St. Luke’s Nurses Vote ‘Overwhelmingly’ To Allow Strike

The nurses are concerned about staffing levels and they want both paid time off and sick time separated for new hires.

DULUTH, Minn. – St. Luke’s nurses voted late on Thursday night to allow a strike after weeks of stalled negotiations.

The nurses are concerned about staffing levels and they want both paid time off and sick time separated for new hires.

Nurses said they are increasingly frustrated they do not have a contract deal with St. Luke’s now that nurses at Essentia have ratified theirs.

“We had 65% of our nurses here on the front lines saying these are the issues important to us and it was a little disheartening to see the next day the Essentia management team come to the table and say yes we will give you the contract you’ve been fighting for and here we are weeks later still fighting and don’t have an agreement yet,” said Breanna Diedrich, a registered nurse at St. Luke’s.

The Minnesota Nurses Association is required to set a date for the official strike to start and they must give the hospital 10 days notice.

The previous contract expired in June.