St. Luke’s Nurses Hold Strike Vote Today

After weeks of negotiations, St. Luke's nurses are voting on whether to strike today.

DULUTH, Minn.-After weeks of negotiations, St. Luke’s nurses are voting on whether to strike today.

Rick Fuentes, a representative from the Minnesota Nurses Association, told Fox 21 that nurses will be voting until 10 p.m. tonight. He said that if it is approved, then a date will need to be set for when the nurses formally strike. Once that date is set, the union can still negotiate for a 10-day period before the strike is implemented.

Fuentes said some of the top issues the nurses are discussing include those dealing with staffing. He said the nurses want a bonus for when they are called in to work a shift they weren’t originally scheduled for.

Another sticking point is paid-time-off. They want new nurses to have both paid sick time and vacation, rather than lumping it all together into PTO. Nurses who have been with St. Luke’s would continue to have both sick and vacation time accounts separate.

Earlier this week, nurses at Essentia reached a deal which included three percent pay increases over the next two years, and another 2.25 percent increase in it’s third year.

We’ll have much more on this story tonight at 5:30 and 9.