Roughly 15,000 nurses in Minnesota walked off the job on Monday and joined the picket lines in what is believed to be the largest strike of private sector nurses in United States history.
The strike, which is expected to last three days, includes nurses from 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities area pushing for pay increases and staffing changes after contract negotiations between the Minnesota Nurses Association and hospital systems stalled.
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“Corporate healthcare policies in our hospitals have left nurses understaffed and overworked, while patients are overcharged, local hospitals and services are closed, and executives take home million-dollar paychecks,” said Chris Rubesch, a nurse at Essentia Health and vice president of Minnesota Nurses Association. “Nurses have one priority in our hospitals, to take care of our patients, and we are determined to fight for fair contracts so nurses can stay at the bedside to provide the quality care our patients deserve.”
Strike lines are rocking across the state! #patientsbeforeprofits #striketember pic.twitter.com/vg0BUzCExR
— Minnesota Nurses (@mnnurses) September 12, 2022
The Minnesota Nurses Association is calling for a 30% increase in wages over the next three years, which hospital leaders have said they can’t meet, instead proposing roughly 10%-12% increases over the same period.
Nurses, who have been working without a contract since June, have also pushed for hospital management to address staff retention rates, staffing shortages, and safety concerns exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hospital systems have brought in temp nurses to fill the roles of staff nurses who are a part of the strike slated to end at 7 a.m. on Thursday, though Children’s Minnesota told the Star Tribune that it has had to delay elective inpatient surgeries.
