St. Paul, MN – Negotiations between Allina Hospitals and a nurses union representing 4800 Allina nurses remain at a standstill after a meeting Tuesday.
Nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association voted to strike over employer contract negotiations last Thursday.
On Tuesday, representatives for Allina met with union representatives to continue negotiations. All parties left the meeting blaming each other for the lack of progress. Both sides spoke through mediators.
The Minnesota Nurses Association says mediators “pressed” the MNA negotiations team “to determine what the potential was for movement on Allina Health’s proposal to eliminate the MNA Insurance plans.” MNA says, “No proposals were exchanged.”
MNA says mediators, “discussed the potential for settlement with Allina Health representatives.” MNA puts the blame on Allina, saying, “There were no responses to MNA issues and no possible compromise on health insurance.”
The Star Tribune says Allina officials claim they “waited all day for a counterproposal” from the union, and did not receive one.
There is presently no other date set for negotiations to continue. In a press release MNA states, “Allina negotiators continue to demand that they will not offer proposals or discuss issues of staffing and workplace safety until nurses agree to end all of their health insurance plans.”
Nurses plan to participate in an open-ended strike until an agreement can be made. According to the Star Tribune the first nurses strike was limited to seven days in June, explaining Allina’s financial report for the first half of 2016 showed costs of $20.4 million to hire replacement nurses from around the country.
Subscribe to Alpha News for further coverage
