The union that represents Minnesota's 12,000 Twin Cities nurses will hold a vote today to decide whether to strike against hospitals that refuse to negotiate certain parts of their contract, said Minnesota Nurses Association spokesman John Nemo.

But the hot-button issue isn't the wages in the contract, which expires June 1, Nemo told DOTmed News.

"Economics aren't the issue," he said. "The real issue that nurses are willing to strike over is the patient safety issue....That's what's holding up negotiations."

Patient safety, according to the union, is at risk due to the high ratio of patients to nurses.

"Our nurses feel like with the recent layoffs and cutbacks through the recession, [hospitals] are asking the remaining nurses to do more with less," Nemo said. "It's getting to the point where nurses think [hospitals] are dangerously understaffed, where patients' lives are at risk."

Currently, nurses may see six to nine patients at one time, which Nemo said isn't safe. In some cases patients may have special needs, increasing their caregivers' burden.

But Twin Cities hospital spokeswoman Maureen Schriner said the hospitals are already so far advanced when it comes to quality standards that the union needs to start negotiations where the hospitals are now, not base negotiations on national standards.

"The union is trying to come back with these cookie cutter national standards," Schriner told DOTmed News. "For us to have these national standards doesn't fit in to where Twin Cities hospitals are right now."

The 12,000 nurses, belonging to 13 hospitals, are fighting against the 33 percent pension pay cut, which will affect all nurses, regardless of their hospital. The labor contracts are specific to each hospital, Nemo said.

Schriner pointed out that while there is a cut in pension plans, all of the nurses will still enjoy the benefits of a pension plan.

"Going forward, hospitals have to be able to plan and make pensions affordable," she said. "[The nurses are] still going to be getting a pension plan. It's just not going to be as much as it has been in the past."

In fact, Schriner pointed out, the nurses, who on average make $79,000 a year, will have a wage increase in the proposed contract.

But if the nurses decide to strike, the union says it would last just one day. The goal is to make the six hospital systems in the Minneapolis area realize that nurses are serious about negotiating their contract.

"Our nurses felt like they want to deliver a message that has maximum impact on the employer in terms of hospital systems," Nemo said. "These nurses are serious and not willing to accept the contract on table."

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