15,000 nurses set to vote on ULP strike demanding hospitals bargain in good faith over safe staffing (Page 3)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

(St. Paul) – June 11, 2025 – Nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association announced Wednesday that they will hold an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike vote on Monday, June 23, 2025, as 15,000 nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports fight for fair contracts to prioritize safe patient care. If passed by a supermajority of nurses, the vote would give nurse negotiators the discretion to call for a ULP strike at any time, provided they give a 10-day notice to hospital employers.

“Given the egregious unfair labor practices taking place across all 13 hospitals, nurses have decided to take the next step and hold a ULP strike vote in protest. We have consistently come to the bargaining table in good faith and been transparent about our proposals, yet have received stonewalling, interference and retaliation in return,” said Chris Rubesch, RN at Essentia Health and President of the Minnesota Nurses Association. “For decades, nurses have been sounding the alarm about increasingly unsafe staffing levels in our hospitals, leading to the current crisis we are experiencing now. As more patients experience adverse health events, more nurses are subjected to violence and more healthcare professionals are fleeing bedside care altogether, the hospitals’ bad faith bargaining is a slap in the face to both nurses and patients. We cannot and will not accept it.”

The unfair labor practice strike authorization vote for 13 hospitals statewide comes as nurses in the Twin Cities have negotiated since March and are now working without contracts, while nurses in the Twin Ports have negotiated since April, with a contract expiration looming on June 30.

Why Nurses are Voting 

Nurses have bargained in good faith and brought actual solutions to the bargaining table regarding safer staffing ratios, workplace violence prevention measures, and proposals for better scheduling and flexibility to reduce turnover, but hospital executives have refused to listen. Instead, they have reacted by committing Unfair Labor Practices, which put illegal and unethical hurdles in front of nurses in order to prevent them from asserting the rights given to them by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). These Unfair Labor Practices are taking place at all of the 13 negotiating hospitals and include incidences of retaliation for union activity, denying access to non-patient care areas such as breakrooms, surveilling union conversations, and refusing to provide information that is necessary to bargain.

Additionally, hospitals have refused to have real, good faith discussions about issues that are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Nurses have made it clear from the beginning that these negotiations need to include conversations around the real issue of safer patient-to-nurse ratios in hospitals, which studies show could save hospitals millions, reduce patient mortality rates and length of hospital stays, lower nurse burnout, and increase the number of nurses at the bedside. However, hospitals have refused to seriously discuss or consider these proposals.

“The power dynamic in negotiations heavily favors the employer, so nurses must take any and all opportunities to demand a fair playing field. When employers refuse to follow the rules, voting for an Unfair Labor Practice strike is one of the few levers of power that we have.”  said Ericka Helling, RN at M Health Fairview’s Southdale Hospital and MNA Negotiating Team Member. It is clear in the proposals and actions of hospital executives and their refusal to consider any staffing language, that they are prioritizing the hospital’s bottom line over patient care and refusing to bargain in good faith. These corporate policies and actions will push more nurses to leave the bedside and continue to leave patients in danger. We demand fair bargaining for nurses and our patients.”

Since negotiations began in March, nurses have pressed hospital executives both at the bargaining table and in public over the need to negotiate in good faith with nurses to solve the unsafe staffing crisis in our hospitals and put patients first. Nurses held informational pickets at 13 hospitals throughout the state on June 4, spoke out against corporate healthcare policy outside Medical Alley’s annual dinner, and released a report on hospitals’ decreasing contributions to Charity Care despite their tax-exempt status requirements.

This campaign is not a repeat of the last contract negotiation in 2022. At the time, nurses were calling attention to a growing problem. Now, the crisis is undeniable, and the data confirms what nurses have been telling corporate executives. Nurses are taking this vote to protest the hospitals’ unfair labor practices and make hospital executives come to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith so the parties can work on finding solutions for safe staffing and workplace violence.