Mediators call Duluth hospitals and nurses back to bargaining table

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4599

25 August 2010

DULUTH - Federal mediators have called Duluth nurses and business executives at two area hospitals - SMDC Medical Center and St. Luke's – back to the bargaining table.
A tentative meeting between SMDC nurses and hospital administrators was set for Wednesday, while a similarly tentative meeting between St. Luke's nurses and hospital administrators has been penciled in for Thursday. Federal mediators have been trying to bridge the gap in recent weeks during contract talks between 1,350 Duluth RNs and the two hospital systems, which began back in early May.

On August 18, nurses at SMDC and St. Luke's voted overwhelmingly to reject their respective contract offers and instead authorize a one-day strike. More than 90 percent of SMDC nurses and 86 percent of St. Luke's RNs voted in favor of a strike.

Two key patient safety issues - the option for a nurse to refuse an unsafe patient assignment and the ability of a nurse to temporarily close his or her unit to new admissions during an unsafe staffing situation - are the key sticking points in contract talks at both facilities. In the Twin Cities, nurses have had language in their contracts since the late 1990s that gives RNs the ability to do both of these things.

"If it's good enough for nurses and patients in the Cities, why isn't it good enough for nurses and patients in the Northland?" SMDC RN Steve Strand asked. "We're not looking for anything new or unusual here. We're simply looking to add the same type of patient safety language that other nurses in our state have."

FULL story at link.

[Warpy]

1. Administrators just DON'T GET IT

Unsafe staffing means your license is in jeopardy, all the hard work you put into your education becoming worthless if the worst happens, and the worst has a habit of happening when staffing is lowest.

Unsafe staffing means no one to help with lifting, which means injuries that can also wipe out our careers.

And that's just for the nurses. Unsafe staffing kills patients, but of course the suits have been assured by the lawyers that the hospital has budgeted adequately for that.

This attitude by management is the reason so many nurses have left the profession, the callous disregard for nurses and patients that has led to working conditions that can only be described as brutal.

You want to know where the nursing shortage came from? Talk to a suit for five minutes, you'll understand.