Allina Health also said “strikes do not benefit anyone” and that it hopes the union will resume negotiations after the strike with the help of a federal mediator. In a statement Monday, officials with Allina Health said it “continues to be focused on delivering safe, reliable care” and that “our teams have rescheduled a limited number of non-emergent appointments” to keep up. They also said the state health department is monitoring care in their facilities. They're asking people to see their primary care provider, urgent care or use telehealth options when possible. Hospital officials said they will continue to accept patients, but said there may be some delays. Multiple hospitals hired temporary nurses to cover staffing schedules during the strike. Hospitals say they will maintain high level of care through strike They said nurses should've sought out mediation, and called their wage demands - about thirty percent over three years - unrealistic.Īsked what happens Thursday if the three-day strike ends without a deal, Turner told reporters that nurses would return to work and continue the contract fight, adding the union hoped the three-day walkout would be enough to bring the hospitals back to the bargaining table. In a statement, the Twin Cities Hospitals Group, which represents many of those impacted by the walkout, said they're disappointed in the nurses' decision to strike. Hospitals are offering around 10 percent increases over the same time period. She noted that at least one of the nurse negotiating teams offered to slightly reduce its demand for a 30 percent wage increase over three years. Turner on Sunday told WCCO-TV that some bargaining teams met with hospital management through the weekend, lasting until early Sunday morning. Others held sessions last week. Nurses want the “ability to have some say in the staffing on our floors. Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told reporters that the union wants hospitals to have to get majority approval from nurses on a hospital floor before making any staffing changes. Union leaders reiterated that point during a noon news conference Monday. “I'm 28 and my back hurts and patients yell at me and their family members yell at me and it's just not sustainable." Mary Forbes, a registered nurse at Abbott Northwestern, said many of her colleagues have chosen to become travel nurses and that hospital systems have not provided the needed incentives to keep people in place.įorbes said staffing is the most important issue to her and addressing it would keep her at patients’ bedsides for years to come. Union leaders have described staffing levels at hospitals as being at crisis levels following two years of dealing with the pandemic. Nurses concerned about hospital staffing levels That's what we we decided to do with our profession. She said the hospital's chronically short staffing problems were exacerbated by the pandemic. Natasha Thomas, a cardiac nurse at Essentia Health, said she cried on her way home from work late Sunday night. ![]() Hundreds of nurses also picketed outside Essentia Health in downtown Duluth. We need to be listening to the voices of nurses. ![]() This is about our families, our friends, our communities. It's not fair to our patients."Įlected officials joined the picket line, including State Rep. "We don't want the pandemic, the short staffing and all the things, to be our new normal. Ryshkus worked Sunday night at the hospital, but joined her colleagues picketing outside Abbott Northwestern on Monday morning. We need a say in how things go," said Tricia Ryshkus, a nurse at Children's Minnesota in Minneapolis and a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association negotiating team. We do the work … we're the ones that take care of the patients. And we have proposals on the table to have nurses have a say in how things go. "The most important thing for us is safe staffing. People driving by honked their horns in support of the nurses. It's the hub where people will sign in, grab a union T-shirt and a sign, and prepare to get out on the picket line during the strike.īefore they headed out, one member with a bullhorn led the group in a chant: “When I say nurses you say power. Monday, a group of nurses and others are gathered at Stewart Park across the street from Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis.
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