Allina Health presented a new offer Monday to get the union representing its 4,800 Twin Cities hospital nurses back to negotiations after a weeklong nursing strike.
The health system still demands that nurses at its five Twin Cities hospitals switch from their costly union-backed health plans, but the proposal gives them until 2020 to do so and offers concessions in other areas — such as allowing the union to appoint nurses to workplace safety committees.
"The proposal we are making today shows Allina Health is prepared to have an open, constructive dialogue on the issues that both have identified as important to an agreement," said Dr. Penny Wheeler, Allina's chief executive.
The Minnesota Nurses Association expressed displeasure with the public nature of the offer, but indicated in a written statement that it would review the proposal on behalf of its nurses from United Hospital in St. Paul, Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Unity Hospital in Fridley and Abbott Northwestern Hospital and the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis.
"Our position has been clear from the beginning," the union said in its statement. "Nurses will not take a step backward economically in the next contract."
Allina's proposal to restart contract talks comes as some nurses still await calls to return to work after the seven-day strike that ended at 7 a.m. Sunday. Approximately 200 nurses at United and Unity haven't returned to work, the union said, due to the low number of patients at the two hospitals.
The nurses' union-backed health plans feature higher premiums but low or no deductibles for care — plan designs that are rare nowadays but are popular among nurses who are at greater risk than most workers for on-the-job illnesses and injuries.
Allina wants to move the nurses to the plans it offers other employees, two of which are the exact opposite in their designs: lower premiums but higher deductibles.
