They countered that the union’s actions this summer have been part of a national, coordinated series of strikes created to hurt hospitals by drying up the pool of replacement nurses.
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Services such as childbirth classes and tours at Abbott have been canceled in anticipation of a strike, but core services like emergency care will be maintained.
But the union’s executive director, Rose Roach, told members in an open letter that Allina still wants to shift too many costs onto nurses without adequately compensating them for the higher costs they would incur. Representatives for the nurses and Allina said the talks were ongoing Friday night.
The five hospitals affected are: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Phillips Eye Institute, United Hospital and Unity Hospital. The nurses like their current plans, but are also asking for full-time security in emergency departments, violence prevention training for nurses and a much better nurse to patient ratio.
Negotiations ended, after Allina’s last offer was rejected.
The company also says, they are “extremely disappointed” that the union has rejected all of their offers. “All that does is improve the quality of care that those patients received”.
The nurses say they made progress some progress, but that Allina said nurses’ health care plans needed to end before 2020. Kanihan references this group, saying “Significantly about 50 percent of those nurses we’re bringing in this time are the same nurses that were here for the strike in June, so they already have some experience and familiarity with our facilities”.
Allina Health plans to operate the affected hospitals at normal capacity during the strike and patients should access the hospitals as they would normally. “When the union is ready to move forward and accept a fair compromise, we will be there to meet with them”.
The stalemate produced a seven-day strike in June, and then a vote for the second strike, which is set to start on Labor Day.
Allina has said that declaring an impasse is a possibility, but a spokesman said: “We’d rather continue trying to work with the union to get to an agreement our nurses support”.
Both sides have negotiated during the week end and enlisted the help of federal mediators.
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The Association of EMTs and Paramedics Local R7.167 notified Allina that they plan to support the Minnesota Nurses Association by starting a strike on September 15.
