About 15,000 nurses in Minnesota walked off the job on Monday for a historic three-day strike after months of failed contract negotiations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I can’t give my patients the care they deserve.”

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) last month voted overwhelmingly in support of what the union says is the “largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history.”

Nurses with MNA argue that hospital executives who make millions of dollars per year “refuse solutions to short-staffing, retention, and better patient care.”

Strikers carried signs highlighting their frustration. Messages included: “Patients before profits,” “Put an end to corporate healthcare,” and “The frontline is fed up with excuses!”

Chris Rubesch, MNA vice president and a nurse at Essentia Health in Duluth, told The Washington Post that “I can’t give my patients the care they deserve.”

“Call lights go unanswered. Patients should only be waiting for a few seconds or minutes if they’ve soiled themselves or their oxygen came unplugged or […]