15,000 Minnesota Nurses To Walk Off Job In Historic Strike Over Wages And Staffing Levels

By Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer:

After months of stalled negotiations, some 15,000 union nurses across more than a dozen hospitals will strike for three days later this month in what the union believes will be the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history.

“Today is a somber day,” said Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner, during a Thursday news conference. “Our health care and our profession are in crisis.”

The strike will begin on Sept. 12, after the required 10-day notice period, and affect 15 hospitals run by many of the state’s largest health systems including Allina, HealthPartners, Children’s Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, North Memorial, Essentia and St. Luke’s Duluth.

The nurses are seeking 30% increases to pay and benefits over the next three years, a proposal that hospital leaders say is financially impossible after more than two years of financial strain during the pandemic. Hospital leaders have countered with raises of about 10% over three years, which they say would be the largest raises for nurses in 15 years.

Hospital representatives say they’re working on contingency plans to continue providing care should the nurses go on strike.

The strike threatens to disrupt patient care and hurt hospital finances by forcing the health systems to hire temporary nurses at premium rates.

In 2016, two nurses strikes at Allina cost the health system $149 million, wiping out its entire operating income for the year. The nurses went on strike for one week in the summer, followed by an open-ended strike that lasted 37 days, one day shy of the longest nurses strike in state history.

Union nurses say the step is necessary to protect the quality of care for patients long term.

Nurses say hospitals are dangerously understaffed, leading to more patient injuries like bed sores and falls. A recent report from the Minnesota Department of Health shows adverse health events were up 33% in 2021 from 2020 and last year, nurses filed nearly 8,000 reports of unsafe staffing levels, an increase of 300% from 2014.

“Everywhere in Minnesota nurses have watched CEOs with million-dollar salaries understaff our units, pushing us to do more with less, even before the pandemic hit,” said Turner, who also works as an intensive care nurse at North Memorial.

Some 12,000 union nurses in the Twin Cities went on strike in 2010 over staffing levels, which the union says have only grown worse.

Hospitals have struggled to recruit new nurses, while others have left the industry in droves. A recent survey from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute found that a little more than half of nurses are considering leaving the profession in the next year, mainly because of what they say are unsafe staffing levels.

Hospital leaders have asked the union to bring in a federal mediator to help them reach a deal, which union leaders have so far declined. Turner said a mediator is only helpful when the two sides are close to a deal.

Given the two sides are so far apart, a three-day strike may just be prologue to a longer, protracted strike as it was in 2016.

The strike announcement comes after a series of actions by the union to ratchet up pressure on hospital executives ever since contracts expired on May 31 for Twin Cities nurses and June 30 for Duluth-area nurses.

The nurses came out swinging with a public relations campaign blasting the seven-figure salaries of health executives and calling “greed” a “health crisis of unprecedented proportions.”

Hospital representatives point out that some executives took a pay cut during the pandemic — although they still realized substantial gains in recent years.

For example, Fairview Health Services CEO James Hereford received $2.62 million in total compensation in 2020. While that’s 26% less than what he received the year before, his 2020 compensation was still up 40% from 2018.

Hospital representatives also point out that executive compensation isn’t part of union negotiations with the nurses. But the union is confident that drawing attention to pay disparity between executives and nurses will help them win the public’s support.

The hospitals where nurses will strike if a deal isn’t reached are: Abbott Northwestern, North Memorial, Mercy, United, Unity, Children’s Minneapolis, Children’s St. Paul, Essentia (Duluth), Essentia (Superior, Wisc.), Methodist, M Health Fairview Riverside, Southdale, HealthEast St. Joe’s, HealthEast St. John’s and St. Luke’s Duluth.

This story is developing and will be updated.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..