strike nursing jobs minnesota

Thousands of nurses at Minnesota hospitals launch strike seeking wage increases of 30%

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of nurses in Minnesota launched a three-day strike Monday, complaining of low salaries and understaffing worsened by the strains of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 15,000 nurses at seven health care systems in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas walked out. The affected hospitals said they recruited temporary nurses and expected to maintain most services.

Picket signs went up and strike chants began at 7 a.m. outside 15 Twin Cities and Duluth area hospitals.

The hospitals and the striking nurses said staff shortages are a shared concern.

Minnesota Nurses Association president Mary Turner said pay raises are necessary to address the “crisis of retention” that would otherwise leave the hospitals severely understaffed.

The hospitals have offered 10-12% wage increases but the nurses are seeking more than 30%. Hospital leaders called their wage demands unaffordable, noting that Allina and Fairview hospitals have posted operating losses and that the cost of such sharp wage increases would be passed along to patients.

“The union rejected all requests for mediation and held fast to wage demands that were unrealistic, unreasonable and unaffordable,” several of the Twin Cities hospitals under strike said in a joint statement.

Second-year nurse Madi Gay, who was picketing Monday morning after completing her overnight shift,  told the Star Tribune  that she had already reduced her hours at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital because of the stress and frustration of caring for so many severely ill patients.

“How long can you keep this up?” Gay asked. “My license is on the line.”

Union spokesman Sam Fettig said the nurses settled on a three-day rather than open-ended strike because of concerns about the impact of drawn-out labor action on patient care.

“As the nurses always say, this isn’t something they want to be doing, they want to be at the bedside providing care,” Fettig said.

Hospitals argued that the proposals by the union and its nurses are too costly.

“It just isn’t a realistic number,” Paul Omodt, a spokesman for several of the Minneapolis-area hospitals, said last month.

The hospitals affected by the strike included those operated by Allina Health, M Health Fairview, Children’s Hospital, North Memorial and HealthPartners. In Duluth, it was Essentia and St Luke’s.

As union members in Minnesota walked the picket line, UW Health nurses and the UW Hospital board in Wisconsin approved an agreement intended to avert a strike that had been scheduled to start Tuesday, a spokesperson for the nurses’ union said Monday.

Nurses and administrators didn’t immediately release details of that agreement. The hospital board and 97% of nurses who voted approved the deal, according to SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin.

The Minnesota nurses’ strike comes amid an upsurge in union activity nationwide.

A national railroad strike could begin as early as Friday unless Congress steps in to block it. The two largest railroad unions have been demanding that the major freight carriers go beyond a proposed deal recommended by arbitrators appointed by President Joe Biden.

Some high-profile companies, including Starbucks, are among those trying to stifle  ongoing unionization efforts . Since late last year, more than 230 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize. Starbucks opposes unionization.

Watch CBS News

Day 1 ends for 15,000 nurses on strike: "We're in a crisis where we need staff"

By WCCO Staff

Updated on: September 13, 2022 / 7:18 AM CDT / CBS Minnesota

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/ link copied

ST. PAUL, Minn. --  At 7 a.m. Monday, 15,000 nurses from the Twin Cities and Duluth began a three-day strike. It's believed to be the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history.  

It comes after ongoing contract negotiations have reached a stalemate.

LIVE UPDATES : Follow day 2 strike coverage here 

Seven health providers are affected: M Health Fairview, Essentia, Health Partners, Allina Health, Children's, North Memorial and St. Luke's. Sixteen hospitals are involved. 

Follow updates from Monday below. 

Day 2 strike updates

Day 2 of the Minnesota nurses strike is underway Tuesday morning. Follow live updates right here . 

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-0524348f link copied

Nurses end day 1 of three-day strike

The Minnesota Nurses Association ended the first day of its three-day strike and members will return to the picket line Tuesday at 7 a.m.

As the sun set Monday, nurses at Abbott Northwestern danced as a local musicians in the group Brass Solidarity played renditions of "Lean on Me" and "We're Not Going to Take It." Drivers honked and cheered as they drove by.

"It's just been great energy from the nurses building each other up," said Kelley Anaas, a registered nurse Abbott Northwestern. "We've had community support and lots of other union members showing up to support us because our jobs might all be different but ultimately what we want is the same: we don't want corporations taking over what heath care looks like in Minnesota."

Two sticking points for nurses are higher wages and more input on staffing levels. This, they say, will prevent burnout and ensure patients aren't shortchanged in their care. 

"We're serious about what we need to keep doing our jobs and what it's going to take to keep nurses inside of hospitals instead of looking for work elsewhere," Anaas said. 

A Minnesota Department of Health  survey found  19% of nurses last year said they plan to leave the profession in five years, which is an increase from pre-pandemic. There are more jobs unfilled than there were in 2019, too.

"We're in a crisis where we need staff," said Tracey Dittrich, a nurse at Children's Minnesota in Minneapolis who's worked there for more than two decades. "There are nurses in Minnesota—they just don't want to work in these conditions."

Fifteen hospitals are impacted with 15,000 nurses participating in the strike. Children's Minnesota, Fairview, Methodist Hospital, and North Memorial Health in a joint statement said pay increases of up to 30% aren't attainable.  

"Increases like this would cost hundreds of millions of dollars across Twin Cities Hospitals and are not economically feasible or responsible to our community members who would ultimately pay the price,"  the hospitals said.

Anaas said the nurses union started high with its proposal on wage increase and hopes to meet somewhere in the middle. 

Allina Health said it's rescheduled a limited number of non-emergent appointments to ensure patient safety. 

"As we have said all along, strikes do not benefit anyone and the only path to reaching agreement is through negotiations," the health care system said in a statement. "At the conclusion of MNA's strike, we are hopeful that they will be ready to engage in serious negotiations with the assistance of a federal mediator to help the parties remain at the table until a deal is reached."

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-2aedf800 link copied

3 non-union metro hospitals prepped to handle more patients

There are three hospitals in the area that are not impacted by the nurses strike. Now those hospitals are doing to make sure the needs of patients and families are met.

Regions Hospital in St. Paul and Maple Grove Hospital are non-union hospitals. Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis is unionized, but is considered a "safety net" hospital, so nurses there are prohibited from striking.

In a statement, Hennepin Healthcare says it is "monitoring volumes and working actively to move people to the right level of care."

Maple Grove Hospital too has a plan in place and extra staff to ensure high-level care is given to all who pass through its doors.

Non-union hospitals say they are prepared to handle additional patients and their families for the days MNA will be out on strike.

Click here to read more.  

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-5cb8d95e link copied

2 sides in strike said to remain very far apart

The two sides in the nursing strike are said to remain very far apart, and there are no new talks scheduled.

Nurses have walked out of 15 hospitals, including three in Duluth and 12 in the Twin Cities metro area.

Inside the hospitals, temporary replacement nurses are caring for patients.

The striking nurses are asking for up to a 30% pay hike spread over three years. The hospitals are countering with 12% over three years.

But nurses insist this is not about money. From the leadership on down nurses say staffing is no longer safe for either nurses or patients. 

"We want assurances in our contract that if a nurse says their assignment is unsafe that we are not disciplined. We have had nurses that have been sent home for refusing an unsafe assignment," nurse union president Mary Turner said.

The hospitals say the nurses' demands are unrealistic and they point to some hospital losses in revenue recently. M Health Fairview, for example, says it lost $163 million in the first half of the year.

This three-day strike will be over Thursday and the goal is to get the sides back to the table. Nurses wont say what happens next if no deal is reached. 

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-c3157638 link copied

Update: Moose Lake hospital not included in strike

The Minnesota nurses strike that began Monday morning originally included 16 hospitals. WCCO's Esme Murphy reports that one hospital is no longer involved. 

Essentia hospital in Moose Lake is not included in the strike. 

Approximately 15,000 nurses from the Twin Cities, Moose Lake and Duluth went on strike only hours earlier.

The Minnesota Nurses Association and hospitals are at odds over a number of issues, from wages, to staffing and safety. Hospitals insist that the nurses' demands are not realistic and that hospitals are facing increased financial pressure from treating people who are not insured or underinsured.

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-b9759d3a link copied

Minnesota nurses union: "We are striking to save our profession"

The Minnesota Nurses Association held a press conference at noon Monday where nurses said they are striking to "save our profession." 

MInnesota Nurses news conference “we are striking to save our profession” @wcco will update throughout the day @wcco 5 and 6 pm pic.twitter.com/j41qRhMTfP — esme murphy (@esmemurphy) September 12, 2022

"Fifty-one percent of us could potentially leave the bedside as of next year," Mary Turner, president of MNA, said. "That's a health crisis .... If we really were only in this for money, we'd all be traveling (nurses) right now."

Approximately 15,000 nurses from the Twin Cities, Moose Lake and Duluth went on strike only hours earlier. 

Watch a segment of the press conference below:

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-04c7ec69 link copied

Mid-morning strike update: Outside downtown St. Paul hospital

At 7 a.m. Monday, 15,000 nurses from the Twin Cities and Duluth began a three-day strike. 

WCCO's Pauleen Le has the 10:30 a.m. update from Children's Minnesota in downtown St. Paul. 

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-f8b1edfd link copied

ER nurse on picket line in St. Paul: "We're all standing together"

Minnesota nurses – approximately 15,000 of them – are now on strike after walking off the job Monday morning.

The three-day strike is happening at hospitals around the Twin Cities, and also in the Duluth area.In the hours following the beginning of the strike, WCCO's Pauleen Le spoke with health care workers on the picket line at United Hospital in St. Paul.

"We feel very excited because we're all standing together really strong to fight for what's right for patients," emergency room nurse Brittany Livaccari said. "But we're also pretty disappointed that our employer wasn't willing to settle this before we had to come to this point."

Paul Omodt, spokesperson for the Twin Cities Hospital Group, says all the hospitals will remain open and that replacement nurses are being brought on.

Twin Cities Hospital Group says nurses aren't willing to use a mediator during negotiations.

"We want them to listen to us. We don't want an in-between person," Livaccari said. "We want them to hear our voices."

Allina Health said patients will be contacted directly if their appointments change during the strike. Many of the nurses say they will be at the picket line all three days. Some reported at 5 a.m. in the morning and clocked out at 7 a.m. to join the picket line.

WCCO will have more updates throughout the day.

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-3103589c link copied

Large picket line forms from hospital to hospital in St. Paul

Around 15,000 Minnesota nurses officially began their strike against 16 major hospitals in the Twin Cities, Moose Lake and Duluth. 

WCCO's Pauleen Le captured a view of the picket line from the entrance at United Hospital in St. Paul. 

A picket line spanning from the entrance at @UnitedHospital to @childrensmn . 15,000 @mnnurses are now 1 hour into their 3 day strike after months of failed contract negotiations. I’ll have a live interview on @WCCO Mid Morning at 9am pic.twitter.com/t3PQWRCwcD — Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) September 12, 2022

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-baffd2e1 link copied

Thousands of nurses officially begin strike

Around 15,000 Minnesota nurses officially began their strike against 16 major hospitals in the Twin Cities, Moose Lake and Duluth. It's believed to be the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S. history.  

RELATED : "Disappointed" health care workers and hospitals prepare for nurses' strike Monday

The Minnesota Nurses Association and hospitals are at odds over a number of issues, from wages, to staffing and safety. 

HAPPENING NOW: 15,000 nurses are now striking for 3 days after months of fail contract negotiations @WCCO pic.twitter.com/UCh8R1LT1o — Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) September 12, 2022

Paul Omodt, a spokesperson for Twin Cities Hospital group, which includes Children's Minnesota, North Memorial Health, Fairview Health, and Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, said thousands of nurses from around the country will work during the strike to keep the hospitals open and running as close to normal as possible. 

Watch a previous report below:

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-6d69784b link copied

Nurses begin to gather outside United Hospital in St. Paul

WCCO's Pauleen Le is at United Hospital in St. Paul, where more and more nurses are beginning to gather with picket signs in the minutes before the strike is set to begin. 

More and more @mnnurses are starting to gather outside @UnitedHospital with picket signs at the ready. 15,000 nurses across the Twin Cities and Duluth strike starting at 7am @WCCO pic.twitter.com/YXv7Y2ljpm — Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) September 12, 2022

. @mnnurses cheer as their colleagues walk out of @UnitedHospital in preparation for the strike to start at 7am. @WCCO pic.twitter.com/t8KLDDUw5B — Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) September 12, 2022

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-c643eff1 link copied

Traveling nurses seen arriving at St. Paul hospital

A couple hours before the strike, six coach buses full of traveling nurses were seen heading into Allina Health's United Hospital in St. Paul.

HAPPENING NOW: 6 coach buses full of traveling nurses from across the country are heading into @AllinaHealth @UnitedHospital in preparation for 15,000 @mnnurses to go on strike for 3 days following months of failed contract negotiations @WCCO pic.twitter.com/RNHoqqHxjh — Pauleen Le (@PauleenLe) September 12, 2022

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-a5bb1785 link copied

Talking Points: Pandemic's affect on labor tensions

In Sunday's  Talking Points , Esme Murphy showed us how the pandemic is affecting labor tension as the strike is set to begin.

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-989180eb link copied

Health care workers "disappointed," hospitals say demands unreasonable

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. --  On Monday, approximately 15,000 nurses plan to strike in Minnesota, in what could be the largest nurses strike in U.S. history. Contract negotiations fell short this weekend prompting the three-day strike. 

"I'm feeling disappointed," Methodist Hospital nurse Victoria Zeehandelaar said.

Victoria Zeehandelaar is planning to picket outside her workplace on Monday with her colleagues. Sixteen hospitals across seven healthcare systems will be impacted by the strike.

"We are starting with new people who have and will be getting trained in, we should expect some delays at our hospitals, we should expect some hiccups because it's just the nature of the business on any day," Omodt said.

Allina Health said patients will be contacted directly if their appointments change during the strike.  

"While we are making every effort to minimize disruptions to patient care, our hospitals continue to be full, and we are preparing to make the necessary adjustments to ensure we are meeting the community's emergent and on-going health care needs," a spokesperson said.

"What they are asking for, the wage increases are not something the hospitals can afford," Omodt said.

Zeehandelaar said the economics is not the main issue at hand. 

"We are not striking because of our wages we are striking because we want to make sure our patients have the best quality care they can and the foundation of that is proper staffing levels," she said.

Nurses from various healthcare systems will begin the strike at 7 a.m. Monday morning. They will picket outside the hospitals until evening throughout the duration of the strike. 

Minnesota Nurses Association President  Mary Turner spoke to WCCO Sunday morning .

• https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/live-updates/15000-minnesota-nurses-set-to-strike-at-7-a-m-monday/#post-update-c630cfea link copied

The WCCO Staff is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on WCCO.com.

Why 15,000 nurses went on strike in Minnesota

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-15000-nurses-went-on-strike-in-minnesota

Correction: The description for this segment has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of  Kelley Anaas. We regret the error.

Nurses in Minnesota organized the largest strike of private sector nurses in U.S. history this past week, with 15,000 nurses walking off the job for three days. And while the pandemic pushed many nurses to the brink, some say the burnout was years in the making. Kelley Anaas, a nurse from the Minnesota strike, and Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, join Geoff Bennett to discuss.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Hospitals across the country are facing nursing shortages. Nurses in Minnesota this past week organize the largest strike of private sector nurses in U.S. history with 15,000 nurses walking off the job for three days. And while the pandemic pushed many nurses to the brink, some say the burnout was years in the making.

Joining us now is Kelley Anaas, one of the nurses from the Minnesota strike and Jeanne Ross, the president of National Nurses United. It's good to have you both with us.

And Kelley, you were out on the picket line with your fellow Minnesota nurses this past week. What were you all demanding from hospital management?

Kelley Anaas, ICU Nurse:

Well, the focus of our contract campaign has largely been around the staffing that has changed in the last even three pandemic, the last few years in hospitals around the state of Minnesota and truly around the country. That has been the largest part of the focus of our strike. Also issues like paid family leave, workplace violence and protections around that and also compensation for nurses.

So Kelley, I understand that you've worked at the same hospital for some 14 years now including a stint in the ICU during the peak of COVID. What choices do you think the hospital made that contributed to this tipping point where nurses feel no other option but to hit the picket line?

Kelley Anaas:

Even before COVID showed up in America, in Minnesota, our hospitals started implementing this process they referred to as benchmarking where they would compare their staffing levels to like hospitals around the country and then work to match the staffing levels.

So in most cases, they dropped the staffing levels but doing the same amount of work taking care of the same amount of patients with the same or even higher levels of acuity.

Then when the pandemic showed up, they staff was up we were more prepared to respond to critical patients and their ever changing levels of sickness. And we were able to take breaks and go drink water and eat and rest and kind of do those things so that we could kind of refuel and get back into the room taking care of our patients.

As COVID kind of became part of the norm both in the outside world and inside the hospital, they started reverting back to these lower benchmark levels of staffing. And so we went back to doing more work with fewer resources that we've seen before.

So Jean, what are the possible solutions to this nursing shortage and what's preventing hospitals from pursuing the solutions?

Jean Ross, President, National Nurses United:

The very simple way to fix this is to listen to the nurses to respect them, to respect their judgment. You need to pay people for their worth. And I think you saw our word clearly, during the pandemic, you need to pay the nurses enough that they will stay working, even during a pandemic. And we'll attract other nurses into it because it's a wonderful career.

The kinds of things that Kelley mentioned that helped us during the pandemic were things that the employer did not easily give us. We had to fight. We had to go to the — we had to go to the governor, we had to go to the President, we had to go to the CDC and OSHA.

So everything we've got we've had to fight for. And we know what nurses need in order to keep our patients safe. The employer needs to listen to us, needs to acquiesce to our needs for good staffing, and for adequate compensation.

Jean, we reached out to some of the hospitals to get their response to this and a statement that we got from one of the hospital systems, they essentially said that they were deeply disappointed by the nurses union's choice to strike before exhausting all efforts to reach an agreement.

What do you say to people who might agree with the points that you make but it would also say that by nurses striking that that really put patients at risk? What's your reaction to that?

If you don't stand up for what you need for yourself as a nurse, and for patients to keep them safe, that's putting patients at risk. When you do nothing, you're part of the problem. It's very, very hard for nurses to walk out on leave their patients we don't know what kind of care they're getting. And they certainly don't know our patients. We are the best people to provide that care.

So when employers say, you know, they're disappointed. Well, you know, we have a lot more than disappointment going against them to. We are totally disgusted, quite frankly. They're making money hand over fist despite what they say. And quite frankly, if you can't afford to pay your people to bring them in and keep them maybe you should be looking at a different line of business.

Jean Ross and Kelley Anaas, thanks so much for being with us.

You're very welcome.

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Minnesota nurses set Dec. 11 strike date, plan 3-week walkout

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Updated: 5:30 p.m.

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association have set a strike date of Dec. 11 if a long-running stalemate in contract talks isn't resolved. Union nurses walked out for three days in September . This time, they say most nurses will be out three weeks.

The strike would affect more than a dozen hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth areas, and would run from 7 a.m. Dec. 11 to 7 a.m. Dec. 31 at most of the facilities. Nurses voted “overwhelmingly” on Wednesday to authorize the strike, the union said in a statement.

Nurses with the St. Luke's system in Duluth and Two Harbors, Minn., have chosen to strike with no end date set, the union said.

Gov. Tim Walz said his administration is monitoring the situation.

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“I’m still incredibly hopeful that we can reach a deal here that provides the resources to the nurses that they need and the finances that work for the hospitals,” he told reporters during a child care funding event Thursday morning in St. Paul.

The vote came just over two months after nurses with the 15,000-member union walked out in a historic three-day strike that affected more than a dozen hospitals in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports. Since then, health care providers across Minnesota and the country have been dealing with an uptick of respiratory illnesses, including RSV and influenza.

“We never wanted to get to this point,” said MNA President Mary Turner. “When we came back from our last strike in September, we hoped our hospital executives would hear us about the urgency of the crisis in our hospitals. But since then, things have gotten worse and not better.”

Turner said that since September, nurses have come down on their wage demands — from around 30 percent increases to 20 percent — and adjusted their staffing requests.

Rather than requiring staffing changes on a floor to be approved by 51 percent of nurses working there, hospitals would instead use tracked quality measures — including falls and other injuries. If they collectively reach 50 percent, the proposal calls for a staffing assessment and, potentially, an increase of a certain number of nurses.

Hospitals countered that they are struggling to care for especially young patients who are flooding into some facilities.

Children’s Minnesota operates two hospitals that would be affected by a strike.

Patsy Stinchfield is president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a staff member at Children’s. At a news conference Thursday with hospital leaders, Stinchfield said RSV and influenza are at “unprecedented” levels.  She said RSV is a leading cause of hospitalization and death in children under 5.

“I do have significant concerns if we don’t have all the nurses that we need to take care of all the patients that we have,” Stinchfield said. “I have significant concerns that we won’t be safe and that we won’t be ready.”

Children’s Minnesota president and CEO Dr. Marc Gorelick said the system is preparing to bring in nurses from staffing agencies.

“We’ve already made financial commitments. The financial impact of this strike across the system began this morning, as soon as we got notice. So we and all the other health systems that are impacted are already starting to spend money on replacement nurses.”

Gorelick said the 320 replacements Children’s plans to hire will only cover about a third of the hospitals’ existing staffing. That means the system will likely have defer some procedures, shut down its mental health and critical care units, and move patients to other facilities.  

The Allina Health hospital system on Thursday said it was disappointed by the developments and claimed that union leadership "continues to focus on disruption at the expense of spending meaningful time at the bargaining table."

In a statement, Allina said it has “plans in place to continue caring for our community with as few disruptions to care as possible” and that another negotiating session was set for Friday.

• Sept. 15 With strike over, Minnesota nurses hope it helped contract negotiations
• Sept. 14 On final day of strike, Minnesota nurses wonder what's next
• Sept. 13 Strike of about 15,000 Minnesota nurses continues into second day
• Sept. 12 No new talks planned as 3-day nurses strike starts in Twin Cities, Duluth

The Twin Cities Hospital Group, which represents Children’s, Fairview, North Memorial Health and Methodist, said in a statement it was “shocked and deeply disappointed” with the strike announcement, but that it plans to negotiate “in good faith” with the nurses. The group also said hospitals “will be open during this 10-day period although your care providers may need to reschedule non-critical care procedures. Our hospital leadership have robust contingency plans in place and will make adjustments as necessary to ensure continuity of care.”

Thursday’s vote affects the same hospitals as the previous strike, as well as an additional one — St. Luke’s Lake View Hospital in Two Harbors. Earlier this week, union officials had said another hospital, Essentia Moose Lake, would also participate in the strike vote, but negotiators reached a tentative agreement this week.

Essentia, which faces a potential December strike at its St. Mary’s hospitals in Duluth and Superior, Wis., said in a statement Thursday afternoon that “another strike isn’t in anyone’s best interest” and “an agreement that benefits our nurses and ensures the sustainability of high-quality care in the communities we are privileged to serve is within reach.”

Essentia said its current proposal would have a new hospital nurse in the Twin Ports making $77,000 annually to start and earning more than $100,000 by year three.

Officials from other health care systems in the past advocated for an independent, third-party mediator to be included in negotiations. At a media event before the vote, Turner said that the union has authorized involving a mediator in the process, but is leaving the decision up to individual bargaining teams.

“If they want a mediator, they can use a mediator,” she said. “So we're not dead-set against it anymore, but we have left it up to the local.”

In a statement before the vote, officials with St. Luke’s said they “look forward to our negotiating session tomorrow. While MNA has agreed to allow a mediator to observe, we remain hopeful that MNA will allow the mediator to participate in the process. We believe having a mediator is the next best step toward reaching an agreement and avoiding a strike. We know our nurses want to be at the bedside doing what they do best: caring for patients.”

Some bargaining sessions are planned at hospitals this week. The union said the following hospitals and systems would be affected by a possible strike:

M Health Fairview system

Riverside, Minneapolis

Southdale, Edina

St. Joseph's, St. Paul

St. John's, Maplewood

Essentia Health

St. Mary's Duluth

St. Mary's Superior, Wis.

Allina Health

Abbott Northwestern, Minneapolis

Mercy, Coon Rapids

United, St. Paul

Unity, Fridley

Children’s Minnesota, Twin Cities

Children's Minneapolis

Children's St. Paul

St. Luke's

St. Luke's, Duluth

St. Luke’s Lake View, Two Harbors

North Memorial, Robbinsdale

HealthPartners, Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park

MPR News reporter Brian Bakst contributed to this report.

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Minnesota hospitals plan to be at or near full operations as nurses strike

Operations at Twin Cities and Duluth hospitals will largely depend on number of recruited travel nurses accepting temporary positions next week.

By Jeremy Olson

Twin Cities hospitals are assessing temporary staffing levels for next week's three-day nursing strike , hoping to maintain usual capacity but planning to scale back if needed.

Children's Minnesota on Wednesday announced it is planning only emergency surgeries at its Minneapolis and St. Paul hospitals during the strike between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Thursday. Otherwise, the system anticipates full emergency care at the hospitals and usual outpatient care at its clinics and Minnetonka surgery center.

"Any families impacted by a delayed appointment will be contacted directly by their provider in the next several days," said a written statement provided by Children's spokeswoman Dina Elrashidy.

The walkout could be the largest private sector nursing strike in U.S. history, involving more than 12,000 nurses with the Allina, Children's and Fairview hospital systems along with Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park and North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale.

North Memorial operates one of three major adult trauma centers in the Twin Cities. The other two, at HCMC in Minneapolis and Regions Hospital in St. Paul, are not involved in the contract dispute.

Strikes also are planned by 2,500 Essentia Health and St. Luke's hospital nurses in the Duluth area. A statement from Essentia on Wednesday pledged "uninterrupted urgent and emergency care" during the walkout.

Fairview in a statement said that the initial number of temporary nurses looks favorable to maintain operations at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, St. John's in Maplewood, and Southdale in Edina — and at a long-term acute care ward at St. Joseph's in St. Paul.

"It's a delicate balance and we're watching it closely," said the statement from Fairview spokesman Joseph Campbell. "If we do need to reschedule appointments, we will be in touch with our patients. They do not need to call."

Travel nurses have been heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic to address shortages in response to hospital staff outbreaks across the U.S., making it unclear whether there would be enough to respond to the upcoming strike.

Hospitals have been recruiting beyond their actual need, expecting that many travel nurses would end up declining offers or having choices of multiple assignments in the Twin Cities next week. Temporary licensing permits for nurses in other states have also been a concern. The Minnesota Board of Nursing has been overwhelmed with applications and fallen behind on approvals.

Hospitals also have been shifting available outpatient clinical staff into appropriate hospital roles. North Memorial in a statement said some nonclinical workers are being repurposed as greeters to help visiting nurses and patients find their ways around the hospital.

Related Coverage

The strike planning follows a summerlong contract standoff between the hospitals and their nurses, represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association. While safety and nurse staffing levels have been key issues, the breakdown is largely over compensation and retention bonuses to keep nurses on the job amid a stressful pandemic.

Hospitals are offering more than 10% pay bumps over three years while the nurses have sought more than 30% to halt the brain drain of nurses who are leaving hospital care. Contract talks were ongoing Wednesday with the Fairview and Duluth nurses, and talks are scheduled Thursday for the North Memorial and Children's nurses.

about the writer

Jeremy olson.

Jeremy Olson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering health care for the Star Tribune. Trained in investigative and computer-assisted reporting, Olson has covered politics, social services, and family issues.

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Home Page MNA Blog » 15,000 nurses determined to win a fair contract to put patients before profits after historic strike  

15,000 nurses determined to win a fair contract to put patients before profits after historic strike  

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Contact: Sam Fettig (c) 612-741-0662 [email protected]

Lauren Nielsen (c) 651-376-9709 [email protected]

WATCH: MNA Press Conference on Final Day of Strike

(St. Paul and Duluth) – September 15, 2022 – Today, 15,000 nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) returned to work after their historic three-day strike, believed to be the largest private-sector nurses’ strike in United States history. Throughout the strike at 15 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports, an overwhelming number of nurses walked the picket line at each hospital, joined by patients, fellow workers, elected officials, and other community supporters.

“Out on the picket line this week, nurses built our collective power like never before,” said Mary C. Turner, RN at North Memorial Hospital and MNA President. “When our executives refuse to fully staff our hospitals and continue to push nurses out of the profession, that is a public health crisis. I hope the collective action of 15,000 nurses this week shows our CEOs that we are serious about solving this crisis – and I hope hospital executives will finally join us to work towards solutions. Nurses stand ready to return to the bargaining table next week to settle fair contracts to improve care and working conditions at the bedside.”

Nurses have been bargaining for six months over new contracts, seeking changes to address the crisis of understaffing and retention in our hospitals. There is no shortage of nurses in Minnesota , but deteriorating care and working conditions are driving more nurses to leave the bedside. Recent studies show that  more than half of all nurses  are considering leaving the profession while  adverse events for patients are increasing .

“Corporate healthcare policies are devastating our communities, care at the bedside, and healthcare workers,” said Chris Rubesch, RN at Essentia Duluth and First Vice President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. “Hospital executives are closing facilities and charging patients more while taking home multi-million dollar salaries. This week, thousands of Duluth and Superior nurses joined nurses across the state to demand that hospital executives put the focus where it belongs in our hospitals: on patient care at the bedside, not the bottom line.”

In contract negotiations, MNA nurses are asking for a seat at the table when staffing decisions are made, to address under-staffing and overwork and to keep more nurses at the bedside. But in six months of negotiations, hospital executives with million-dollar salaries have refused to negotiate with nurses over solutions to the crises of short-staffing, retention and patient care. Contracts for nurses in the Twin Cities expired on May 31, and contracts for nurses in the Twin Ports expired on June 30, 2022.

As the three-day strike concludes, nurses stand ready to resume negotiations to win fair contracts to protect patient care and the nursing profession at the bedside. After hospital executives cancelled previously planned negotiation sessions this week, nurses look forward to working towards a fair contract as bargaining meetings are scheduled for the coming week. Hospital executives with million-dollar salaries can afford to make the changes necessary to protect care and working conditions at the bedside.

Hospitals where nurses went on strike this week are listed below.

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Minnesota Nurses Strike for 3 Days

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15,000 Minnesota nurses walked off their shifts on Monday, September 12th, calling for better pay and bolstered staffing policies in the name of patient safety. The planned strike lasted for three days, a move the nurses made intentionally out of concern for patient safety, a union spokesperson told USA Today. According to reports , nurses requested a 30% wage increase over 3 years, along with staffing commitments, which hospital executives have said is not possible. 

Today is the first day after the strike and according to the Facebook page for the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), the public should “stay tuned” for what comes next. 

About the Strike

The strike involved 7 different hospitals in Duluth and Minneapolis regions. According to the MNA, the strike was also one of the largest in the private sector. The MNA posted several updates on their website describing the events leading up to the strike. They noted that MNA members voted to strike after attempting to negotiate with hospital executives for more than five months, with some nurses working without contracts for several months. According to the MNA, the primary issues nurses were attempting to negotiate included shift staffing, retention, and better patient care solutions. 

“Hospital executives with million-dollar salaries have created a crisis of retention and care in our healthcare system, as more nurses are leaving the bedside, putting quality patient care at risk,” said Mary C. Turner, RN at North Memorial Hospital and President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. “Nurses do not take this decision lightly, but we are determined to take a stand at the bargaining table, and on the sidewalk if necessary, to put patients before profits in our hospitals.”

The MNA also listed several hospital CEO salaries on their page, along with current patient-nurse staffing ratios. For instance, according to the MNA, M Health Fairview CEO James Hereford took a 90%  raise in 2019, which brought his salary to over $3.5 million, but the CEOs with high salaries offered nurses annual wage increases of 4%, which the MNA said was “well below” current inflation and cost of living rates. “Hospital CEOs with million-dollar salaries can afford to put Patients Before Profits in our hospital and to do right by Minnesota nurses,” the MNA stated . 

In a live video posted to their Facebook page on Wednesday, the MNA shared footage of Mary Turner, President of the MNA speaking to a crowd gathered in support of nurses on strike. 

“The support of the nurses for their patients, the support of the nurses for their community is overwhelming because we are out here, not only for our own contract but for our very profession,” she said. “I've heard the whole nation is watching…We are the tip of the spear for all workers all across the nation. Nurses, you gotta know that we're the tip of the spear.”

“We are the ones that are showing all the workers all across America how it is to fight and what it means to stand up for your contracts but not only that stand up for the working people of America,” she added. 

Statement from Essentia Health

Nurse.org reached out to Essentia Health—which has more than 1,300 MNA-represented nurses in the Twin Ports and three hospitals involved in the strike, Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center, Essentia Health-Duluth and Essentia Health St. Mary's Hospital-Superior–according to Tony Matt, Media Relations Specialist for Essentia Health, and received the following comments via email.

Matt noted that Essentia Health is “disappointed” that the MNA focused its efforts on a strike instead of the bargaining table, where he added “solutions occur.” His comments  continued as follows: “We continue to believe that it’s imperative for both sides to exhaust our options in pursuit of a mutually beneficial agreement. One of those options, which we’ve repeatedly requested, is mediation. Unfortunately, the union has consistently declined this request.  Essentia is proud to have some of the finest nurses in the country. We value the outstanding care they provide while uplifting our mission of making a healthy difference in people’s lives. However, we cannot agree to the MNA’s request for a 27% wage increase because it’s not responsible.”  

As of Thursday morning, Matt also explained where MNA and Essentia Health stood: “We are hopeful the MNA will agree to a return to the bargaining table as soon as next week. Nobody wins in a strike — not the nurses, not hospitals and, most importantly, not our patients or communities.” 

What Happens Next

Currently, the strike has ended as of Wednesday evening, which marked the end of the 3-day strike. However, no resolution has been reached. 

As of press time, Nurse.org had not heard back from requests to MNA for updates.  R eports online state that an agreement has not been reached on either side, from either the nurse’s union or the hospital systems’ executives. Nurses who were on strike were able to return back to work with 7 AM shifts starting today and there are reports that they will return to the table to negotiate once again. 

There is no official word yet if a second strike is planned. 

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