Leading one of the state’s largest health care unions, Mary Turner says it’s her goal to “stop the flow of nurses leaving the bedside, because it is a public health crisis.” Under her watch, the Minnesota Nurses Association initiated the largest private-sector nurses strike in the nation. It’s a decision she “did not take lightly,” but one that was necessary as a “wakeup call for hospitals.” Turner—first elected president in 2015—says she plans to continue fighting for a safe work environment in 2023. “People are realizing that [unions] are the only way they’re going to make their lives better.”

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