St Paul, Minnesota, November 13, 2020: Faced with worsening staffing, dangerous working conditions, coworkers falling ill, and the planned closure of two major hospitals during the COVID 19 pandemic, nurses have submitted an emergency resolution to take a union-wide strike authorization vote in January of 2021.
The measure was submitted to the MNA Bylaws, Resolutions, and Main Motions Committee. If the Committee agrees that the motion meets the qualifications of an MNA emergency measure, it will go to a full vote of the MNA House of Delegates on November 30, 2020.
The measure outlines the necessity and reasons for definitive action to protect nurses, patients, and the public’s access to health care during the greatest public health crisis in 100 years. Union nurses and community members have been appealing to hospital administrators since the outbreak of the pandemic for safe PPE and workplace protections. They’ve gotten no significant response. Heading into the 2nd and largest wave of new COVID 19 cases and deaths, M Health Fairview announced the closure of both Bethesda and St Joseph Hospitals in St. Paul. And hospital administrators have informed healthcare workers of plans to increase nurse-to-patient ratios.
The emergency resolution calls for an historic, union-wide, strike authorization vote of MNA’s 22,000 members. If approved by the House of Delegates, the strike authorization vote will take place the first week of January 2021 and will authorize the MNA Board of Directors to call a state-wide strike if conditions, staffing, and public health are not adequately addressed.
The resolution takes place amid escalating workplace actions by nurses across the United States, nurses who have seen thousands of frontline workers lost to COVID 19. Within the last week, 1500 nurses of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals announced a strike saying they’ve been “pushed to the brink by unsafe staffing that undermines patient safety” and will strike “to protect their patients and themselves.”
If you support the call for a union-wide strike authorization vote, please contact Jodi Lietzau at: Jodi.Lietzau@mnnurses.org, who will forward your comment to the Committee.
The Measure:
Call For a MNA Union-Wide Strike Authorization Vote
November 13, 2020
Where As: Working conditions throughout the COVID 19 pandemic have exposed systemic, profound dangers to nurses, patients, and frontline workers across all essential industries
And Where As: These conditions have been exacerbated by hospital decision making that has been routinely unresponsive, dismissive, and conducted by executive administrators who do not share the same risk, who do not experience the harms, and who are not dying of COVID 19 at the rate of RNs nationally
And Where As: Illness, economic deprivation, and work-related fatalities fall with even greater severity upon our nurses of color and the working-class communities we serve
And Where As: Hospital administrations are driving further harms to the communities we serve through inadequate nurse staffing, unsafe work assignments, and closures of entire hospitals
And Where As: MNA membership is facing unprecedented injury, financial hardship, layoffs, and life-threatening working conditions
And Where As: Hospital administrations, political leaders, governmental agencies and governing bodies have proven to be systemically unresponsive to the needs of our members and essential workers nationally
Therefore Be It Resolved: That in order to protect the employment, working conditions, professional nursing standards, and physical safety of our nurses, MNA will convene a strike authorization vote of our full membership during the first week of January, 2021
And Therefore Be It Resolved: That upon passing of the MNA strike authorization vote, the Board of Directors shall be given the authority to announce a union-wide strike should the Board deem it necessary to address the systemic abuse of our members and other frontline workers
And Therefore Be It Resolved: MNA will seek to coordinate these actions with frontline workforces and unions to build the necessary solidarity and response to defend our members and the communities we serve.
For additional information post questions and comments here or contact the authors of the measure, Cliff Willmeng, Summer Pavon or Mable Fale.