Photo courtesy of Essentia Health.
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Minnesota nurses union’s organizing blitz at Essentia; Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board reaches tentative agreement with striking workers; Medical staffing agency required to pay $336,000 to workers charged illegal fees; Unions line up behind Harris for president; and California Supreme Court ruling maintains ridehail drivers as independent contractors.
Minnesota Nurses Association unionizes more than 700 in 2024
A majority of more than 400 nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other advanced nursing staff voted to unionize across nine Essentia hospitals and 60 clinics spanning northern Minnesota and Wisconsin this week in the biggest victory for the Minnesota Nurses Association this year.
The union has gone on an organizing blitz of Essentia health care workers, unionizing nurses at the system’s big hospitals and smaller clinics across northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, including the Duluth 1st Street Clinic, 2nd Street Clinic, 3rd Street Clinic and Solvay Hospice House.