Essentia’s Twin Ports nurses reach deal, avert strike
More Minnesota union nurses are no longer planning to walk off the job.
The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) announced Friday that its Twin Ports acute care hospital nurses reached a tentative agreement with Essentia.
As part of the settlement, Essentia has resolved its Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) with the nurses, averting a strike. Nurses will vote whether to ratify the agreement in the coming weeks.
The MNA said nurses achieved updates to staffing language, including a one-year freeze on reductions to current staffing ratios and a wage increase of 9.75 percent spread over the three years of the contract.
“Our fight has never been just about contracts—it’s about patient care—and these wins will enable us to provide that care more safely than before,” said MNA President Chris Rubesch, RN. “We will move forward with these wins while also recommitting to the fight for safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. It’s what our patients deserve, and it’s what our nurses deserve.”
RELATED: Twin Cities nurses reach deal, avoiding strike
While hospital nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports have reached agreements, MNA members at Essentia 1st Street Clinic, 2nd Street Clinic, 3rd Street Clinic, Superior Clinic, Solvary Hospice House and Miller Hill Surgery Center are set to go on a ULP strike on Tuesday.
Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers are also set to go on a ULP strike on Thursday.
“Nurses will stand in solidarity with our union siblings as they go out on an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike next week,” Rubesch continued, “Our members fighting for first contracts deserve to have dignity and respect in the workplace—and that means having a fair contract. We continue to call on Essentia to bargain in good faith with our members, which means also coming to the table to start the bargaining process with Advanced Practice Providers.”