Bonnie Castillo, the new executive director of the California Nurses Association, leads a large group from the Crest Theatre in Sacramento to the Capitol on May 1 as they protest two bills currently in the legislature. The group says the measures threaten patient safety. (Ana B. Ibarra/California Healthline)
Bonnie Castillo’s first experience with organized labor dates to the mid-1960s, when she was just 5. Her father was a railroad worker in Sacramento, Calif., and an active union member.
More than once, she and her mom drove him to a picket line, where workers demanded better pay and benefits.
“We’d pick him up within a matter of hours because they’d win,” Castillo, 57, recalled with a slight smile. “That was quite a time.”
Times have changed, but Castillo remains committed to organized labor. In March, she became the new executive director of one of the state’s strongest unions: the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which has about 100,000 members in the state.
The organization has flooded the state Capitol in a sea of red — the union’s official color — in the past year to demonstrate its support for a bill that would create a government-run, single-payer health care system in California. The bill stalled in the legislature last year because of its exorbitant price tag, estimated at $400 billion annually, but Castillo says the fight is not over. “I think it can happen in our lifetime,” she said.
Castillo’s predecessor, RoseAnn DeMoro, who served as executive director of the union for 32 years, was considered a fearless leader by some, unnecessarily aggressive by others.
Last year, after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon pulled the single-payer bill, DeMoro tweeted a picture of the iconic California grizzly bear being stabbed in the back with a knife emblazoned with Rendon’s name. The legislator — a Democrat — said he was besieged by death threats after that.
Castillo discusses workplace violence protections for nurses with a committee at the California Nurses Association’s Oakland office during a March meeting. (Ana B. Ibarra/California Healthline)
Most observers don’t expect this confrontational approach to change dramatically under Castillo; DeMoro began grooming her for the transfer of leadership several years ago. Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio, a critic of the union, told a Politico reporter in March that Castillo is DeMoro’s “Mini-Me.” They’re cut from the “same radical cloth,” he said.
Castillo replied: “I wear that cloth proudly.”
Republican political analyst Kevin Eckery said that it’s fair to question the nurses’ “my-way-or-the-highway” approach to single-payer but that he believes the union’s tactics receive unfair scrutiny, in part because the majority of its members are female.
“I think some of the criticism that they received is really almost mansplaining,” he said. “Yeah, they’re aggressive. So?”
The union has endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, who supports single-payer.
In addition to single-payer, Castillo wants additional workplace violence protections for nurses across the country, and she opposes a federal lawsuit that would allow public-sector workers to opt out of paying union dues, even if they’re covered by union contracts.
Unlike DeMoro, Castillo is a registered nurse. She worked as a critical care nurse in Sacramento for about 14 years until she left in 1998 to work for the union.
Castillo is also the first Latina to hold the title of executive director in the 115-year history of the organization. And though she echoes DeMoro in some ways, Castillo commands a crowd with an assertiveness that’s all her own.
“She might not be as loud about it, but she is definitely a fighter,” said Deborah Burger, co-president of the union, and a member of the board that appointed Castillo to her new gig.
California Healthline recently sat down with Castillo in her Oakland office to discuss her new role.
