HealthEast Bargaining Update (Page 137)

Update from Eir Borgensen, RN, Member of HealthEast Bargaining Team:

Fellow nurses,

Today was the last scheduled bargaining session. We started out the day sharing factual stories from the last week of unsafe staffing at HealthEast. The employer sat in silence as we presented these stories from our fellow RNs.

We decided to make some moves to help direct management towards settlement. We modified our staffing proposal to help simplify for management how they can help improve safe staffing.  We dropped three of our proposals unconditionally and modified our health insurance proposal down from 100% employer paid to 95% employer paid. We also modified our wage proposal down to 3.75% a year.

The employer made no significant moves and still refuses to address staffing. HealthEast said that their proposals on increasing our cap on low need days and their proposal to float nurses from one campus to another address our concerns for safe staffing. Members of our teams were appalled they would suggest such a ridiculous idea. One member of our team said: “I don’t think you even believe in your own proposal.”

At the end of the day HealthEast still has nothing but takeaways on the table. They have offered nothing that improves our contract or moves our profession forward. Their proposals are as follows:

· Not willing to address staffing

· Increase Low Need Days Cap

· Eliminate Recognition Bonus

· Eliminate MNA 1 and MNA 2 Health Plans

· Eliminate language that considers Holidays, Sick and Vacation as hours worked

· Establish 280 hour cap on vacation bank

Eliminate 0.4 eligibility for benefits

· Wages: 0%, 1%, 2%

· Slash Pension by over 30%

Please come to the HealthEast all Nurses meeting at the MNA office this Friday, May 14th 8:00 A.M, 1:00 P.M. and 4:15 P.M. The MNA office is located at 345 Randolph Ave in St. Paul. We will have all updates and answer any and all questions.

At this point in time we cannot in good faith recommend nurses to accept this offer. We encourage every Healtheast nurse to show up on Wednesday, May 19, at the River Centre to reject this offer.  Now is our time to stand united and move our profession forward.  The nurses united will never be defeated!!!

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Update from Eir Borgensen, RN, Member of HealthEast Bargaining Team:

Fellow nurses,

Today was the last scheduled bargaining session. We started out the day sharing factual stories from the last week of unsafe staffing at HealthEast. The employer sat in silence as we presented these stories from our fellow RNs.

We decided to make some moves to help direct management towards settlement. We modified our staffing proposal to help simplify for management how they can help improve safe staffing.  We dropped three of our proposals unconditionally and modified our health insurance proposal down from 100% employer paid to 95% employer paid.
… Read more about: HealthEast Bargaining Update  »

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From Lori Nelson, RN, and Jim Danielson, RN, members of MNA’s Allina Bargaining Team

Bargaining Concludes

Today, our morning was spent entirely on Letters of Understanding.  There was some meaningful discussion where RNs on our team appealed to management to continue to value nurses voices and to continue to work collaboratively on staffing issues with nurses.  Sadly, we did not discuss the substantial differences that still exist between management’s proposals of concessions and our proposals that would build on the years of hard work in bargaining and advance our profession.  Management again spent hours in caucus without moving the process forward.
… Read more about: Allina Bargaining Update (May 12)  »

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We started Nurses’ Week on May 6 in a tremendous fashion.  Thousand of nurses came out to an historic informational picket to send a clear message to management that RNs are willing to do what it takes to stand up for patients.

Join us for a second day of informational picketing today (May 12th) between 1:30-5 at Fairview Southdale or United/St. Paul Children’s.

On May 11, we came ready to negotiate.  We started off the day by dropping our proposals on union leave, promotions and transfers, and expedited arbitration.  We also emphasized our need to negotiate on staffing.  Management asked us questions about our staffing proposal – the exact same questions that they had asked a couple of weeks ago.  
… Read more about: North Memorial Bargaining Update (May 11)  »

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From Naomi English, RN and Robert Pandisio, RN, Members of the MNA Allina Bargaining Team:

Today we highlighted our staffing proposal to management once again.  Based on our last bargaining session, it became apparent that management could not grasp our proposal.  Today, we introduced a modified version of the staffing proposal that was clear and concise.  After more than 2 hours, management returned with no counterproposal or questions.  Again, despite management’s rhetoric that they want to settle a contract, they said NO to our proposal.

We also modified and eliminated a number of other proposals, including our wage proposal which we modified to 4% in each year. 
… Read more about: Allina Bargaining Update (May 11)  »