Minnesota nurses start week-long strike over healthcare, workplace safety

Almost 5,000 nurses in Minnesota went through with an agreement to strike June 19, walking out of four Twin-Cities area hospitals and one clinic associated with the Allina Health system.

The strike is set to last one week. The nurses’ union, the Minnesota Nurses Association, and the health system couldn’t come to an agreement over nurse health care costs and workplace safety during contract negotiations, setting off a strike vote earlier this month. One nurse on the union’s bargaining, Angela Becchetti, told Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) she isn’t sure what the next steps are if the hospitals and nurses can’t agree on a contract this week.

Until then, the nurses plan to picket in front of their hospitals for 12 hours a day.

There are already 1,400 temporary replacement nurses on staff at Allina hospitals, MPR reported. The hospitals respond that they are continuing high-quality patient care, even without their regular nursing staff. But the St. Paul Pioneer-Press said one hospital is having to cut down on some scheduled procedures and there were rumors some of the out-of-state replacement nurses weren’t licensed to work in Minnesota right away.

Plus, Minnesota Nurses Association members told several media outlets it didn’t seem the hospitals were fully prepared to go on without them when they walked out the morning of June 19.