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Tag Archives: Duluth Strike
BREAKING NEWS: Tentative Agreement Reached for SMDC Nurses in Duluth!
8 Sep
SMDC Bargaining Team
Dear fellow SMDC Nurses,
After 13 negotiation sessions – including a final one that stretched on for nearly 30 straight hours! – we were able to get substantive movement on staffing issues. As a committee we can strongly recommend this contract to you for ratification. Finally, we have been able to get the language Twin Cities nurses have had that allows us as RNs to advocate for our patients!
It took all of our work and unity as Duluth Nurses United and RNs at SMDC to get management to work with us to reach this agreement. Now we will have to make sure we all work hard to use the language we have gained. We were also able to get Kentucky River language, salary increases that are an improvement over the recent pattern of 0, 1 and 2 percent from other nursing contracts in the state, and enhancements to our education and life insurance. Details of the agreement are available for review on the MNA Web site.
As a committee we feel great about the gains we have made in this contract in regard to the much-needed staffing language.
We are recommending a YES vote to ratify the contract. In addition, we will be formally withdrawing our 10-day strike notice (the strike was set to begin at 7:00 a.m. on September 14th) pending the expected ratification of this contract by our membership.
Voting will be this Friday, September 10th at the “Coppertop Church” United Methodist Church at 230 E. Skyline Parkway from 6 am until 8 pm.
Your SMDC RN Bargaining Team:
Steve Strand, Mary Ann Starkovich-Hirsch, Pat Dwyer, Dolly Dahl, Kellie Brickson, Kelly Hoenig, Terry Bronniche, Margaret Bates
SMDC Nurses File 10-Day Strike Notice
3 Sep
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: John Nemo, MNA, 651-414-2863
DULUTH, Minn. (September 3, 2010) – Nurses at SMDC/Essentia Health today delivered their formal 10-day notice of an intent to strike for 24 hours beginning at 7:00 a.m. on September 14, 2010.
“This is not a position we ever wanted to be in, but our nurses have been forced to this point,” said Steve Strand, RN, a member of the SMDC bargaining team. “Since early May, we have asked the business executives at our hospital to address the critical problem of unsafe staffing situations inside our hospital. We have asked them to include the type of language in our contract that has existed in the Twin Cities for years and now exists at St. Luke’s hospital here in Duluth. Filing the strike notice today is the next step we’ve been forced to take to try and get these executives back to the table and willing to craft a contract that puts patient safety first.”
Nearly 1,000 nurses at SMDC/Essentia Health are without a contract, and the Sept. 14 walkout would be the first one of its kind in Duluth’s nursing history.
“Nobody wants a strike, and we hope it doesn’t come to that,” Strand said. “We still have time to talk and work out a contract. The executives know what their nurses need for this contract agreement to be reached.”
In other developments, a federal mediator has called both sides back to the bargaining table at 10:00 a.m. on September 7.
“We remain hopeful we can reach a contract and we’ll continue to bargain in good faith,” Strand said. “But today was a step our members felt was necessary to take in order to put pressure on the executives at SMDC to work with us to get a contract agreement.”
Nurses at St. Luke’s Hospital reached a tentative agreement earlier this week after a marathon 17-hour negotiating session. Their new contract includes the type of safe staffing language SMDC/Essentia Nurses say is critical to ensuring their patients remain safe now and in the future.
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