Minneapolis, MN – On July 1 the Minnesota nurses’ union negotiating team reached a settlement with management, averting a strike. If they would have gone on strike, it would have been the largest nurses strike in U.S. history. The following is the text of a leaflet that Fight Back! prepared to distribute on the nurses’ picket lines during the strike. While the strike didn’t happen, we are sharing this leaflet because it lays out the importance of the nurses’ struggle in the context of the economic crisis.
Minneapolis, MN – About 100 anti-war activists protested outside of the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) annual meeting at the University of Minnesota on June 30 to oppose the U.S. unconditional support for Israel. The Coalition for Palestinian Rights organized the protest. This protest was a part of a series of protests organized in response to the massacre of the Gaza flotilla Memorial Day weekend.
Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota nurses returned to the bargaining table with Twin Cities Hospitals on June 29. Four days earlier, on June 25, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) had filed a ten-day notice of intent to strike, setting the stage for an open-ended strike beginning July 6 at 14 area hospitals.
Minneapolis, MN – 12,000 nurses are set to walk the picket lines in an open-ended strike on July 6, at 14 Minnesota hospitals. On June 22, nurses voted overwhelmingly to endorse an open-ended strike over staffing ratios and pension benefits. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) filed the legally required 10-day strike notice after day-long negotiations with the hospitals on June 24 proved futile.
Minneapolis, MN – After 21 days in a Rwanda jail, lawyer Peter Erlinder returned home today. He was met by 20 supporters and as many reporters. After hugging his wife, Masako Usui, he said, “Unlike Mark Twain, the reports of my demise were only slightly exaggerated.”
Minneapolis, MN – Throughout the day on June 21, thousands of nurses streamed to the voting sites and overwhelmingly voted to authorize an open-ended strike against 14 Twin Cities hospitals. With 84% voting in support of authorizing a strike, the nurses have taken another historic step. On June 10, in the largest single strike in U.S. history, 12,000 nurses walked out for a one-day strike. After the hospitals refused to return to the bargaining table, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) called for a second vote, this time to authorize a strike that could be open ended.
On Thursday, anti-war activists protested at Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office to demonstrate against the Obama administration’s escalating war in Afghanistan. The Anti-War Committee of Minneapolis-St. Paul organized the protest.
Minneapolis, MN – One June 14, about 30 immigrants and immigrant rights supporters picketed outside of Jimmy Johns sandwich shop at Block E in downtown Minneapolis. Jimmy Johns is one of the companies targeted in the national boycott against Arizona in response to SB1070, the racist anti-immigrant law Arizona passed in April. The protest demanded that Jimmy Johns founder James ‘Jimmy John’ Liautaud stop supporting anti-immigrant politicians in Arizona such as Joe Arpaio and John McCain.
Minneapolis, MN – Today 25 staff, faculty, graduate and undergraduate held a press conference to speak out against the University of Minnesota administration’s continued attempts to push budget cuts onto students and the lowest paid staff at the U.
