June 4, 2001 - The Mayo Clinic is latest major employer to announce changes in employee retirement benefits as the baby boom generation prepares to exit the workforce. The changes scheduled to go into effect over the next two years, target the current pension plan and post-retirement medical benefits. Minnesota Public Radio's Erin Galbally reports:
June 5, 2001 - Officials with the Minnesota Nurses Associaiton and Allina Health Systems say they'll meet again today to "explore options" regarding the recount of votes by nurses at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis. The union says it conducted 3 recounts of the ratification of the vote on Sunday and would only say the tally "was in doubt." The union did recounts at two other hospitals as well and say they turned up no discrepencies. Meanwhile, 15-hundred nurses from two Fairview Hospitals continue to walk picket lines. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports...
June 5, 2001 - Nurses at two Minneapolis hospitals will remain on the job even though they may have rejected a contract proposal last weekend by a single vote. Officials with the Minnesota Nurses Association say they discovered a voting mixup only after telling Allina Health System that nurses at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and the Phillips Eye Institute had ratified the contract. And by then -- from a legal standpoint -- it was too late to correct the mistake. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports...
June 6, 2001 -
June 6, 2001 - LIVE INTRO: Meetings will be held today between registered nurses at two Allina Health System hospitals, attornies, and representatives of the Minnesota Nurses Association. At issue....what happened that a contract ratification vote was miscounted...with nurses learning yesterday, that they actually had turned DOWN the contract, by one vote, instead of approving it, as the MNA had reported. While those meetings get underway, nurses at two Fairview Hospitals enter a fourth day of picketing. Nursing unions across the country are watching the Fairview walkout, and the contracts that other TwinCities hosptals have signed recently with nurses. Susan Bianchi-Sand (bee-ON-kee Sand) is the director of the United American Nurses based in Washington, D.C. The Minnesota Nurses Association is affiliated with that group. Bianchi-Sand says many eyes are on the Twin Cities.
June 7, 2001 - A look at lower cancer rates in Minnesota with Stephen Hecht, Wallin professor of cancer prevention at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center.
June 12, 2001 - More than 13-hundred nurses at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina and Fairview Riverside in Minneapolis are beginning their 10th day on strike this morning (Tuesday). A federal mediator has not scheduled new contract talks to end the strike and neither side is showing any signs of resuming negotiations. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports...
June 12, 2001 - Many of you have thoughts on the nurses strike. Here are some of the comments that were left on our Soap Box feature at Minnesota Public Radio dot o-r-g. Frank from Minneapolis writes-- This strike isn't about patient care, it is about greed. Nurses are not the only people who work in hospitals who have stressful jobs. There are many people who work for far less money, and their jobs are just as stressful. The difference is, patient care is their number-one concern, not union solidarity. Kate from St. Paul writes-- I'm just sick of a system that forces nurses to strike in order to be heard. I realize that the people I contact most often in the health-care system are nurses. I might see a doctor for a two-minute diagnosis, but the nurses have to provide the bulk of ongoing emotional and physical care. I think they should make more money.
June 13, 2001 - House and Senate negotiators today (WEDNESDAY) made budget offers during a public meeting of the tax working group. The two proposals, however, exposed the wide differences separating the two caucuses. But all sides say they're encouraged to have the discussions back in the public eye. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo reports.
June 14, 2001 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has approved a request from Minnesota that allows the state to participate in a federal program that helps cover uninsured children. For the past 3 years, Governor Ventura and officials with the state's Department of Human Services have been lobbying the federal government to approve the funding. Ventura said the federal government was penalizing Minnesota for establishing a program for uninsured children before Congress created its own program in 1997. State officials say the new money will help insure more Minnesotans, but some lawmakers in the state Legislature don't have the same expectations. Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reports..