Vol. 80/No. 35      September 19, 2016

 

Minnesota nurses on strike to defend health care, union

 
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Cheers greeted nurses coming off the night shift at Allina Health’s United Hospital here Sept. 5, as they joined hundreds of fellow nurses on the picket line. It was the first day of a strike by 4,800 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association at Allina’s five facilities in the Twin Cities area.

The nurses have been negotiating since January and conducted a weeklong strike in June. Allina demands that they give up their union health care plans and replace them with the company’s insurance at higher cost. The union says this strike will continue until an agreement is reached.

Allina has brought in 1,500 replacement workers who it says will maintain “normal operations.”

“This is about breaking the union,” Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told the Militant at the Minneapolis Abbott Northwestern Hospital picket line.

The nurses were in fighting spirit. “Having a union makes a difference,” said Kathy Westlie, who started at Abbott after years of working in a nursing home. “There they could tell you to work any amount of overtime. You had no say.”

In response to hearing about coal miners organizing a demonstration in Washington, D.C., Sept. 8 in defense of their health care and pensions, Westlie said, “I know. My husband is a Teamster fighting for his pension. The company wants to cut it in half.”

Other workers joined the picket lines, including members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Teamsters, and teachers’ unions. A group of 10 nurses from Chicago were warmly received. Many cars passing by honked in support.

“This is important,” said James Nyonteh, a United Auto Workers member from Osseo, who walked the picket in Minneapolis. “Not just for the nurses, but because of what other companies are trying to do and the example this is for us.”

Luis Hernandez was scheduled to deliver a truck full of linens to Abbott. He stopped, got out and joined the nurses marching around the hospital. “We don’t cross picket lines,” he said. “We have to stand together.”

Patients outside the hospital spoke up in favor of the striking nurses. “Nurses are very important people, you can’t just run over them,” said Fred Thompson, a patient enjoying the morning sun.

Kevin Dwire and Helen Meyers contributed to this article.  
 
 
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