FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org
Lauren Bloomquist
651-376-9709
Lauren.Bloomquist@mnnurses.org
(Duluth, MN) – July 8, 2025 – Nurses and healthcare workers at multiple Duluth and Superior healthcare facilities began their Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike against Essentia Health today, with picket lines spread across the region. Despite their hospital nurse counterparts settling a tentative agreement with Essentia on July 4, Essentia refused to meet with the now striking workers at any of the additional seven bargaining dates provided by MNA prior to the ULP strike. As a result, the newly organized workers at Essentia Health’s 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street, and Superior clinics, along with their colleagues at Miller Hill Ambulatory Surgery Center and Solvay Hospice House continued their plans to strike and picket, starting at 7:00 am today.
At a press conference this morning, clinic nurses spoke out about going on a ULP strike:
“Maybe this is why I’m a nurse and not a CEO, but I literally cannot fathom why our employer would NOT want to make every effort to bargain in good faith here and now. Essentia: your clinic nurses are waiting on you to join us at the negotiating table. We refuse to let your actions divide us.” –Molly Swailes, RN, 1st Street Clinic
“We are here demanding fair bargaining — and for Essentia to respect our union. We’re ready to get back to the table and back to our patients. But that starts with Essentia showing up.” –Kate Mathewson, RN, 2nd Street Clinic.
“We’re asking for respect, fairness, and the opportunity to continue providing the high-level care our patients deserve. We are demanding to have a voice in the decisions that affect our ability to provide the care we are trained to give and to protect our practice. The first step in this direction is for Essentia to stop committing ULPs.” –Chantal Wohlwend, RN, 3rd Street Clinic
Reminder of role in care
The first day of the ULP strike served as a reminder of the essential role healthcare workers play across the care continuum—from urgent care clinics to hospice. These professionals provide not only clinical expertise, but also emotional and spiritual support at life’s most vulnerable moments.
“In the quiet presence of caregivers who honor peace and dignity, our family found the rare gift of respite in a time of sorrow,” said Erin, whose loved one received care at Solvay. “Even in goodbye, there was gentleness, grace, and the steady strength of those who walk beside others at life’s end. The workers at Solvay offer care with a dignity that should be reflected back to them.”
Yet Essentia Health continues to refuse to bargain with the very workers who make this care possible. Rather than honoring their legal obligation to negotiate, Essentia has chosen delay over dialogue—prompting healthcare professionals to take this action not for themselves, but to defend their right to a voice in how care is delivered.
Successful first day
Clinic nurses and healthcare workers labeled the first day of their ULP strike a success. Workers showed up in droves to four separate picket lines across the region. Community members also showed up in support, walking the picket line, donating food and water, and honking and waving in support. Perhaps most important was the support shown by patients coming and going from the hospital—stopping to say a word of encouragement or gratitude and urging the nurses to continue fighting for safe patient care and working conditions.
What’s next
As clinic nurses and healthcare workers continue their ULP strike, they will be joined by their colleagues, Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), who will begin their own Unfair Labor Practice Strike on Thursday, July 10. APPs will join the same lines as the workers in Duluth and Superior, plus will add an additional strike picket line outside Essentia Health in Virginia, Minnesota. Advanced Practice Providers won their union election in July 2024 and, despite the National Labor Relations Board telling Essentia to comply with the law and begin to bargain with the union, Essentia has continued to refuse to come to the table.
Advanced Practice Providers as well as nurses and healthcare workers who are already out on a ULP strike have a singular message to Essentia: Stop breaking the law. It’s time to come to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith.
Both the workers who began their ULP strike today and the APPs who will begin their ULP strike on Thursday are on an open-ended ULP strike.