Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Zabdiel Martinez

Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to the labor movement. Today's profile features Zabdiel Martinez of AFSCME.

Zabdiel Martinez is an economic support specialist in Dane County, Wisconsin, helping families access food assistance and Medicaid. A proud AFSCME Council 32 member, Martinez fights for strong public services. He’s even taken that fight to Washington, D.C., meeting with lawmakers to show how cuts to Medicaid and SNAP hurt communities like his. Back home in Wisconsin, he continues to advocate for the resources working people in his community need.

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 09/16/2025 - 10:24

Tags: Hispanic Heritage Month

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Florida Nurses Decisively Vote to Join NNU

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Registered nurses at HCA Florida Fort Walton–Destin Hospital voted last week to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), marking yet another victory for medical professionals at HCA Healthcare hospitals.

HCA Healthcare is the largest for-profit operator of medical facilities in the country. Based on Medicare cost reports, the corporation’s Florida-based hospitals made nearly $15 billion in profits, including $616 million at Fort Walton-Destin Hospital from 2019 to 2023. Nurses cite concerns around unsafe staffing levels, broken equipment and workplace violence as core motivators for forming a union.

“I am absolutely overwhelmed and elated that we are now part of National Nurses United,” said Paige Campbell, a registered nurse in the emergency department. “We now have the opportunity to make real changes at our hospital so we can provide the highest quality of care to each and every one of our patients. We know that with a seat at the bargaining table, management must address our concerns. And while we rejoice in this victory, we know in the end, it is our patients who will be the biggest winners.”

“We are so proud to welcome the hundreds of nurses at Fort Walton-Destin Hospital to our NNU family,” said Marissa Lee, a registered nurse in Kissimmee, Florida, who is also an NNU vice president. “Now when nurses stand up to advocate for better patient care, they are not standing alone. They are standing with 10,000 other HCA nurses and more than 225,000 registered nurses across the country.”

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 09/16/2025 - 10:15