Duluth Bargaining Update - SMDC (May 27) (Page 99)

Update by Steve Strand, RN: Today was our second day of bargaining with SMDC. We greeted management with more nurses than they had ever seen before at bargaining!

To start things off, we were able to agree on some non controversial housekeeping issues. Following that, we presented our staffing proposals, which include:

  • Safe Nurse to Patient Ratios
  • Joint Development of a Staffing Plan between MNA and management that Incorporates Acuity and Nursing Intensity.
  • 10% Buffer Zone in critical care beds, non-critical care inpatient beds, and labor and delivery beds to admit ED and OB patients more efficiently.
  • If waiting time in a triage area is expected to be more than 3 hours, hospital must go on divert status.

Management responded with some questions such as, “What is an unstable patient?”

Steve Strand, RN MICU and MNA Chair, responded with, “An unstable patient requires manipulation of drips, blood administration and airway management” as some examples.

Another question from management was, “Once we get staffing up how do we get it back down?”

Management at SMDC has never been concerned about how to ramp up staffing and has never been able to ramp it up. Now they want to ramp it back down right away! They are more concerned about ramping it back down.

FYI: Our next bargaining session is June 10th on the third floor of the tech center. Our next All Nurse meeting is June 16th at the Labor Temple, 2002 London Road, at 8 a.m. , 1:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. This meeting is extremely important for all to attend as we plan our next steps.

More information, proposals and other updates are always available at http://www.mnnurses.org/duluth

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In: Duluth Bargaining

Update by Steve Strand, RN: Today was our second day of bargaining with SMDC. We greeted management with more nurses than they had ever seen before at bargaining!

To start things off, we were able to agree on some non controversial housekeeping issues. Following that, we presented our staffing proposals, which include:

  • Safe Nurse to Patient Ratios
  • Joint Development of a Staffing Plan between MNA and management that Incorporates Acuity and Nursing Intensity.
  • 10% Buffer Zone in critical care beds, non-critical care inpatient beds, and labor and delivery beds to admit ED and OB patients more efficiently.

    • … Read more about: Duluth Bargaining Update – SMDC (May 27)  »

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Just this week MNA received what we believe is proof that the Twin Cities Hospitals have indeed signed an illegal collusion agreement. What we believe this means is that the six hospital systems, all of whom are competing with each other for business, likely didn’t trust one another enough to let everyone bargain individually and come to a separate agreement with MNA. So we are alleging that they created and signed a multi-employer agreement that binds the employers together in negotiations and any potential settlement with the MNA. And the reason this is significant is two-fold: First is that months ago, before bargaining even began, MNA asked if the Hospitals wanted to do an “all for one” type labor contract and have all six systems bargain together at one table.
… Read more about: Still think Twin Cities Hospitals are telling you the truth?  »