MINNEAPOLIS — At an informational picket at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital here Oct. 26, some 100 Minnesota Nurses Association members and Service Employees International Union members who work in the same hospitals got out the word about the dangers both nurses and hospital patients face from chronic understaffing. Pickets also took place at the two other Twin City area Allina hospitals, United in St. Paul and Mercy in Coon Rapids.
“Allina tries to justify staffing cuts based on ‘benchmarking,’” Pat Kohler, a nurse at Abbott and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told the Militant. “That’s an algorithm that determines staffing number ‘best practice to best cost.’ But really it’s used by the hospital executives to cut staff and put more work on less individuals.
“It puts us at the same staffing levels with what nonunion nurses have to deal with in Arkansas,” she said. “When something serious happens, it’s going to look like a mistake. It’s really the corporation cutting the number of nursing staff.”
“These profit-driven decisions deny nurses and patients the resources needed to ensure safe staffing and quality patient care at the bedside,” said the union press release announcing the picketing.