DEBORAH AMOS, Host: NPR's business news starts with nurses on strike.</s>DEBORAH AMOS, Host: Some 12,000 nurses are walking picket lines in Minnesota today. They aim to make this the biggest strike in nursing history. They're staging a 24-hour walkout to protest cuts in benefits and understaffing.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: The union says that nurses are under more pressure these days because of an older patient population and because of new medical technologies. California nurses also plan to strike, but a judge temporarily blocked them.
Thousands of nurses in Minnesota are on picket lines Thursday, staging a 24-hour strike. Their union says it could be the biggest in U.S. nursing history. The new, fast-growing nurses union is trying to counter cuts in pay and benefits and protest staffing levels.