15,000 Minnesota Nurses to Walk Off Job - Largest Nurses Strike In The Country

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

15,000 Minnesota nurses to walk off job in historic strike over wages and staffing levels on 9/12/22

The strike will be one of the largest nurses’ strikes in U.S. history, affecting 16 hospitals across the Twin Cities and Duluth area.   Inside the hospitals, temporary replacement nurses are caring for patients.

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After months of stalled negotiations, some 15,000 union nurses across more than a dozen hospitals will strike for three days later this month in what the union believes will be the largest private sector nurses’ strike in U.S. history.

“Today is a somber day,” said Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner, dressed in all black, during a Thursday news conference. “Our health care and our profession are in crisis.”

The strike will begin on Sept. 12, after the required 10-day notice period, and affect 16 hospitals run by many of the state’s largest health systems including Allina, HealthPartners, Children’s Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, North Memorial, Essentia and St. Luke’s Duluth.

The nurses are seeking 30% increases to pay and benefits over the next three years, a proposal that hospital leaders say is financially impossible after more than two years of financial strain during the pandemic that have resulted in multimillion dollar losses.

Hospital leaders have countered with raises of about 10% over three years, which they say would be the largest raises for nurses in 15 years....

...Union nurses say the step is necessary to protect the quality of care for patients long term.

Nurses say hospitals are dangerously understaffed, leading to more patient injuries like bed sores and falls. A recent report from the Minnesota Department of Health shows adverse health events were up 33% in 2021 from 2020 and last year, nurses filed nearly 8,000 reports of unsafe staffing levels, an increase of 300% from 2014.

“Everywhere in Minnesota nurses have watched CEOs with million-dollar salaries understaff our units, pushing us to do more with less, even before the pandemic hit,” Turner said.

Tracy Dittrich, a nurse at Children’s Minnesota, said some nurses have been spread across two or three babies who need one-on-one care.

Brianna Hnath, an intensive care nurse at North Memorial, said last weekend the emergency room wait time reached 14 hours....

Some 12,000 union nurses in the Twin Cities went on strike in 2010 over staffing levels, which the union says have only grown worse.

Hospitals have struggled to recruit new nurses, while others have left the industry in droves. A recent survey from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute found that a little more than half of nurses are considering leaving the profession in the next year, mainly because of what they say are unsafe staffing levels....

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

CBS News 9/12/2022

15,000 Minnesota nurses begin 3-day strike: "We're all standing together"

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...But nurses insist this is not about money. From the leadership on down nurses say staffing is no longer safe for either nurses or patients. 

"We want assurances in our contract that if a nurse says their assignment is unsafe that we are not disciplined. We have had nurses that have been sent home for refusing an unsafe assignment," nurse union president Mary Turner said.

The hospitals say the nurses' demands are unrealistic and they point to some hospital losses in revenue recently. M Health Fairview, for example, says it lost $163 million in the first half of the year.

This three-day strike will be over Thursday and the goal is to get the sides back to the table. Nurses won't say what happens next if no deal is reached. 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

World Socialist Web Site  9/12/2022

Minnesota union calls three-day walkout as 15,000 nurses press for open-ended strike

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The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) union announced last Thursday that it will call a three-day strike, starting September 12, of 15,000 nurses across Minnesota. More than three weeks ago nurses overwhelmingly voted for an unlimited strike. The decision to call the limited action came as anger grew against the MNA’s decision to keep nurses in Twin Cities on the job for more than two months after the expiration of their contract, over a month after the contract expiration for the remaining nurses across the state.

Nurses are confronting unmanageable staffing ratios, undermining patient care and exacerbating issues such as violence against health care workers. Waiting rooms in some Hennepin Healthcare and other hospital systems are packed with an average 50 patients, sometimes overflowing into the hallways, a nurse told the WSWS. Like other workers, nurses are suffering a sharp fall in their living standards due to surging inflation.  .....

...The nurses’ demands are entirely justified. The hospital monopolies received hundreds of millions in federal COVID relief money and are highly profitable. Allina Health, for example, posted $128.8 million in operating income for 2021, up 400 percent from the prior year. To fight for their just demands, however, rank-and-file nurses must take the initiative in their own hands and outline a strategy to wage a genuine struggle....

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Minnesota Reformer 9/12/2022

Thousands of union nurses walked off the job at 15 hospitals across the Twin Cities and Duluth area on Monday morning, launching the largest private-sector nurses strike in U.S. history.
 

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The picket line in front of Allina’s United Hospital and Children’s Minnesota in St. Paul stretched for two blocks, with nurses holding signs reading “Patients Before Profits” as music blared, and passing drivers honked their support.

“We are overworked and we are burnt out and nothing is getting better,” said Karri Bowen, a nurse at United Hospital. “It’s time for the hospitals to step up and change.”

The three-day strike by some 15,000 nurses comes after months of failed negotiations over new contracts, with nurses demanding more staff and 30% wage increases over the next three years.

Hospitals have called those demands unrealistic and countered with about 10% to 12% wage increases over three years, which would be the largest pay bump in over a decade.

The hospitals brought in thousands of traveling nurses at significant expense — paying more than double staff wages — to continue providing care during the strike. Temporary nursing agencies were offering more than $10,000 a week — along with daily meal stipends and free housing and transportation — for traveling nurses in public job postings....

Thousands of union nurses walked off the job at 15 hospitals across the Twin Cities and Duluth area on Monday morning, launching the largest private-sector nurses strike in U.S. history.

The picket line in front of Allina’s United Hospital and Children’s Minnesota in St. Paul stretched for two blocks, with nurses holding signs reading “Patients Before Profits” as music blared, and passing drivers honked their support.

“We are overworked and we are burnt out and nothing is getting better,” said Karri Bowen, a nurse at United Hospital. “It’s time for the hospitals to step up and change.”

The three-day strike by some 15,000 nurses comes after months of failed negotiations over new contracts, with nurses demanding more staff and 30% wage increases over the next three years.

Hospitals have called those demands unrealistic and countered with about 10% to 12% wage increases over three years, which would be the largest pay bump in over a decade.

The hospitals brought in thousands of traveling nurses at significant expense — paying more than double staff wages — to continue providing care during the strike. Temporary nursing agencies were offering more than $10,000 a week — along with daily meal stipends and free housing and transportation — for traveling nurses in public job postings.....

 

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

Why isn't there more discussion posted about this on Allnurses?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

On 9/13/2022 at 9:54 PM, 2BS Nurse said:

Why isn't there more discussion posted about this on Allnurses?

yet you offer no discussion?  

[chare]

On 9/13/2022 at 9:54 PM, 2BS Nurse said:

Why isn't there more discussion posted about this on Allnurses?

It's also being discussed here:

 

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

On 9/16/2022 at 6:13 AM, Tweety said:

yet you offer no discussion?  

Yikes! I should have been more specific... from RNs in the state who know what is really going on.