Minneapolis, MN – On April 7 in Minneapolis, around 500 SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members who work at Allina’s Abbott Northwestern Hospital picketed for around three hours. They have been bargaining for their next contract and have now authorized a strike across all eight Allina Hospitals by an overwhelming majority. The union members are demanding pay increases and financial recognition for working as essential workers through a global pandemic.

Allina is one of the largest and most successful hospital chains in Minnesota. In 2020, it gave large bonuses – some of them rivaling a full year’s pay for the lowest-paid Allina workers – to members of their management team. Yet Allina is offering 0% in raises to their workers in the first year of the upcoming contract.

The union appeared ready to strike if needed, and could be heard loudly chanting “What do we want? Fair contract!” and “If we don’t get it? Shut it down!” along the Chicago Avenue side of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, to honks and cheers from passing motorists.

The union says that they will hold similar pickets every Wednesday at a different Allina Hospital until Allina takes them seriously at the bargaining table and offers them a contract the members are willing to accept.

The next two pickets are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 14 at Allina St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee and Wednesday, April 21 at Allina’s United Hospital in Saint Paul.

#MinneapolisMN #SEIU #PeoplesStruggles #strike #SEIUHealthcareMinnesota #AllinaHospitals #AbbottNorthwesternHospital

So far votes have been held at four of the Allina Hospitals, which include about 2500 of the 4000 SEIU members who work at the Allina Hospitals. The hospitals that have already voted are Abbot Northwestern, Mercy, Phillips Eye Institute, and Owatonna hospitals. Across the first four locations, the members have authorized a strike with a resounding 97% strike vote. Informational pickets are planned for April 7 and a strike would likely take place in coming weeks.

Transport aide and SEIU union Steward Harry O’Mara said, “All of our management took bonuses and worked from home. Meanwhile at the same time the workers came in in-person and got zero. We endangered ourselves and family and got no respect. We are not going to stand for it, clearly. The 97% has spoken to strike.”

Votes are scheduled in coming days at Allina’s United and Saint Francis Hospitals. This is a developing story and Fight Back! will continue to cover it as it develops.

#MinneapolisMN #SEIU #PeoplesStruggles #AllinaHospitals

Minneapolis, MN – Nurses who are part of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) wrapped up a powerful seven-day strike on Sunday, June 26.

Less than 10% of the nurses at the five Allina Hospitals where MNA was striking went to work last week. In the lead-up to the strike, Allina boasted that they had found “hundreds” of scab nurses to work during the strike but around 4500 nurses walked off the job and stayed out, leaving the Allina hospitals essentially shut down.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU Healthcare MN), which repents many job classes in these same hospitals, held a seven-day support picket alongside the MNA strikers during their off-work hours. SEIU members on the picket line reported that the hospitals were mostly shut down with only a bare minimum of essential services continuing to operate. New patients were being rerouted to other hospitals outside the Allina system and surgeries and other procedures were being cancelled and rescheduled. One SEIU member on the picket line said “It's like a ghost town in there. The whole third floor and most of the nursing stations in the hospital are shut down.”

In conversations with MNA nurses on the picket line and in the camps set up at supporters’ houses and churches nearby there was a common thread: The nurses understand that this is not the end. They are ready to do whatever they have to and will not break or bend. By staying out for seven days, instead of only one day as they had done in the past, the nurses were able to send a clear message to Allina that they can go out on strike and they can stay out on strike. The same thing was evident by the determination and resolve of the nurses on the picket lines.

Allina clearly lost tens of millions of dollars last week during the strike. This is not just about one contract though. For Allina this is an attempt to bust one of the biggest unions in their hospitals so that they can have unlimited power over the workplace and treat workers as poorly as they want. The nurses have sent Allina a strong message that they will never back down and will not be divided by Allina's disgusting behavior. In fact they will unite even more going forward in the face of these attacks.

#MinneapolisMN #strike #MinnesotaNursesAssociation #Strikes #AllinaHospitals

Minneapolis, MN – 4800 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) from five Allina Hospitals in the Twin Cities Metro Area walked off the job today, June 19 , beginning a seven-day strike. Allina management is insisting that the nurses settle for a new contract that would change their health care plan to the same ‘corporate plan’ that non-contract employees have. This would dramatically increase their out of pocket expenses to receive the same health care that the nurses provide for the community at Allina Hospitals every day.

After four months of failed talks, the nurses decided enough was enough and decided they had no choice but to call a strike to show Allina that they won't back down until they win the contract they deserve.

Members of AFSCME, the Teamsters, SEIU and many more unions were seen on the picket lines supporting the nurses. SEIU Healthcare MN filed a ten-day notice to picket and SEIU members from Allina hospitals will be picketing in solidarity with the MNA nurses.

You can join the picket line from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day starting on Sunday, June 19 through Saturday, June 26 at Unity Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Abbott Northwestern, United Hospital, and Phillips Eye Institute.

#MinneapolisMN #strike #MinnesotaNursesAssociation #Strikes #AllinaHospitals #AbbottNorthwesternHospital

Minneapolis, MN – Over 500 registered nurses from Allina Hospitals across Minnesota joined together and picketed outside of Allina Corporate Headquarters on Chicago Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis, May 19. The nurses have been in a fight with Allina Health, with whom they are bargaining for a new contract.

Allina is the most profitable health care system in the Twin Cities metro area, yet they are insisting on changing the RN’s health care plan from one that provides good affordable health care to the same one they offer their non-union employees. This would leave many of them paying over $520 a month for the health insurance they need just to go to the very same hospitals that they work at and provide care at every day.

Additionally, the nurses are fighting for a strong voice in staffing and safety decisions that would ensure that Allina hospitals are a good place for patients to get care in the communities they live in, and that Allina hospitals would be a safe place to work free from injuries and other dangers associated with the kind of short staffing that has been an issue in the past.

Allina has a clear choice. They can continue to go down this destructive path and allow their greed to hurt their employees and patients, or they can continue to offer these health care workers the health care plans they deserve and agree to be a partner in ensuring safe staffing levels by letting the RNs have a voice in staffing decisions.

The choice is Allina’s to make but one thing is clear, this is just the beginning. The May 19 show of force was just a small taste of what is to come and the nurses will not stop until they win the contract they deserve and make Allina hospitals safe for patients and for workers.

#MinneapolisMN #MinnesotaNursesAssociation #AllinaHospitals