Minnesota Nurses Stage 24-Hour Strike for Patient Safety

Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera sends this account of yesterday’s one-day strike by 12,000 Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) nurses over patient care issues in contract negotiations. In California, a similar strike by some 13,000 California Nurses Association (CNA) nurses was blocked by a court order. Click here for more. Both MNA and CNA are affiliated with National Nurse United (NNU).

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association walked the picket lines at 14 Twin Cities hospitals, in the largest nurses’ strike in U.S. history.

The walkout by 12,000 nurses started at 7 a.m. yesterday at facilities owned by six hospital systems: Health East, Allina, Methodist, Children’s, North Memorial and Fairview. The 24-hour strike ended this morning.

“One, two, three, four—more nurses needed on the floor!” strikers chanted as they picketed outside Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. The nurses are seeking guaranteed staffing levels they say are necessary to ensure patient safety and quality of care.

Hospital administrators kept the facilities operating with the help of replacement nurses hired through national agencies that specialize in providing staff during strikes. But RN Jim Danielson had his doubts abut the effectiveness.

Says Danielson, who has worked for 13 years in the hospital’s mental health unit:

They closed down numerous floors. They transferred patients around the Twin Cities (to non-struck hospitals). I know they’ve canceled a lot of procedures and surgeries.

This is not business as usual for the hospital, no matter what they have to say about that.

The atmosphere on the Mercy Hospital picket line was exuberant, even festive, as hundreds of MNA members wearing red union shirts strolled a picket line that stretched from one end of the hospital grounds to the other. Some brought their dogs, others had lawn chairs to sit in when they needed a break.

Felix, a Jack Russell terrier owned by RN Becky Hallstrom, sported a Minnesota Vikings collar and a red T-shirt with the words, “I love my nurse,” eliciting smiles from other strikers.

Mounds of food and drink were available at several way stations, which the strikers soon nicknamed after their work units—”ICU” and “3West.” Extra picket signs were piled next to cases of bottled water.

Members of other unions showed up in solidarity. SEIU, which organized a vigil Wednesday night in support of the nurses, had staff and members at all 14 picket lines.

Patients also joined the strikers. Don Laufenberg of Blaine, who had just been at Mercy Friday for surgery on his leg, walked up with several boxes of donuts, prompting cheers from the nurses.

I can’t say why they’re on strike. All I know, as a former patient, is I want the best care for the money I’m paying….The nurses I’ve met here are very good.

The scene was similar at Unity Hospital in Fridley, where Laurie Olmon walked the picket line with nurses, carrying a sign that read, “30+ years: Cared for by Minnesota nurses.”

“I’ve been in and out of the ER and hospital for years,” said Olmon, who has epilepsy. “The people who have taken care of me the most are the nurses….They took care of me and I’m here to take care of them.”

The union, citing little progress in negotiations that began in March, called the one-day strike to put pressure on management to put patient-staff ratios in hospital contracts. Currently, understaffing or inappropriate staffing is making it difficult, if not impossible, to provide good patient care, the nurses said.

The union is compiling stories on its website to illustrate the effects of unsafe staffing.

Management wants ultimate flexibility in staffing, assigning nurses across units and even across hospitals.

Other issues include management’s demand to slash the nurses’ pension fund by one-third, moving it back to 1968 economic levels.

Hospital management say they cannot afford to increase staffing to the level sought by the nurses. But as a group, Twin Cities hospitals made nearly $700 million in profits during 2009.

On the Mercy picket line, strikers chanted:

Hey, hey, ho, ho—where does all the money go?

The current strike surpasses the walkout of 1984, when 6,000 RNs across Minnesota walked off the job for 38 days. It was the largest RN strike in U.S. history until today.

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