UPDATE: 9/12/22

After months of negotiations thousands of nurses in the Twin Cities and Duluth, have officially gone on strike as of 7 am. this morning. According to KARE11 "This is the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history, according to the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA). Picketing Health Care Workers will be outside 16 different hospitals from September 12-15. Northland hospitals participating in the strike are Essentia Health, Duluth, Superior, and Moose Lake, and St. Lukes in Duluth.

UPDATE: 8/16/22

According to WCCO-CBS-Thousands of nurses from the  Minnesota Nurses Association voted yesterday to go on strike. "Now that the strike has been authorized via member vote, union leaders will now set a strike date with at least 10 days' notice to employers but could keep negotiating and reach a settlement before a strike happens."

ORIGINAL STORY: 8/15/22

The Minnesota Nurses Association  (MNA) comprises 15,000 nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports in Minnesota. That is a lot of nursing positions to fill temporarily if they do go on strike which they are voting on today. They are pushing for better wages and safety changes.

Angela Becchetti, a nurse at Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis said the staff shortages and retention is taking the biggest toll on them So far the MNA has lost 2,000 nurses since the pandemic. This shortage is burning out nurses with the extra workload and directly affects patient care.

MNA has said that these issues have not been resolved over the last five months forcing their hand at a possible strike, even though most of them hope this can be avoided. Mary Turner, the president of MNA said in a news conference last Thursday:

Whatever we vote on, however, many days, even if it's just one day, we're all going to have in our hearts that we feel like we're abandoning our patients. They're making us sound like we're greedy, when in fact all we're doing is trying to save our profession.

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According to WCCO-CBS: "The strike authorization vote will need a two-thirds majority to pass. If it passes, union leaders would be able to set a strike date with at least 10 days' notice to employers but could keep negotiating and reach a settlement before a strike happens. "

I am sure both sides are hoping they can come to some type of agreement without a strike. It is a tough position to be in for sure. The numbers are unclear how many nurses from the Twin Ports are in the MNA, but a strike would have a major impact on hospitals and clinics in the area.

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