Allina and the nurses union: Management is putting same lipstick on a different pig

I couldn't agree more that the public rhetoric about Allina Health's negotiations with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) nurses is distasteful ("Allina's offer is healthy compromise," Aug. 12). What Allina President and CEO Dr. Penny Wheeler didn't say in her commentary is that Allina negotiators, since March of this year, have handed the nurses nothing but insults and ultimatums at the table.

Allina flatly refuses to negotiate on any of the nurses' concerns until they give up MNA health plans and accept Allina's core health plans. More important, Allina insists it will never negotiate on staffing, period. Our negotiators heard about the July 27 proposal when contacted by the press.

In public, Allina presents us as greedy, weak-willed or clueless by turns. Wheeler's recent outreach at Phillips Eye Institute was a PowerPoint presentation about the unreasonableness of the nurses. All staff from Phillips were invited to join in the public shaming.

The nurses insisted our negotiators take an insurance compromise to the table — keep the two less-costly plans and accept copays and deductibles. Allina countered with a poison pill that guarantees that the MNA plans die in about three years. It also insisted we remove language in our contract that protects nurses from health plan changes during the term of the contract. If we accepted that take-back, I suspect Allina would make changes to the MNA plans before the ink on the contract dried.

The public knows that employer-provided health care plans have changed, moving to higher premiums, copays and deductibles. The public also knows from experience that having health insurance is no guarantee of getting the health care you need. Allina's health plans are not full-coverage plans, and Allina won't be frank about what's not covered. I doubt the public begrudges nurses the health care benefits full coverage provides.

The most important parts of our contract haven't even been discussed in public. Our contract has protections that help nurses carry out their legal obligations under the Minnesota Nurse Practice Act. "Safe, effective care" is not a negotiation slogan, it's the law. Each nurse is responsible to assure that he or she provides safe and effective nursing care for the patients assigned to him or her each day. Our contract supports a nurse's ability to protest unsafe conditions and to bring them to Allina to be addressed. The hospital can't insist that a new graduate nurse take a patient she or he is not yet trained to care for. The hospital can't insist that a nurse who already has a full assignment take another patient if it risks that her or his other patients will not get appropriate care. The contract protects the charge nurse from retaliation if he or she tells the hospital: "I have empty beds, but unless you get me another nurse, I can't safely accept more patients on this unit."

All of our patients are safer because of the MNA contract. It gives nurses leverage to ensure that Allina does the right thing. Allina wants the contract stripped of that protection.

Allina's talking points say it was business as usual during the seven-day strike in June. Allina brags about how heroically the managers, doctors, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, certified nursing assistants, and ancillary staff members worked overtime, filling in the gaps and soothing patients. What Allina doesn't say is that these staff members were diverted from their own responsibilities and essential contributions to patient care to make up for the shortcomings of the replacement nurses. By throwing these employees under the bus, administrators protected themselves from any potential legal liability for inadequate care. Never mind that nurses accept these legal responsibilities every day.

Allina wants the MNA contract gutted and the union gone. Nurses moved to the middle. Allina put different lipstick on the same pig with the same ultimatum: Take it or leave it. The nurses walked away from the table and Allina cries foul. In public, Allina belittles the nurses for defending our contract protections and benefits. At the table, Allina has belligerently dared this nurse group to strike.

On Thursday, the nurses will answer.

Connie Ferdinand, of Minneapolis, is a registered nurse.