Nurses Renew Call for Allina CEO to Talk Directly to Them

For Immediate Release
 

Contact:  Rick Fuentes

Barbara Brady

Minneapolis – June 23, 2016 - Striking nurses renewed their invitation to Allina CEO Penny Wheeler to have a direct conversation with them - and expanded the invitation to Allina Board of Directors Chair John Church, an executive vice president of General Mills.

"Nurses are growing increasingly frustrated with the resounding silence from Dr. Wheeler and the Board of Directors, who should be stepping up and calling for a resolution," said Abbott Northwestern RN Angela Becchetti. "We invited Dr. Wheeler to sit down with us yesterday, but she has not responded. In addition to the chair we have waiting for her, we have added one for Allina Board of Directors Chair John Church, to sit down and have an earnest conversation with us.

"As chair of the Board of Directors, Mr. Church has a responsibility to make sure hospital executives are negotiating in good faith," Becccheti said. "We are calling on him to help broker an agreement."

Becchetti said more and more nurses are joining the picket lines every day, showing their resolve to stand up and get a fair contract. 

"We had the largest turnout of the strike yesterday," she said. "It's time for Allina to do the right thing and talk to us."

In addition to calling on Dr. Wheeler and Mr. Church to have a direct conversation with them, nurses shared their stories of the urgent need for safe patient staffing at a noon news conference.

Nurses are engaging in an Unfair Labor Practice Strike that began at 7 a.m. Sunday, June 19. MNA has filed numerous ULPs against Allina Health in part for failing to provide information nurses need to negotiate and for failing to bargain on non-economic issues in the contract.