of the things that she was always proud of is that she always put 
members first, nurses first, the community first, the hospital first 
because she knew if the hospital did well, that the nurses would do 
well. If the nurses do well, patients do well. So this is something 
that was impressive.
  Quick story: She reorganized a hospital, nurses at a particular 
hospital. And when we opened up the hospital's books, they were flat 
broke. Every night a creditor would swipe their bank accounts, take all 
the money that was owed to them, and they would never have enough money 
to put into patient care or to keep them whole.
  So she made an agreement with the nurses; we are going to help save 
this hospital. She worked with the parent union of this union called 
AFSCME International, a Republican Member of Congress, a Democratic 
Senator, to get the bridge funding necessary to help that hospital stay 
afloat. It was a safety net hospital; and told them that once we get 
that hospital stabilized, their finances are better, and we can get 
your raise, then you will be pay more dues. At that point, they were 
only paying $5 in dues. That is unheard of. But that is because she 
knew that in the end you had to get that hospital to a place that was 
financially stable; that was stable for the patient; and was stable for 
the people that worked there.
  In the end, she helped save a hospital that was in a low-income 
community. It was a working-class community and the community that I 
grew up in, Riverside, California.
  She will always have a lasting legacy as long as we continue to fight 
for patients, for nurses, and for our communities.
  Madam Speaker, I just want to also mention that she is survived by 
two sons, Monty and Michael, and an extended family.

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