Minnesota Nurses Association holds strike vote Monday as union advocates for improved staffing ratios

CBS News

23-06-2025

A Minnesota nurses union is holding an unfair labor practice strike vote on Monday as thousands of employees are working without a contract, and others are facing a contract expiration at the end of the month.
The Minnesota Nurses Association, which represents 15,000 nurses across 13 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth area, says if a supermajority of nurses pass the vote, it would give negotiators the ability to call for a strike at any time, after providing a 10-day notice.
"We have consistently come to the bargaining table in good faith and been transparent about our proposals, yet have received stonewalling, interference and retaliation in return," said President of the MNA Chris Rubesch.
The union says they've brought plans regarding safer staffing ratios, workplace violence prevention measures and scheduling to the bargaining table but "hospital executives have refused to listen." Nurses say the patient-to-nurse ratio is unsafe and unmanageable.
"We've assessed our body of nurses and we all know that we're ready to take this vote. Not to strike, but to get it done," said Ericka Helling, an ICU nurse at M Health Fairview Southdale. "This is the goal here, to solve the equation without abandoning our patients or leaving our jobs. We know we have the vote, we wouldn't take the vote if we couldn't get it done."
The MNA alleges the hospitals have retaliated by surveilling union conversations and refusing to provide information that is necessary to bargain.
Negotiations started in March for the Twin Cities nurses, who are now working without a contract. The Duluth-area nurses started negotiating in April, and are facing a contract expiration date of June 30.
"For decades, nurses have been sounding the alarm about increasingly unsafe staffing levels in our hospitals, leading to the current crisis we are experiencing now. As more patients experience adverse health events, more nurses are subjected to violence and more healthcare professionals are fleeing bedside care altogether, the hospitals' bad faith bargaining is a slap in the face to both nurses and patients," Rubesch said. "We cannot and will not accept it."
Voting ends at 10 p.m. on Monday.
WCCO has reached out to M Health Fairview for comment.