Hennepin Healthcare nurses picket outside Minneapolis hospital

Nurses with Hennepin Healthcare picketed outside Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis on Monday, to draw attention to staffing concerns.

Those concerns, the Minnesota Nurses Association says, include both staffing levels and the retention of staff who are already at Hennepin Healthcare.

“The staffing crisis in our hospital is not new, it has been steadily worsening over the last two years,” registered nurse Janell Thiele said in a union news release. “Nurses have been pleading with executives to listen to our suggestions to retain our highly skilled nursing staff, but we have seen no clear action from leadership.”

Monday's picketing was not a work stoppage; it's separate from the strike authorization affecting 15,000 other union nurses across the state, that passed in a vote earlier this month.

In a brief statement, Hennepin Healthcare said “peaceful picketing in public places, such as a sidewalk, is a protected First Amendment activity and we support our employees’ right to express themselves.”

Hennepin Healthcare nurses have a contract in place, but also are pursuing wage talks with the hospital and health care provider. Nurses say they want wage increases to help fill staff positions and keep existing staff — which they say will improve workplace safety.

“We are tired. We need help from executive management, and the call is not being answered,” registered nurse Jeremy Olson-Ehlert said. “There is no nursing shortage, but a shortage of nurses willing to put up with the conditions and consequences of poor staffing and violence against health care staff.”

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