Fifteen thousand nurses in the American state of Minnesota have launched the largest private sector nurses’ strike in the country’s history.
The strike, authorised by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) spanned sixteen private hospitals and seven healthcare systems across the Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Duluth areas. The nurses called for safe staffing ratios and fair pay across the affected areas.
Chris Rubesh, a registered nurse at Essentia Health in Duluth, criticised hospital administration for the conditions which made strike action inevitable.
“Six months ago, a year ago, our management would say, this is just temporary, we can get through this, we just have to do this for now and recently, the messaging from management has become, this is the new normal, and that’s when I realized, they don’t have any intention of fixing them. They are expecting us to continue to work in these conditions forever,” he said.
“We’ve tried legislatively. We tried to address this in contract language. Our employers refused to work with us on that. And so we’re left to take this extraordinary step, and we don’t take it lightly. We find it’s the only path to address the problem.”
Ali Marcanti, a registered nurse at Allina Health in St Paul, agreed with Rubesch’s sentiment, and indicated her disgust at the disingenuous way that hospital management have approached contract negotiations.
“Negotiations, in our eyes have been our employers’ opportunity to put their money where their mouth is,” she said.
“Instead of pithy statements, like ‘you’re a hero’, actually give us some substantial improvements to our work environment that make us actually want to continue working in health.”
The strike action was held over three days. Life-preserving care was provided throughout the duration of the action, with patient levels reduced and replacement nurses employed during the strike.