Thousands of Minnesota nurses plan to strike later this month because they say their employers have ignored demands for a new union contract.
The strike will begin at 7 a.m. on Sept. 12 and end at 7 a.m. on Sept. 15, Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said during a news conference Thursday. About 15,000 nurses plan to walk off the job in what is believed to be the largest private sector nurse strike in US history.
“This is not something we do lightly, but we will not stand idly by,” he said. “We take it seriously and have been all along.”
The nurses work at 16 hospitals across the state, according to the CBS affiliate WCCOincluding Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood and North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale.
The nurses said they have been trying to negotiate a new contract since March, but hospital executives have called their demands too expensive. Nurses now say they are on strike because hospitals are refusing to hire more staff, a decision which means patients are having to endure long waiting room stays instead of getting the care they need.
Nurses also said they are tired of seeing patients slapped with exorbitant bills while hospital CEOs collect multimillion-dollar salaries.
Turner said hospital executives in Minnesota have lost their priorities and the upcoming strike is about putting patients before profits.
This is breaking news that will be updated later.
- In:
- Minnesota
- Nurses’ strike
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