Election grows the number of new MNA members to more than 700 so far in 2024
(Duluth) – July 24, 2024 – On Tuesday, July 23, 2024, Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at Essentia’s East Market announced they voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association. The APPs filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board on November 27. The election was delayed for months as Essentia challenged the composition of the proposed bargaining unit through the legal process laid out by the NLRB. Supporters of forming a union were ultimately successful and the healthcare workers held their election in July.
“What we have done is historic,” said Brittany Ortler, a nurse practitioner at Essentia Health East Market in Duluth. “We are a unified group of over 400 APPs, and I hope that the work that we have done will pave the way for consideration of unionization among APPs across the state and the nation. One voice can make a difference, but many voices together can make a change.”
The Essentia East Market extends in Minnesota from Brainerd north to International Falls and Duluth and east to Ashland and Hayward in Wisconsin. Nurse practitioners, physician associates, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists have been organizing for months. The group recognized that they needed to unionize so they would have a stronger voice to address issues in their workplace, including better compensation, work/life balance, and patient loads. As members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Essentia Advanced Practice Providers know they will have more say in their practice, working conditions, and the safety of their patients.
