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Minnesota nurses rally against concession demands
Monday, May 17, 2010
More than 12,000 Twin Cities-area nurses will vote on Wednesday on a takeaway contract demanded by six Minnesota hospital systems. If the contract is rejected and no new agreement is reached by the June 1 deadline, a walkout would be the largest nurses’ strike in US history. Some 2,500 nurses rallied at locations in St. Paul and a suburb of Minneapolis last week to press their demands.
“This is the eighth week of negotiations and not a single employer has been willing to discuss any of our proposals,” Joni Ketter, director of organizing for the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) told the World Socialist Web Site. “We’re negotiating with six different hospitals at six different tables, and we’re confronted with the same basic set of concessions at every table. The hospitals admit that they are coordinating their bargaining. They have lawyers at four of the six tables that are from the same firm. Unless we see a major movement by these hospitals, I think they will be forcing these nurses to make a decision about whether or not to strike.”
posted in: Minnesota, news
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