Leader of landmark nurses’ strike retires after 40-year career

Sue Kreitz will miss Karen\’s professionalism, mentorship, strength in Labor Management, and her way of getting the best she can for the nurses in negotiations.

Julie Kinsel will miss Karen\’s day-today kindness.

Karen Patek will miss Jacquie, Sue, Julie and the thousands of others her life has touched in her 40-year career with the Minnesota Nurses Association.

"It\’s a long time," is her simple understatement in response to the initial request to reflect on the past four decades. She says it with that patented grin of hers, feet up on her desk, leaning back in her chair. Her open, unguarded pose is also typical. One always feels welcome in Karen\’s presence.

That "long time" is a body of work that consists of unprecedented gains for nursing and patient care in Minnesota.

Under her influence, MNA bargaining unit members: achieved the first contract language addressing mandatory overtime (1987, nearly 15 years before other states); witnessed the expansion of the coveted Twin Cities Pension Plan to a remarkable $500 million fund; established Nursing Practice Committees in contracts to balance staff nurse and management voice every day, and negotiated the nation\’s first lifting restriction rules for bargaining units.

Perhaps Karen\’s most notable role is as guide and strategist for two internationally known work actions taken by nurses to protect their rights and to advance patient care.

Karen Patek early in her career	Karen Patek today

In 1984, Karen led a strike by 6,300 RNs at 17 different hospitals in the Twin Cities. It was, and continues to be, the largest RN strike in the world. The essential issues focused around layoff policies and health benefits. MNA members made proposals to maximize job security and to develop a fair system for implementing staff reductions.

According to the Minnesota Nursing Accent report at the time, employers were in the midst of implementing "corporate changes and staff reductions," and "respond(ed) with silence or unconcern when confronted with the fact that very senior nurses were (or will be) disadvantaged by the shotgun layoff approach."

With Karen\’s guidance, MNA bargaining unit members called the bluff and went on strike for 39 days. Hospitals conceded to demands. Karen\’s efforts in the return-to-work agreement protected members\’ benefits and seniority – and became the model for many settlements that followed.

2001 saw 1,600 nurses from the Fairview Health System back out on the line fighting for justice – and Karen as the lead staff person.

Negotiations for the entire Twin Cities metro had not gone smoothly in general, because nurses were frustrated, fatigued and stressed with an increasingly demanding environment. Understaffing was the norm, nurses regularly worked well beyond their work agreements and patient care suffered. While other bargaining units were able to achieve unprecedented language that allowed charge nurses to close units to further admissions, Fairview administration refused to allow such nursing judgment to be officially recognized in contract.

Their strategy failed. The strike lasted 23 days and generated enormous community, nationwide and even international support for MNA nurses in their protest. The contract clause is now steadfastly imbedded in the Fairview/MNA agreement.

Karen\’s wealth of knowledge and history is legendary. It is not uncommon for her to quote a line verbatim from a contract or to provide insight into the nuance behind a clause negotiated 15 years ago.

The characteristic most noted, however, is Karen\’s ability to read the message beyond the words.

"She has such wonderful intuition," says Jacquie Luoma, former Bargaining Unit Chair at U-M Medical Center Riverside, who has worked with Karen for more than a decade. "She listens, probes in a respectful manner, and always has a good sense of reading people."

Jacquie also speaks of Karen\’s mentorship. "She allows others to grow. It seems second nature for her to encourage and inspire."

Those qualities have earned significant respect for Karen in her field – from both sides of the table and in between.

Jan Halverson is an attorney with Felharber, Larson, Fenlon and Vogt, a law firm that represents many employers in the state. Halverson openly admires her passion, stating "Karen has been a zealous advocate for the people that she represented. She will be missed."

For more than 20 years, Federal Mediator Jeanne Frank has shared many late-night hours with Karen as labor-management issues were negotiated, and succinctly praises Karen\’s career.

"Our community will be losing one of its strongest advocates of the nursing profession and for the rights of the organized nurse. Karen has positively affected many lives and careers in her time with MNA."

The year is 1967, a young, idealistic nurse begins a career representing the interests of her colleagues.

She joins an MNA staff of 7 people and 5,000 members. Among other things, nurses face a retirement of financial insecurity. Their wages are $6,500 a year. They could be summarily dismissed for reporting unethical or questionable corporate conduct.

The year is 2007. A veteran starts to pack up her office and make plans for her first retirement trip.

The idealism still lingers in her eyes. MNA boasts 20,000 members. Nurses enjoy a guaranteed pension  plan and can earn up to $100,000 annually. Contract language and state statute provide Whistleblower  protection. A groundswell of nurses are  making their voices heard in a variety of arenas. 
 
“Hardly the same organization it was when I came, she states.

Hardly. Thank you, Karen.

Jan Rabbers is communications director for the Minnesota Nurses Association. This article is reprinted from the January/February 2008 issue of Minnesota Nursing Accent.