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Vol. 80/No. 35 September 19, 2016
Minnesota nurses on strike to defend health care, union
BY JACQUIE HENDERSON
AND ROSE ENGSTROM
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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