Nurses to rally as Tuesday strike date approaches

The rally will start at 5 p.m. at the stadium, located on Energy Park Drive just west of Snelling Ave.

“Join with your fellow RNs from around the Twin Cities as we rally for our patients and our profession!” the union said in announcing the rally. “Family and friends are welcome.”

A bargaining session Tuesday failed to produce an agreement between six hospital systems – Health East, Allina, Methodist, Children’s, North Memorial and Fairview – and 12,000 registered nurses represented by MNA.

The union offered to meet again Wednesday, but no new talks are scheduled, a hospital spokeswoman said. MNA held strike preparation meetings all day Wednesday at union headquarters in St. Paul.

When the June 10 walkout failed to pressure management into a settlement, the union held another strike authorization vote and scheduled the July 6 date for a potentially lengthy walkout.

Nurses said they had made several concessions during Tuesday’s negotiations and expressed disappointment with the hospitals’ approach.

“Many of the employers’ concessions and take backs remain on the table,” MNA said in a statement. “During today’s session, the employers said their solution to the unsafe staffing issue – which Twin Cities nurses have been trying to address since the early 1990s – would be to create a MNA-Twin Cities Hospital ‘task force’ to study the problem. This same ‘task force’ concept was tried last year at the request of the legislature, failed miserably and was consequently disbanded.”

The union said, “our nurses remain committed to meeting anytime, anywhere before July 6 in hopes we can reach a contract agreement and avoid a strike.”

For more information
Visit the Workday special section on the safe staffing campaign and the MNA website

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