By telling Whitman that "Nurses Won't be Pushed Around."

Here's how Carla Marinucci describes it in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Nurses Mount "pushy" Campaign Against Whitman

OAKLAND -- One of the state's most powerful labor unions, saying it "won't be pushed around" by Meg Whitman, unveiled a scathing ad campaign Friday seizing on an altercation between the former eBay CEO and one of her employees. The California Nurses Association said the incident shows how disconnected the GOP gubernatorial nominee is from working people. At a news conference outside its Oakland headquarters that was attended by 150 nurses in red scrubs, the union unveiled a new ad campaign - "Nurses Won't Be Pushed Around" - and released posters showing a heavily jeweled hand adorned with rings that was meant to represent the billionaire candidate.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...

We had a press conference on Friday, well attended and well covered by state and even national media, giving us a great chance to tell our story of why Whitman is wrong for nurses, patients and the people of California.

From the AP:

OAKLAND, Calif.—The feud between California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and a powerful nurses union intensified Friday as the California Nurses Association announced it would bring its gripes to the Republican businesswoman's hometown. Union leaders at a news conference Friday railed on Whitman, whom they accuse of bullying nurses for their private information. "Meg Whitman is trying to push around the registered nurses of California because she has gotten away with pushing around people in her past," said Jill Furillo, a registered nurse and Southern California director of the CNA. Nurses from across the state would attend a July forum in the tony Silicon Valley enclave of Atherton, Furillo said.

From the Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND "" The California Nurses Association opened a new battle Friday in its war on Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman, promising to put thousands of nurses and patients on her doorstep next month. The "Nurses Won"t Be Pushed Around" campaign "" starting with 10,000 posters, to be followed next month by radio and TV ads "" is a not-so-subtle reference to the $200,000 settlement that eBay reportedly paid to a former employee who had claimed Whitman, then the company"s CEO, shoved her during a 2007 altercation. The union says it"s pushing back against a candidate who has put more than $91 million of her personal fortune into her campaign so far, yet complains the union won"t give her its member lists to help her communicate with nurses.

And finally, from the Sacramento Bee:

It was the latest volley in a war of words between Whitman and the CNA. Last week, Whitman asked the union to share the contact information of its members, a request that was swiftly rejected. Whitman, in fact, was already conducting a telephone poll of licensed nurses in the state asking them how they felt about the CNA's political activities. For months now, the union has been sending Queen Meg and member protesters to Whitman's events denouncing the candidate's proposals to reduce state employee numbers by 40,000 people and reduce business regulations. The union then invited Whitman to appear at a public forum with nurses alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. Whitman declined the invitation to that event as well as a subsequent invitation to appear alone at least one public forum with nurses. Those responses sparked scorn from union leaders Friday such as Jill Furillo, a registered nurse who's the union's Southern California director. "What is Meg Whitman afraid of?" Furillo asked. "Why doesn't Meg Whitman want to speak to nurses directly?"

I told you in the first diary that attacking our union was not going to work out well for NutMeg. And so far it isn't.

Her campaign against us seems, at least so far, to be limited to the same tired old anti-union cliches that did not work for Arnold, did not work when another union tried to use them against us and have not worked when union busters have used them in organizing campaigns. Her campaign seems to be as lacking in creativity as it is in strategic smarts. But the power of her nearly limitless resources is not to be scorned. We expect this fight to heat up, we expect it to get nastier yet. As I said a few days ago: Meg as governor may seem like a joke, but she's a joke with a whole lot of money.

Here's a final quote from the Chronicle piece:

But Democratic strategist Chris Lehane said the Whitman campaign's effort to attack the nurses could become as big a distraction for the GOP candidate as it was for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after he quipped to nurses union protesters that he could "kick their butts." "I don't understand the political calculations," Lehane said. "Sometimes, you pick fights with the third parties - but it's the tobacco companies. You don't pick fights with nurses, wounded vets or America's soccer team."

Follow developments here.

Here's our Queen Meg's Facebook page.

And here's where you can support the next governor of California,

Jerry Brown

The Diarist is a Registered Nurse in California and a volunteer member of the Board of Directors of the California Nurses Assn.