Working Conditions Hang Over Another Possible Minnesota Nurses’ Strike

(KNSI) — Fifteen thousand members of the Minnesota Nurses Association are preparing to walk off the job on December 11th over, among other things, poor working conditions.

Megan Dayton, president of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, is not part of the striking workers but understands where they’re coming from and stands in solidarity with them. “We’ve been around since the ’80s, and the only time that we ever were on strike as a union was over healthcare, and that’s the setting that these members are in. So, we know how important that this healthcare setting is for Minnesota families. And the hospitals need to take better care of the nurses, who end up caring for all of us when we can’t care for ourselves.”

MNA nurses say they have negotiated for eight months with hospital executives and have worked without contracts since the summer saying hospital CEOs continue to take multi-million-dollar salaries while failing to solve the retention crisis pushing nurses out of the profession, negatively impacting care for Minnesota patients. There is no shortage of nurses in Minnesota, but deteriorating care and working conditions are driving more nurses to leave the bedside. While adverse events increase for patients and conditions deteriorate in Minnesota hospitals on the watch of hospital CEOs, more than half of all nurses are considering leaving the bedside in the next year.

With COVID-19 and seasonal viruses landing more patients in hospitals, allies say there’s no better time to address such issues as burnout. One of the regional providers involved in the dispute, Allina Health, issued a statement saying the nurses’ union continues to “focus on disruption at the expense of spending meaningful time at the bargaining table.”

Vicki Good, past president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, says these calls have been building for several years, with the pandemic pushing the issue into the limelight.

“Nurses are really crying out for flexible work schedules. They need support with the stress-injury continuum that really addresses burnout and moral distress, and compassion fatigue.”

Dayton says local administrators need to remember the region’s strong reputation for healthcare and who’s involved in making it happen.

“People come from all over the country, all over the world, to Minnesota for the healthcare that we have here, and that is those nurses – they are the frontlines of healthcare.”

Members of the MNA walked off the job for three days in September.

The affected hospitals will be in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Superior, Wisconsin and Two Harbors.

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MNC Reporter Mike Moen contributed to this story.

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