美国国家公共电台 NPR--Nurses in Minnesota are in the middle of a 3-day strike

Nurses in Minnesota are in the middle of a 3-day strike

Transcript¹

Thousands of nurses in Minnesota walked off the job Monday to protest being understaffed and overworked. The nurses are demanding among other things higher wages.

AMART?NEZ, HOST:

Thousands of Minnesota nurses are on strike. They walked off the job yesterday to protest poor working conditions at several local hospitals. The nurses demand changes to their shift schedules and higher wages, and the strike also highlights the nationwide nursing shortage that has been exacerbated² by the pandemic. And there are signs that similar strikes could happen in other states. For more, we're joined by Minnesota Public Radio health reporter Michelle Wiley. Michelle, the hospital and the nurses have been negotiating for a while now. What issues have kept them apart?

MICHELLE WILEY, BYLINE³: Yeah, so there are a number of issues that are still on the table. Nurses are asking for, you know, things around safety, for staff retention⁴, so keeping people from leaving for more lucrative⁵ positions or from leaving the profession altogether. Wages is an issue. As you mentioned, there's a pretty wide gulf⁶ between what nurses are asking for and what the hospitals are offering. But one of the key issues is staffing levels. Many of the nurses I spoke⁷ to on the picket⁸ line say staffing is their No. 1 issue. Tricia Ryshkus is a nurse at Children's Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis and a member of the negotiating team there.

TRICIA RYSHKUS: We do the work. We're the kid experts. We're the ones that take care of the patients. We need a say in how things go.

WILEY: At a press conference Monday, nurses actually said they'd be willing to come down on what they've asked for in wage increases - that's 30% over three years - if hospitals were willing to meet their demands over staffing. But so far, they say, they haven't made much progress on that issue.

MART?NEZ: Now, I know there's a lot of hospitals involved in this. That means hundreds of patients. How is this affecting care for these patients?

WILEY: Yeah. So just to add some context, nurses voted to authorize⁹ this strike in August. So hospitals have had some time to hire travel nurses to come fill in. That said, the Twin Cities Hospitals Group, which represents several of the impacted facilities, says there will likely be interruptions in service. There could be some longer wait times that folks experience. So they are encouraging people with nonemergency needs to seek out other venues¹⁰ like urgent care or a telehealth appointment.

MART?NEZ: Now, normally, there's not a set number of days for a strike when it happens, but this is specifically a three-day strike. So how did they come up with three days?

WILEY: Yeah, so when nurses authorized¹¹ the strike, they were required to give 10 days of notice. They also voted on how long they wanted to walk out for, and they landed on those three days. So this isn't like we've seen in some strikes where we'll reach the end and there could be an extension. Union officials have been very clear. This strike will end Thursday morning at 7 a.m.

MART?NEZ: OK, but what if there's no resolution after these three days, after it's supposed to be over?

WILEY: You know, this came up at a press conference on Monday with the union president, Mary Turner, and this is what she had to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARY TURNER: The strike ends at 7 a.m., and we continue in our contract fight. If you're going to ask for strategy beyond these three days, that we have to go back as a group to figure out.

WILEY: I think what this has shown is that the nurses are willing to take this step. You know, what's sort of unique about this strike is union officials told me that they don't have a traditional strike fund. So folks out this week are unpaid¹². And that just shows that they're really serious about the issues that they've raised and are willing to walk out without pay over them.

MART?NEZ: That's Michelle Wiley from Minnesota Public Radio telling us about the nurses strike in Minnesota. Michelle, thanks.

WILEY: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

5 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 picket   

n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫

参考例句：

• They marched to the factory and formed a picket.他们向工厂前进,并组成了纠察队。
• Some of the union members did not want to picket.工会的一些会员不想担任罢工纠察员。

9 authorize   

v.授权，委任；批准，认可

参考例句：

• He said that he needed to get his supervisor to authorize my refund.他说必须让主管人员批准我的退款。
• Only the President could authorize the use of the atomic bomb.只有总统才能授权使用原子弹。

10 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

11 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

12 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。