Twin Cities nurses on Thursday approved a contract that will give them a 4.5 percent wage increase over the next three years.
The contract covers 12,000 nurses working in 13 facilities overseen by Children's Hospitals and Clinics, Allina Health, Fairview Health Services, HealthEast Care System, North Memorial Health Care and Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital.
Negotiations between the Minnesota Nurses Association and the hospitals focused only on wages, keeping intact in the new contract current language related to important nursing practice standards.
A tentative agreement on the new contract, which goes into effect June 1, was reached after only one day of negotiations.
Contract negotiations in 2010 were far more contentious. That year, an agreement was reached after three months of hard-fought negotiations that narrowly averted a strike.
MARY LYNN SMITH
