Thousands of Minnesota nurses launch 3-day strike over pay
Source: AP
By TRISHA AHMED and GRETCHEN EHLKE
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of nurses in Minnesota launched a three-day strike Monday, pressing for salary increases they say will help improve patient care by resolving understaffing stresses that have worsened in the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 15,000 nurses at seven health care systems in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas walked out, a number the union says makes it the largest strike ever by private-sector nurses. The affected hospitals said they have recruited temporary nurses and expected to maintain most services.
Scores of nurses began walking the picket line at 7 a.m. outside Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, one of 15 hospitals affected. Clad in the red T-shirts of the Minnesota Nurses Association and carrying signs with such slogans as, “Something has got to give,” several said their chief concern was patient safety.
Tracey Dittrich, 50, a registered nurse at the hospital for nearly 24 years, said nurses are tired of “hospital administrators and managers that are telling us to do more.” The hospitals need more nurses and more support staff, and higher pay will help, she said.
Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, left, joins nurses striking Monday, Sept. 12, 2022 outside North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minn. Nurses launched a three-day strike over issues of pay and what they say is understaffing that has been worsened by the strains of the coronavirus pandemic. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-covid-duluth-strikes-0203fae604bf860e32feb44fb0d5bbf1
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