Minnesota Nurses Association members authorize strike at Twin Cities, Duluth area hospitals

[MUSIC PLAYING] NINA MOINI: It's our top story this afternoon, more than 15,000 nurses and health care workers across 22 hospitals and clinics in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports have voted to authorize the strike amid contract negotiations. Now, it doesn't mean a strike will happen, but it's one step closer to health care workers going to the picket line.

Joining me now to explain more is Chris Rubesch He's the president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, which is the union representing the nurses and health care workers involved here. He's also an RN at Essential Health in Duluth. Thank you so much for your time this afternoon, Chris.

CHRIS RUBESCH: Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: Chris, what are the main concerns, if you could summarize for people that led your membership to vote to authorize the strike?

CHRIS RUBESCH: Well, ensuring that health care workers have a meaningful say in staffing levels and the care that we provide to our patients remains the touchstone of issues that we're concerned about. We continue to hear that from our members, and we're prepared to continue to fight for that until we get meaningful language in our contracts.

NINA MOINI: And explain for folks, I imagine for patients that are currently in hospitals and using clinics and their families, the idea of something like this can be scary for the entire health care system. Would you break down for folks what it means that you've authorized this vote to strike? It doesn't mean that you will 100% do that. Tell us a little bit more.

CHRIS RUBESCH: That's right. So our members yesterday spoke overwhelmingly and authorized our negotiating teams from all of those facilities to call for an unfair labor practice strike if necessary. That means that the teams who are meeting tonight will talk, plan, talk to their members, and chart the course for what comes next.

As you said, it doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to happen in the next days or weeks, but it means that we are able to go to the negotiating table with our employers and demonstrate that we're serious, that our members are serious, and that these proposals around safely staffing our hospitals remain our focus. And we're not going to stop until the hospitals engage with us on those critical issues.

NINA MOINI: Chris, tell me a little bit more about that, if you would. This is a vote for an unfair labor practice strike, and you are alleging that there are unfair labor practices happening, including understaffing, would you tell me a little bit more about that understaffing portion, why it's so critical to all of you and the patient?

CHRIS RUBESCH: Right. So the unfair labor practices are what we would be authorizing a strike for. And those are around illegal actions and conduct that the employers have demonstrated that are preventing us from working with our members and negotiating associating meaningfully.

In terms of our staffing concerns, we're really concerned that health care workers who are giving the care don't have a meaningful, enforceable say in getting the tools, including staff levels, to provide safe patient care.

We need to ensure that health care workers who are licensed and trained and have the special knowledge and skills to do their jobs, are trusted to make those clinical decisions. We can't have hospital managers who aren't on the units, who don't see the condition of the patients making decisions for us.

NINA MOINI: So negotiations, I understand, have been happening since March. Could you talk about what has been going on in those weeks at the bargaining table, and then what would it take to decide to go forward with that strike if you thought it was necessary?

CHRIS RUBESCH: So we've been negotiating from the Twin Ports to the Twin Cities metro area since this spring. And we've been really trying to have meaningful discussion with our employers around our top concerns, including staffing. And for the most part, employers have been ignoring those proposals and simply telling us they're not interested.

My own employer has told me at the table to quote, "not hold out hope.'' And I think that's really striking when an employer is not willing to even engage on the most important topic in health care having right trained and skilled staff to provide care.

So we are going to be talking to our members, talking as negotiating team members about what we should do next. Most of our facilities have negotiating dates scheduled in the coming week, and we are hopeful that this vote will show our employers that we're serious, and we're hopeful that we'll see progress at the negotiating tables. If we don't this week, then they'll likely be more news to come.

NINA MOINI: And I should say we did reach out to a representative for the hospitals and clinics. They said they couldn't join us on the show today, but they sent a statement that says, quote, "today's announcement of a strike vote puts the union strike first patient second mentality on full display. It's disappointing that the union has chosen this path instead of working collaboratively to find solutions.'' What is your response to that, Chris?

CHRIS RUBESCH: Well, I would say many of our health care systems in Minnesota were founded by religious orders with a noble mission of providing health care. And this was a time, an era when health care was the primary focus, when profits weren't an issue, when these were religious orders, who had taken vows of poverty. And that's a noble history.

But I would say to use that kind of language and to put the onus of patient care on the health care workers without giving them a voice in asking for and getting the resources they need, seems like a rather abusive relationship, frankly.

They seem to want to put pressure on us to not advocate for our patients, but then when we come to the table and say, let's talk about the resources we need, let's talk about the staffing levels they need, they say, don't hold out hope. Seems like a bit of double speak to me.

NINA MOINI: Chris, what is your understanding of why there cannot be appropriate staffing levels from your perspective and the perspective of the union. Is it that the labor force does not exist? Is it a cost from the behalf of the hospitals and the clinics? Because a lot of people were getting pretty burned out right around the pandemic, peak pandemic time, and I'm sure before and after. What's your understanding of why that staffing can't be to where you all think is appropriate?

CHRIS RUBESCH: Well, I think the pandemic was certainly something that exacerbated the staffing issue in health care, but this is something that's existed for years and years and years. And it's actually a fallacy that the appropriate number of health care workers don't exist or aren't out there.

In Minnesota, speaking for nursing, we have more registered nurses who have active license in Minnesota than at any point. Those nurses just aren't willing to work in the conditions that we have right now.

And I think the problem is really encapsulated in the statement that the hospitals put out that you just read. And it's really that the hospitals want all of the responsibility to be on the health care workers to do the work, but they don't want any of the authority to make decisions to lie with those same caregivers.

So they want to not have to take ownership for their decisions, their staffing and scheduling decisions, but they want to be able to instruct those health care workers as to what they want to do. They don't want to trust their clinical judgment. And it makes me really disappointed because I worked very hard and to get my nursing license. And I take a lot of pride in the care I give.

NINA MOINI: And this same core group that did end up striking for I believe it was three days back in 2022, explain for us and our listeners what the difference would be between the last strike and what you're seeing now.

CHRIS RUBESCH: So three years ago, we were able to get new contract language in many of our bargaining units across the region that gave nurses some voice in staffing levels. We attempted, with a good faith effort to sit down with our employers and come up with joint decision making processes, including staffing committees that would review staffing levels, come up with staffing grids that we could use.

And the unfortunate part is that those committees don't have any enforceable mechanisms. So in almost all cases, hospitals can choose to ignore or change those levels with only nominal input from us. And unfortunately, we've seen that means that many facilities across the region rollbacks, cutbacks, moving away from those grids. And at my own employer, they want to take away that language entirely, so not have any nurse voice in the process.

And we think that's absolutely the wrong direction to go. If nurses and health care workers are hired to do these jobs, if we're trusting them to give patient care, then we need to listen to their professional judgment, including as to what staffing levels they need to provide safe patient care.

NINA MOINI: Well, we'll be following what happens. We really appreciate you coming by Minnesota Now and offering your perspective from MNA. Thank you, Chris.

CHRIS RUBESCH: Thanks so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: That was Chris Rubesch, President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. We did again, reach out to a spokesperson for the hospitals who were unavailable for an interview. Their statement said in part, if the union decides it's preferable for our nurses to leave their patients at the bedside, our hospitals will be fully prepared to care for patients. We'll have that full statement for if you want to read it at mprnews.org.