CENTER CITY, Minn. — Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association secured their first contract at the Hazelden Betty Ford Rehab clinic here, after over a year of negotiations and a two-week strike that ended July 30.
“Great news! We have reached a contract and are ratifying it today!” Anne Coleman, a registered nurse at the clinic, told this Militant worker-correspondent. “The contract isn’t perfect, but most of our terms were met because we decided to do this open-ended strike. The strike and people like you giving support helped put pressure on the employer.”
“Nurses at the Chisago County campus became the first anywhere across Hazelden’s Betty Ford system to win a union contract,” registered nurse Jody Burton said. “And one of the key gains — providing staff with panic buttons for safety — can be won by nurses and other caregivers nationwide.”
Safety emerged as a key issue. The union publicized the fact that county sheriff’s deputies responded to an average of nearly three calls each week where nurses at the Center City campus faced threatening situations over the last 19 months.
In addition to winning the panic button, the Minnesota Nurses Association said nurses won full recognition of the bargaining unit, including casual and on-call nurses, as well as protection of their health insurance benefits.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Coleman told me, adding the agreement sets a precedent for the other rehab locations around the country to win union recognition.