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Roughly 15,000 personal sector nurses within the US state of Minnesota have launched a three-day strike as they push for larger pay and higher staffing in a healthcare system that has been stretched to its limits in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nurses walked off the job on Monday in seven healthcare techniques in Minneapolis and Duluth, mounting picket traces, chanting slogans and holding indicators bearing messages comparable to “Sufferers Earlier than Earnings”.
The stoppage was set to final till Thursday morning, in line with a spokesperson for the Minnesota Nurses Affiliation (MNA), which was coordinating the motion, and can have an effect on 16 hospitals.
“Hospital executives have already pushed nurses away from the bedside by their refusal to unravel the crises of staffing and retention in our hospitals,” the union’s negotiating group mentioned in a press release, including that nurses are “understaffed and overworked”.
The strike, which the MNA mentioned is believed to be the most important of its sort in United States historical past, highlights the persistent issues that US healthcare employees face, comparable to low pay and staffing shortages.
The pandemic has exacerbated a lot of these points, and the sector has misplaced about 37,000 employees since February 2020, in line with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I stand in solidarity with the 15,000 @mnnurses on strike this week preventing for safer care, truthful scheduling, and better wages. Nurses are the spine of our well being care system. They perceive what’s finest for his or her sufferers. https://t.co/XHo3aqyiQy
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 12, 2022
The hospitals and the putting nurses have mentioned workers shortages are an space of mutual concern, however the union has accused the administration of dragging its toes throughout negotiations.
The union mentioned it has spent greater than 5 months attempting to barter a brand new contract, and that nurses have been working with no contract for weeks.
The strike has caught the eye of pro-labour US lawmakers, comparable to Senator Bernie Sanders, who on Monday known as nurses the “spine of our healthcare system” and known as for higher wages and fairer scheduling.
The administration has mentioned the roughly 30 p.c increase that nurses are pushing for is simply too excessive, and the hospitals have supplied a 10-12 p.c wage improve. In a press release, a number of hospitals affected by the strike known as the calls for “unrealistic, unreasonable and unaffordable”.
MNA president Mary Turned has mentioned the raises are a significant element of addressing what she known as a “disaster of retention” that would go away hospitals with extreme staffing shortages.
Madi Homosexual, a second-year nurse who joined the picket line on Monday after finishing an in a single day shift, instructed the Star Tribune newspaper that she had already decreased her hours at M Well being Fairview Southdale Hospital due to the stress led to by the job.
“How lengthy can you retain this up?” Homosexual requested.
Sam Fettig, a spokesperson for the union, mentioned nurses selected a three-day strike as a substitute of a extra open-ended one to ease the impact of the dispute on affected person care.
“Because the nurses all the time say, this isn’t one thing they wish to be doing, they wish to be on the bedside offering care,” Fettig mentioned.
The affected hospitals have mentioned non permanent nurses will assist preserve most companies, albeit with doable disruptions.
North Memorial Well being Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota mentioned it “could also be making some changes to non-emergency care and companies to make sure enough and secure staffing in the course of the strike interval”.
However it careworn it would proceed to supply its “full vary of companies” together with inpatient, outpatient and emergency care, and that it might serve clients for any beforehand scheduled appointments.
Allina Well being, which owns 4 hospitals with putting nurses, mentioned on its web site that it was making each effort to minimise disruptions.
Union exercise has seen an uptick throughout the US, as employees push for higher wages in a lot of industries.
Some corporations comparable to Starbucks have tried to undermine unionisation efforts, however greater than 230 shops of the chain throughout the US have voted to unionise since late final yr.
In the meantime, the Biden administration has urged railroads and unions to achieve a deal to keep away from a railroad work stoppage later this week.
The railroads have till a minute after midnight on Friday to achieve tentative offers with hold-out unions representing about 60,000 employees, that are pushing again on work guidelines that may require staff to be on-call and accessible to work most days.
“The events proceed to barter, and final night time [Labor] Secretary [Marty] Walsh once more engaged to push the events to achieve a decision that averts any shutdown of our rail system,” a Labor Division spokesperson mentioned. “All events want to remain on the desk, cut price in good religion to resolve excellent points, and are available to an settlement.”
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