Minnesota Nurses Association Contract Talks with Essentia Health St. Mary’s

DULUTH, The Minnesota Nurses Association is about to begin new contract negotiations with Essentia Health and Aspirus St Lukes in Duluth, as well as the Twin Cities Metro Area.

The goal is to reach an agreement before the current three-year contract expires in June.

The MNA contract represents 15,000 nurses total. But in Duluth, 2,500 nurses are involved.

The nurse’s union says it is focused on patient care, staffing resources, as well as workplace safety protections.

However, they’re also saying there are some things that can be fixed.

“We think that there’s room to improve the voice that nurses have in how we staff our units and staff the hospital. How much staff, and how that staff is distributed throughout the hospital. Because that directly impacts the amount of time we have to spend with each one of our patients. It directly impacts the experience the patient has when they’re in the hospital. And so, you know we think there’s still room to improve that,” explained Chris Rubesch, President of Minnesota Nurses Association.

The Director of Nursing at Essentia in Duluth says they’re proud of the resources they currently have.

And that Essentia Health St. Mary’s demonstrates excellence with its nursing abilities.

“That is something we are incredibly proud of. Having been a frontline nurse myself and now as a leader, I think we’re all incredibly proud of that high level care we provide. I can tell you that Essentia Health and us here, we consistently outrank quality at the state level, and national level. And that is something we’re incredibly proud of,” said Tyler Jensen, Director of Nursing at Essentia St. Mary’s in Duluth.

FOX 21 also reached out to Aspirus St Lukes for a statement about the negotiation, but have not heard back yet.

The Minnesota Nurses Association has agreed to meet 8 times before the deadline of June 30th.

They’re hoping to make an agreement before the last meeting on June 12th.