The admonitions frequently uttered against bullying – whether at schoolyards, classrooms, workplaces, or elsewhere – ring hollow when big, powerful organizations use it effectively to get what they want.
Case in point: The threat by the Mayo Clinic to divert to other states billions of dollars in construction projects planned in Minnesota if the state Legislature enacts certain health care measures, particularly nurse staffing requirements that the facility opposes is a classic form of lobbying by bullying.
[image_caption]Marshall H. Tanick[/image_caption]
So, Mayo is to be given preferential treatment because it serves royalty while the rest of the medical establishment gets second-rate treatment because they only serve plebeians.
Mayo’s seemingly successful form of economic blackmail represents a reverse version of what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing down in Florida in his feud with the Disney organization. He is using government to bully a big, powerful corporation that is the largest employer in the state because it took a stance on LGBTQ issues he reviles. Here, one of the most substantial employers is brandishing its economic might to try to intimidate elected government officials.
What DeSantis is doing down there and Mayo is trying up here are Mickey Mouse maneuvers that ought to be called out for what they are: Goofy.
Marshall H. Tanick is a Twin Cities employment and Constitutional law attorney.
Or maybe one of the world’s premier medical care organizations has given a lot of thought and preparation to be able to deliver the premier services they provide to kings, queens and Joe from Burnsville and they need less bureaucratic guidance which may be fitting for much smaller organizations that do not have the resources of Mayo.
At least we do not have Tim Walz threatening to build a prison next to the clinic. I guess Walz is just not the Presidential timber that DeSantis is…
It just goes to show you how things have changed in that it’s the democrats who are the party of Corporate America and the republicans who are the party of the People.
Both parties are beholden to Corporate America and the military contractors. Neither has represented average Americans for decades, which is why living standards for most Americans have declined during that period.
I don’t support DeSantis but Disney is basically the Mayo of Florida, only with even more legal carve-outs and preferential treatment. Was Mayo “bullying?” or just doing typical state level corporate lobbying?
Bullying, definitely bullying.
The nurses are flexing their (shortage of workers) muscle by telling Mayo how to staff their facilities. Mayo is responding with their financial muscle. It seems that both sides could be accused of “bullying”, or it may well be economics 101. I would bet Mayo could put their pay structure up against most any other business in Minnesota and be on top or comparable.
Certainly unions are relevant but when is enough, enough..? Mayo drew the line and said nurses went too far…
Then again, that shortage of nurses does appear linked to burn out which is linked to low nurse to patient ratios. Why is it in service jobs on the front lines, people are expected to martyr themselves and not stand up for improvements.
This isn’t bullying. It’s just pointing out the economic realities of the policies that the DFL is pushing down everyone’s throats. Businesses, including the Mayo Clinic, have options.
I call it competent negotiating. “If you hinder us, we will move on. Its either you screw us, or we screw you. You have more to lose.”
Actually Mayo is a private company and they can decide where to expand and where not to expand. How is that bullying? Every hospital system under this legislation will have the same decision to make.
Private company? Why do they take taxpayer handouts for their destination medical center? With rights come responsibilities.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayo’s budget compares to that of the State of Minnesota.
Mayo Clinic’s operating budget is $4.4 billion. The state of Minnesota’s budget is 10-12 times as much. There is no need to speculate about such things when you can do a search and have an answer in under a minute. In fact, it is always wise to fact check your assumptions. Operating with bad information can undermine your credibility.
Will a quick internet check show Mayo increasing its biennial spending by over 25%?
Perfecto!
I’ll betcha they’ll still spend that expansion money in Jacksonville and Phoenix.
Easier to do business. It’s where Minnesotans with money are moving.
Bob Iger is not finding Florida a favorable state for expansion.
I believe I read an article which said that Disney would expand outside of Florida. DeSantis, for all of his moralistic judgements, is bad for business and, as I read in Medscape.com, bad for healthcare. Florida ranks 48th in the nation for healthcare and it just ended two thousand years of medical ethics which said that regardless of a doctor’s beliefs, it is the only thing to do to treat a person regardless of one’s beliefs. That particular governor, signed a bill which said that doctors can ignore two thousand years of ethics in treating LGBTQ and abortion healthcare seekers.
In any case, the Mayo Clinic, which treats people on public assistance as well as kings and princes, has the right to negotiate their destiny in any way they desire. The loss of tax revenue to the state from the Mayo Clinics is a strong bargaining chip.
When you give exceptions to certain companies reeling it back in gets messy. Any state that attracts companies should give incentives based on how many local jobs they produce. There also should be sunset provisions but that would require lawmakers that know something about business.
Walz and DeSantis are both wrong. Point proven.
Corporations blackmail governments all the time. It is a feature of robber capitalism. In the case of Mayo Clinic, the state of Minnesota has invested heavily in Destination Medical Center.
“Destination Medical Center (DMC) is a unique 20-year economic development initiative. The $5.6 billion plan is the largest in Minnesota’s history. With the expansion of Mayo Clinic and DMC growth, Rochester is a global destination for health and wellness and so much more.
In 2013, state officials determined there was a compelling interest to authorize public investments in Rochester to help support Mayo Clinic in Rochester as a global medical destination center. These leaders worked together to develop DMC and create in statute the financing tools and public governance structure necessary to carry out the global destination vision. With more than $5 billion in projected private investments over the next 20 years, DMC will provide the public financing necessary to build the public infrastructure and other projects needed to support the vision.”
I do not see any of the reporting mentioning this. This is not surprising as business reporting does not normally bring up why business should be grateful for what government does for it. If Mayo wants to keep its good will, it should be smarter than public bullying. Disney did nothing similar. It just expressed sympathy with the LGBTQ community, which triggered a vendetta from DeSantis. You will see nothing similar from Walz.
What Minnesota should demand from Mayo if it wants to use a different nurse staffing model that it performs as well as other systems. Hospital nursing is a very demanding job and became very traumatic during the pandemic. If nurses are constantly short staffed, they burn out and leave the profession, making it worse for everyone. Frankly, the same thing happens to doctors and other professionals under extreme pressure. It is not enough for Mayo to claim it is the best or refer to its reputation for excellence, but to it needs to prove it it by benchmarking. If Mayo thinks its staffing model is better, prove it.
A little research revealed that Mayo Clinic has never been a union hospital. Obviously, that reflects a mindset where nurses don’t need collective bargaining or worker protection. That could be the primary reason Mayo doesn’t not want nurses to have much power in their own staffing. Further reporting on this might be revealing.
Any taxpayer funding, also known a socialism, should come with a requirement that the receiving entity will remain neutral in the face of any employee union organizing effort. This should be boiler plate on all such funding. Mayo has invited in the billionaire funded extremist right wing Right to Work (For Less) organization to decertify union representation from it’s facilities outside of Rochester.
Prove it? I believe they are proving it every day. Patient satisfaction and results. Why is that state mandating change? Who says the system needs change?
“If Mayo thinks its staffing model is better, prove it.” “Rochester is a global destination for health and wellness and so much more”
Well if they are a global destination, don’t you think they proved it?
Mayo’s best interest is in having systems in place that provide good care to patients. Is there any evidence whatever that their staffing systems are deficient? If not, why place additional an administrative burden on them?
This legislation turns management control over to the State of Minnesota. Why would anybody want the state or federal government running our hospitals? Every Mayo patient I know prefers to let Mayo determine their own staffing needs. The Nurses Union only represents 20 percent of all Nurses statewide. Yet this is about giving the Union control while Nurses in Mankato have moved to disband their union. Once that’s done, the Union will soon represent less than 20% of all nurses. It appears to me the Union is hoping to see legislation provide for something they can’t get done at the bargaining table.
You can say THAT again.
This legislation turns management control over to the State of Minnesota. Why would anybody want the state or federal government running our hospitals? Most people I know prefer to leave staffing decisions to hospital management. The Nurses Union only represents 20 percent of all Nurses statewide. Yet this is about giving the Union control over staffing levels while Nurses in Mankato have moved to disband their union. Once that’s done, the Union will represent less than 20% of all nurses. It appears to me the Union is hoping for legislation to provide something they can’t get done at the bargaining table.
Whether it is bullying or not is irrelevant. It is reality that any business or individual can pick up and move to another state at any time. That is not something that the State of MN can change. That being the case, we are in a competition with every other state to attract businesses and high income earners (whose taxes pay for government). The DFL just refuses to accept this as a reality. It may be wrong, undemocratic, etc, but it is reality. Until MN changes course, we will continue to lose business investment and high income earners to states which just offer them a better bargain.
Health and health care facilities are not “business investments.” They are not the same as retail stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond which can come and go (or go bankrupt) as the fickle tastes of the public change. Access to health care is a human right. By our provision of Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare and the laws which subject the delivery of health care, we as a society have come to regard health care as such a right. Mayo Clinic is “owned” by Mayo Holding Corporation, which “owns” a number of other Mayo branded clinic and health care facilities and in one form or another receives its compensation from the sources of health care insurance and subsidies provided to the public. What Mayo is really doing is bullying the Legislature a special exemption from legislation that applies to all other hospitals and health care facilities except Mayo. What makes Mayo so special that it can demand exemption from laws that apply equally to all other health care providers?
That is what I am talking about… inability to separate the way things ought to be from the way things are. Yes, health care should be a right. Yes, state governments should be able to regulate businesses of the for or non profit varieties. Not the way the system works though. If you push your businesses hard enough with taxes and regulation, they are going to decide to move to places like Florida which are not going to tax or regulate them. Likewise with individuals. All of these Blue states, NY, CA, MN are losing businesses and high income individuals. That is going to cause a downward spiral as they are going to need to tax the remaining people even more to maintain their programs, which will cause more people to leave, round and round.
We’re talking about hospitals and human health care. If health care is just business and profits, then all humans and their health are just another service or commodity available at what the market will bear to who can afford it. I find Mayo’s bullying appalling and corrupt. The political economic power of this organization is based upon huge public subsidies and the implied, if not express condition, that it will serve the public good and the public interest. If the legislation applicable to the other hospitals and clinics is in the public interest, Mayo has no grounds for being exempt from it.
The Minnesota Constitution prohibits “granting to any private corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. . . . ” I don’t know what the Mayo exemption provides but I would not be surprised if some organization took this issue to a Minnesota court to have it held unconstitutional for that reason.
“Access to health care is a human right. ”
Cites please.
The World Heath Organization says so, among others.
https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/health-is-a-fundamental-human-right
It’s set forth in the Universal Declaration of Basic Human Rights “proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.”
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
The legislation which Mayo is bullying on is not legislation directed at Mayo but at all hospitals, clinics or “health care facilities” or whatever other term they apply to places where people go to receive care from doctors and nurses and experts in treating disease and illness. Most of these operations today in Minnesota and I suspect elsewhere are by “nonprofit corporations” like Mayo but are about nothing but profit. Just not for shareholders which “nonprofits” don’t have.
Which raises a question about where Mayo gets its billions to “invest” in what for all intents and purposes is a large scale construction or “infrastructure” project? And where does it get all this money for paying lobbyists? Who are they working for? It sounds more like they are working for the construction industries and trades, which seem to be well paid and highly unionized. Can anyone really believe their banal “concerns” about delivery of health care when they prefer favoring building glorified hotels over the well being of their health professionals and their patients?
The Mayo Foundation receives donations from grateful patients and other charities, tax deductible. It is known as one of the best medical systems in the world, and is a GEM of Minnesota resources. I’m the third generation whose family has been fortunate to receive care from the Rochester Clinic.
When someone has a persistent, rare, unusual problem that evades diagnosis, the patient is often referred to Mayo. They have served many patients who could not be helped by their first physicians, which makes someone like me with many years of family and friends making the trip to Rochester very supportive.
In their own words, ” From abdominal aortic aneurysm to Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, our doctors and scientists routinely take on the most serious, complex and rare conditions — with great success.
Mayo Clinic is consistently ranked in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of top hospitals. Mayo Clinic is regularly acknowledged among the very best in the nation in the following specialties:
Cancer
Cardiology and heart surgery
Diabetes and endocrinology
Gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery
Geriatrics
Gynecology
Neurology and neurosurgery
Orthopedics
Pulmonology
Urology…”
These folks are scientists and conservative practitioners of medicine. They are surely not “bullies”. When they issue a statement it is likely to be trustworthy and correct.
Sorry Jon, even medical is a business, “question about where Mayo gets its billions to “invest”” You don’t run anything W/O $. Would the preference be they don’t have those B’s to invest, better to suck on the government teat?
Mayo enjoys a sterling reputation from generations of grateful people who have been treated by the professional staff of the Mayo Clinics. Like every other corporate enterprise, Mayo Holding Company and Mayo Clinic, nonprofit corporation are not the people whom they employ and whose skill is attributed magically to them as metaphysical, legal fictions. Their reputation and their earning capacity combine to give them undue power and influence as political-economic actors.
My comment may be a moot point because I understand Mayo got its way by an exemption to the law that applies to all other hospital and clinics. So bullying and extortion does work if you have the leverage. Richard Owens helpfully points out that Mayo gets its “billions” from tax deductible donations from grateful patients. (Or maybe we should call them “customers”?) Tax deductible donations are every bit “public funds” as if they were appropriated from legislative coffers. Perhaps Mayo would generate as much in “earnings” if it actually was a for-profit business enterprise. But it’s not. It’s hypocritical to pretend that it’s a public charity when it behaves like Amazon or the Bank of America. “Too big to fail”. And too big for the public good.
So, they shouldn’t be considered a non-profit because they are “too big for the public good” or “Mayo enjoys a sterling reputation from generations of grateful people who have been treated by the professional staff of the Mayo Clinics” You can’t have it both ways! What is that saying? “don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg”, or was it “one size doesn’t fit all”?
From this perspective, they said, we are one of the best on the planet, (you agree), your new rule ideas are not compatible with our vision of best practices, we will have to give do consideration on any further developments given your desire to not allow us to follow what we consider best practices. No blackmail involved, fair feedback, which our representatives should take to heart, coming from a company with “a sterling reputation” wouldn’t you think?
No, Mayo and other hospitals which are organized and operate as “not-for-profit” should be treated that way and operate in the public interest. That means not using political economic leverage to extort possibly unlawful special exemptions and franchises from the State. The Mayo Clinic is not Disney Cororation or Amazon or other corporate operation that can relocate at will.
The University of Minnesota “owns and operates” a rather large hospital, or at least does in some sort of complicated arrangement with Fairview. (There’s currently a well publicized issue of whether a merger with Sanford should proceed). In my opinion, the U of M Hospital is just as “prestigious” and excellent as the Mayo Clinic. Some may disagree but it’s rather a matter of opinion. What would you say if the U of M Hospital announced to the State legislature that it was going to shut down and move to say Florida unless it was granted an exemption from this legislation? Or is that too just another “business” entitled to use hard ball bullying tactics to get its way with State government and the public?
Mayo is not bullying. They are making a solid argument that if the State of Minnesota presses them, they will move investments out of state. Bullying is what little kids do to one another on playgrounds. Sociopathic violent criminals beat and try to kill others. Businesses/money holders decide where they want to put their money. All of this talk about “bullying” is nauseating and sounds like it is coming from a mother of a fourth grade nerd who is being pushed around in the sand.
Mayo is negotiating and stating how they will reaspond to the state badgering them into actions and policies which they do not want. As the money holders, and as the resource makers and controllers, and as the employers and welcoming committee to talented professionals who will also leave, they are certainly not bullying: They are expressing their will to be treated with respect and reverence or to go elsewhere. The same should be true in healthy marriages and other healthy relationships.
We must recognize the value of pro-social governments, and we must recognize the value of corporations which are run like battleships during war with precision and competence. Again, “He bullied my government” is what mommies say, not what adult executives say.
If the executives at Mayo Clinic make an error in judgment and later learn that they need greater staffing of nurses, it is up to them to act in the right manner or leave their reputation, as it is now, behind.
The DFL cares about the needs of nurses and their patients but only up to the point where powerful healthcare execs start getting upset and demand that they back off.
Are the teacher unions bullies?
Teachers unions are “associations” who actual human beings who work for a wage. Mayo Holding Company and Mayo Clinic(s) in their multifaceted corporate forms, are legal abstractions, masking capital, wealth and power.
I believe everyone at Mayo works for their wages too.