Feature Story

Wrapping up a challenging year

While 2020 brought many challenges, MNA members stepped up and made the best out of a difficult situation. From finding new ways to organize and build power virtually to speaking out against unsafe COVID-19 practices in facilities and fighting for proper PPE, nurses showed great strength, creativity, and resiliency.

Collective Bargaining and Contracts

In a year filled with so many firsts, good and bad, it’s important to celebrate that MNA members achieved first contracts at three different facilities:

• CHI St. Alexius in Bismarck, North Dakota

• Acute-care nurses at Redwood Area Hospital

• McLeod County Public Health

These are three of the 37 contracts that were successfully negotiated in 2020, covering more than 5,700 members!

During bargaining, nurses successfully advocated for language to address workplace violence that was added to contracts throughout the region. In addition to bargaining over their full contracts, nurses went to tables to address COVID-19 effects on staffing, scheduling, and patient placement and flow.

Across MNA’s four-state region, nurses engaged in actions to pressure employers and made sure that their voices were heard by making the fight public. In the Metro area, led by nurses at Allina United Hospital, there was a successful picket in front of the hospital and a spirited march to the Capitol where nurses from several facilities spoke about their experiences with COVID-19.

From Brainerd and Bemidji to Virginia and Duluth, nurses across northern Minnesota held informational pickets and participated in car parades to advance their goals. Nurses in Bismarck held an informational picket as part of their tactics to pressure the employer into coming to an agreement on a historic first contract that addresses long-standing issues. By using new tactics, nurses were able to throw management off their game and keep the public aware of their facilities’ issues. Several of these tactics were used by nurses at Avera Marshall Hospital as they fought back against their CEO who dismissed nurses’ safety, practice, and contract language. Their resolute stand resulted in the removal of the CEO.

Unfortunately, employers tried to use the pandemic as another excuse to continue their focus on profits over nurses and patients. They attempted to use benchmarking to justify lower staffing ratios and accelerated the closure of units and hospitals to save money. And while nurses ended 2019 by shining a spotlight on M Health Fairview’s bad decision to reduce long-term acute care hospital services, they had to continue shining the light throughout 2020 on the shuttering of Bethesda and end of inpatient services at St. Joseph’s, Minnesota’s first hospital.

To keep the pressure on all employers, nurses bravely spoke out in local, regional, national, and international media. By the end of June, PPE stories from nurses reached almost 600 million combined views from readers and viewers in more than 23 states. These stories continued to grow in the second half of the year, with nurses appearing on MSNBC, NPR, CNN, CNN International, The Guardian, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and more.

Minnesota Nursing Accent

Minnesota Nurses Association

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WINTER 2020

PUBLISHER Rose Roach

MANAGING EDITORS

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Chris Reinke

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Doreen McIntyre, 2nd Vice President

Jennifer Michelson, Secretary

Sandie Anderson, Treasurer Directors

Laurie Bahr, RN

Angela Becchetti, RN

Bridget Gavin, RN

Heather Jax, RN

Susan Kreitz, RN

Lynnetta Muehlhauser, RN

Stella Obadiya, RN

Gail Olson, RN

Rui Pina, RN

Angela Schroeder Malone, RN

Cliff Willmeng, RN

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