SINGLE-MINDED
OF THE MANY public takedowns of RoseAnn DeMoro, the boss of the largest nurses’ union in America, one of the funniest is a campy YouTube video called “The Devil Wears Scrubs.” The DeMoro character arrives for a job interview wearing a red cape and horns and carrying a toy pitchfork. The interviewer hands her a job description. “Wait a minute!” says devil DeMoro, looking offended. “It says here I’ll be expected to engage in underhanded and covert activities, including potentially unduly influencing other unions’ elections, union raids, and member intimidation.” She would also have to lie, misrepresent her union activities to the press, “and basically try to force every state nurses’ association in the country to follow our political agenda even if they disagree with it.”
“Uh, yeah,” the interviewer replies. “Is that going to be a problem?”
DeMoro, gripping her pitchfork, puts a finger to her chin and grins malevolently. “Are you kidding?” she says. “I live for that shit!”
In her two-plus decades as head of the California Nurses Association (CNA)—and more recently its
