Largest Nurses Strike in US History - Replacement Nurses Arrive - Your opinion

Nurses Union

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  1. Do you support the MN nurses strike?

    • 543
      Yes, I support the nurses striking
    • 161
      No, I do not support the nurses striking
    • 118
      No opinion

822 members have participated

12,000 nurses in minneapolis are going to vote on whether to strike next wednesday. This would be the largest nurse strike in US history. It looks like we WILL vote to strike. The employer is trying to take back 30 years of gains nurses have made here for safe patient care. They are trying to cut our pension by 30 percent, change our health insurance among other things. We need your support with this. This is going on across the country and nurses have to stand up for each other! If you think this won't come to your hospital, you are wrong. Support your fellow nurses.

For more info go to http://www.mnnurses.org/

Specializes in Dialysis.

I went to the MNA website and signed the petition but at this point it does not appear MNA is asking for more than that. If there is a strike fund that outsiders can contribute to I would be willing to donate. I live in a place that is hostile to unions by culture and law and the only protections as a worker I have come through federal labor law. Slavery would still be legal here if it hadn't been for the 13th amendment. I am sure management locally and elswhere is closely watching what happens in MN. If the MN nurses lose we all lose.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

http://wcco.com/video/[email protected]

Video of TV news.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Just got an a-mail saying "For those of you who are not aware - the one day nursing strike in the twin cities is set for June 10th.

We are looking for nurses to work June 10th and train June 9th. The pay for the two days will be a minimum or $1700!!!

When we submit you and get approval from the facility, you are guaranteed to get paid in full even if they settle the strike before the 10th. "

It's amazing that they are willing to pay this... I live about 60 outside of the Twin Cities, but I support the MN Nurses!

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Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

12,000 Minnesota nurses are set to strike for one day tomorrow June 10th. I figured it would be interesting to poll the allnurses.com users to see what they think of it?

Please take a second to answer our poll and post comments.

Below are links to nursing discussions, Google links, and local MN news links on the topic:

Nursing Discussions: Potential MN Nurses Strike? - Nursing for Nurses

Google Search: mn nursing strike - Google Search

Local News with strike keyword searches:

WCCO: Search - wcco.com

KSTP: News

FOX9: KMSP Search Results

TPT (public TV): tpt Search Results

Kare11: kare11.com :: KARE 11 TV - Search Twin Cities News Article Search

MPR Radio: MPR Search Results: strike

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Top business news headline (momentarily, at least) :smokin:

PeoplePC - News

Minn. nurses strike is part of new union's push

June 09, 2010 11:47 PM EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)-Thousands of nurses in Minnesota are bracing for a one-day strike as part of a new national union's aim to fight hard for nurses as hospitals are increasingly pressured to cut costs.

Health care costs have been skyrocketing, and like other businesses, hospitals are trying to trim their budgets. Nurse pay and benefits are among their largest expenses. The new union-formed barely six months ago-is gaining popularity for its more assertive stance for nurses' interests.

The nurses have authorized the one-day strike Thursday on 14 hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Hospitals have complained that the Minnesota nurses have resisted compromise because the national union, National Nurses United, wants a headline-grabbing strike to help with recruiting.

Officials from the national union deny that.

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replacement nurses sympathize but question if strike is right way

by [color=#003399]josephine marcotty and [color=#003399]chen may yee, star tribune staff writers

last update: june 9, 2010 - 10:34 pm

on thursday morning, the two florida nurses will report for work at the emergency room, just as they've been doing for years.

except this time they'll be doing it far from home and for a lot more money.

they are among the 2,800 replacements recruited from around the country to substitute for 12,000 minnesota nurses who are expected to walk off the job thursday morning at 14 twin city hospitals.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/96012604.html?elr=karks:dciu1oip:diiuid3apc:_yyc:aulpql7pqlancho7diur

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OMG

Normally I am lukewarm when it comes to the topic of unions, but I went to look up stories on the strike situation and it isn't the story that caught my attention...it was the comments section...I have never seen more hatred directed at an occupation short of stock fund managers and bankers.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/twin-cities-hospitals-plan-mn-nurse-strike-june-8-2010

Here are just a few gems that made me spit my coffee on my keyboard:

"Nurses STINK. I hope the whole lot get fired permanently."

"Fire them and hire the nurses who replace them while they show how much they care about patients (by giving them NO care). The ones who appreciate having the opportunity to work.

The nurses and union should be held responcible and criminally liable for any patient health decline or deaths due to this strike. Civil lawsuits should be filed by patients who suffer or die because of the strike! "

"In this economy, they are lucky to have jobs at all. So many of us do not. I don't have a great deal of sympathy. They make a great salary, have great medical and other benefits, and it just seems that this is not an appropriate time to be looking for more. If they are so concerned about patient safety, they should stay on the job. Just like Reagan did with the flight controllers, if they strike, fire them. We'll find a way to get by without their easily replaceable bodies. Good bye, and good riddance. There are plenty of good, unemployed nurses out there, and more every year. Unions did for GM what it is time for them to do for nursing. Clean out the fat dead wood, and bring salaries back in line with reality. The heyday is over kids. Our economy is facing a serious reality check. The days of ever increasing paychecks and benefits is over, and not coming back-- ever. Get a grip, and welcome to the new world order. "

and there are many more....

I hate to admit it but I want to be an RN not just to provide care, but also to join the ranks of an occupation that I have always admired and it pains me to see this kind of vitrol directed at it. Does the public at large actually not know what we do? what we go through to become nurses not to mention what we do day to day as nurses?

As I said before, I don't 100% agree with unions, but I 100% support nurses and the patients they care for.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

Meh...who cares what random people on the internet say?

They don't represent the public...and there's no way of knowing who these individuals are (or if it's even more than 2 posters*wink*)

Some of these comments are 'trollish'. I wouldn't waste energy on it. Individuals purposely go out and pick fights. Then? They post screenshots on their little troll forums.

Anyway, these topics are ALWAYS filled with wealth envious whiny people who are angry because 'supposedly' they and everyone they know is unemployed. Yet they have all the time in the world to troll about on the internet...

Between them and the trolls, I don'tknow who is worse.

It's just sour grapes. Mention a strike and folks automatically assume it has to do with greed.

Most folks don't bother reading articles...'specially if it's a long one. :D

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Nurses have a right to strike just like any worker but in this case I have a problem with it. I don't have a problem with Minnesota--my problem is with the California Nurses Association that is taking MY dues money out of California and helping MN go on strike. :mad: CNA pulled out of the American Nurses Assoc for just this reason--to be able to use the members' dues money to form a national union. CNA called for a sympathy strike from the University of CA nurses which was overturned by a judge. Thankfully they didn't ask the rest of the CA union nurses to participate. It would have been the first time I ever crossed a picket line.

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Specializes in Cath Lab, EP.

I think this is an example of how little the non-medical public knows about what it is that nurses actually do. A lot has changed since the old white cap/uniform days. We are expected to know much more, do much more, and be held accountable for much more than our predecessors. All of the people complaining on that forum are probably misplaced/layed off corporate businesspeople who think that nurses make so much money and do little else besides waitress medications. What they don't know is that our job entails far FAR more than that. I am pretty sure that all of those suits would balk at the fact that we have to skip our lunches and clean poop for our money. Most days I run around like a slave, starving and frantic trying to make sure my patients don't die (either from their disease process or the 1st year residents ordering crazy crap). The sad part is that there are so many new grads out their who are starving for work that the hospitals are at the advantage.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

12,000 nurses walking off for a single day in Minnesota, WOW!

Minnesota Nurses Strike: Thousands of Nurses Union Protest in Minneapolis and St. Paul - ABC News

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I am 100% on board with the MN nursing strike. As a new graduate nurse joining the nursing profession I truly believe we need to stick together and also educate the public on what nurses actually do. Many people do not realize the long hours, physical and mental demand that nurses face each day. It is a job like no other. We have the opportunity to care for people at their most vulnerable times in their lives. I am proud and excited to begin a nursing career but do believe there needs to be change in the near future. As health care costs continue to rise, baby boomers are getting older, higher acuity patients, and hospitals cutting costs, nurses must ban together to protect not only themselves but patient safety and to be able to continue providing quality care. If we don't start to stand up for patient safety and better nurse patient ratios now it is only going to get worse.

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