From your MNA Allina Bargaining Team:
Today at bargaining, we asked the employer to be clear on their proposals. We focused on their proposals on floating, work agreements, layoff (and seniority as it pertains to layoffs), low need language, the Baylor Program, Unit Closure Language, and Nursing Practice, Staffing Advisory, and other committees.
We told management that they have not made a convincing case on any of their proposals. We asked them why the need for the change? Why tear down what both sides have worked on collaboratively for forty some years? Management could not answer our questions. We reminded them many of the ways nurses have worked to solve these issues including voluntary low need days, cross-training, etc. Nurses have stepped up many times before and saved millions of dollars for Allina. We asked management where the recognition for those past actions was.
Even with all the examples we provided, the employer STILL continued to repeat their need for “flexibility” and the desire to do things at “the hospital’s discretion.”
For the sixth bargaining session in a row, we demanded the employer put their proposals in writing, in a clear, concise manner and define the language they wish to delete and/or replace in our current contract. We are only asking them to do what we did in our (MNA’s) proposals so that we can be clear on their proposals. Our need for this is evident, now more than ever, as what they say at the table is not what they say in their newsletters. We pushed hard to get the layoff and low need proposals in writing today, and the employer stated it was “too cumbersome” to complete for five contracts! At points during our questioning they even suggested that language in their proposals was a mistake or a bad choice of words.
It is important to remember that we have made 17 proposals to advance our profession of nursing. Management is ignoring our proposals and continues to attempt to redirect us back to their concessions and takeaways! We demand that Allina and the other Twin Cities employers take Registered Nurses seriously and begin bargaining over what matters to us and our PATIENTS. We have done this at the negotiating table but it is imperative that we also continue this fight everyday at our facilities. This is why it is so very, very important that on May 6th and May 12th that we walk in solidarity at Informational Picketing.