"The turnout and the message our nurses have delivered tonight is overwhelming," said Steve Strand, an RN at SMDC Medical Center. "Our nurses have shown up, stood up and spoke up in a powerful way regarding patient safety. It\'s the one issue that unites every nurse in the Northland. Our patients are the whole reason we became nurses in the first place. If we don\'t stand up and advocate for them now, when things have become so unsafe inside our hospitals, who will?"
After months of negotiations, more than 1,300 nurses at SMDC and St. Luke\'s Hospital have been unable to reach a contract agreement at each facility. (The current labor contracts expired on July 1.) WIth no new talks scheduled and each employers\' "best, last offer" on the table, Strand and other nurse leaders on the SMDC and St. Luke\'s bargaining teams unanimously recommended Duluth RNs reject those offers and instead authorize a one-day strike. There has never been an RN-related work stoppage in Duluth\'s history.
On Wednesday, more than 90 percent of SMDC nurses voted to reject the contract offer and authorize a one-day strike. More than 86 percent of St. Luke\'s nurses voted to reject the contract offer and authorize a strike.
"The hospitals left us with no choice," Strand said. "We can\'t handle another three years of one nurse talking care of 8, 9 or even 12 patients at once. Neither can our patients. How many more patients have to sit in their own stool because nobody can answer their call light? How many more patients need to wait and wait and wait for pain medication because there\'s no nurse available to administer it? How many more patients have to go to the bathroom in a wastebasket or develop bed sores or pressure ulcers because a nurse can\'t make it to their room to help them move around?"
Two key patient safety issues - the option for a nurse to refuse an unsafe patient assignment and the ability of a nurse to temporarily close his or her unit during an unsafe staffing situation - are the key sticking points in contract talks at both facilities, Strand said.
In the Twin Cities, nurses have had language in their contracts since the late 1990s that gives RNs the ability to do both of these things, he said.
"If it\'s good enough for roughly 12,000 nurses at 14 hospitals in the Cities, why isn\'t it good enough for nurses and patients in the Northland?" he asked. "We\'re not looking for anything new or unusual here. We\'re simply looking to add the same type of patient safety language that other nurses in our state have."
National labor laws require that hospitals be given at least a 10-day notice before any strike can take place. Strand said RN members of the SMDC and St. Luke\'s bargaining teams will meet this week to evaluate their next steps moving forward, including when to file the strike notice.
"Nobody wins in a strike," Strand said. "Our goal remains to get our employers back to the table and work out a contract that ensures safe patient care, which is the goal of all nurses everywhere and what every patient deserves."
Reprinted from the MNA website.
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"The turnout and the message our nurses have delivered tonight is overwhelming," said Steve Strand, an RN at SMDC Medical Center. "Our nurses have shown up, stood up and spoke up in a powerful way regarding patient safety. It\’s the one issue that unites every nurse in the Northland. Our patients are the whole reason we became nurses in the first place. If we don\’t stand up and advocate for them now, when things have become so unsafe inside our hospitals, who will?"
After months of negotiations, more than 1,300 nurses at SMDC and St. Luke\’s Hospital have been unable to reach a contract agreement at each facility. (The current labor contracts expired on July 1.) WIth no new talks scheduled and each employers\’ "best, last offer" on the table, Strand and other nurse leaders on the SMDC and St. Luke\’s bargaining teams unanimously recommended Duluth RNs reject those offers and instead authorize a one-day strike. There has never been an RN-related work stoppage in Duluth\’s history.
On Wednesday, more than 90 percent of SMDC nurses voted to reject the contract offer and authorize a one-day strike. More than 86 percent of St. Luke\’s nurses voted to reject the contract offer and authorize a strike.
"The hospitals left us with no choice," Strand said. "We can\’t handle another three years of one nurse talking care of 8, 9 or even 12 patients at once. Neither can our patients. How many more patients have to sit in their own stool because nobody can answer their call light? How many more patients need to wait and wait and wait for pain medication because there\’s no nurse available to administer it? How many more patients have to go to the bathroom in a wastebasket or develop bed sores or pressure ulcers because a nurse can\’t make it to their room to help them move around?"
Two key patient safety issues – the option for a nurse to refuse an unsafe patient assignment and the ability of a nurse to temporarily close his or her unit during an unsafe staffing situation – are the key sticking points in contract talks at both facilities, Strand said.
In the Twin Cities, nurses have had language in their contracts since the late 1990s that gives RNs the ability to do both of these things, he said.
"If it\’s good enough for roughly 12,000 nurses at 14 hospitals in the Cities, why isn\’t it good enough for nurses and patients in the Northland?" he asked. "We\’re not looking for anything new or unusual here. We\’re simply looking to add the same type of patient safety language that other nurses in our state have."
National labor laws require that hospitals be given at least a 10-day notice before any strike can take place. Strand said RN members of the SMDC and St. Luke\’s bargaining teams will meet this week to evaluate their next steps moving forward, including when to file the strike notice.
"Nobody wins in a strike," Strand said. "Our goal remains to get our employers back to the table and work out a contract that ensures safe patient care, which is the goal of all nurses everywhere and what every patient deserves."