TIME SENSITIVE: Twin Cities DSA invites you September 12-14 to join the 15,000 nurses making history with their largest ever private sector strike! Ways to get involved below.
This strike comes after months of failed negotiations with various hospital systems across Minnesota, with pickets happening at the following campuses:
* Abbot Northwestern (Minneapolis)
* Children’s Minnesota (Minneapolis & St. Paul)
* Essentia Health (Moose Lake, St. Mary’s Duluth, St. Mary’s Superior)
* Fairview (Riverside & Southdale)
* Health East (St. John’s)
* Mercy Hospital (Coon Rapids)
* Methodist Hospital (St. Louis Park)
* North Memorial (Robbinsdale)
* St. Luke’s (Duluth)
* United Hospital (St. Paul)
* Unity Hospital (Fridley)
Nurses need your help to maintain these powerful picket lines! We need folks who are willing to walk the line, provide support with supplies and tell the nurses how much you appreciate them. The atmosphere is very friendly and inviting. See below for how to sign up!
Nurses are demanding that these hospital commit to:
* Improved working conditions that address the short-staffing & retention crisis.
* Safer patient to nurse staffing ratios.
* Wage increases (31% over 3 years)
* Improved block scheduling & breaks.
* Get nurses in decision making around restructures & closures.
* Improving benefits such as pay for certifications, tuition reimbursement, loan forgiveness. & cost control on insurance premiums, among others.
This battle will be crucial in building the power to take on the for-profit healthcare system. Nurses are critical in demanding that we put patients before profits through initiatives like Medicare for All. They see first hand how people can fall through the cracks when we treat health like a commodity. Nurses are the ones in contact with patients on a 24/7 basis: they see and take care of actual patient and family needs with their wide-ranging skills and expertise. They also make up the largest segment of the health care labor force.
During the pandemic nurses were called heroes and made immense sacrifices to take care of people, in spite of how poorly prepared our healthcare system was at all levels. Now hospital executives won’t even bargain in good faith to fix the myriad of pre-existing problems that the pandemic has accelerated on either the patient or nurse side.
Nurses are fighting for us all and we need to back them up. The only way for us to build a strong working class that has the political power to transform society and tackle all the problems we face is through solidarity in our daily struggles. By improving working conditions for nursing we can secure dignified jobs that set the bar for what workers everywhere deserve. We also strengthen the bonds for when we need nurses to show up to the picket line for other workers.
Nurses understand that their working conditions are a matter of life and death for patients, which is why they’re fighting so hard to improve them.
If you are a Twin Cities DSA member, in a union, other organization or simply just care about making the world a better place we need your help to support nurses!
You can do the following to get involved:
* Show up to a picket line: https://mna.formstack.com/forms/strike_picket_line_signup (wear red!)
* Donate to the nurses strike fund: http://mnnurses.org/strikefund
* Invite others to join (directly asking is huge!), especially your union or other community organization.
* Share this article on social media and change your profile picture in support of nurses: https://mnnurses.org/standwithnurses/
* Put up a sign in your yard in support of nurses.
* Talk to friends and family about the issue.