Labor Unions (Page 35)

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The morning started out with unexpected and pleasant welcome from RNs from St Joe’s, who brought the bargaining team coffee and muffins. Thanks so much to the RNs from Joe’s who showed us their support!

Today in bargaining we engaged management around several proposals. We started out the day listening to a presentation from Management’s financial people. They told us how poor HealthEast is and how much trouble they might be in in ten years. It seemed like the same old song and dance to me. How long has HealthEast been telling us they don’t have money? Kinda reminds me of “The boy who cried wolf.” They then told us they only made $2.9 million dollars in 2009.
… Read more about: HealthEast Bargaining Update (April 27)  »

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From Sydney Pederson, RN, Children’s Hospital St. Paul, who is a member of the MNA Children’s Bargaining Team:

(NOTE: Make sure to visit the Children’s Bargaining Page on the MNA Web site for other updates/etc on Children’s bargaining.

Never before has the employer asked for concessions of this size and scope.  The employer has chosen to pick a fight with Nurses, whose primary focus is providing safe patient care, ensuring the rights of patients and advancing nursing practice.

These negotiations have brought to light there is a national orchestration by hospitals employers to enforce the lowest acceptable standards of care n areas of patient safety, patient advocacy, and patient protecting.
… Read more about: Children’s Bargaining – An Insider’s View  »

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Nurse – Jeanne Adomaitis, RN, Methodist

It was great to see all the nurses at bargaining today!  Unfortunately, management kept dozens of nurses waiting for 40 minutes.  For every other meeting they have been on time.

Karen Anderson, RN from Labor and Delivery, spoke eloquently about what it is like to be a nurse.

In addition to concerns about the current staffing process, we presented:

  1. A method to decrease the cost and increase the speed of grievances to go to arbitration.
  2. A plan to have an agreed-upon process for a fair and free choice to be unionized (ie Melrose).

    3. … Read more about: Methodist Bargaining Update (April 22)  »

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Day 4 of negotiations at the Fairview Table!

This is my fourth experience at the negotiations table and never have I felt like the sides were so far apart.  We continue to hear about take aways – take away my insurance, reduce my seniority rights, take away valuable benefits from our valuable nurses who work at .4FTE and more.

I am not hearing from management what can be done to ensure an appropriate environment to allow us to provide quality care for our patients.  What can we do to attract and keep intelligent, ambitious young men and women to nursing?
… Read more about: Fairview Bargaining Update  »

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In: Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Organizing

(Note: Visit the Allina Bargaining page on the MNA Web site for previous updates)

UPDATE: Via Jim Danielson, a member of the Allina bargaining team, posted on MNA’s Facebook page:

We (MNA) talked about 2 of our proposals at length. We discussed why they are important to us. In specific, our proposal on “Leave of Absence” and our proposal on Organizing and Elections. We have done this with almost all of our proposals up to this point and we get rolling eyes and chuckling again yesterday. Instead of asking about our proposals, they asked us to respond to their proposals.
… Read more about: Allina Bargaining Update  »

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Hello fellow registered nurses!

I am writing about our experience at bargaining with HealthEast on April 20, 2010. The day started out beautifully with over 50 RNs showing up at the Bethesda lobby to support their bargaining team and to welcome management as they arrived for today’s session. We are confident that management got the message that RNs are unhappy about what HealthEast is trying to do to our profession.

The management team seemed uneasy as they tried to explain their proposal to us today. Maybe it is because they don’t believe in what they are being told to do, or maybe it’s because over 50 registered nurses welcomed them as we started the day?
… Read more about: HealthEast Bargaining Update  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing

More than 12,000 Minnesota Nurses are in the midst of negotiating a new labor contract with six different Twin Cities hospital systems. At the core of these negotiations is one key issue – YOU.

Minnesota Nurses want Patient Safety put ahead of Hospital Profits. An estimated 72,000 lives could be saved each year if hospitals would use the proper RN-to-patient staffing ratios. Instead, nearly 1,500 Minnesotans needlessly die each year because our hospitals aren’t properly staffed. And it’s not that the hospitals can’t afford to do this – they just don’t want to. Why? Because Twin Cities hospitals are putting profits ahead of patients.
… Read more about: Your Safety vs. Hospital Profits  »