Minnesota Nurses Association (Page 10)

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Minnesota State Capitol St Paul Minnesota

MNA Legislative Update May 2, 2014

 

Public Employee Relations Board

A bill to establish a Public Employee Relations Board (HF3014) was passed by the full Senate on Monday. This legislation would create a board to decide Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claims involving public employees, which includes many MNA nurses at public municipal or county hospitals (known in statute as Charitable Hospitals). Under current law public employees must litigate ULP claims in district court-a cumbersome and expensive process. The PERB bill would create a process that saves employers and employees money and would mirror the ULP process in the private sector.
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update May 2, 2014  »

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In: Legislative Policy, Minimum Wage, Minnesota Nurses Association, Politics

Minnesota State Capitol St Paul Minnesota

MNA Legislative Update April 25, 2014

 

Public Employee Relations Board

 

A bill to establish a Public Employee Relations Board (HF3014) has already passed and will be heard by the full Senate on Monday. This legislation would create a board to decide Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claims involving public employees, which includes many MNA nurses at public municipal or county hospitals. Under current law public employees must litigate ULP claims in district court-a cumbersome and expensive process. The PERB bill would create a process that saves employers and employees money and would mirror the ULP process in the private sector.
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update April 25, 2014  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Sanford

RN-RunThief River Falls nurses beat Boston off the starting line of the running season this year, and may have Beantown trying hard to catch up.

MNA members of the Sanford – Thief River Falls Medical Center bargaining unit are celebrating the success of their inaugural 5k RN Run on Saturday, April 19 to raise funds for the community’s D.A.R.E. program.

Nearly 60 runners participated in the event and nurses were able to deliver $836 to the organization dedicated to drug abuse resistance education.

MNA Co-Chair Tiffany Eidelbes credited nurse organizers Kayla Knutson and Karey Johnson with imagining and executing an idea that brought a sizable crowd out for the festivities.
… Read more about: Thief River Falls “RN Run” Raises Funds and Fun  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Organizing

Imagine everyone in your town wanting to let you know you are awesome. MNA nurses in International Falls don’t have to dream.

Eight months into negotiating a contract with management at Rainy Lake Medical Center (RLMC), the 27-member bargaining unit is literally seeing signs of support throughout this picturesque city that shares a border with Canada.

Over 100 signs, sporting the message “We Support Our Nurses” are being posted in shop windows; hoisted high by firefighters, paramedics and EMTs; cradled by senior apartment residents; and displayed on bulletin boards throughout the city’s commercial districts. It’s a message warmly given from the town often referred to as “America’s Icebox.”  In addition, members of several other unions in the area have signed petitions of solidarity for the nurses.
… Read more about: Signs of Support for IFalls Nurses Line the Streets  »

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In: Minimum Wage, Minnesota Nurses Association, Politics

MNA Legislative Update April 11, 2014

There was a lot of activity at the Capitol this week with several major pieces of legislation debated, passed, and signed into law. Many of these were priorities that MNA supports.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
Status: Passed by House and Senate

On Monday morning, leaders of the House and Senate announced an agreement to raise Minnesota’s minimum wage (HF2091). The agreement will raise the wage to $9.50 over three years and include an automatic inflationary increase that allows workers to keep up with the cost of living. The final deal includes a provision allowing the Commissioner of Labor and Industry to suspend the inflationary increase in case of an economic downturn.
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update April 11, 2014  »

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In: Minnesota Nurses Association, Patient Safety

CSS formLast year at the State Capitol, legislators were impressed when the Minnesota Nurses Association turned over boxes of Concern for Safe Staffing Forms at committee hearings.

The forms helped make the case that patients are at risk and nurses are advocating for better staffing to improve quality care.

Now the form has been improved to allow for database search and data analysis.  We will now be able to tell lawmakers and patients how many incidents of unsafe staffing occurred at facilities; how many times nurses felt their patients were at risk; how many times management ignored or simply dismissed requests by nurses to bring in more staff because they were caring for too many patients at one time.
… Read more about: New Concern for Safe Staffing Form  »

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MNA Legislative Update April 5, 2014Minnesota State Capitol St Paul Minnesota

Minimum Wage

Legislative leaders are still in discussions about raising the minimum wage (HF92). Both the House and Senate agree on raising the wage to $9.50, but only the House currently supports including an annual inflationary increase in the legislation, called indexing, that allows minimum wage workers to keep up with the rising costs of food, housing, and transportation. Last week the Senate introduced a bill that would have asked the voters to decide on the minimum wage and inflationary increases, but this week the author, Sen. Ann Rest, withdrew the bill.
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update April 5, 2014  »

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2014 student day on the hillOn Thursday, April 3, for the seventh consecutive year, the Minnesota Nurses Association hosted students from nursing schools throughout the state for a lesson in advocacy that takes them beyond their bedside responsibilities.

350 students and instructors, representing 14 different schools of nursing attended the day-long event that kicked off with a morning meet & greet with MNA members leaders.  A comprehensive orientation followed, providing students insights about policy issues facing legislators in which nurses have a keen interest, including Nurse Licensing, Monitoring and Discipline; Minimum Wage; Mandatory Flu Vaccine; Department of Health Study of Staffing and Patient Outcomes; and Health Care for All.
… Read more about: Nursing Students Connect Practice and Policy  »

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Minnesota State Capitol St Paul Minnesota Nurse Licensing, Monitoring and Discipline
The bills proposing changes to the Health Professionals Services Program (HPSP) and how the Board of Nursing handles nurses with substance use disorders and drug diversion are moving through the legislative process. Our priorities remain reflected in the bills – protecting patient safety, treating substance use disorder as a disease, encouraging nurses with substance use disorders to seek rehabilitation treatment, and protecting nurses’ private medical and legal information.

Minimum Wage
The conference committee working on a bill to increase the minimum wage is still hung up on the issue of an automatic inflationary increase for low-wage workers (“indexing”).
… Read more about: MNA Legislative Update March 28, 2014  »

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take-back-mcmc The employees of Murray County Medical Center (MCMC) in Slayton, MN often refer to themselves in the collective as “family.” They are neighbors and friends who care for neighbors and friends in the most of vulnerable times.    In recent years, however, circumstances for patients on some of the hospital’s shifts at the county-owned hospital became so alarming that many of those family members have left the facility. Nurses, physicians, physician assistants and others have either resigned or were forced out – some amidst the disruption of legal wrangling.

Several months ago, nurses who are also MNA Stewards surveyed their co-workers and the results pointed to the hostile environment, fears about inadequate staffing and the fact it is impossible for nurses to be two places at once due to the distance between patient care units.
… Read more about: Slayton Nurses Show Courage Beyond the Bedside  »