The 65,000-member California Nurses Association on Monday joined the AFL-CIO, an affiliation the nursing group hopes will bolster its campaign for health care reform. The association, based in Oakland, is now one of 11 unions representing 325,000 nurses in the national labor federation, including the United American Nurses and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The California nurses formerly were a part of the AFL-CIO when the union was affiliated with the American Nurses Association. The California nurses broke away in 1995 to become an independent union.
See "California nurses rejoin AFL-CIO after 12-year absence", George Raine, San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 2007