Week 1 Nurses Strike as Trump Doubles Down On Twin Cities and Greenland
New York City hospital bosses are raking in millions as nurses report more short-staffing and increasing workplace dangers. Photos/Bob Hennelly
By Bob Hennelly
Here in New York City, thousands of nurses with the New York State Nurses Association remain on strike at New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West to maintain their healthcare benefits, safe staffing for patient care as well as secure improved protections against a spike in workplace violence.
According to Kaiser Health News and the Guardian, 3,600 nurses died in the first wave of the COVID pandemic in the US, 500 in New York City and 300 in New Jersey as a consequence of a poorly equipped and staffed healthcare system already in crisis before the mass death event.
Management at these three hospitals are attempting to rollback what the union was able to win for their profession and patient care in the aftermath of COVID.
The nominally non-profit hospitals that pay their CEOs as much $26.3 million a year, have reportedly set aside $100 million to hire replacement "traveling" nurses to break the union.
Meanwhile, conditions in Minneapolis-St. Paul continue to deteriorate and Trump’s designs on Greenland put the NATO alliance at great risk with Europe sending troops to the autonomous territory of Denmark.
Hospital bosses in New York City are trying to roll back protections nurses won in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Minneapolis, in the aftermath of the murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, mother of three and member of an immigrants rights support group, street protests continue. Gov. Tim Walz called up his state’s National Guard. WAPO reports the Trump regime is mobilizing 1,500 federal troops from Alaska to send to the state.
ICE has close to 3,000 officers in the region, more than twice the number of municipal police in the Twin Cities.
A federal judge sitting in Minnesota has issued a ruling instructing ICE to not arrest, detain or attack peaceful protestors. The judge’s order prohibits the use of non-lethal munitions like pepper spray by ICE on protestors.
The ruling comes several days after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good and a second incident where ICE shot and wounded another civilian, being described as a Venezuelan migrant who was apprehended trying to avoid capture.
Thousands of New York City remain on strike this week.
Internationally, President Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland continues to escalate with his threat to impose 10 tariffs on European countries if the US is not given Greenland.
“World Peace is at stake! China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing Denmark can do about it,” Trump said, adding that Greenland has only two dogsleds to defend it.
Of course, the US already maintains a military presence in Greenland and the autonomous territory is part of Denmark and Denmark is part of NATO which came to the aid of the US when it was attacked on 9/11.
Denmark itself lost over 40 soldiers fighting alongside Americans in Afghanistan.
Trump’s increasingly unhinged and bellicose rhetoric has sparked massive anti-Trump protests in Greenland and Denmark.
Even as the US is increasingly isolated internationally, the Trump junta continues to zero in on Minnesota and it healthcare facilities.
Below is reporting from a joint partnership between Minnesota Public Radio.
and the Sahan Journal which documents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security "auditing Hennepin Healthcare’s employment records, causing fear among employees that the agency is looking for undocumented workers" the day after Nicole Renee Good murder.
"According to a statement from Hennepin Healthcare, DHS issued a subpoena to begin inspecting the organization’s I-9 forms on Jan. 8. Hennepin Healthcare 'has supplied the information required by the subpoena,' the statement says.
"Upon starting employment, all employees in the United States are required to complete an I-9 form to verify their identity and work authorization. An I-9 form contains information such as the employee’s citizenship or immigration status."
The report continues. "Employers retain the I-9 form records, and the federal government may request them in audit. Hennepin Healthcare employs about 7,000 people across its hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center, and several neighborhood clinics."
"Sara Franck, president of AFSCME Local 2474, which represents workers at Hennepin Healthcare, said the organization employs a diverse workforce, and employees are 'deeply concerned' about the audit."
"Health care workers already have stressful jobs, and this audit, as well as recent news surrounding immigration, are adding to that stress," Franck was quoted as saying.
The union asked Hennepin Healthcare to not cooperate. But Sahan Journal reports "the organization is required to supply it by law, according to immigration employment attorneys."
It's been widely reported that healthcare workers and their unions have been vocal about keeping ICE presence out of hospitals that were previously deemed "protected" of "sensitive areas" where ICE officers were to refrain from taking enforcement actions. This included schools, healthcare facilities, places of worship, disaster/emergency response sites, weddings, funerals, parades of demonstrations.
The Trump administration has rescinded that policy.
"Last week, advocates said that ICE agents shackled a patient to their hospital bed and guarded their bedside," the Sahan Journal reported. ICE retreated after hospital security asked for documentation to support their presence in the hospital, according to a statement from Hennepin Healthcare."
ICE's aggressive tactics sparked protests by local healthcare workers, community members and local elected officials demanding healthcare facilities be protected from ICE's enforcement actions in clinical settings.
"Earlier this week, health care workers spoke at a Hennepin County Board of Commissioners meeting," the Sahan Journal recounted. "Some asked for Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies to remove ICE officers from the hospital if they don’t show a warrant. Health care workers and an advocate from Unidos Minnesota also told Sahan Journal that ICE has been guarding the bedside of another patient."
The doubling down in the use of I-9 audits in Minnesota comes amidst the ICE surge into Minnesota which has included federal agents reportedly going door-to-door in neighborhoods in the Twin Cities as well as pulling motorists out of their cars they suspect of being undocumented.
Ana Pottratz Acosta, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and a clinical professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, told the Sahan Journal the I-9 audits puts businesses “under a microscope,” that can mean major fines if it's determined they employed someone lacking work authorization.
The campaign of I-9 audits may be part of a “weaponization of the power of the federal government to come after the state of Minnesota,” she said.
In the first year of the second Trump administration, humanitarian protections have been terminated for individuals from many countries, which had granted those immigrants work authorization.
Please stay tuned to WBAI Pacifica Labor Radio in New York City and beyond for the latest.