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California Nurses Association

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California Nurses Association
California Nurses Association.png
Basic facts
Location:California
Type:501(c)(5)
Top official:Puneet Maharaj, executive director
Year founded:1903
Website:Official website
Budget
2013:$63,538,000
2012:$61,229,133
2011:$59,210,936

The California Nurses Association (CNA) is a labor union in California. It is a state affiliate of the National Nurses Organizing Committee and according to its website, it is also a member of the AFL-CIO. The organization's website describes itself as "a premiere organization of registered nurses and one of the nation’s fastest growing labor and professional organizations in the U.S."[1]

History

The CNA was founded in 1903. In 2005, the organization became a national organization and formed the National Nurses Organizing Committee.[2] As of 2023, the organization released a statement saying the following about their mission:[3]

“
  • To promote, advance, and ensure safe, therapeutic and effective health care for all.
  • To ensure that the registered nurse remains the direct care provider in all practice settings through collective bargaining, nursing practice enforcement, legislation, regulation, and nursing education.
  • To promote the involvement of every CNA member in leadership, representation, development and empowerment of nurses in professional, employment, political and community arenas.
  • To unify registered nurses by building a strong national union to protect and enhance the practice and working conditions of registered nurses.[4]
 ”

Leadership

As of December 2025, the following were listed as top officials on CNA's website:[1]

  • Puneet Maharaj, executive director
  • Cokie Giles, president
  • Michelle Gutierrez Vo, president
  • Cathy Kennedy, president
  • Sandy Reding, president

Work and activities

As of 2025, CNA's website listed the following as part of what it does:[1]

“
  • Fighting for Patients: CNA/NNOC has attracted national renown as a leading advocate of guaranteed health care by expanding and updating Medicare to cover all Americans, for negotiating many of the best collective bargaining contracts for RNs in the nation, and for sponsorship of innovative legislation and regulatory protections for patients and nurses. Most notably, CNA/NNOC sponsored the nation’s foremost RN patient safety law, in California, requiring minimum RN-to-patient ratios, the most effective solution in the U.S. for stemming the erosion of care standards in hospitals.
  • Making a Difference: When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to roll back the ratio law in 2004, CNA/NNOC drew the world’s attention by successfully challenging Schwarzenegger, then at the height of his popularity, and forging what became a broad coalition that defeated the governor’s attack on the ratio law and a series of initiatives that targeted working people. Other landmark laws sponsored by CNA/NNOC in California include whistleblower protections for caregivers who expose unsafe hospital conditions, a ban on inappropriate personnel providing telephone medical advice, and increased funding for nursing education programs. Those patient protections serve as a model for similar proposals sponsored by NNU and NNOC affiliates nationally, in a bill authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, S 1031, and in many states across the country.
  • Improving Health Care: RNs represented by CNA/NNOC have many of the best collective bargaining contracts in the nation. CNA agreements are noted for enhancing the collective voice of RNs in patient care decisions, outlawing dangerous practices such as mandatory overtime, and dramatic improvements in retirement security for RNs and other provisions that are needed to retain career RNs at the hospital bedside and protect patients. CNA/NNOC has also won landmark contract innovations including limits on the use of new technology that displaces RNs or subverts RN independent judgment, and expanded protections for patients and nurses in containing the spread of pandemics. CNA/NNOC is also renowned for its advocacy for patients with programs that have helped hundreds of patients with information on how to respond to health care industry abuses, and assisted patients in bringing their stories to legislative hearings and the media.[4]
 ”

Political activity

Single-payer health advocacy, 2017

In July 2017, after the Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D) did not allow a bill proposing a single-payer health system to proceed in the Assembly, the CNA staged protests at the state capitol. According to Politico, the union protested by "waving signs with Rendon’s name printed on a knife buried in the back of the California bear."[5] According to U.S. News and World Report, the union also followed lawmakers around the capitol chanting "Shame on you."[6]

2016 elections

For the 2016 election cycle, the CNA endorsed two candidates for the California State Senate: Mariko Yamada (D) and Steve Bradford (D). They also endorsed Janice Hahn for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Aaron Peskin for San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[7]

2010 elections

The group also offers endorsements of certain state-level legislation and candidates for office. In the 2010 election cycle, for example, they opposed California Proposition 13 and supported California Proposition 15.[8]

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.

Notable candidate endorsements by California Nurses Association
EndorseeElectionStageOutcome
Michelle Chambers  source  (D) California State Senate District 35 (2024) GeneralLost General
Notable ballot measure endorsements by California Nurses Association
MeasurePositionOutcome
California Proposition 16, Repeal Proposition 209 Affirmative Action Amendment (2020)  source SupportDefeated
California Proposition 19, Property Tax Transfers, Exemptions, and Revenue for Wildfire Agencies and Counties Amendment (2020)  source SupportApproved
California Proposition 1, Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment (2022)  source SupportApproved
California Proposition 21, Local Rent Control Initiative (2020)  source SupportDefeated
California Proposition 33, Prohibit State Limitations on Local Rent Control Initiative (2024)  source SupportDefeated
California Proposition 36, Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative (2024)  source OpposeApproved
California Proposition 50, Use of Legislative Congressional Redistricting Map Amendment (2025)  source SupportApproved
California Proposition 5, Lower Supermajority Requirement to 55% for Local Bond Measures to Fund Housing and Public Infrastructure Amendment (2024)  source SupportDefeated
California Proposition 24, Consumer Personal Information Law and Agency Initiative (2020)  source OpposeApproved
California Proposition 15, Tax on Commercial and Industrial Properties for Education and Local Government Funding Initiative (2020)  source SupportDefeated

Finances

The following is a breakdown of the California Nurses Association's revenues and expenses from 2014 to 2024. The information comes from ProPublica.

California Nurses Association financial data 2014-2024
Year Revenue Expenses
2014 $86 million $63.5million
2015 $92.9 million $75.5 million
2016 $102.2 million $76.2 million
2017 $107.8 million $78.4 million
2018 $123 million $87.8 million
2019 $127.2 million $83.4 million
2020 $135.8 million $99.2 million
2021 $139.6 million $92.5 million
2022 $140.2 million $96.1 million
2023 $157.8 million $112.6 million
2024 $173.9 million $140.1 million

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms California Nurses Association. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

California Nurses Association - Google News

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Nurses United, "About CNA," accessed December 22, 2025
  2. ↑ National Nurses United, "More than 100 years of RN power," accessed December 22, 2025
  3. ↑ Banner Health, "2020-2023 PHILOSOPHY MISSION STATEMENT BYLAWS STANDING RULES," accessed December 22, 2025
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ Politico, "California Democrats plunge into 'civil war,'" July 10, 2017
  6. ↑ U.S. News and World Report, "Nurses Aren't Giving Up on California's Single-Payer Push," July 13, 2017
  7. ↑ National Nurses United, "California Endorsements," accessed August 21, 2015
  8. ↑ California Secretary of State, "Yes on Proposition 15," accessed August 21, 2015
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