Around 12000 striking nurses from 14
hospitals in the Twin Cities entered into a settlement averting the
biggest nursing strike in the U.S. History. Although, experts
believed more labor unrest that will disturb the hospital industry
are to be expected.
The nurses on strike are members of the
Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), an affiliate of a new and aggressive union having 15000 members known as the National Nurses United
(NNU). This so-called "super union" backs the nationwide
adoption of nurse-to-patient staffing ratios that it considers low
enough to guarantee good patient care and avoid nurse burnout.
Numerous members of the Minnesota
Nurses Association, who had been preparing for a strike in June 30,
2010 Tuesday, got surprised by the 3 p.m. Announcement. Instead of
going to the picket lines, they'll be voting on the agreement that
day. At 1 a.m. Wednesday, the two factions had abruptly discontinued
negotiations and declared that there was "no reason to talk."
Although, by 11p.m. The negotiations quietly resumed and forged provisionary agreement, which was officially endorsed by the union
leadership Thursday.
Giving up of what the union had called its central demand ?
mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios ? was part of the
agreement. It agreed instead to work on staffing concerns through
existing hospital committees. The union also said yes to the
hospital's pay offer: there will be no wage increase on the first
year, instead, 1 and 2 percent increases will be received in the next
two years.
To reciprocate, the hospitals abandoned their proposed cuts to
nurse pensions and changes in health insurance and other benefits.
The union announced to its members that its negotiators triumphantly
fought of "all the hospitals' take-backs and concessions."
It was agreed upon by the union to drop a series of unfair-labor
practice charges that it had filed against the hospitals during the
antagonistic negotiations.
Nurses have mixed reactions and
feelings with regard to the outcome of the agreement. Some were
grateful that the tension is over, but some felt they weren't able to
get what they really wanted.
Others believe the fight isn't over
yet. According to a university's Sojourner, the union didn't get what
they aimed for, but they made it known to the public. That the issue
is not going away, nurses would push for it, and it will be an issue
in three years.
The real winners in all of these are no
other than but the Twin Cities patients according to Maureen Swan, a
health care consultant with MedTrend Inc. She also shared that the
nurses lost some of their credibility by claiming that hospitals were
unsafe and needed rigid staffing ratios. "Once the facts were
clear that Minnesota hospitals are safe and our nurses are highly
paid, the public just didn't buy the story nurses were selling,"
she said.
There were several hospitals that were
affected, they are: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Bethesda Hospital,
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Mercy Hospital, North
Memorial Medical Center, Phillips Eye Institute, St. John's Hospital,
Fairview Southdale Hospital, Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, St.
Joseph's Hospital, United Hospital, and Unity Hospital and the
Riverside campus of University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.