Nurses in Twin Ports picket in unprecedented statewide strike

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: So let's dive deep into our top story here. Registered nurses are picketing right now at hospitals in the twin cities and in Duluth. The 15,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association are on strike for the next 3 days. It's the largest private sector nurses strike in US history. Laura Butterbrodt is the health reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. She's been covering the strike. Welcome to Minnesota Now, Laura. How are you?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Good, Cathy. Thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: What's the scene like there in Duluth, and I also understand The Essential Hospital in Superior?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah. So I haven't been out to the scene yet today. I'm planning to go over at 1:00 for a press briefing. But I've heard from my photographers who were there early this morning that there were hundreds of nurses at the Duluth campus of Essentia and St. Luke's. It sounds like there's more at the Essentia campus, which is a bigger hospital than St. Luke's. And then there were also about 50 nurses at the Essentia Superior hospital, and it sounded like the afternoon picket would have more nurses coming out to attend for that.

CATHY WURZER: Any idea how many nurses are striking in the twin ports?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah. It's about 2,500.

CATHY WURZER: So that's a substantial number. What have the health care systems Essentia St. Luke's said about the strike?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Well, obviously, you know they're not super happy that the strike has happened. They have said however that they are fully-staffed. They've used some agencies to help them find registered nurses to come in for these 3 days. So they're ensuring patients that care is still open in all areas for them to come in. It sounds like the hospital's really would have preferred that the negotiations for contracts would have been settled in their bargaining sessions and not through a strike. But obviously, that hasn't happened yet.

CATHY WURZER: So there are some traveling nurses that have been called in or some other temporary nurses called in. So if someone is sick, they need ER care, perhaps they can still get care, right?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah, it sounds like everything is still operating normally. There were a few kind of non-emergency surgeries that did get rescheduled, but patients were contacted directly for that. So unless there was a specific rescheduling, everything is open as normal this week.

CATHY WURZER: Say, are either of the two hospitals, are their ERs operating right now?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah. As far as I know, they are both operating fully as well.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Nurses in the twin ports, of course, nurses in the twin cities too have said that wages are a big part of this strike. But also safety and working conditions are big concerns too. What have you heard from nurses in the twin ports?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: That's definitely similar to what I've been hearing up here. A lot of nurses are saying they're expected to take eight patients per nurse, which is many more than they were told they would have in contracts. And I've just heard a lot of stories of not feeling prepared to take care of the amount of patients that they're assigned to, and fears for what that could mean for if a patient were to code or something bad were to happen under their care and they weren't able to get there in time because they were busy with another patient.

I saw a sign this morning at the picket had something about how a nurse got PTSD in this time working there. So I mean, it sounds like the conditions have to be really bad for them to take it to this point. From what I've heard from nurses association members, they didn't want to have to strike, but they felt they had no choice at this point.

CATHY WURZER: Do you have a sense here, Laura, how conditions have-- how have they been before the before the pandemic versus after the pandemic? Have they gotten worse?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah, that's what it sounds like. I mean, from what everyone has said, there's been a nursing shortage before the pandemic for sure. But this has just made it so much worse. And I mean, obviously, the shortage isn't unique to Duluth or even to Minnesota. It's definitely a national problem.

And so that's something the hospitals have said in their response for wanting to have more nurses is they're trying their best. There just aren't people in the profession who can take the jobs. But the nurses association wants the hospitals to do more just to ensure that nurses can get hired and then also stay with them and don't leave for a better job.

CATHY WURZER: Just curious here, Laura, have you been told what are staffing levels? How many nurses, I guess, is it possible to gauge have left St. Luke's and Essentia since the pandemic? Any way to gauge that at all?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: I'm not positive on that. I know that especially in emergency rooms, they've seen really big amounts of nurses leaving. I think it does impact every floor and apartment, but I've heard especially from emergency department nurses where things are at the most dire circumstance.

CATHY WURZER: I know that the nurses rallied yesterday in downtown Duluth. And this is kind of interesting because there have been, of course, nurses strikes in the twin cities. But isn't this the first time that both the twin ports and the twin cities have gone out together?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yes, it is. And that's kind of how it has become this historic strike with the amount of nurses that are striking, the 15,000 includes that 2500 from the twin ports. So yeah, I think that is significant that they've worked together in this. And they were also going to include the Essentia Moose Lake nurses, but I heard this morning that that strike has not been happening today after all.

CATHY WURZER: Do you know why?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: I don't know details of it. I did see that it sounded like their last negotiation was making some progress. They've been negotiating since 2020 when Essentia bought Mercy Hospital in Moose Lake. So they've really been working for a long time at this. And from what I've heard from Essentia, they've made some good progress and the strike was called off this morning.

CATHY WURZER: And we should also say that the Essentia facility in Superior is a part of this too, right?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: All right. So I know you're busy here. I know you have to get out on the picket line to do some interviews. What are you expecting to hear, do you think?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: From what I've seen this morning, it looks like there's a lot of teamwork from the nurses there. They feel supported by each other, and there was a big community showing last night as well at their rally. I'm expecting that they're going to talk more about what they're hoping to get out of the strike, which is to settle their contracts. They're especially hoping to have the hospitals put language in the contracts to ensure that they will have safe staffing levels and they will take care of the patients.

There's also requests for up to a 30% over three years raise, which I know the hospitals are having a hard time coming to agreement for. They're offering more like a 10% raise over the three years. So that's something they also talk about. But the nurses from what I've heard are most concerned with the safe staffing levels.

CATHY WURZER: All right. By the way, do you know, are the hospital systems planning any news conference today? Are they lying low?

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: I haven't heard of anything. I have been emailing with some of their media relations people to get questions answered, and they've released a couple of statements just about they're still open, patients should still come in. They should drive carefully because there are pickets happening, so the streets are kind of crowded. But yeah, as far as I've heard, it's just the MNA conference at 1:00 that I'm planning to attend.

CATHY WURZER: All right. I really appreciate your time here, Laura. Thank you so much.

LAURA BUTTERBRODT: Yeah. Thank you so much.

CATHY WURZER: Laura Butterbrodt is the health reporter for The Duluth News Tribune. Now, we should tell you that we reached out to Essentia Health for a comment. They did send us a statement saying that they are disappointed with the MNA focusing on its efforts on a strike instead of at the bargaining table where they say, quote, "real solutions are found."

"We," quote, "continue to believe that it's imperative for both sides to exhaust their options in pursuit of a mutually beneficial agreement. One of those options, which we've repeatedly requested is mediation. Unfortunately, the union has consistently declined this request." Of course, we have much more on the strike at mprnews.org.