Essentia (Page 2)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

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

(St. Paul) – June 27, 2025 –Nurses and other healthcare workers at multiple Duluth and Superior healthcare facilities will be the first to begin a ULP Strike to demand their hospitals engage in Fair Negotiations, stop committing unfair labor practices, and to work with nurses to advocate for patients.

Hospital acute care nurses at Essentia Health’s St. Mary’s Duluth Hospital, Miller-Dwan Hospital and St. Mary’s- Superior Hospital, and Aspirus Health St. Luke’s Hospital will be beginning their ULP Strike to demand their hospitals engage in Fair Negotiations, stop committing unfair labor practices, and to work with nurses to advocate for patients on Tuesday, July 8 at 7:00 a.m.
… Read more about: BREAKING: Nurses announce ULP strike to demand fair bargaining so nurses can protect patient care and stand for safe staffing  »

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  »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

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  »

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  »

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  »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

(Duluth) – June 3, 2025 –  As Essentia nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association prepare for an informational picket tomorrow, they are also announcing the filing of an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Essentia for bad faith bargaining.

Over six months ago, Essentia’s Patient Flow nurses qualified for and won an armour-globe election, allowing them to join the existing MNA contract. Despite this, Essentia is erroneously and illegally demanding that these nurses should be a part of a different bargaining unit.

This is the first charge filed by MNA for the Essentia RN contract, but Essentia continues to be a serial violator of labor law.
… Read more about: Nurses announce Unfair Labor Practice charge against Essentia on eve of info picket   »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

(St. Paul, MN) – May 22 – More than ​​2,600 Registered Nurses, Advanced Practice Providers, clinic and hospice nurses in Duluth today announced their intent to hold an informational picket at ​​Essentia and Aspirus St. Luke’s on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, to demand urgent action to address the crisis of understaffing, unsafe conditions, and executive-driven decision-making that puts profits before patient care. The staffing crisis has grown so severe that, for the first year ever, Minnesota nurses ranked safe staffing above pay as an issue to address in negotiations this year.
… Read more about: Nurses plan to picket Duluth hospitals to demand action on staffing crisis  »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

 

(Duluth) – May 20, 2025 – Earlier today, frontline healthcare staff and community members in Duluth raised urgent concerns about declining patient care and unsafe staffing levels at Essentia Health — even as the not-for-profit system receives millions in tax exemptions meant to benefit the public.

Since the 1950s, hospitals have had a public health mandate to give back to their communities with the savings major tax breaks give them. Yet, a new report by the Minnesota Nurses Association and National Nurses United found that major Minnesota hospitals, including Essentia Health, are breaking their bargain with the public.
… Read more about: Duluth nurses and providers sound the alarm as Essentia pockets tax breaks, cuts patient care   »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Laurie Laker
(c) 612-741-0662
laurie.laker@mnnurses.org

Shannon Cunningham 
(c) 61-269-1418
shannon.cunningham@mnnurses.org

(Duluth, MN) – May 8, 2025 – As Essentia Health executives prepare to conduct a press conference today, nurses are calling out what the hospital system is not doing: addressing the ongoing staffing crisis that is putting patients at risk.

“Essentia executives will make one thing clear today—they’d rather talk about nurses than with us,” said Chris Rubesch, an Essentia nurse and President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. “During National Nurses Week, they’re holding a press conference while refusing to fix the unsafe conditions nurses have raised for years.
… Read more about: Essentia Executives Choosing PR Over Patients, Say Nurses  »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Laurie Laker
(c) 612-741-0662
laurie.laker@mnnurses.org

(Duluth) – January 30, 2025 – Last night Essentia Health-Sandstone nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) voted overwhelmingly to authorize an unfair labor practice strike if contract negotiations with the employer continue to stall.  Their contract expired on August 1, 2024, and, while they have been bargaining since July, nurses have made little progress with the employer on key issues like wages and staff retention.

Nurses at Sandstone have long been facing issues around staffing conditions, continually raising concerns about staff retention, nurses stepping away from the bedside, and now a cross-facility floating proposal from Essentia.
… Read more about: Essentia-Health Sandstone nurses vote to authorize strike amid faltering contract negotiations  »