PRESS BRIEFING: 15,000 Minnesota Nurses Commence Strike

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (trfnews.i234.me & trfnews.i234.me) Watch news conference. Fifteen-thousand Minnesota nurses are on strike.
and thousands of nurses in Minnesota launched a three-day strike Monday pressing for salary increases that they say will help improve Patient Care by resolving understaffing stresses that have worsened in the coronavirus pandemic some 15 000 nurses at seven Health Care Systems in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas walked out a number of the union says makes it the largest strike ever by a private sector nurses the affected hospitals said they have recruited temporary nurses and expected to maintain most services nurses are seeking pay raises of more than 30 percent over the three years while hospitals have offered 10 to 12 percent the hospital system says that nurses demands are unrealistic so at a Nurses Association but uh more importantly I’m an ICU nurse at North more on Robbinsdale Minnesota and we have today we have uh just a few of the 15 000 nurses that are on strike all across Minnesota we’ve got two three hospitals up in Duluth and we’ve got 11 hospitals down here that are on strike for three days we started at seven a.m and we will run till 7 A.M on Thursday why are we out here we are out here literally to save our profession of us could potentially leave the bedside as of next year 51 that’s a Health crisis okay and our employers have told us at the table they want to make it all about money that we’re just looking for money I’ll tell you what guys if all we cared about was money we’d all be traveling right now okay because during the pandemic as a covet ICU nurse at North I sat next to nurses who made 300 an hour believe you me we don’t make no 300 an hour so if we really were only in this for money we’d all be traveling right now right nurses yeah yep but it’s not just about that it is about being able to do the profession how we are obligated to do through the nurse Practice Act they’re saying that there’s no way we’re going to have an arbitrator you know arbitrator language in our contract I’m like okay fine we’re not going to win that battle but here is a sentence that we want to have in our contract if you want to change the Staffing on the floor you have got to get 51 of your nurses to agree to it they don’t want that their response back is never will we let the nurses um control the Staffing grids never will we let the nurses have a say in our staffing on our floor well that means they’re telling us that we will not be allowed to do the job the way we are trained to do and that is using our assessment skills and in our knowledge and our know-how to keep the patients safe so guys this this is a fight for our very profession and with that I’m going to bring on our next just to let you know what’s going on in our hospitals um I I want to say one other thing about the hospitals this morning that we found out from Duluth um found out on the line at North Memorial that our St Luke’s nurse is up there the ICU nurses that had worked 16 hours were left on the floor because they did not send any replacement nurses to take report from them they ended up staying almost 19 hours before they could get out on the floor in my mind they were being held hostage they were being denied their right to get on the street and strike that is their right as an American citizen and they were being denied that luckily just as I tell my North nurses about that Amber said they came out on the street praise the Lord because I’ll tell you what that is that is just Unthinkable and my heart went out to those nurses up in Duluth so I just wanted to let you guys know that little story but otherwise uh ambulances if you have I was down in Minneapolis ambulances have been coming and going all day all morning long they’re trying to transfer people here and there I don’t know what they’re doing but they’re all over the place but I’m gonna bring up Melissa Cole who can tell you a little bit what’s going on at St Paul children’s thank you Mary my name is Melissa Cole I’m a registered nurse in the case management department at Children’s Minnesota St Paul campus where I have spent nearly 34 of my 35-year career this is a sad moment for myself today my co-workers but more importantly the community and the families who rely on us to provide care for their children the hospital would like you to think that this is all about money that is simply not true we are among the 15 000 nurses across the metro and twin ports who are out here today to fight for a voice in our working conditions an improvement in the critical Staffing crisis facing health care we are fighting to put patients first before corporate Health Care agreed in the last three years nurses at Children’s have watched more than 500 of our most dedicated highly skilled qualified colleagues leave the bedside due to the moral distress of no longer being able to provide the care and quality they believe your children deserve in the past two years over 3 500 concerned for safe Staffing reports have been filed by children’s nurses alone that’s more than any other m a facility in the state we continue to be forced to do more with less this means that on over 3 500 occasions a nurse has felt that they had an assignment that compromised the safety of our children the standards of care this is no longer sustainable 36 hours ago I sat at the table with children’s nursing leadership for our 22nd bargaining session 22 times my employer had the ability to do the right thing and put the safety of Children First instead they have committed to be uninterested in our proposals that allow nurses nurses to have a voice in the development of safe Staffing plans that would help retain and recruit nurses and that would improve the working conditions inside our facility they were unwilling to respond to our latest proposal instead walking away at midnight on Saturday night and then canceling bargaining sessions that we did actually have scheduled for tomorrow this is what has forced us to be here today nurses are united as we have never been before we are we are united in fighting for our profession we are united and fighting for a fair contract we are united in fighting for the safe Staffing that allows us to provide the absolute best care care that we all deserve today is historic fifteen thousand nurses out in the largest nurses strike in American history however we are not out here to to make history we are here to pave the way for the future of Nursing and Health Care thank you