By  The Chief Executive Officer of Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minnesota, Ken Paulus, will work without pay until Allina settles the current contract dispute with its nurses. Twin Cities nurses overwhelmingly voted in favor of a one-day strike after months of failed contract negotiations with 14 Twin Cities hospitals. Allina owns five of the affected hospitals.
Nurses involved in the contract dispute say they’re standing up for patient safety. They’re arguing for nurse-patient ratios and appropriate, reasonable limits to floating. (The hospitals’ proposed contract includes provisions approving cross-campus floating.) Hospital officials insist that changes in the economic landscape require restructuring of the hospitals’ workforce. Upset by that rationale, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), which is representing the 12,000 involved nurses, released a brochure listing the 2009 profits and CEO salaries of the involved hospitals.
MNA spokesman John Nemo, though, is unimpressed with the gesture of Allina’s CEO. “It’s a publicity grab,” Nemo told the Star Tribune.
Both sides return to the bargaining table soon.
What do you think of CEO suspending his pay? Is it a publicity grab, or something more?
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