FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sam Fettig
(c) 612-741-0662
sam.fettig@mnnurses.org
Lauren Nielsen
(c) 651-376-9709
lauren.nielsen@mnnurses.org
Decertification effort pushed by millionaires’ anti-worker National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
(St. Paul) – October 6, 2022 – Nurses at Mayo Health Clinic in Lake City today affirmed their faith in the power of our union to bargain collectively for better conditions for workers and patients, defeating an attempt by an anti-labor organization funded by millionaires who sought to remove MNA representation from the nurses.
“Nurses today affirmed the power of our collective voice in the workplace,” said Jackie Kuzma, RN at Lake City Mayo Health Clinic. “Nurses at Lake City are our union, and we are here to stay in the fight for better conditions for our coworkers and our patients. No outside organization can come between the strength of nurses standing together to defend our profession, our patients, and our community.”
The attempt to strip workers’ collective bargaining rights at Lake City Mayo Health Clinic was driven by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a national anti-union outfit backed up by high-powered lawyers and supported by the dark money of millionaires and billionaires trying to undermine the power of workers. Another recent anti-union campaign by the group in Minnesota was backed up by local billionaire Glen Taylor and his family.
The national anti-union organization has made healthcare unions a target in Minnesota and nationally. Earlier this year, the group unsuccessfully targeted the Massachusetts Nurses Association on the heels of their successful strike for safe staffing and better pay and working conditions. As the anti-labor organization turns its sights on unionized workers at other healthcare facilities in Minnesota, MNA nurses’ successful fight to retain our union marks an important victory to protect the rights of workers from this high-powered, well-funded anti-union effort.
The vote by MNA nurses at Lake City today is believed to be the first successful defense against decertification by any union workers at any Mayo Health System facility in the state or nation.
###
