It's official. The 12,000 Twin Cities nurses ratified their new three-year contract with Minnesota's 14 hospitals Tuesday night, according to the Minnesota Nurses Association.

The final contract, announced Thursday, did not have any of the concessions or take-backs originally proposed by the hospitals. While the main issue slowing down agreements was the patient-to-nurse ratio, the final settlement was not "perfect" when it came to the specific language regarding the ratio, according to MNA.

"We've been fighting this fight for safe staffing since the early 1990s," said Cindy Olson, a member of the MNA bargaining team, in a statement. "The efforts of our nurses the past three months have not been in vain. This was not an all-or-nothing situation. The battle for safe staffing didn't end with this contract agreement. In many ways, it's only just beginning."
Hospital spokeswoman Maureen Schriner told DOTmed News last week that there is a "renewed commitment" to look at staffing issues presented by both nurses and hospitals through existing hospital committees.

The ratification brings an end to months of head butting, which resulted in a one-day strike and authorization to hold an open-ended strike, originally slated to begin Tuesday, but rescinded with the settlement announcement last week.

"It's been a long three-plus months, but the nurses [I talked to last night]have a healthy mixture of relief and resolve," said Olson. "Relief that we finally have a contract in front of us that we could ratify, and resolve to make sure we finish the job when it comes to attaining safe staffing levels our patients and our profession deserve."

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