Minnesota nurses voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shannon Cunningham
(651) 269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org
(St. Paul, MN) – June 24, 2025 – More than 15,000 nurses from 13 hospitals across the Twin Cities and Duluth voted overwhelmingly to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike on Monday. The votes follow over three months of negotiations in which hospital executives failed to bargain in good faith and meaningfully engage in an effort to find common solutions around enforceable measures to protect patient safety and improve nurse staffing levels.
In recent months, nurses and healthcare workers have witnessed their employers adopting increasingly divisive strategies—ranging from distorting key information and withholding essential bargaining information to engaging in intimidation and retaliation against those involved in union efforts.
“This vote is about urgency. Staffing levels are not safe, but nurses have come to the table with solutions. Hospital executives, however, have responded with misinformation, intimidation and retaliation.” said Chris Rubesch, RN, and President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. The culture of fear they are creating suppresses open dialogue and derails bargaining, and it must stop now.”
This ULP strike vote comes on the heels of a painfully slow negotiation progress between nurses and hospital executives, in which nurses have prioritized staffing as their number one issue. Nurses have engaged in good faith efforts to find common solutions to critical issues, such as short staffing, but have been met with Unfair Labor Practices. To date, hospitals have refused to consider any improvements to staffing levels, instead insisting on focusing on finances over patient care.
“When hospital leaders refuse to engage seriously at the bargaining table, they’re telling us that safety isn’t their priority,” said Pam Whaley, RN from Methodist Hospital.
Nurses acknowledge that increasing staffing to a safe level may require additional resources at first but still prioritized safer staffing for their patients above their own wages and other benefits, knowing that cost savings will come in the form of lower turnover and less readmissions. The vote gives MNA’s elected nurse bargaining teams the authority to strike, should they determine that it is the only remaining path to stop hospitals’ illegal unfair labor practices and begin fair negotiations at the bargaining table. Nurses are engaged in bargaining with seven hospital systems: M Health Fairview, Essentia Health, Allina Health, Children’s Hospitals, North Memorial and Aspirus St. Luke’s.
What’s next?
Nurses at the 11 metro hospitals are joined by their acute care colleagues at Aspirus St. Luke’s and Essentia Health in Duluth, clinic and hospice nurses with Essentia Duluth and Superior clinics and Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers. Essentia is also currently negotiating first contracts with the clinic and hospice nurses but continues to refuse to recognize the APPs whose election was certified by the National Labor Relations Board.
MNA nurses, APPs and healthcare workers remain committed to bargaining in good faith. They are still seeking a solution, and believe one is possible if healthcare leadership stops committing Unfair Labor Practices and begins to take their issues seriously. In the coming days, bargaining will continue, and nurses will meet to evaluate whether a strike is necessary.
A strike has not been called at this point. If a strike is called, nurses will provide the legally required 10-day notice to employers and the public to ensure hospitals have time to arrange the necessary coverage.