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Striking Twin Cities nurses say their week-long walkout raises important issues regarding the future of health care – and they are challenging the corporate power behind Allina Health, the owner of the five facilities being picketed.
Citing Minnesota’s not-for-profit health care laws, the Minnesota Nurses Association called on state Attorney General Lori Swanson to dig into Allina’s financials.
“Allina is reportedly spending $8,400 each for 1,500 replacement nurses. That totals over $25 million spent – a staggering number that could pay for two years of nurses’ health insurance,” said Mathew Keller, regulatory and policy nursing specialist.
“If Allina is willing to spend more than $20 million over two weeks to save $10 million per year in health care for nurses, we must truly question their responsibility with patients and the public’s money,” Keller said. In addition to reviewing the current finances, nurses are asking Swanson to review Allina Board of Directors relationships. Board members include the CEO of a health insurance broker, investment bankers, mutual fund manager CEOs and only two physicians.
Minnesota Nurses Association is part of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses, with 185,000 members.
“Behind this strike is a problem that symbolizes the degradation of our health care system – the dominance of large corporate hospital chains whose priorities are too often far removed from the hospital bedside and assuring high quality care, even when the system, like Allina, carries the label of a not-for-profit organization,” National Nurses United said in a statement issued Tuesday.
“It is not surprising that this [Allina] board, like so many similar systems in our increasingly corporate healthcare industry, has focused on budget goals and expanding revenue too often at the expense of patients and the front line caregivers who those patients count on.”
To date, Allina has refused to negotiate on wages, patient safety or nurse safety until nurses agree to eliminate their affordable health insurance plans. In response, the nurses are engaging in an unfair labor practice strike. MNA has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against Allina Health with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging, in part, that the company has failed to provide information nurses need to negotiate and refuses to bargain on non-economic issues in the contract.
Picketing began at 7 a.m. Sunday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United Hospital in St. Paul, Unity Hospital in Fridley and Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.
Nurses welcomed Congressman Keith Ellison, DFL-5th District, to the picket line at Unity Tuesday. He also was scheduled visit Abbott Northwestern later in the day. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman was slated to go to the picket line at United.
The Minnesota AFL-CIO sent out an e-mail appeal for supporters to drop off food for strikers at the various picket locations.
“They are standing up for their patients and to keep healthcare affordable for fellow nurses,” the labor federation said.