Duluth Bargaining

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Press Releases, ULP Strike

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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.
… Read more about: BREAKING: Essentia Twin Ports hospital nurses avert strike, reach deal; Clinic nurses and APPs continue toward ULP strike  »

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Nursing, Press Releases, St. Lukes, ULP Strike, Uncategorized

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Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

 

(Duluth, MN) – July 3, 2025 – Today, after months of contentious bargaining with hospital executives, nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) at Aspirus St. Luke’s hospital have pulled their 10-day strike notice and cancelled their Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Strike. Nurses negotiated for more than 30 straight hours leading to a pending tentative agreement, with minor details left to finalize early next week.

Nurses have agreed to cancel their ULP strike after significant movement was made across the bargaining table.
… Read more about: BREAKING: Aspirus St. Luke’s hospital nurses pull ULP strike notice with pending deal; Essentia nurses and APPs prepare for action  »

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In: Bargaining, Duluth Bargaining, Home, Press Releases, ULP Strike

(St. Paul, MN) – July 3, 2025 – After nearly four months of contentious bargaining with hospital executives while continuing to provide high-quality care and escalating pressure at the bedsides, nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) in the Twin Cities Metro region have reached a tentative agreement with their hospital employers, have resolved the Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) as part of the settlement, and successfully avoided a ULP strike. 

In a moment when unions across the country are under attack and organizing is being met with hostility from corporate and political leaders alike, MNA nurses stood strong. They boldly organized in defense of their contract, their profession, and their patients—fighting off a litany of concessions even under immense pressure. 
… Read more about: BREAKING: Twin Cities nurses avert strike, reach deal; Duluth prepares for action    »

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In: Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nursing, Press Releases

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Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

(Duluth, MN) — July 1, 2025 — In a move hospice nurses are calling “cruel and unnecessary,” Essentia Health has informed staff that it will suspend patient care at Solvay Hospice House beginning July 8, the same day an open-ended unfair labor practice (ULP) strike is set to begin across Duluth hospitals. The Minnesota Nurses Association has proposed seven bargaining dates in the week before the strike, but Essentia Health has not accepted a single date for Solvay Hospice House or its hospitals and clinics.

Solvay healthcare workers say these transfers are not being driven by a shortage of caregivers, but by Essentia’s refusal to engage in good faith bargaining with frontline healthcare workers at Solvay and across Duluth facilities.
… Read more about: Essentia Health is putting Duluth Hospice Patients in Jeopardy, Healthcare Workers Speak Out  »

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

 

(Duluth, MN) – June 30, 2025 – For the first time in MNA history, Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) have announced an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike. Today, over 400 APPs at 69 facilities in Essentia Health’s East Market delivered formal notice of a ULP strike set to begin July 10. The APPs include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists. The APPs are represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association, but Essentia has refused to recognize their union for nearly a year, instead responding with unlawful retaliation, intimidation, and sweeping changes to assignments—all violations of federal labor law.
… Read more about: 400 Advanced Practice Providers at Essentia Health announce first-ever APP ULP strike  »

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

 

(Duluth, Minn) – June 25, 2025 – Essentia nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association met with Essentia today for the final scheduled negotiation date prior to contract expiration on June 30, 2025. This comes on the heels of 15,000 nurses and Advanced Practice Providers in the Twin Cities metro and Twin Ports voting on Monday to authorize their negotiating teams to call an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike if necessary. Since April, Essentia nurses have been bargaining in good faith and advocating for safe staffing, fair compensation, and safer workplaces through their contract proposals.
… Read more about: Essentia nurses provide bargaining update as negotiations continue  »

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Healthcare, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses, Press Releases, St. Lukes

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Contact: Shannon Cunningham
(651) 269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

Duluth, Minn – June 24, 2025 – Multiple groups of nurses, healthcare workers and Advanced Practice Providers at Essentia Health and Aspirus-St. Luke’s voted on Monday to authorize Unfair Labor Practice strikes at their facilities.  The votes follow months of negotiations in which the hospital corporation executives failed to bargain in good faith and failed to  meaningfully engage in an effort to find common solutions around enforceable measures to protect patient safety and improve nurse staffing levels, and in some cases refused to negotiate at all. 
… Read more about: Duluth Nurses and Advanced Practice Providers Vote to Authorize ULP Strikes Over Employer’s Refusal to Bargain in Good Faith and Other ULPs  »

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In: Advanced Practice Providers, Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org 

Duluth, MN – June 19, 2025 – Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at Essentia Health are being forced to take unprecedented action. For nearly a year, 400 APPs—who include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, Certified Nurse Midwives, and clinical nurse specialists—have requested a seat at the bargaining table. Essentia Health has refused and instead responded with numerous illegal Unfair Labor Practices. 

As a result of these Unfair Labor Practices, Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers are now moving to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike vote. The vote will take place Monday, June 23rd.
… Read more about: Advanced Practice Providers at Essentia Health Move Toward ULP Strike Vote After Hospital Refuses to Bargain  »

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In: Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Home, Hospitals, Nurses, Press Releases, St. Lukes, Uncategorized

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Shannon Cunningham
651-269-1418
Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

 

(Duluth, MN) – June 18, 2025 – In the final scheduled bargaining session before their contract expires, nurses at Aspirus St. Luke’s were met not with compromise, but with cuts. Instead of working toward solutions, hospital executives introduced an economic proposal loaded with rollbacks: limiting sick time, vacation, dental, and health coverage for two-thirds of acute care nurses. This also comes after weeks of Aspirus St. Luke’s criticizing nurses for failing to present their full economic proposal, despite not offering one of their own until now.
… Read more about: Aspirus Walks Away from Solutions, Pushes Concessions Instead of Care  »

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In: Bargaining, Duluth, Duluth Bargaining, Essentia, Home, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Shannon Cunningham

651-269-1418

Shannon.Cunningham@mnnurses.org

 

(Duluth, MN) – June 12, 2025 – Today, Minnesota nurses requested for a mediator to step in and help resolve contract negotiations with Essentia Health, following months of stonewalling and ongoing unfair labor practices that threaten patient safety. This rare step is to bring integrity back to the bargaining table. Nurses have also requested that Essentia withdraw all anti-union proposals put forth so far.

MNA’s request, delivered during the June 12 bargaining session today, reflects the union’s continued effort to reach a fair contract that prioritizes safe staffing levels and patient care.
… Read more about: MNA nurses request mediator as Essentia escalates anti-union tactics  »