The Minnesota Nurses Affiliation, which represents 15,000 nurses from dozens of hospitals throughout the state, has voted to authorize an unfair labor practices strike.
The proposed strike, which can contain nurses from 16 hospitals statewide, is about to start on Dec. 11, except negotiations with hospitals progress to a degree the place a strike turns into pointless. Nurses voted "overwhelmingly" to strike for as much as 20 days, the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation instructed CBS Minnesota, and at two hospitals, the strike has no finish date.
That is the second time the union has licensed a strike this yr: An earlier strike ran for 3 days in September for what the nurses mentioned have been unfair labor practices. On the time, the union mentioned they have been involved about workers shortages, worker retention and security. It was believed to be the biggest private-sector nurses' strike in U.S. historical past, based on the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation.
In a press launch, the group mentioned that the brand new strike was authorized as a consequence of those self same issues, claiming that even after returning to work in September, insurance policies that have been negotiated on have not been enacted. Nurses in a number of Minnesota cities, together with Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, have been and not using a contract since summer season 2022.
"Our hospitals are in disaster, and our CEOs have failed nurses and sufferers. They've failed to resolve the disaster of affected person care, and so they have failed to resolve the disaster of working circumstances pushing nurses away from the bedside," mentioned Mary C. Turner, a nurse at North Memorial Hospital and president of the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation, in a press launch. "Nurses are preventing to win contracts that may assist nurses keep on the job to offer sufferers with the distinctive care they deserve. Hospital CEOs with million-dollar salaries can afford to place Sufferers Earlier than Income in our hospitals and to do proper by Minnesota nurses."
The Minnesota Nurses Affiliation mentioned the nurses who have been putting are from hospitals the place the pay ratio for CEOs to nurses is 10 to 1.
Hospitals impacted by the strike shortly responded to Thursday's vote, saying that the union had acted too rapidly. The Twin Cities Hospitals Group mentioned that the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation "utterly failed to present the mediation course of time," and mentioned it was making preparations to make sure "continuity of care" for sufferers who may be affected by the proposed strike.
"The Twin Cities Hospitals Group is shocked and deeply upset that the nurses' union has as soon as once more chosen to concern 10-day strike notices all through the metro and Duluth earlier than exhausting all cheap efforts to achieve an settlement," the hospitals mentioned in an announcement. "... The nurses' union 10-day strike notices are utterly opposite to the most effective pursuits of our sufferers and the communities we serve. Their announcement as we speak is fully inconsistent with their declare that they're appearing to guard sufferers."
The group additionally mentioned that it had lately introduced mediators into the negotiation course of, however claimed that the union "elected to pursue a strike" somewhat than proceed negotiations. One other bargaining session between the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation and the hospitals is about for Friday, and the Twin Cities Hospitals Group mentioned that its negotiators "will exhaust all means essential to keep away from a piece stoppage."
Allina Well being, one other healthcare system in Minnesota, echoed that sentiment in its personal assertion, saying that it has labored with the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation to "discover alignment on quite a lot of precedence points" and is "hopeful to proceed to make significant progress" to avert a strike.