Potential MN Nurses Strike?

Nurses Union

Published

Below is video of an amazing, heartfelt and to-the-point statement from Methodist Hospital RN Karen Anderson during today's bargaining session. Please watch and share this video as it sums up what this entire contract bargaining situation is all about!

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]
Please don't cross the picket lines.....This will be a rolling action if it happens.

Please explain this comment.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Please explain this comment.

In case the commentor doesn't see it quickly, I'll try to respond until they do:

A "rolling action" means that the nurses would not strike all the hospitals at once, even though they are negotiating as a group. I'm not at all privy to this plan, but it might be something like strike two days at one hospital, then two days at another, etc.

When most people think of a strike, they think of an open ended "strike until we get what we want" action. That's powerful if you have the support for it, but not the only way - nurses in California have built our success and good contracts with very little of that. We mostly do strikes (when we do them and not all that often) for a fixed period of 1-3 days. It's a way of showing power and cohesion and costing the hospital money to bring in scabs, but without the massive stress on the nurses of an open ended strike.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

I'm not part of the union, but I'm a MN nurse and wish them the best and hope they can negotiate a good contract.

I was reading some of the reader comments after the article, one person state that nurses get paid a bonus for working on their birthday :uhoh3:. I would love to work at whatever facility this is that pays you a bonus for working on your birthday!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I'm not part of the union, but I'm a MN nurse and wish them the best and hope they can negotiate a good contract.

I was reading some of the reader comments after the article, one person state that nurses get paid a bonus for working on their birthday :uhoh3:. I would love to work at whatever facility this is that pays you a bonus for working on your birthday!

Actually not all that rare a benefit - before they went to a PTO system, my hospital treated your birthday as a holiday. We had switched to a PTO system long beofre we unionized, so we've stuck with that.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I'm not part of the union, but I'm a MN nurse and wish them the best and hope they can negotiate a good contract.

I was reading some of the reader comments after the article, one person state that nurses get paid a bonus for working on their birthday :uhoh3:. I would love to work at whatever facility this is that pays you a bonus for working on your birthday![/quot

Birthday holiday time is nice...but must be considered in the total mix of things. Hsp I worked at gave birthday holiday tim-once it was unionized. In this day and age, it may just be a bargaining tool-part of the give and take of negotiations...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
I received this email yesterday before I even knew of a strike in MN.

No way I would take such an assignment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mass Email to all Nurses:

We are looking for RN's who are willing to cross union lines to work at Minnesota Hospitals during a strike,

June 1st is the approximate start date.

Wages are yet to be determined but the pay will be EXCELLENT !

We require the RN's to:

A. Have current/non-restrictive Minnesota License.

B. Current 2 Step TB

C. Health Statement from Doctor in the last 2 years stating: " This person is in good physical and

mental health, free of communicable diseases and is able to function and perform all job duties

without any physical limitations in his/her profession at full capacity".

D. Checklists by department, ER, OB,

E. Current Resume/Application

F. Able to work all shifts, including weekends, average of 50 hours a week or more.

G. This could be for 1 or 2 days or last for a few weeks.

There are other items that would be needed but as professionals I am sure that most of you have those items already available.

If this is something you would be interested in please call or email me as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Wally

I can bet you many nurses would do this. The economy sucks and many are desperate.

I have a feeling this is not going to work out well.....

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hey MN nurses: supporting you in spirit here from Ohio and wish you the BEST. Although the economy is poor we all should stick together and honor the picket line if and when it comes to that in MN or elsewhere. Ultimately this is about SAFE PATIENT CARE and NURSES NEED TO HAVE A VOICE! If RN's are forced to go on strike to be heard, so be it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.
Thank you for the reply 1214RN. I'm am so torn with deciding whether to go or not. On the one hand I just believe nurses should not strike as patients are ill and really depend on us. On the other hand I do realizes that sometimes hospitals seem to have blatant disregards for safe staffing levels and I myself have had to stand my ground and refuse to work in a facility that routinely attempted to give nurse 8 and 9 med surg patients; it was really overwhelming and dangerous for both the patient and my career. I think the hospital better take heed and realize that they need to be more reasonable even if it means decreasing profit margins. They can not run a hospital without nurses: and nurses are tired of being overworked and underpaid.

Regardless of how hospital admins want MNA to look, we are not being greedy and making rediculous demands. Please do not cross picket lines and help them destroy what nurses have fought so hard for.

No one wants to strike...but when they make demands that go against patient safety, take pension plans from nurses who have given them decades of hard work, try to cut all seniority benefits, and refuse to negotiate they leave us no choice. They need nurses. No one will be abandoning patients. Let management work the floor and remember what it's like to take busy patients, and admits regardless of acuity.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.
I understand the nurses frustrations, I really do. But it seems so hypocritical to me to tell patients that you are fighting to protect their safety and well being yet you walk out and abandon them at the same time. Many are critically ill, elderly, children. I just feel there is a better way to get what you need. What about suing and petitioning lawmakers? Striking will cause the patients to suffer even more. I just can never agree with the idea of nurses striking. Personally I think it should be illegal, just like air traffic controllers.

It's administrations job to provide nurses- which is why they pay SCABS so much. Patients will get cared for...but it will be at extreme cost to the facilities. It's not hypocritical to demand that we be allowed to offer safe and competent care to our patients, and still be adequately compensated.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.
I wonder if nurses realizes that some patients will DIE as a result of this strike?! Do YOU even care?

And yet how many receive poor care due to staffing ratios and burnt out nurses? It's a sad game of chicken. The hospital needs it's nurses. The nurses want a fair contract and to give safe care. MNA is willing to negotiate... the hospitals are not.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.
I am not part of MNA, but my understanding is that if they choose to strike, all MNA hospital nurses strike. The majority of the twin city hospitals have an MNA contract. That could be a lot of hospitals/nurses.

No, only those within the same contract. We are MNA, and hoping it all gets resolved before our contract is up for negotiations this fall. I wish I could go to the informational picketing though to show my support. I feel for the nurses and the stress they are under right now.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.
For the folks who have trouble with the idea of a nurses strike, here are a few thoughts:

1. Nurses strike as an absolute last resort when all other options have been exhausted. There was a recent strike of almost a month at Temple in Philly. The nurses had continued to bargain for many months after their contract expired, using every possible avenue at their disposal to try to move management - petitions, intervention by political and community figures, informational pickets. Management continued to be immovable in insisting on major cuts in the nurses benefits and a professionally unacceptable gag rule that would have barred nurses from speaking publicly about conditions at the hospital.

2. In some cases - clearly the case at Temple, and quite possibly the case at Minnesota, management goes into negotiations with the goal of provoking a strike - not with the goal of reaching a settlement that works for everyone. Why would they do that? Because they believe that the strike won't hold, the nurses won't have the fortitude to stick it out and they can break or at least severely weaken the union.

3. Virtually everything we think of as normal in nursing - decent salaries, benefits, every other weekend off - were won by union nurses using strikes as a tool. In the 60s, hospital nurses were paid less than hospital gardeners. Management woule be happy to take us back to those days and they intend to use the recession to try if they can.

4. If there were no scab agencies to provide strike replacement nurses (or no nurses willing to work for them), the hospitals would have to bargain a lot more reasonably with their staffs and we would all be better off.

Well said.

At one unnamed metro hospital... it was said during the first negotiation "it's not that we don't have the money, it's that we choose not to give it to nurses"

This isn't just about money and pay. It's about working short staffed, and being forced to take on unsafe patient loads.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment