Nurses Gather Outside Health Center in Minnesota as Three-Day Strike Begins

Union nurses gathered in Plymouth, Minnesota, on October 17 as part of a three-day planned strike for fair pay and benefits to nurses working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This video, posted to Facebook by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), shows nurses rallying outside the Allina WestHealth campus, as MNA president Mary Turner, also a registered nurse, speaks to colleagues through a megaphone. “Is this how we treat the heroes of a pandemic?” Turner asks the crowd. “No, it’s not,” she says.

According to MNA, the strike came about when negotiations with Allina Health for holiday contracts for nurses hit a wall on Wednesday. Allina Health announced on Saturday that their emergency department would be closed from October 17 until October 20.

The nurses would be on the picket line from 7 am to 5 pm each day of the strike, according to local reports. Credit: Minnesota Nurses Association via Storyful