Potential MN Nurses Strike?

Leyla~ · May 12, 2010

I'm truly shocked at what they are proposing.

What about it shocks you? I still haven't seen any evidence that ratios will change with Allina's proposal.

I just read Allinas proposal. It is in effect an attempt at gutting the contract. Every proposal reduces employee rights. The vacation bank reductions alone were instructive.
700 to 500 hours over 3 years. The best protection against financial woes in case of illness is plenty of time off. 700 hours is roughly 4 months of FT work. Protects the benefits and the economic status of workers. That 200 hour reduction reduces the economic security of nurses...

This was just one of the many proposals dropped by Allina last week. Many more of their proposals were decently modified as well. I still haven't seen the union making any concessions to their proposals, with the exception of reducing the wage scale increases to 4% a year instead of 4.5%. And as the scale already has built in increases, that still yields a greater than 4% wage increase for all but the topped out nurses.

cabernet · May 12, 2010

Allina at least has some give and take going on. My hospital will not negotiate in good faith, will not negotiate at all. The other hospitals at least have some proposals to start with. During the layoffs, they were ruthless. The thing is, I am willing to give up plenty. I could accept the increase in low need days, I am always signing up for volunteer LOA's anyway. However, they want to take away the choice to give my hours to someone who needs them, no more trading. At this point we don't even want a raise, to be honest, the wages are fair. It IS about staffing, we are at a breaking point there. The 115% language means: you have 18 patients on a unit, need 4 nurses (4:1) ratio for staffing to be at 100%. One nurse calls in sick, one goes to a meeting, and there are 3 admits, and a code. So what happens? Each nurses ends up with 5, everyone is overworked and frantic. This is a daily occurance. At 115%, there would some room, some cushion for this. The bare bones staffing is devastating.

glimpses · May 13, 2010

Here is an update from yesterday's newspaper: http://www.twincities.com/ci_15073785?nclick_check=1

Moogie · May 13, 2010

Definitely egg on the faces of the hospitals...

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_15080496?nclick_check=1

Twin Cities hospitals dismissed the chief spokeswoman for their nursing contract negotiations Thursday after learning that she was convicted four years ago of stealing from the South Dakota hospital where she previously worked.
Minnesota nurses had already been upset with Trish Dougherty, because the licensed nurse had been making strong public statements on behalf of the hospitals and their need to cut nursing pensions and benefits in the upcoming three-year contract.

They quickly seized on the discovery of 2006 media reports about her felony conviction, which reportedly stemmed from her stealing $15,000 from Avera McKennan Hospital and using it on landscaping for her house. The Minnesota Nurses Association put word out about the incident at 1 p.m., though nurses had already been buzzing about the news on the association's Facebook page and other social media.
By 3 p.m., the hospitals announced that Dougherty was no longer acting on their behalf. In a written statement, the hospital groups indicated that they had "just learned about the legal issues."
"Throughout this process, we have made every effort to be respectful of the nurses and the community and this development falls short of the level of integrity the community has a right to expect," the hospital group said in its statement. "It falls short of our expectations for ourselves."
A Keloland.com story from Jan. 30, 2006, indicated that Dougherty was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. The judge in the case suspended a prison sentence, which could have been up to 10 years for grand theft.
Avera McKennan had supported a light sentencing for Dougherty, who said at the time she suffered some mental health issues related to a divorce and family problems. The licensing board in South Dakota was similarly lenient in April 2006, reprimanding Dougherty but keeping her nursing license active..
Union spokesman John Nemo said the theft conviction is shocking given how adamantly Dougherty advocated for the hospitals and their need to cut costs. He said one nurse started doing web searches about Dougherty after feeling that she was portraying them as greedy in their contract demands.

So---the Twin Cities hospitals have a convicted felon doing their negotiating?

How many nurses have lost their licenses for doing far less than Dougherty?

ginceasar · May 14, 2010

These MN nurses deserve the support to walk out and stand up for their patient's and for themselves! I feel it is unfair for anyone to make them feel guilty for this. We nurses need to use our voice to be an advocate for our patients and our profession. We have to stop accepting poor pt ratios, poor benefits and poor pay, right? What is about to happen to the nursing profession, with our baby boomers and our shortage ahead of us, it really is important for all of us nurses to take a stand in what we believe in. Good nursing care, patient safety, better working environment, good benefits and a pension.

They are not walking out on the patient's, there are three companies that staff hospitals and do a very good job at it and the patients get good care.

Let's support them!! But if you are a nurse who has to work in the hospital to take care of these patients, while these nurses are striking, don't feel like you are doing a wrong thing. Someone has to also care for the patients.

O:)

HM2VikingRN, RN · May 15, 2010

Definitely egg on the faces of the hospitals...
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_15080496?nclick_check=1
So---the Twin Cities hospitals have a convicted felon doing their negotiating?
How many nurses have lost their licenses for doing far less than Dougherty?

Quite a background check by the corporate leadership.....If you are going to hire a spokesman you would think that you would make sure that they are squeaky clean (after all they are the face of the corporate reputation...)

Oddly enough she probably kept her nursing license because of due process provisions adopted by Avera McKennan in response to organizing attempts...

cabernet · May 15, 2010

http://wcco.com/video/ this is the link to the news story video. more coverage here. http://www.startribune.com/local/93730014.html?elr=karkslckd8eqduoaeyqyp4o:dw3ckuid3apc:_yyc:auuz

the story is pretty wild. a nurse was kind of disgusted at the things hospital spokeswoman trish dougherty was saying about the nurses (we were "hysterical" "too emotional" and greedy and so on), and just started googling her. (the hospitals all joined together for negotiations, formed twin cities hospital group). they hired this woman, an attractive former rn who created a consulting firm specializing in union busting, to be their mouthpiece. and for a while it went pretty good, the media would go to her for all the news stories. she was the calm rational one, and the nurses were so unreasonable with all this "patient safety" business. so the nurse started googling public information available to anyone, and found the news story about the felony of grand theft of $15,000 from avera mckenna hospital in sioux falls south dakota when she ws hr there. she used the money for landscaping her house. she paid it back and got probation. then there was a dui which was pardoned and sealed by gov bill jankow (weird, who gets a dui sealed and pardoned?) then the south dakota board of nursing had two reprimands, one was nursing without a license. mind you, all this is public information readily available on "the google". i doubt anyone with this record would be hired as a staff nurse, but she was hired as their consultant and union buster, and they never bothered to check anything. it's pretty amazing.

anyway, there will probably be a strike, because as it is, they have gutted our contract.

cabernet · May 15, 2010

On the video link go to page #4 "Hospital spokeswoman fired after nurse finds theft"

cabernet · May 15, 2010

This is what solidarity looks like. I've been a RN for 23 years and have never felt so hopeful of my profession. I hope this is a turning point for all of us and the future of nursing.

aroundtheclock · May 15, 2010

A pension is a perk...not a right. And for the younger nurses out there the pension issue will come up over and over again with each new contract. Simply because a pension system is a poor business model and a hospital is a business. Plan out your own financial future and vote on a safe contract.

Chico David, BSN, RN · May 15, 2010

A pension is a perk...not a right. And for the younger nurses out there the pension issue will come up over and over again with each new contract. Simply because a pension system is a poor business model and a hospital is a business. Plan out your own financial future and vote on a safe contract.

A pension is an integral part of the compensation package - something nurses earn with their work and have fought to maintaiin in their contracts. History in other industries has shown us that once workers start accepting cuts like this, the demand for more cuts never stops. Pension this year, health benefits next year, two-tier wages the year after that. Once you start down that road, there is never a point where management says "enough". The Auto and airline workers started accepting cuts 20 years ago and every contract since has been more cuts in the name of "competitiveness" - while the companies still fail. And they are failing because the worker's willingness to accept cuts allowed managment to avoid learning how to manage.

livesinscrubs · May 15, 2010

To anyone who has been though a strike before, how do you access the striking fund? We still haven't received info on that yet and are told they are 'working on it' I went to MNA and asked so now I am asking from anyone who has had to use it. My questions on what happens AFTER the strike have been answered but I still need to know how to use a strike fund if I needed to. This is my only job and I am a single mom so this is it for me. Thanks in advance for any info.