(The Center Square) – More nurses affiliated with Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic are pushing the state’s nursing union out of health care facilities.
Recently, nurses at Mayo Clinic’s Fairmont Medical Center voted 26-15 to remove the Minnesota Nurses Association from their facility following submission for a decertification vote to the National Labor Relations Board in December.
The movement began with employee Jamie Campbell.
“The MNA was a very divisive force in our workplace, and I think we’ll be able to better serve our patients and the community without the union,” Campbell said. “We hope the NLRB quickly certifies the vote and that union officials respect our decision.”
According to Campbell’s petition, the vote included all registered general duty and charge nurses at the facility.
Pending the NLRB’s certification of the vote result, Fairmont Mayo nurses will no longer have to pay dues or participate in collective bargaining.
Since 2022, several units of health care workers in Minnesota have moved to eliminate unions from facilities, including nurses at Mayo’s St. James branch, nurses and support staff at Mayo’s Mankato branch and employees at four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations in the Brainerd Lakes region.
The efforts have been aided by the National Right to Work Foundation.
“MNA union bosses’ influence and political connections did not shield them from suffering another defeat by rank-and-file nurses at the ballot box,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said. “Ironically, Minnesota’s lack of Right to Work protections – which are vociferously opposed by the MNA – likely removed an important accountability tool from the relationship between the MNA and the nurses they claim to ‘represent.’ It’s no surprise that union bosses who can force workers to pay union dues or fees on pain of termination wind up being far less effective and more out-of-touch than union officials who must earn the voluntary financial support of each worker.”