After months of negotiations between the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) and Minnesota's heath systems, health care workers hit the picket lines in the Twin Cities and Duluth Monday morning at 7 a.m. This is the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history, according to the MNA. Picketing health care workers will be outside 15 hospitals across the state from Monday, Sept. 12 through Thursday, Sept. 15. On Aug. 15, the union voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize a strike after more than five months of negotiations with hospital representatives from seven hospital groups, including M Health Fairview, Essentia Health, HealthPartners, Allina Health, Children's Hospitals, North Memorial and St, Luke's. The union is calling for wage increases and more paid time off in their updated contracts. They're also demanding solutions for short-staffing, retention and better patient care. "Yesterday, on Saturday, there were two health care facilities up in Duluth that were bargaining, Essentia St. Mary's and St. Luke's, and down here in the cities, Children's and the Fairview system were at the table," said Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) President Mary Turner. "Unfortunately, they didn't get anywhere." Nurses say they want a nearly 30% boost to their economic package over three years, but some hospital groups say they've offered 11 to 12% over the same time period. "Twenty-seven-percent from our side came across at Duluth, so ours officially, not all the hospitals, is 27% — and theirs has not changed from 12," said Turner. Essentia Health issued a statement after Saturday night's negotiations saying: "Essentia Health is disappointed the MNA is focusing its efforts on a strike instead of at the bargaining table, where real solutions are found. We continue to believe that it’s imperative for both sides to exhaust our options in pursuit of a mutually beneficial agreement. One of those options, which we’ve repeatedly requested, is mediation. Unfortunately, the union has consistently declined this request. "Essentia is proud to have some of the finest nurses in the country. We value the outstanding care they provide while uplifting our mission of making a healthy difference in people’s lives. However, we cannot agree to the MNA’s request for a 27% wage increase because it’s not responsible. "We want to assure our patients and communities that our hospitals will remain open and accessible during a strike. We have extensive contingency plans in place to preserve our ability to deliver the highest standards of care. Essentia’s top priority in everything we do is to improve the safety and well-being of the patients and communities we’re privileged to serve. Allina Health released the following statement on Sunday: Allina Health is focused on delivering safe, high-quality care throughout the duration of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s 3-day strike. A strike is not our desired outcome of these negotiations, and Allina Health has been thoughtfully planning for months. We intentionally have built flexibility into our plans and continuously evaluate our operations. While we are making every effort to minimize disruptions to patient care, our hospitals continue to be full, and we are preparing to make the necessary adjustments to ensure we are meeting the community’s emergent and on-going health care needs. Patients will be contacted directly if there is any change in their appointments. Allina Health is grateful for all members of our care teams who ensure continuity of care for our patients, and we want our community members to know that our hospitals, urgent care locations and primary care clinics are open, in addition to our virtual urgent care, virtual visits and Everyday Online care options. We are now focused on taking care of those who need us. For those who have questions about patient care during MNA’s strike, please go to AllinaHealth.org. Paul Omodt represents four of the seven hospital groups: Fairview, Children's, North Memorial and Methodist. On Sunday, he told KARE 11 that those hospitals will have trained managers and leaders ready to staff their hospitals, along with replacement nurses ready to go at 7 a.m. when the strike picket starts. https://www.kare11.com/amp/article/...y-one/89-e6523da6-8825-4c07-88c3-2c9102879a62
Good luck getting a 30% increase in wages/benefits. I don't know how much nurses make in Minnesota, but in Chicago they are typically highly paid and have some control over their hours. So I don't know that they are going to get a lot of sympathy. Healthcare is one of the last bloated industries that are largely able to set their costs to patients. The average hourly salary for a nurse in Minnesota is over $45 an hour with an average of $10,000 in overtime.
Nurses do everything in hospitals. They’ll get a good bump, fast. There’s no way 15k nurses disappearing won’t have a massive impact.
Nurse in hospital A travels 50 minutes to hospital B. nurse at hospital B travels to hospital A both call themselves “travelers” and get paid 5x. Deplete hospitals and provide **** care with zero investment. Hospitals need to pay nurses a bit more but right now they’re bloated with this traveling bs
Not really? In a 12 hour shift, a doctor swings by for 5 mins...rest of the time nurses are on their own. That's just a regular and ICU unit. Surgeons can't even wipe their own ass without an OR nurse. This better get resolved quick. Plus I don't think new nurses are entering the workforce or staying....the younger ones get their masters and become nurse practitioners or go into administration/quality etc. Older ones are retiring.
No that’s absolutely incorrect. There’s a patient to nursing ratio (in place to make sure they arent overburdened, in the ICU it may mean 1 to 1, the doctor doesn’t pop in for 5 minutes and leave, he/she is in constant touch managing orders (what allows any care to be legally given for something like 20-30 patients , 60-70 if you’re surgery. There is no shift, you’re responsible for your patients whether you’re there or not. 4am call need something, your job. The list of daily orders spans the size of a book. the biggest misconception , surgeons can’t do anything without an OR nurse? How do you think surgeries work? What is it that you think an OR nurse does, I would say ICU nursing is the most critical point and need for nurses. You have nurse aids and techs that handle a lot of their work on the floor, but in the ICU starting infusions etc is something they are trained to do. For surgery the circulator /nurse helps turn the room over call the cleaning crew. The OR nurse and scrub tech help make sure the instruments are ready (mainly the scrub tech). The anesthesiologist helps bring the patient in. Usually the student helps bring the patient from the stretcher to the OR table. In an academic institute the resident usually preps the patient, puts in pre op orders and gets the case going. It’s a team effort, I’ve helped do every single aspect of those, but the underappreciated person isn’t the nurse, it’s the scrub tech (surgical technologist) that ensures sterility and hands the instruments. Floor nurses are making more than NPs currently. A lot of NPs can’t find jobs. Some are going back to do travel nursing. lastly why are hospitals holding out? The training is shorter, a lot of new nursing programs and can have a new nurse in 2 years if they wait for supply. So many good nurses but there have been malpractice level travel nurses that show up don’t do crap (no investment if you’re going to bounce to a new city tomorrow) and lead to bad ptient outcomes. I know a couple of places that have shut down a floor than cave to the bad care given by these travelers and will eat the loss in the short term than be sued. Read up on the Vanderbilt case where one of the nurses gave a paralytic before a CT instead of a sedative, killing the patient. It’s national news. Another point is that a lot of this can be transitioned to nurse aids/techs, something I did for a bit after highschool to get experience. Do vitals, essentially do 80% of the nurses job (answer patient calls etc). Hospitals know this and can combine techs with nurses. At the end of the day , the base nurse salary needs to rise I don’t want that to get lost. Admins have become a cancer to healthcare and are leaching all of us and hospital employees dry. If you want some insight into this don’t listen to me, just go volunteer / shadow for a day
Nobody wants to do residency in New York, you know why? On top of the 80-100 hrs / wk you work, you do 80% of the RNs job Since they’re unionized. you transport your patients you start your IVs they will hand the meds ..you order. my contacts there say they deserved an RN for doing their job day in and out.
Unless something has changed, it takes only 2-4 years of college to be a nurse. In Minnesota they get benefits and average $45 an hour. They also get overtime. I haven’t looked to deep into yet, but it’s hard for me to feel too bad for them looking at some of the numbers.
I know in California they pay them an average of like $75 an hour. They are making like $125,000 a year on average for good but not exceptional schooling.
I haven’t followed this closely but my understanding is that they are only striking for one day and will back at work tomorrow. Also these aren’t traveling nurses working multiple hospitals but many are threatening to quit the hospitals they are at and become traveling nurses.
they are not striking for just 1 day unless that is a recent development that occurred within the last few hours
I’ve spent many weeks in hospitals tha past few years as both my parents are elderly. I’ve met some really good nurses and some lousy nurses. I wouldn’t want their job, it can be a difficult environment. Some of the hardest workers and most helpful folks I’ve met are nurses aides that work in hospitals. In a skilled nursing facility it’s hard to find anyone that gives a damn. Rehab hospitals do a good job in my opinion. I hate to see a strike that could endanger peoples lives. I understand what they are doing, but it would be a hard thing for me to do if I were a nurse. A 30% raise seems like a lot. But, I understand it’s a negotiation.
The main reason for this strike is due to them being overworked and understaffed exacerbated by the nursing exodus as a result of the Pandemic, something that is happening all across the country The strike followed months of failed negotiations — with nurses asking for about 30% pay increases over three years to improve retention and prevent colleagues from quitting and leaving hospitals chronically understaffed. Hospital systems responded with increases of about 10% over three years, noting that most of them are experiencing financial losses right now and that larger increases would be passed to patients through their health insurance. "The union … held fast to wage demands that were unrealistic, unreasonable and unaffordable," said a statement from Twin Cities hospital systems other than Allina, which handles its strike communications separately. Picketing nurses said wage hikes are important, but that more consistent staffing levels are key. Second-year nurse Madi Gay said she had reduced her nursing hours at Southdale over the stress and the threat to her livelihood of being asked to care for too many patients at once. "How long can you keep this up?" she said. "My license is on the line." The rate of nurses leaving hospital care has accelerated, said Larissa Hubbartt, an intensive care nurse at St. Luke's. "The trauma of working short, what we see on a daily basis, it adds up over time. There is no relief. We used to have a bad day now and then. Now, on a day when we have the appropriate staff, you feel guilty almost. Because you can take a lunch break." Angie Nolle joined the Essentia picket line Monday after working for 16 hours in a behavioral health unit at St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth. She was only scheduled for eight but picked up a second overnight shift when the unit was short two nurses. "We do that to help our patients … and we are feeling the brunt of it," she said. Negotiators for the Minnesota Nurses Association, the union representing the nurses, acknowledged that high wage demands could end up as a bargaining chip to gain staffing guarantees. "We have very little interest in decreasing our offer any more until our hospital talks to us about staffing. That's what's important," said Melisa Koll, a nurse at Children's in St. Paul who is part of the negotiating team. The nurses are working under old contracts that expired May 31 in the Twin Cities and June 30 in Duluth. First-year nurses with baccalaureate degrees are making about $36 per hour at Twin Cities hospitals, while those with 10 years of experience are making around $51. No negotiation sessions are planned this week during the strike. The strike is occurring amid relative stability for Minnesota hospitals. Federal data on Monday showed 9,337 staffed hospital beds in Minnesota that were filled by 7,955 patients, about average for the past month. The admissions included 437 adults with confirmed COVID-19, below the peak of 1,893 in October 2020. Union leaders said staffing concerns predated COVID-19 but that the pandemic has influenced the strike in other ways. Hospital leaders said it forced them to become more nimble at training new nurses and adjusting to staff turnover, which is helping now. Kate Zach, a Southdale intensive care nurse, said her decision to strike was influenced by the exhaustion of the pandemic. She recalled racing many times to don protective gear before going into rooms to try to save patients in cardiac arrest. "I want to get paid for the hell of the last two years," she said.
Very good and concise writeup. You're an MD, right? You nailed it at the end, hospital 'leadership' is bloated and even in nonprofit has to emulate the corporate structure to attract and retain executive 'talent'. I say that with ' ' because I know a lot of these executives and most of them are idiots who know how to glad-hand, aren't afraid to make decisions and read the latest corporate trend self-help books so they can jerk each other off in meetings. When I said nurses do everything, I meant they do a ****-ton. Obviously there are other staff involved, but I would say nurses are probably the main cog. Doctors are there for their expertise and drive the medical engine.
About 3,000 are striking today but most of the nurses went back to work. THey haven't reached a settlement but were making a point to show how valuable they are. They are threatening to have more go back and strike.
The hospital system execs are reaping what they've sowed. This is the horrible state of our healthcare system coming to head. Nurses are on the front lines, getting burnt out and retiring. Hospitals are notorious for short staffing everything and have been for decades. Nursing is at the top of that list. It's not safe. I see it first hand with my wife. She doesn't make what @Nook quoted, but with added incentives for being a charge and working the weekend program, she's close. But that comes with having to deal with surgeons who have no clue how short staffed they are, and don't care. They have no sympathy for the fact that she doesn't make the rules and can't make people come to work because they're trying to do a total hip on a weekend and the execs refuse to run more than three rooms (and staff that) on a weekend. She's watched many of her friends travel and make bank, and honestly, why wouldn't they? She would do the same if we didn't have two young kids. Instead, she's tired of dealing with the bullsh!t and is applying to a work from home job where she'll probably take a $5/he pay cut, at least. When people say that if you want to retain employees, you pay them and treat them well, this pertains to all industry. They had a meeting yesterday where their CEO related the fact that they WILL NOT EVER give out retention bonuses. And he relayed it as a win that there are only 150 travel nurses in the hospital right now. I'm guessing they have 500 total. I know as a doc or a lawyer, you guys probably don't see these differences. I'm in the medical field too. I started as an x-ray tech where I was repeatedly threatened to be laid off,l and had my wages frozen while the CEO of the hospital gave herself a $30k a year raise, to go with her company paid house, phone, and car. I quit when they asked me to donate a portion of my paycheck to help renovate the ER. The more you specialize the better you're treated. I'm in a field now where I'm much more specialized and much less expendable, and I have it easy. But I would, and will probably leave for more money at some point. There is no loyalty to me, and nor will there be from me. Patient to nurse ratios are being broken by every hospital in the country, btw. They mean nothing. This is largely what nurses are fighting for. I could probably go on and on. @LosPollosHermanos makes some good points, and obviously has experience here, but from a physician's perspective, with all due respect, does not understand all the stresses (different than his, which is many, obviously), involved when it comes to low staffing and patient to nurse ratios. The way he describes is it typically how it should work, but does not always. I know of an academic institution where nurses scrub, prep, first assist, help turn over rooms, etc. Once again, because, like he said, administration has bled them dry of staffing. The Vanderbilt case was the spark that lit the match. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. The hospital system actually sued the nurse that provided the misadministration in order to recoup the money they lost in the lawsuit from the family. They actually sought charges against the nurse. She's in prison now over one mistake she made. Imagine if that happened to doctors? Of course nurses are putting themselves above the system. The biggest issue in the healthcare world is cost and greed. You now have massive corporations running every hospital system in the country, many of whom also own the insurances that patients use to access these hospitals. It's a racket. They control costs and then make double the money. Some systems won't let other patients with insurance other than their own access their services. They send their own employees to collections when they're a week overdue on a payment to their hospital through their own insurance that they can't afford due to their low wages. The people in the big corporate offices see nothing but dollar signs and red or black lines. And most hospitals saying they are experiencing losses right now are lying. Many have reported record profits due to covid. The system is broken. I could go on and on.
