Nurses at five Allina Health hospitals will vote Monday whether to authorize potential strikes or accept three-year contracts in a showdown over Allina's insistence that they give up their union-protected health insurance and move to their employer's standard benefits.
A "no" vote would empower negotiators with the Minnesota Nurses Association to set strikes at one or more of the hospitals — Abbott Northwestern and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United in St. Paul, Mercy in Coon Rapids and Unity in Fridley.
Allina would receive a 10-day notice of the location and duration of any strike to hire and train temp nurses.
"It is our fervent desire not to have a strike at our facilities," said Christine Moore, Allina's senior vice president of human resources. "We don't think a strike benefits anybody."
The health system set the stage for such a possibility by pressing its 4,800 contract nurses to drop the option of union health plans — plans that are falling out of favor at many companies because of their high premiums but small or no deductibles — and presenting a final offer last week that would phase them out.
The laser focus on health plans has frustrated union negotiators and nurses, who as a result couldn't make traction on other issues such as nurse-to-patient staffing levels and safety in an era of increasing workplace assaults on nurses.
"They were adamant; unless we brought a proposal to transition off the MNA plans, all four of them, they didn't want to discuss any other proposals," said Angie Becchetti, a nurse on the bargaining committee.
In some ways, the negotiation distills 20 years of change in U.S. health care financing to a single vote.