Don’t you think it’s strange that after 7 years at NYSNA, taking the union from an organization no one had heard of to a force to be reckoned with in both the City and State, Jill had nothing to say to us before she leaves?
Jill Furillo Executive Director, New York State Nurses Association Perhaps no other organization has raised its profile and upped the political ante over the past several years like the New York State Nurses Association – all thanks to Jill Furillo’s leadership. It began with the association’s first political endorsement in 2013, of New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, who was trailing in the polls at the time. After a series of hospital closings in New York, Furillo demanded the organization change its tactics from simply helping nurses find new jobs to fighting back. The move is credited with helping save Interfaith Medical Center and drawing attention to the closure of Long Island College Hospital.
Number 5 in 50 most powerful people in NYS Healthcare
For the first time our Safe Staffing bill is getting real hearings. H and H got a contract within a year of her becoming Executive Director, after working without a contract for YEARS. The nurses at H and H should be very worried if they don’t settle their contract before she leaves. Pat Kane has no ability to settle a contract and Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez has no interest in or ability to settle a contract.
Jill and the Staff she brought in we’re able to achieve multi employer bargaining for the first time in NYSNA’s history. In the second round of Multi employer bargaining nurses won control of $100,000,000 of the employers money, nowhere in the healthcare industry has that ever happened. She got the governor to intervene, provide funding, and send in a very skilled mediator. Which resulted in monumental gains and the Best contracts we have ever gotten.
In fact Judy, who did everything in her power to sabotage the contract, took credit for the successes of the last round of bargaining when she thought she would get removed from office. In fact it was the center piece of her “please don’t vote me out of office” propaganda at the convention.
It was Jill Furillo who walked every floor at Bronx Lebanon with Robert McCauly(deceased) the Staff Representative the night of the mass shooting there. Not Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez even though she lives in the Bronx. Jill had to come from Manhattan and get through road blocks.
We could go on for pages about our accomplishments as a union, due to her leadership and the leadership of the experienced and knowledgeable staff she was able to recruit from all over the country. As staff nurses, and union activists we have learned and grown beyond anything we ever thought possible. We are prepared to do whatever is necessary to continue to move our Union in this direction. Here is what the world thinks of Jill and our union since she arrived.
So why didn’t Jill say goodbye?
Is it because she was handed a speech that was written for her and handed to her by Pat and Judy? Is it because they wanted her to tell us at our convention how Qualified Pat Kane is to be our next Executive Director? How things will be just fine after she leaves? What an amazing unifying leader Judy is? Did she refuse to do this and instead chose to say nothing?
Is Judy going to Answer these Questions?Because Someone owes us an explanation!
NYSNA I See You 