Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2013
Hasting Nurses Tell Allina: "Care for Our Community"
(Hastings, MN) - After another session in a ten-month long contract negotiation process ended today without an agreement, nurses bargaining with the Allina system are calling for the health care corporation to put the community first. "We are deeply concerned that Allina wants to treat workers in Hastings differently than they do in other parts of the state and that tactic will affect the care we are able to deliver to our neighbors and friends," said MNA negotiator Jane Traynor, RN.
MNA nurses from all over the Allina corporate system arrived in Hastings early Tuesday morning to help their new colleagues deliver a message of solidarity on behalf of their patients to hospital administrators at Regina Medical Center. As yet another session began in contract negotiations, a sea of red turned out in support of the MNA bargaining team.
"It's empowering," said Bargaining Unit Chair, Jane Traynor, RN. "These have been difficult negotiations with Allina and we appreciate the support from nurses who have come from other facilities, as well as the nurses who work here."
Allina swept the once-independent, 57-bed regional facility into the corporate fold in September. Even though Regina Medical Center is just 20 minutes away from other MNA-represented metro facilities (including Allina-owned units) that enjoy mature contracts and a pension, Allina administration is offering substandard contract terms to the nearly 100 Regina nurses.
Hospital negotiators walked into a room full of determined nurses who stood proudly behind the MNA negotiations teams and voiced their purpose for being there.
"Every patient deserves the same level of excellent health care," said Mary Turner, RN, a member of MNA's Board of Directors who works at North Memorial Hospital (a non-Allina facility) in the Twin Cities. "And every nurse in Minnesota deserves to be treated fairly," she added.
MNA President, Linda Hamilton, RN, BSN, who is a pediatric nurse at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, offered a global perspective. "Today, 20,000 nurses in Minnesota and 185,000 across the nation are standing up for what nurses need to care for their patients."
In addition to Turner and Hamilton, nurses from River Falls Medical Center, Unity Hospital, United Hospital and Abbott Northwestern all turned out in support of their colleagues.
Traynor delivered a petition to Allina negotiators that was signed by three-quarters of the MNA nurses in the bargaining unit at Regina Medical Center. The powerful, clear message was headlined "Because our patients deserve high quality care," and issued this bottom line: "We, the undersigned, will not accept a contract offer that makes a second-rate commitment to the nursing care our patients deserve. We demand the same commitment to nursing in Hastings that Allina has made with every other MNA contract in the metro area."
###
|
|
About MNA:
With more than 20,000 members in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, MNA is the leading organization for registered nurses in the Midwest and is among the oldest and largest representatives of RNs for collective bargaining in the nation. Established in 1905, MNA is a multi-purpose organization that fosters high standards for nursing education and practice, and works to advance the profession through legislative activity. MNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United.
|
|
About NNU:
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history.
NNU was founded in 2009 unifying three of the most active, progressive organizations in the U.S. - and the major voices of unionized nurses - in the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association. |
|
