ST PAUL, Minn — Fifteen thousand Minnesota nurses from the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports (Duluth-Superior) are working without a contract as negotiations with several local hospitals stall.
Union and hospital leaders have been at the negotiating table since mid-March. Contract talks are scheduled to continue at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in St. Paul.
But members of the Minnesota Nurses Association will announce plans for collective action in their fight for fair contracts. This move puts them one step closer to a strike.
Union leaders say besides a fair contract, they want solutions for short-staffing, retention and better patient care. The union is asking for a 37 to 39% wage increase over three years, plus more paid time off. Hospitals are only offering a reported increase of between 8 and 10% over that same time period.
"They better have a wake-up call, because unless they're going to magically come up with nurse robots by next year to replace everybody, you need the nurses," said Minnesota Nursing Association president Mary Turner.
Paul Omodt, spokesperson for M Health Fairview, Children's Minnesota, North Memorial Health, and Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital released a statement and said in part:
Hospital systems are continuing to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic with many facing significant financial challenges. In this climate, wage increases proposed by the union between 32-37% are unrealistic, unaffordable, and unwise considering the growing affordability crisis facing patients and health care systems across the country.
Since negotiations began, nurses have held informational pickets at 15 hospitals throughout the state in June, launched an advertising campaign, and announced that nurses had voted “No Confidence” in hospital executives.
"We don't have confidence in our CEOs and other executives to properly address our understaffing," Turner said. "Nurses are overworked and patients are overcharged, this isn't a new issue."
KARE 11 reached out to hospital representatives Thursday morning for their thoughts about the nurses' new plan of action, and are still waiting to hear back.
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