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No fewer than 15,000 workers in hospitals across Minnesota and Wisconsin in the United States of America have commenced strike, demanding better working conditions and higher wages.
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The strike took off on Monday in seven healthcare systems in Minneapolis and Duluth, mounting picket lines, chanting slogans and holding signs bearing messages such as “Patients Before Profits.”
According to Al Jazeera, the stoppage was set to last until Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), which was coordinating the action, and will affect 16 hospitals.
“Hospital executives have already driven nurses away from the bedside by their refusal to solve the crises of staffing and retention in our hospitals,” the union’s negotiating team said in a statement, adding that nurses are “understaffed and overworked.”
The strike, which the MNA said is believed to be the largest of its kind in United States history, highlights the persistent problems that US healthcare workers face, such as low pay and staffing shortages.
Strikes in the United States have occurred regularly over the past year, with employees reporting to be exhausted by working during the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling with price rises.
The pandemic has exacerbated many of those issues, and the sector has lost about 37,000 workers since February 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Holding signs bearing messages such as “Patients Before Profits,” employees gathered in groups in the early morning hours to protest outside some of the 16 affected hospitals, according to photographs the union posted online.
Hospitals have planned to continue providing care, albeit with possible disruptions.
North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota said it “may be making some adjustments to non-emergency care and services to ensure adequate and safe staffing during the strike period.”
But it stressed it will continue to offer its “full range of services” including inpatient, outpatient and emergency care, and that it would serve customers for any previously scheduled appointments.
The two sides have been negotiating for more than five months, without reaching an agreement.
“Right now in Minnesota, nurses are overworked, hospitals are understaffed, and patients are overcharged,” MNA said in a statement.
The union said it was seeking solutions to staffing shortages and work safety issues, while hospitals want to focus solely on salaries.
A group representing the hospitals says it has proposed wage increases of 10-12 per cent over three years.
The nurses are seeking raises in the range of 27-30 per cent.
The hospitals argue that “with the constant change in healthcare, all those who work in healthcare need to adapt to how we serve people.”
