Minnesota nurses vote to strike for 2nd time this year

The Minnesota Nurses Association, which represents 15,000 nurses from dozens of hospitals across the state, has voted to authorize an unfair labor practices strike.

The proposed strike, which will involve nurses from 16 hospitals statewide, is set to begin on Dec. 11, unless negotiations with hospitals progress to a point where a strike becomes unnecessary. Nurses voted "overwhelmingly" to strike for up to 20 days, the Minnesota Nurses Association told CBS Minnesota, and at two hospitals, the strike has no end date.

This is the second time the union has authorized a strike this year: An earlier strike ran for three days in September for what the nurses said were unfair labor practices. At the time, the union said they were concerned about staff shortages, employee retention and safety. It was believed to be the largest private-sector nurses' strike in U.S. history, according to the Minnesota Nurses Association.

In a press release, the organization said that the new strike was approved due to those same concerns, claiming that even after returning to work in September, policies that were negotiated on haven't been enacted. Nurses in several Minnesota cities, including Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, have been without a contract since summer 2022.

"Our hospitals are in crisis, and our CEOs have failed nurses and patients. They have failed to solve the crisis of patient care, and they have failed to solve the crisis of working conditions pushing nurses away from the bedside," said Mary C. Turner, a nurse at North Memorial Hospital and president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, in a press release. "Nurses are fighting to win contracts that will help nurses stay on the job to provide patients with the exceptional care they deserve. Hospital CEOs with million-dollar salaries can afford to put Patients Before Profits in our hospitals and to do right by Minnesota nurses."

The Minnesota Nurses Association said the nurses who were striking are from hospitals where the pay ratio for CEOs to nurses is 10 to one.

Hospitals impacted by the strike quickly responded to Thursday's vote, saying that the union had acted too hastily. The Twin Cities Hospitals Group said that the Minnesota Nurses Association "completely failed to give the mediation process time," and said it was making preparations to ensure "continuity of care" for patients who might be affected by the proposed strike.

"The Twin Cities Hospitals Group is shocked and deeply disappointed that the nurses' union has once again chosen to issue 10-day strike notices throughout the metro and Duluth before exhausting all reasonable efforts to reach an agreement," the hospitals said in a statement. "... The nurses' union 10-day strike notices are completely contrary to the best interests of our patients and the communities we serve. Their announcement today is entirely inconsistent with their claim that they are acting to protect patients."

The group also said that it had recently brought mediators into the negotiation process, but claimed that the union "elected to pursue a strike" rather than continue negotiations. Another bargaining session between the Minnesota Nurses Association and the hospitals is set for Friday, and the Twin Cities Hospitals Group said that its negotiators "will exhaust all means necessary to avoid a work stoppage."

Allina Health, another healthcare system in Minnesota, echoed that sentiment in its own statement, saying that it has worked with the Minnesota Nurses Association to "find alignment on a number of priority issues" and is "hopeful to continue to make meaningful progress" to avert a strike.

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