Duluth, MN – On Friday, July 19, striking workers were on the picket line at Essentia Health, Duluth Clinic 2nd Street. Friday marked the 11th day of an open-ended strike by around 700 Registered Nurses and Advanced Practice Providers (APP) who formed a union in 2024.

The workers are demanding that management sit down with them and negotiate their first union contract, more than a year after they won their union election and formed a union. In February of 2024 the RNs at Essentia Clinics voted to join the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) and soon after, in July 2024, the Advanced Practice Providers also joined MNA.

Now, more than a year later, Essentia management is refusing to negotiate a first contract with the advanced practice workers and has filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to throw out the results of the election.

Essentia’s argument claims that advanced practice workers do not constitute a legally eligible bargaining unit under NLRB standards. However, this issue was litigated by the NLRB in 2024 and, after hearing both sides in a federal hearing the NLRB, ruled that the bargaining unit was valid and went ahead with the election. Once the workers won their election and formed a union Essentia was legally compelled to begin negotiating with the workers. To date, they have failed to do so and have said publicly that they will continue to refuse to do so as long as their appeal is unresolved.

At this time the union is in place and Essentia is legally required to negotiate with the workers until a time when the ruling is reversed, if it is. MNA has filed federal charges with the NLRB citing that Essentia committed an unfair labor practice by not bargaining with the newly-formed union.

Since Donald Trump was sworn into office in January of 2025, he has fired a sitting member of the NLRB board in Washington DC, meaning that the board no longer has a quorum to rule over cases which are appealed. This sets up a situation in which by appealing the ruling, regardless of validity of the appeal, the case will not be resolved at least until there is quorum again at the NLRB which could be in months or years.

On day eleven of the strike, the picket lines remained large and energetic with around 100 workers picketing at the 2nd Street clinic and another picket location at another Essentia clinic. Many cars driving by on 2nd Street honked and waved. Pizzas were delivered to feed the striking workers, and members of other unions in the area came out and walked the line in support of the strike.

Julie Flotten is an RN in the1st Street oncology building. Flotten said, “We have been working diligently just to try to get Essentia to create a contract with us, and confirm our jobs, not float us to areas that we are not trained, have transparency with us as employees and as an employer just give a promise in writing of how they are going to treat us so we can take care of our patients.”

Flotten went on to say, “We didn’t get hired to become float nurses. I worked really hard to become an expert in oncology. Essentia wants to be able to float us around based on numbers where they have low staff or wherever the need might be, but I wouldn’t be really good in OB or GI or neurology. I am really good in oncology, and so we want to have all of our colleagues work in the area that they are specialized in so they can deliver the best patient care.”

Brittany Ortler is a Nurse Practitioner in the gastroenterology department. Nurse Practitioners, along with Physicians Assistants and Midwives, form the advanced practice providers bargaining unit. Ortler stated, “We felt that the voices of the advanced practice providers were really not being heard at Essentia, and we felt that uniting the group together to unionize was really the only option that we had.”

Ortler continued, “We overwhelmingly voted to have a union. Since that time, after we voted, Essentia appealed that vote up to the National NLRB. The national NLRB – we gave them some time, and then the [U.S. presidential] election came and January 20 happened and the national NLRB no longer has a quorum so they are unable to even hear our case at this time, so we have asked Essentia to drop the appeal, we’ve asked them to come to the table to bargain with us, we’ve asked them to conditionally bargain with us while we are waiting for the appeal and they have just simply refused to acknowledge really that we exist and that we have rights to bargaining, so we are on an unfair labor practice strike.”

When asked what she would say to Essentia management, Ortler said, “We want to have a voice in how we care for our patients, the time we get to spend with our patients, whether that be being able to say no to having two patients scheduled at the same time and having to split your time between them both. We really feel strongly that we should be able to have a voice in how our patients are cared for,” adding, “We want to protect our patients, we want to protect ourselves, and we want to ensure that we are providing the best care for our patients as we can.”

To Essentia management, Flotten said, “Meet with us! Take this seriously! Take this as seriously as we are! People are losing their livelihoods right now. We don’t want to be out here walking when we are trained to be working, It’s a shame for our patients. None of us want to be out here on the sidewalk. It is not a vacation. The only glimmer is that we have made stronger relationships with one and another and made us stronger that way,” and, “Essentia needs to meet with us and bargain every day, and bring the advanced practice providers to the table and recognize their union, and to respect that these first contracts deserve a fair contract.”

#DuluthMN #MN #Labor #Nurses #Strike #Healthcare #MNA #NLRB #Feature

Duluth, MN – At 4 p.m. on a blustery January 15 in Duluth, workers from Essentia Health-Deer River pulled up in a bus in front of the Essentia Health-Duluth hospital and began a solidarity picket in front of the main entrance to the hospital.

The Deer River Essentia workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union, Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa (SEIU HCMNIA). January 15 marked their 38th day of an open-ended strike at their hospital and nursing home.

The healthcare workers are striking over pay, saying that cost of living has gone up and they need real raises to keep paying the bills. After 38 days on strike, they decided to take their fight to Essentia headquarters in Duluth, nearly 100 miles from Deer River.

The small hospital and clinic in Deer River, Minnesota was bought up by the rapidly expanding Essentia system, which has purchased many of the hospitals in the northern half of the state.

The striking workers were joined at the solidarity picket by members of the Minnesota Nurses Association and the United Steel Workers, who both represent large numbers of workers at the Duluth Essentia hospital, as well as by supporters from the AFL-CIO and the surrounding community.

Around 100 union members and supporters picketed for two hours from 4 to 6 p.m. It was cold, and high winds off of Lake Superior buffeted the crowd. Picket signs could be seen blowing off of sticks and taking to the wind, but the picketers were undeterred, with loud chanting and warm coffee and hot chocolate donated from supporters.

Sarah Jo Roberts, a certified surgical technologist at the Deer River Hospital for over 14 years stated, “What we are asking for is fair sustainable wages for our members. We are the lowest paid Essentia Health workers in the entire state of Minnesota and that is just not acceptable. Cost of living goes up every year and what we are asking for is a fair livable wage. Essentia is saying ‘nope we can't afford to pay you any more because you are in a small community’ but why is it that our Essentia CEO is one of the highest paid in the state of Minnesota and gets a $1.1 million bonus, which was tripled from the prior year? How is that ok but you can tell us, the ones that are doing the work, that you can't pay us more? That's not ok.”

When asked about what is coming next, Roberts said, “We will be meeting management at the bargaining table on the 22nd and we hope to get an agreement, but if we don't, we're gonna stay on the line til we get a contract that is sustainable for us.”

#DuluthMN #MN #Labor #Strike #Healthcare #SEIU #Feature

Duluth, MN – On June 1, between 300 and 400 people from across the state protested the Minnesota DFL State Convention at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (the DECC).

It was a show of broad geographic support for ending the U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza, and against the stances of DFL (the name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota) politicians like U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Governor Tim Walz, who have shown strong support for Israel.

From the Twin Cities, the Free Palestine Coalition organized two busloads. The protest also included people from northern Minnesota’s Ely and the Iron Range, as well as Northfield, the home of Carleton and Saint Olaf Colleges, and other parts of the state.

The day began with a rally at Duluth City Hall. Over the course of a few hours, people trickled in for speeches and performances, joined by participants in the Palestine encampment next to the Saint Louis County Courthouse and the Federal Building. By the time the march began, from the Duluth City Hall to the DECC, it was a sea of Palestinian flags and signs and posters for divestment from Israel.

On arrival at the DECC there was a display of rubble, signifying what was left in the wake of Israel’s constant bombardment in Gaza. People placed body bags on top of the rubble and read the names of Palestinian child martyrs since October 7, 2023.

Inside the convention, where Klobuchar promised to work towards the federal codification of abortion rights and amending tax law, Palestine supporters in the hall urged her to acknowledge the role the United States and Minnesota have played in aiding Israel.

The few Free Palestine Coalition organizers who were able to get into the convention as delegates expressed contempt for the DFL’s overall avoidance of Palestinian genocide. From the rally outside, Free Palestine Coalition member Brooke Bartholomew said, “The idea of a rally at a DFL convention is because the Democrats at the state level are incredibly complicit. They are not unaware of the ongoing genocide. There are people who were previously with the DFL, and this was a way to show them that people are dissatisfied and disappointed. They have the power to repeal anti-BDS [boycott, divest, sanction] laws and divest from U.S. participation in weapons manufacturers.”

One of the delegates attending from Minneapolis, Kevin Aldwalk, after having attended multiple DFL conventions said, “I never in a million times would have expected this level of awareness and support to the Palestinian cause. The Uncommitted caucus managed to push through some significant resolutions and amendments. This couldn’t have happened without the support of multiple coalitions. From our progressive brothers and sisters, the anti-Zionist Jews, the amazing people at the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, to the wonderful people of Jewish Voice for Peace and many others. Centrists and old guards within the DFL didn’t know what hit them.”

Immediately outside of the doors of the convention center, next to a banner, reading “Divest Minnesota from apartheid Israel! No tax $$$ for genocide,” Meredith Aby, a public school teacher, told of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee targeting the State Board of Investment to pull public employees’ pensions and investments from companies that do business in apartheid Israel.

Aby stated, “Every state employee’s pension is forced into investments in Israel. I’m a public school teacher and I don’t know any other teacher that wants to invest in more weaponry.”

A Jewish Voice for Peace member who was also involved in the recent encampment at the University of Minnesota stated, “Nothing Israel does makes us safer. Muslims are not my enemies and 90% of Zionists are Christian. What Israel is doing makes things worse for Jews and causes a generalization of assumed Jewish participation.”

Aby encouraged participants to continue to pressure the DFL and to join the Minnesota Anti-War Committee in traveling to Chicago to protest “Genocide Joe” in person at the Democratic National Convention.

#DuluthMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #MNAWC #MNFreePalestineCoalition #DFL #JVP #Feature

Duluth, MN – Members of Teamsters Local 320 are standing strong, January 16 as they enter day two of their strike for a decent contract. The strikers who work in the Saint Louis County Public Works Department clear the roads in Minnesota’s largest county, and more snow is expected

An online petition in support of the snowplow workers has been started.

#DuluthMN #PeoplesStruggles #PublicSectorUnions #Strikes #TeamstersLocal320 #SaintLouisCountyPublicWorksDepartment #SnowPlow

Duluth, MN – Members of Teamsters Local 320, who work for the Saint Louis County Public Works Department, went on strike