FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org
(Duluth, MN) – July 4, 2025 – This morning, after countless hours at the bargaining table, Essentia Twin Ports acute care hospital nurses reached a tentative agreement with their employer. As part of the settlement, Essentia has resolved its Unfair Labor Practices with the nurses, averting a strike. Nurses will vote whether to ratify the agreement in the coming weeks.
Nurses achieved updates to staffing language, including a one-year freeze on reductions to current staffing ratios. Nurses also fought off Essentia’s Management Rights clause, protected Labor Management Committee language, and achieved a wage increase of 9.75% spread over the three years of the contract.
Nurses boldly defended their contract, their profession, and their patients despite facing an uphill battle due to significant economic and political uncertainty. At a time when Minnesota could lose up to $500 million due to federal Medicaid cuts with the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” federal spending act, nurses were still able to successfully fight off concessions from hospital employers and secure new language that moves their contract forward on issues including safety and patient care conditions.
“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.”
While hospital nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports have reached agreements, the fight continues with MNA members at Essentia 1st Street Clinic, 2nd Street Clinic, 3rd Street Clinic, Superior Clinic, Solvay Hospice House, and Miller Hill Surgery Center set to go out on a ULP strike on Tuesday, July 8. Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) are also set to go out on a ULP strike on Thursday, July 10.
“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”
The 2025 Campaign and What Comes Next
The 2025 bargaining campaign launched in March, with negotiations covering over 15,000 nurses across the Twin Cities and Duluth. Contract talks took place with seven major hospital systems:
- Allina Health
- Aspirus St. Luke’s
- Children’s Minnesota
- Essentia Health
- M Health Fairview
- HealthPartners
- North Memorial Health
From the outset, nurses centered this year’s campaign on patient safety and staffing levels. In MNA polling conducted in April, 88% of Minnesotans supported safe staffing as a core demand, and nearly half cited it as their top priority.
Throughout the campaign, nurses exposed how corporate hospital executives continue to cut staffing even as patient needs continue to grow. These unsafe decisions have led to increased injuries, workplace violence, and nurse turnover.
“It is clear there is more work for us to do to achieve the safest hospital conditions possible for both nurses and patients. All MNA members are committed to fighting for our patients’ best interests, and we will do it together,” said Rubesch.
Though hospital nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports have concluded their 2025 contract campaign, MNA continues organizing across the state to make hospitals safer. That includes legislative advocacy, public education, and community mobilization. As the ULP strike looms for Essentia first contracts workers and APPs, MNA calls on all Minnesotans to stand with us in our fight to protect every patient.