Fairview Southdale nurses picket in rain until last moment of strike

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4516

By Steve Share
11 June 2010

EDINA - At about 6:30 this morning, in the closing minutes of a 24-hour strike by Twin Cities nurses, a handful of pickets stood at their posts in the rain outside Fairview Southdale Hospital.

One small group of pickets, taking shelter from the rain, stood underneath a skyway bridge linking a parking ramp on the other side of France Ave. So. with the hospital.

“We picketed until 3:15 a.m., then we left for a while and now we’re back,” reported RN Bonnie Senescull, Bloomington, who has worked 23 years at the hospital.


With about one-half hour left to go in the strike, striking nurses took shelter from the rain under a bridge linking a parking ramp with Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina. Left to right: Mary Makres, Minneapolis, who has worked 25 years at the hospital; Mary Kitson, Richfield, who marked the day of her eighth anniversary at the hospital while on strike; Bonnie Senescull, who has worked 23 years at the hospital; Marita Wermskirchen, Shakopee, who has worked 17 years at the hospital.

Photo by Steve Share

The Minnesota Nurses Association, concerned about lightning, told them to go home, one of the group explained, and that was the only reason they left.

As for staying on the picket line until the wee hours of the morning, “it was the same thing as working the night shift,” said RN Marita Wermskirchen, Shakopee, who has worked 17 years at the hospital.

“Even at three o’clock in the morning, people were still honking,” said Senescull.

FULL story at link.

they are the most compassionate and knowledgeable I have ever seen. They took darn good care of me thru my breast cancer operations, chemo treatment and radiation treatment. They knew what to do and did it with love and caring. I can't thank them enough. They deserve to get a raise and any benefit they want.