Minnesota Nurses Association representatives met Tuesday with executives from Children’s Minnesota and North Memorial Health as Wednesday’s strike authorization vote for the union’s 15,000 nurses in the Twin Cities and northern Minnesota drew near.
Mary Turner, president of the MNA, said the vote would begin at 6 a.m. at various locations.
“We don’t have more money (and) we don’t have more influence,” said Turner. “The only power you have as a union is your collective standing together and withholding your labor.”
Paul Omodt is with Twin Cities Hospital Group, which represents M Health Fairview, Methodist, North Memorial Health, and Children’s Minnesota. He said hospital owners obviously want to avoid a strike during the holiday season.
“That’d be a hardship for Minnesotans all across the state,” he said. “This doesn’t just affect our hospitals, it affects all Minnesotans.”
The possible strike would come less than three months after the union struck for three days in September. Turner said negotiations since then haven’t gone as far as many nurses hoped. She said salary increase demands by the nurses were still about five percent higher than what most hospital systems were willing to offer Tuesday.
“It’s a little bit discouraging at the table,” said Turner. “Today they’re kind of saying, giving the impression: ‘That’s still not enough. You need to go down more.’”
Omodt was optimistic after he said nurses negotiating with M Health Fairview and Methodist agreed to the hospitals’ request to have mediators be involved in the negotiations beginning later this week.
“We think a neutral third party brings an independent lens to help broach a deal, and those mediators will be starting later this week. We’re happy they finally agreed to that.”
Turner said nurses continue to share concerns about staffing levels and protocols for helping get assistance for nurses when needs arise.
“Money isn’t going to totally solve the problem. It really isn’t,” said Turner. “We’ve got to make some systemic changes. Nurses want language in the contract that will help guarantee that real work will be done on staffing.”
Allina Health released a statement on the upcoming vote for a second strike, saying that an agreement can only be made by being at the bargaining table together. While Allina said it values its nurses and their contributions to keeping communities healthy, it added that a strike is only hurting, not helping.
“A strike or even the threat of a strike creates an unnecessary distraction for our employees and the communities we serve,” Allina said in its statement. “With escalating illness and increased needs for care, our community is counting on all of us to provide the exceptional care they expect from Allina Health. We believe that a settlement is attainable and urge MNA to focus its energy on bringing these negotiations to conclusion rather than asking its members to consider another strike that our community can simply not afford. We are hopeful to continue to make meaningful progress at our next negotiation session this Friday, Dec. 2, as it is our desire to reach a fair contract settlement and return our sole focus to our shared mission: caring for our patients.”
