Potential MN Nurses Strike?

[Brian]

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!

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[zimsaint]

I have though long and hard about this and I have decided that although I do not agree that nurses should strike, I WILL NOT cross a picket line. I am sure that the hospitals will see the nurses point of view VERY soon. If you strike, they will have absolutely no choice but to meet your REASONABLE demands. They can not afford to staff their hospitals with agency nurses that are making $5K a week plus ALL expenses paid; and that is just what the agency is paying the nurses. They must be profiting another 1-2k a week on top of that. That will really cut into their profit margins. It is time lawmakers take heed at a federal level and make mandatory nurse:patient staffing ratios for every facility that participates in federally funded medicare and medicaid programs. I wish you all much success and I think it is time GA nurses woke up and smelled the coffee.

[sanguineous crust]

I am a MN nurse and my hospital is on the possible strike list. There is a strike vote on May 19 that will determine whether or not there will be a strike beginning on June 1, 2010. The union leaders very much want to strike and the nurses at my hospital want to strike. The main issue is reducing the pension fund by 1/3. There are some other issues that I think are so crazy that the hopitals are just bluffing. I really want to keep my job. I have no seniority as I just started about 8 months ago. Do you think I could lose my job if I strike?? Is it legal?? The leaders at my hospital are so pro strike that I dont have anyone to talk to. Any advice?? Linda from MN

You will not lose your job if you strike. Just because you only have 8 months of seniority doesn't matter. It is collective bargaining, we all are in it together and we all fight for all nurses, even new nurses. Don't worry, you will have a job.

[sanguineous crust]

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.

The patients will certainly die in higher numbers with increase hosptial aquired infections, among other things if we do not stand up for patient care and safety now, and it wouldn't be very long if the "twin cities hospital association" had their way. (There is scientific proof of what I am telling you. Do a simple google search on nurse staff to patient ratios, burnout/fatique medication errors, etc.) That is how serious this is. And, if we do go on strike, it is the Hospital's fault not the nurses. We presently have put forth the more reasonable contract and do it in good faith. So if anyone dies while we are gone, you can direct the blame on CEO, COO, President, VP, etc. of each hospital. And I do feel terrible for patients, but we have to do what is right. It is right to stand up for safe patient care. And sometimes that's a hard thing to do. Most of all, we do not want to strike even though we may have to. This is a complicated and serious situation.

[casi, ASN, RN]

I have though long and hard about this and I have decided that although I do not agree that nurses should strike, I WILL NOT cross a picket line. I am sure that the hospitals will see the nurses point of view VERY soon. If you strike, they will have absolutely no choice but to meet your REASONABLE demands. They can not afford to staff their hospitals with agency nurses that are making $5K a week plus ALL expenses paid; and that is just what the agency is paying the nurses. They must be profiting another 1-2k a week on top of that. That will really cut into their profit margins. It is time lawmakers take heed at a federal level and make mandatory nurse:patient staffing ratios for every facility that participates in federally funded medicare and medicaid programs. I wish you all much success and I think it is time GA nurses woke up and smelled the coffee.

The problems with the negotiations is that the hospitals aren't even trying to see things from the nurses point of view. Currently my hospital has walked out on the pension negotiations and have yet to return.

[CNL2B]

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.

[lalalalexi]

Metro hospitals, nurses prep for a possible strike | StarTribune.com

Go MN nurses! You have my full support! It's interesting to read the reader comments at the end of this article, too. People just assume it's all about wages.

[lalalalexi]

Well it looks like this post has been shuffled away into the "collective bargaining and union" section. I posted this in the news tab because it is news, in my opinion! No one is going to see this now and I think MN nurses need exposure and our collective support!

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Well it looks like this post has been shuffled away into the "collective bargaining and union" section. I posted this in the news tab because it is news, in my opinion! No one is going to see this now and I think MN nurses need exposure and our collective support!

Well, I saw it, but then I am one of the union activist types who hangs out here a lot. One might hope that the management of the Minnesota hospitals might learn a thing or two from the beating that the Temple management took. But somehow I think that's probably asking too much intelligence from the highly paid types who run most American hospitals these days. Hospital management nationwide seem to have settled on the belief that the recession and the temporary easing of the long term nurse shortage have given them a license to roll back what nurses have gained in the last 30 years or so. Fortunately the Temple nurses and fellow professionals stood up to them very effectively. I fully expect the Minnesota nurses to do the same if management is foolish enough to push them to the brink.

[mdfog10]

I know my management's thinking is "where are they gonna go?" They think they can treat us poorly and we won't leave. Good for MN nurses for standing up for what is right!!!

[Chisca, RN]

Will the teamsters honor the picket line? The story I heard was that the 84' strike continued until the teamsters refused to make deliveries to the hospitals.

[Brian, ASN, RN]

Staffing and pensions are two flashpoints in the contentious negotiations.

Locked in the most contentious contract talks in a quarter-century, 14 Twin Cities hospitals and their 12,000 nurses are bracing for a strike that could start as soon as June 1 and send hospitals scrambling to staff their wards.

The nurses will vote May 19 whether to authorize a walkout.

Nurses say the hospitals are using the weak economy as an excuse to cut pension benefits and change work rules in ways that will endanger patients. The hospitals, which are nonprofit, say that they're merely adapting to economic realities and that patients will be fine.

Full Story: Twin Cities metro hospitals, nurses prep for a possible strike | StarTribune.com

[Brian, ASN, RN]

A group Fairview Southdale nurses here say the hospital did NOT deliver any newspapers today to patients. Maybe had something to do with the front page story?

Front page of Star Tribune Today: