Pressing issues remain as 12,000 Minnesota nurses heading back to work from 1-day strike

Issues remain after walkout by 12K Minn. nurses

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of Minnesota nurses returned to work Friday after a one-day strike, without a contract and with the same complaints of short-staffing that fueled their walkout.

Nurses walked back onto the job at 7 a.m. Friday, though it wasn’t clear how many of the 12,000 who struck would be back immediately. Hospital officials said they would need fewer nurses because they reduced patient levels leading up to the strike.

Al Carr, a nurse waiting to go back to work Friday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, said the strike was a success.

“It’s a chance to show patient care is what we want,” Carr said.

Carr said he believed nurses were prepared for further strike action if necessary. No new talks were scheduled.

The nurses said their walkout from 14 Minneapolis-area hospitals was motivated by their concern for patient safety. They have demanded strict nurse-patient ratios, something the hospitals say is inflexible and unnecessary and would increase costs without improving safety.

The hospitals prepared for the strike by bringing in extra non-union staff, hiring 2,800 replacement nurses and reducing patient counts. Spokeswoman Maureen Schriner said operations went smoothly during the 24 hours of the strike.

Schriner said she couldn’t immediately provide figures on how many nurses would be back at work on Friday.

At Abbott Northwestern, about 60 nurses who tried to return to work were turned away because they weren’t needed Friday. The nurses accused the hospital of not following their contract in handling the recall.

“I think what we’re seeing this morning is (that) the union is much more interested in controversy and conflict than negotiation,” Schriner said Friday. She said the union was “clearly notified” about the process for nurses to return.

The hospitals declined to talk about how much the one-day strike was costing them. Web advertisements from two large staffing agencies — Healthsource Global Staffing and U.S Nursing — said they offered replacement nurses between $1,600 and $2,224 for one day of work and one day of orientation.

The union wants to write rigid staffing levels into their contracts, reduce the hospitals’ ability to “float” nurses from department to department and order hospitals to shut down units, with some exceptions, at 90 percent capacity in the name of patient safety. They also are resisting a proposal to reduce their pensions.

The hospitals claim the union’s staffing proposals would increase costs by $250 million a year without improving safety. The hospitals also say that even with their proposed pension cuts, a nurse with 25 years of experience would receive $3,000 a month at retirement.

Full-time nurses at the Minnesota hospitals are paid an average of $79,000 a year, or about $10,000 more than the national average. However, most nurses work part-time and when they are figured in the average Minnesota nurse makes about $62,000 a year, or $38 an hour.

The hospitals’ last proposal offers pay increases over the three-year contract of zero percent, 1 percent and 2 percent, with other increases for seniority. The union wants increases of 3.5 percent to 4 percent a year.

Online:

Minnesota Nurses Association: mnnurses.org/

Twin Cities Hospitals: www.twincitieshospitals.com/