Essentia Twin Ports acute care hospital nurses said they have 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.

The MNA released the following statement:

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. 

 

Nurses boldly defended their contract, their profession, and their patients despite facing an uphill battle due to significant economic and political uncertainty. At a time when Minnesota could lose up to a half-billion dollarsdue to federal Medicaid cuts with the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” federal spending act, nurses were still able to successfully fight off concessions from hospital employers and secure new language that moves their contract forward on issues including safety and patient care conditions. 

 

“Our fight has never been just about contracts—it’s about patient care—and these wins will enable us to provide that care more safely than before,” said MNA President Chris Rubesch, RN. “We will move forward with these wins while also recommitting to the fight for safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. It’s what our patients deserve, and it’s what our nurses deserve.” 

 

While hospital nurses in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports have reached agreements, the fight continues with MNA members at Essentia 1st Street Clinic, 2nd Street Clinic, 3rd Street Clinic, Superior Clinic, Solvay Hospice House, and Miller Hill Surgery Center set to go out on a ULP strike on Tuesday, July 8. Essentia’s East Market Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) are also set to go out on a ULP strike on Thursday, July 10.  

 

“Nurses will stand in solidarity with our union siblings as they go out on an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike next week,” Rubesch continued, “Our members fighting for first contracts deserve to have dignity and respect in the workplace—and that means having a fair contract. We continue to call on Essentia to bargain in good faith with our members, which means also coming to the table to start the bargaining process with Advanced Practice Providers” 

This updates a previous article published Wednesday, June 2:

As statewide nurses contracts expire, 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 on Tuesday, July 8 at 7 a.m.

Nurses and healthcare workers bargaining their first contracts at Essentia Health’s 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street, and Superior clinics, along with their colleagues at Miller Hill Ambulatory Surgery Center and Solvay Hospice House are also announcing that they will begin their ULP strike at this same time.
 
All striking MNA members issued a 10-day notice to hospitals on June 27.
 
Nurses at the four hospitals have been bargaining since March while many other healthcare workers have been bargaining for over a year. They are advocating for enforceable staffing levels that ensure quality care, confirmed work agreements, reduced workplace injuries and violence, improved retention, and lower healthcare costs.
 
Registered Nurses at 16 hospitals across seven hospital systems voted to authorize a strike, along with their Advanced Practice Provider colleagues at 69 Essentia facilities and others at six of Essentia’s clinic, hospice and surgery facilities. In total, four hospitals and six Essentia clinics, hospice and surgery facilities will be striking on July 8. Due to the way contracts are written, some hospitals are counted together as one bargaining unit. The strike authorization is still in effect for the other facilities in the Twin Cities metro and for the Essentia Advanced Practice Providers.

Meanwhile, more than 400 advanced practice providers (APPs) at almost 70 facilities in Essentia Health’s East Market  delivered their 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.

“We’ve asked simple, professional questions about our rights, our roles, and the future of our work,” said Neissa Boehm, an NP from Virginia. “Essentia refused to meet even once.”

Key concerns include unsustainable staffing levels, corporate interference in clinical decisions, and restrictive non-compete clauses that limit rural care access. These issues don’t just affect providers; they affect patients. Without APPs, many clinics would be forced to close or cut hours, increasing delays and harming community health.

In 2024, nearly 400 APPs across Essentia voted overwhelmingly to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board certified that election. Essentia’s refusal to bargain violates federal labor law and undermines the healthcare system’s most trusted professionals.
 
“Providers and nurses across Essentia Health, and the entire state, stand united. Staffing is a patient safety issue, and it’s time administrators started listening to the people who patients trust,” the MNA said in a statement.

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