DULUTH, Minn. — The Minnesota Nurses Association announced July 22 that it had ended its 13-day strike at Essentia Health here and in Wisconsin.
Health care workers had gone out on strike July 8 at Essentia clinics and other facilities in the Duluth area; Superior, Wisconsin; and Virginia, Minnesota.
“The decision to end the strike comes after Essentia Health agreed to combine the four groups of clinic nurses into one negotiating block,” the union said, “and agreed to additional negotiating dates for all first-contract workers.”
The bosses’ concession demands had included proposals to cap sick time at 48 hours a year, cancel some shifts, cut overtime pay and replace an affordable health care plan with a higher cost one.
Clinic nurses, some other health care workers and Advanced Practice Providers who began a separate strike July 10 were still on the picket line as of July 21. These include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists.
This Militant reporter and Kevin Dwire, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Minneapolis, visited pickets at Essentia hospitals here and in Superior July 21.
We met Kelly Higgins, a physician assistant, who is part of the Advanced Practice Providers unit. She said these workers had voted to join the Minnesota Nurses Association in 2024 and are looking toward their first contract.
“Essentia has refused to bargain with us,” she said. “We work in different facilities and in different buildings in the hospital, and they say we can’t all be in the same bargaining unit. They want to split us up and make it difficult to win a contract.” There are 400 workers in the bargaining unit, she added, and about half have gone back to work due to financial constraints.