UW Health nurses, administration reach tentative deal to prevent strike

A source said Sunday that UW Health nurses and administrators had reached a tentative agreement to avoid a strike that was set to begin on Tuesday.

Gov. Tony Evers hosted the parties at the governor’s mansion for “hours of negotiation,” during which they reached a proposed deal, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Late Sunday afternoon, neither UW Health nor the union attempting to organize the nurses, SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, would confirm an agreement.

On September 3, UW Health nurses formally notified administrators of their intention to strike on September 13-16, citing a desire for quality patient care, safe staffing, and union recognition.

The 10-day notice, required by labor law, came after nurses said the previous week they voted to strike unless UW Health administrators agreed to recognize and bargain with their union, a request they have been making since December 2019.

“I’m striking to take a stand for quality patient care for my community and the well-being of frontline nurses,” Amanda Klinge, a nurse in the orthopedic trauma unit at UW Health, said in a statement.

“When my nurse colleagues and I see potentially preventable patient care problems occur day after day because of extreme understaffing, it is damaging to our psyche and our very soul.”

According to SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, UW nurses have been “struggling with a dangerous crisis of understaffing, turnover, cuts, exhaustion, and burnout, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic and jeopardizes patient care.”

The strike would be “unpleasant for patients and our staff, but we will get through it,” according to UW Health, which is “ensuring patient care is impacted as little as possible” and a strike would “do nothing to change the legal uncertainties surrounding the health system’s ability to collectively bargain.”

Act 10, the signature legislation of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, prohibited collective bargaining for most public employees except for cost-of-living pay increases.

At the time, UW Hospital management claimed that the law dissolved unions at the hospital, despite the fact that they did not pursue such action.

When a contract for over 2,000 nurses and therapists represented by SEIU ended in 2014, they lost the union.

In December 2019, just before the COVID-19 epidemic began, nurses announced the relaunch of the union and requested that the UW Hospital Board voluntarily recognize it. The board and hospital leaders have repeatedly stated that the law prohibits them from recognizing and bargaining with the union.

Methodist Hospital Nurse Strike

Temporary nurses will fill in for striking Minnesota Nurses Association members in hospitals.
Nurses from Twin Cities metro and Duluth-area hospitals went on strike Monday at 7 a.m., following failed discussions on outstanding three-year contracts.

Here’s what you should know.

Which hospitals are engaged, and how many nurses are there?

In the Twin Cities metro and Duluth region, around 15,000 nurses are on strike.

M Health Fairview hospitals implicated in the strikes include Southdale in Edina, St. John’s in Maplewood, St. Joseph’s in St. Paul, and the Riverside campus of the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, Mercy campuses in Coon Rapids and Fridley, and United Hospital in St. Paul are among the Allina Health institutions on strike.

Nurses at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park and North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale are also on strike. The walkout has only affected North Memorial, one of three main adult trauma facilities.

Which hospitals are not part of the strike?

The strike excludes two of the Twin Cities’ three adult regional trauma centers: HCMC in Minneapolis and Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Furthermore, numerous suburban Twin Cities hospitals do not employ union nurses and are not participating. Allina’s Buffalo and Cambridge hospitals, for example, are not engaged, nor are M Health Fairview’s Ridges Hospital in Burnsville or Lakes Medical Center in Wyoming. The Maple Grove Hospital at North Memorial is likewise not on strike.

M Health Fairview Clinics and Surgery Center – Minneapolis

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