Quick note at the top of the show. We're recording this remotely and the sound

quality may not be what it is in the studio.

When I asked Zennie Cortez why she wanted to be a union leader, she had a very

direct answer. I've always been somebody who would say something if I see

something that needs to be said. Zennie Cortez is the co-president of

National Nurses United. The largest nurses union in the country and

represents about 150,000 workers. Right now she has something to say. I want to be

the voice for those nurses who do not have the courage or who are

intimidated by management and the union. It has allowed me to speak out with

that fear of retaliation because I have a union, an organization that will

back me up for telling the truth. Over her four decades spent as a nurse, Zennie

has seen her fair share of outbreaks. But never anything like this. It's not the

pandemic that shocks her, but the way she and her colleagues have been asked

to approach it and the way they've been punished for trying to take matters

into their own hands. Some of our supervisors and our managers have

threatened suspension or even termination if we brought our own protective

equipment. So we held public information rallies and we did a media campaign

to say, you know, if you're not able to provide us with what we need, then we will

buy our own and let us do that. Zennie has seen the news around the country of

hospitals skimping on PPE. Nurses being like, oh, suspend it.

We can camp in County a nurse at Virtua Borges Hospital sent home for wearing an

N95 masks that she brought from home. That nurse has now been fired. This March

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