•Collective Bargaining Updates and Actions, pages 6-7
•2025 Legislative Session Recap, page 8
•2026 Union-wide Election Timeline, page 11
FALL 2025 • Vol. 97 No. 3
On the Cover:
Essentia Clinic Nurses and Advanced Practice Providers went on a two-week ULP Strike in July.
Minnesota Nursing Accent
Minnesota Nurses Association
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FALL 2025
PUBLISHER
Elaina Hane
MANAGING EDITORS
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chris Rubesch, RN, President
Shiori Konda, RN, 1st Vice President
Melisa Koll, RN, 2nd Vice President
Becky Nelson, RN, Secretary
Jill Lebrun, RN, Treasurer
Directors
Tamra Andersen, RN
Daniel Clute, RN
Jeremy Olson-Ehlert, RN
Bernadine Engeldorf, RN
Kevin Hawn, RN
Brittany Livaccari, RN
Meghan Matteson, RN
Sydney Fuentes, RN
Kristy Ricks, RN
Michelle Sorensen, RN
Venessa Soldo-Jones, RN
Jayme Wicklund, RN
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TRYING NEW THINGS AND TAKING RISKS
At a recent Board meeting, we had an educational session on the history of MNA. It was an opportunity to look back at what we have accomplished in our 120-year history. From MNA’s first President Sarah Tarleton Colvin working to establish an advocacy organization for nurses in Minnesota and her later work fighting for women’s suffrage as President of the National Women’s Party, to our later leaders establishing the first multi-employer portable pension for nurses in the nation, or organizing a direct action of mass resignations before Weingarten Rights were legal precedence or the NLRA included healthcare workers. Everything we have in our contracts and the healthcare profession in Minnesota grows out of the hard work put in by those who came before us.
I noticed a common theme reoccurring throughout our history, and that is change. Throughout the decades, MNA has continually changed and adapted to meet the needs of our members and our patients. We started as a professional organization advocating for bedside nurses and patients. We evolved into a Union engaging in protected and concerted Union activity. We moved into the realm of politics, endorsing candidates and helping elect healthcare workers into public office. We adapted new tools and technology to stay connected with each other and spread our reach outside the state of Minnesota. And we expanded to include not just nurses but Advanced Practice Providers and other healthcare workers to our Union. Again and again, we have seen a need or met a new challenge, and we have adapted to face it.
As I look to the future, I see more challenges ahead of us. We are seeing aggressive attacks on Unions, workers, and healthcare. The National Right to Work Foundation continues to target Unions and take advantage of vulnerable workers promising to make things better for them by decertifying their Unions. Major cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will bring irreparable harm to many patients and their families. Moves to disregard science and research will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary death and suffering. And, possibly most concerning for the future of our Union, our judicial system seems increasingly hostile toward Union activity.
But these challenges do not mean we are doomed. They mean we must do what we have done time and time again throughout our history - we must adapt and change. If we are to continue to be a leading voice in healthcare advocacy and Union organizing, we must be prepared to try new things and take risks.
In the coming weeks we will be doing just that at our annual Convention and House of Delegates and at the Board’s fall strategic planning. These are just some of the ways we take time to assess things that are working and things that need improving. Set goals for what we want to accomplish as a Union. Make plans for how to get there. The challenges ahead will be like nothing we have faced before. But just like the leaders from our history did, we can change and adapt to meet them. And we can do it together.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Board of Directors
Wednesday, November 19
Wednesday, December 10
Commission on Governmental Affairs (GAC) Wed., November 12, 1-4 p.m. Wed., December 3, 1-4 p.m.
CARn
Wed., November 12, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Wed., December 2, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Racial Diversity Committee Leadership Meetings
(Third Monday of each month) Mon., October 20, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Mon., November 17, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Mon., December 15, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Racial Diversity Committee
General Membership Meetings (Second Tuesday of each month) Tuesday, November 11, 6-8 p.m.
MNA Foundation (MNAF) Wednesday, October 22, 9-11 a.m.
Chris Rubesch, RN, MNA President
President’s Column
Executive Director’s Column
YOU ARE THE UNION: MEMBER DEMOCRACY AT WORK
You’re probably familiar with the phrase “YOU are the union!” We say it often, but what does that mean? A union is not a third party—a union is made up of all of us as workers coming together to fight for our rights. After all, without all of us, there would be no union!
The meaning, however, goes deeper than just a definition. A union is also about democracy, about the will of the members. So how does that look within MNA?
MNA’s Democratic Structure
Each October, members have the opportunity to participate in MNA’s Convention. While the Convention includes meals, fun activities, networking opportunities and education, its primary purpose is for MNA members to move the union forward by voting on Bylaw amendments, Resolutions, or Main Motions that are brought forward by members themselves.
This venue is called the House of Delegates, and it is the top decision-making body of the union. This is where member democracy takes place. Members bring ideas forward and can debate their merits. Bylaw amendments that are proposed can change how MNA governs itself. Resolutions are a formal expression of opinion to be adopted by the organization. And Main Motions propose a matter of business for the organization. Delegates at the Convention are all elected at the local level—in your facilities—and any remaining seats are filled on a volunteer basis.
Member Democracy in Action
One of the things I enjoy most about the Convention is seeing member democracy at work. An individual member may bring a proposal forward, but it is all of the members who debate, discuss, and refine it before voting on it. Each elected delegate attends the Convention on behalf of their bargaining unit and is tasked with ensuring that they represent their members as a whole. Together, our delegates represent all of MNA.
Our members have passed important resolutions over the course of MNA’s history, like addressing the mental health crisis or organizational support for women’s rights to reproductive health justice. MNA’s Bylaws have been amended with language that helps move our union into the digital age—like establishing a process for a virtual Convention, if needed—or clarifying or creating Committees or Commissions to address topics important to our membership.
There are many more pieces of business I could talk about from MNA’s history that have been integral to our union, but then this column may never end. I invite all of you to read the MNA Bylaws and to read our Resolutions on the MNA Member Center to learn more about the foundational work our delegates undertake during the Convention. You may even get an idea of your own to bring to next year’s Convention, continuing the member democracy of MNA.
So the next time you hear, YOU are the union, I hope you remember
the power that you have as a union member and the power MNA has as a whole. Together, we can meet challenges head-on and continue strengthening MNA for the years to come.
Elaina Hane, RN, MNA Executive Director
News & Updates
MNA NURSE NEWS
MNA nurse Chairs at HCMC release statement of support on County’s resolution on dissolution of HHS Board
MNA, along with MNA HCMC CoChair Jeremy Olson-Ehlert, RN, released a statement on behalf of MNA nurses at HCMC after the Hennepin County Board indicated they would pass a resolution to dissolve the Hennepin Health System Board.
Nurses report threats of physical violence and intimidation from supervisor at Essentia Health clinics
Nurses at Essentia Health’s Superior and 3rd Street Clinics have reported multiple instances of threatening and retaliatory behavior by their direct supervisor.
Unsafe staffing is hurting patients: New state report confirms what nurses have warned for years
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has just released its 2024 Adverse Health Events Report, showing the ninth straight year of increases in preventable patient harm across Minnesota hospitals and surgery centers. Nurses across Minnesota say this report is not just a statistic, it’s a wake-up call.
MNA Statement on Recent Attacks on Minnesota State Legislators
We are shocked and outraged by the targeted shootings that killed Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and injured Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Nurses have partnered with both
dedicated legislators for years to pass meaningful legislation that helps patients and workers and know that both served with unparallelled passion and dedication to their communities. Violence and fear do not belong in our democracy and no public servant should fear for their safety while serving their communities. Our thoughts are with them and their families.
Read more nurse news at mnnurses.org/news/press-releases or scan the QR code.
MNA New Staff Cuyler Elmore, Labor Relations Specialist. Cuyler joins MNA after previously working for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a national Field Organizer and Political Organizer.
Twin City Hospitals MNA Pension Plan Workshops 2025
Twin Cities nurses, learn about the secure retirement provided by your pension plan: its value, structure, earning benefits, stability, and retirement options. During this workshop, a representative from the Social Security Administration will discuss Social Security and Medicare benefits, and MNA’s financial wellness partners at Dorval and Chorne will talk about financial planning and free, no-obligation services available only to MNA members.
Tuesday, November 18, 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (MNA Office)
Registration is required. To register, login to the Member Center at mymna.mnnurses.org or contact Sara Feinberg at (651) 394-7789 or tcpension@mnnurses.org
Want to learn more about the Twin City Hospital Pension Plan? Scan the QR code to read more.
Bargaining and Collective Action Updates
NEW CONTRACT AGREEMENTS
Twin Cities Metro & Duluth hospitals ratify 3-year contract agreements
15,000 MNA nurses at hospitals across the Twin Cities metro and in Duluth ratified new contracts on July 14, concluding months of negotiations aimed at addressing staffing, patient care, retention and workplace conditions. These agreements mark the result of four months of focused negotiations, during which MNA nurses met hospital leaders at the table to demand accountability and uphold patient safety.
Throughout the campaign, nurses took part in collective actions like pickets and rallies, and spoke out about their contract fight at press conferences. After contracts had expired for all MNA-represented hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth, nurses took an Unfair Labor Practice Strike vote due to hospitals’ committing numerous unfair labor practices like bargaining in bad faith, surveilling union activity, and conditional bargaining.
The new contracts cover thousands of nurses across Allina Health, M Health Fairview, Essentia Health, Aspirus St. Luke’s, HealthPartners Methodist, and Children’s Minnesota. The agreements reflect priorities identified by nurses throughout the 2025 campaign, including staffing provisions, workplace safety measures, mental health protections, and fair compensation, as well as fending off significant employer concessions.
This was the first year in MNA history that members voted safe staffing as the top concern, over wages.
Key wins in the contracts include:
• New language to implement Minnesota’s new break law
• Tools to address workplace violence
• Staffing provisions such as Essentia’s one-year freeze on staffing reductions
• A 10% raise over three years for the Twin Cities hospitals
• A 9.75% raise over three years for Twin Ports hospitals
Looking ahead, MNA nurses remain committed to defending patient safety and holding corporate healthcare accountable.
Alomere Health nurses win contract amidst pushback
On June 17, nurses at Alomere Health in Alexandria, MN ratified a new three year contract after facing intense pushback from their employer. On May 2, the employer gave nurses a “Last, Best and Final Offer” with over-the-top “No Strike No Lockout” provisions. As Alomere is a public hospital, this language was wholly unnecessary since the law already prohibits public health nurses from striking. Despite this, nurses won wage increases of 7% in the first year, 5% the second year and 3% the third year of their contract. They also achieved differential increases, an increase in Certification Bonus, and Limited Short Notice Differential, among others wins.
Regina nurses ratify new contract with no concessions
On July 8, nurses at Regina Hospital in Hastings, MN ratified their latest contract with no concessions. The employer had brought many concessions to the table, but nurses were able to fend off all of them and achieve several wins. As an Al-
COLLECTIVE ACTIONS & EVENTS
lina hospital, Regina has wage parity with United hospital in St. Paul and achieved retroactive wage increases matching the Twin Cities hospitals once they settled their contracts as well. Other highlights include full-time benefits at 0.75 FTE, updated scheduling and seniority language, and new language on workplace violence. MNA members picket in the Twin Cities and Duluth
On June 4, nurses at 11 Twin Cities hospitals and two Duluth hospitals held an informational picket to highlight issues at the core of their contract fight that was ongoing since mid-March. Nurses were joined by community allies including elected officials and allies with other labor unions and community organizations.
Essentia Advanced Practice
Providers and Clinic workers strike for two weeks
On Tuesday, July 8, MNA members at Essentia’s 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street, and Superior Clinics, as well as Miller Hill Surgery Center and Solvay Hospice House began a two-week Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike that lasted through Tuesday, July 22. These members were joined by MNA’s Advanced Practice Providers from Essentia’s East Market, who began their strike on July 10. Workers walked off the job to expose Essentia executives’ refusal to
negotiate in good faith and their numerous Unfair Labor Practices such as threats of violence against striking workers and interference in union activities.
Workers at the clinics decided to end their strike after Essentia agreed to combine the four groups of clinic nurses into one negotiating block and agreed to additional negotiating dates for all first contract workers.
Meanwhile, Essentia continues to stonewall APPs through a stalled legal appeal to the National Labor Relations Board. MNA continues to make it clear that the appeal does not exempt Essentia from bargaining. The APPs formed a legally certified union, and ignoring their voice is unlawful and shortsighted.
The ULP strikes brought long-overdue visibility to the standard for outpatient care. For the first time in Minnesota history, clinic nurses, healthcare workers, and APPs united in collective action, walking out together to protest their employer’s ULPs and demand more for their patients. Their solidarity brought critical issues to light, galvanized public support, and placed rural healthcare at the forefront of the conversation. These caregivers are returning to their patients not in retreat, but with renewed determination to protect the standards of care their communities deserve.
This campaign has redefined what healthcare workers in Duluthand across Minnesota- are willing to fight for. From clinics to hospital floors, from RNs to APPs, the mes-
sage is clear: patients must come first. The current system leads to higher readmissions, increased workplace violence and injury, and poorer patient outcomes. But when caregivers are empowered with a voice in decision-making, the quality of care improves - for everyone.
2025 Legislative Session Recap
The 2025 legislative session included many political firsts, during which MNA and the labor movement faced an uphill battle to defend key victories won during the previous 2023-24 biennium when unions and other allies leveraged a DFL “trifecta” to pass a significant number of hugely consequential reforms.
These recent wins for the labor movement, like Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) and Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML), were focal points going into the 2025 legislative session. Republicans, and a small number of DFLers (mostly in the Senate), went into session with the openly stated intent to scale back on some of the pro-worker legislation labor had won the previous biennium.
While MNA began the 2025 legislative session with our own proactive proposals, it quickly became clear that much of our work this year would need to focus on defense – pushing back against hospitals and corporate lobbyists attempting to roll back protections for nurses, patients, and all workers.
Defending past wins
Proposals to scale back PFML, which is set to launch January 1, 2026 included reducing the amount of time workers could go on paid leave, reducing the amount of weekly benefits workers would receive while on leave, exempting various types of employers, delaying the launch of the program for a year, and reducing the amount of money employers are required to pay in to the program.
Similarly, proposals to scale
back the existing Earned Sick and Safe Time program (ESST) included exempting small businesses and agricultural businesses, as well as eliminating many of the protections currently in place for workers seeking to use ESST. One of the proposed eliminations was the law MNA helped pass in 2024 that prohibits employers from forcing a worker to draw from one particular sick leave bank over another if that worker has an additional form of accrued sick leave (such as other sick time accrued through one’s collective bargaining agreement).
Ultimately, nurses played an enormous role at the Capitol in 2025 by meeting with legislators, sending advocacy emails, and showing up to hearings, ensuring that very few negative rollbacks were made to either of these programs.
Like other areas of our economy, the increased corporatization of healthcare led to an unwelcome new presence looking to work its way into our state healthcare system: webor app-based “gig work” platforms also known as “Uber for Nursing”. MNA worked closely with other labor partners this past session to defend against legislation that would have opened the floodgates for platform companies to be deployed by hospitals and health systems to replace “traditional” staffing models. In states where this has been allowed, business practices have been implemented that are bad for both workers and patients.
For example, one of the largest nursing “gig work” platforms pits
workers against each other by having them do a “reverse auction”, whereby the nurse who offers the lowest wage that they would accept to work for is awarded the available shift. These platforms are not going away, and neither will the industry’s lobbying efforts, so this is something nurses will be contending with again at the legislature in the near future.
MNA’s newly organized Advanced Practice Provider members (APPs) were essential this year in successfully preventing a big rollback to the law passed in 2023 that banned employers, moving forward, from requiring workers to sign a noncompete agreement when accepting employment. Many of the APPs, particularly in the Brainerd area, are currently locked into noncompete agreements with Essentia that prohibit them from working anywhere else in the area. Without the work and voices of the APPs this year, it is very likely that far more negative changes would have been made.
New break law
One of the biggest wins for nurses and other workers at the legislature in 2025 were changes made to the state’s existing break laws. While “standard operating procedure” in most Minnesota workplaces has long been that workers receive a paid 15-minute rest break if they work at least four hours during a shift, and a typically unpaid 30-minute meal break if they work eight or more hours during a shift.
Thanks to new language that MNA worked to pass this year, the
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) now has the authority to address issues where employers are frequently forcing workers to miss their breaks. More information will be known later this year about how enforcement will work when the law takes effect on January 1, 2026.
Long-term fight for MNA priorities
MNA introduced the Quality Patient Care Act that would create mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios, on a unit-by-unit basis, within hospitals, and give the Minnesota Department of Health the authority to regulate and fine hospitals to ensure compliance. The bill received one hearing this session, in the Senate Labor Committee, where nurses packed the room and delivered powerful testimony.
MNA also supported several pieces of legislation to increase hospital financial transparency, including a bill called the Health Care Accountability Act that would have cracked down on the corporate practice of medicine in our state.
End of the 2025 Legislative session
The formal 2025 legislative session ended on May 19, 2025 without an agreement on the budget. This led to the legislature calling a special session to pass the budget in mid-June. Over the course of the 2025 session, MNA advocated for more accountability to patients and workers from the major health systems across the state. Along the way, nurses also advocated for reforming the health insurance industry, eliminating barriers for workers, keeping the influence of private equity out of our healthcare system, cracking down on the predatory billing practices of hospitals, and protecting access to medical coverage for undocumented Minnesotans. Honoring legacies
This uniquely difficult year in Minnesota politics was made even harder with former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Kari Dziedzic, succumbing
to cancer in December 2024; and the assassination of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman as well as the attempted assassination of Senator John Hoffman, his wife Yvette, and daughter Hope. We will remember Senator Dziedzic and Speaker Emerita Hortman’s lifelong dedication to public service. Their leadership brought about the largest expansion of labor rights in decades, working together during the 2023 session to pass pro-labor legislation like Earned Sick and Safe Time, Paid Family and Medical Leave, the ban on non-compete agreements, stronger protections for pregnant and nursing workers, pay transparency measures, and transparency requirements around the sale and merger of hospitals.
They left an indelible mark on Minnesota politics and made our state the most worker-friendly in the country. Their legacy will be felt for generations.
We honor their memory not only with our words, but with our actions - by continuing the fight for justice, equity, and dignity for every worker in Minnesota.
MNA celebrates PRIDE
On June 30, MNA members marched in the Twin Cities PRIDE Parade along with our labor allies and the Minnesota AFL-CIO. MNA members are proud to care for ALL patients no matter their background.
March 3, 2026 • 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Activities include breakfast, guest speakers, education and preparation, group meetings with your legislators, and camaraderie with your fellow MNA members! Register at mnnurses.org/DOTH2026
Nurses sound the alarm as Twin Cities hospitals pocket tax breaks, cut patient care
Nurses and community members across the Twin Cities metro and Duluth areas raised urgent concerns at the end of May over worsening patient care and understaffing in local hospitals—even as the major health systems benefiting from tax-exempt status fail to meet their basic obligations to the public.
Since the 1950s, hospitals have been required to give back to their communities with the savings they receive in lieu of paying taxes. Yet, a new report by MNA and National Nurses United found that major Minnesota hospitals are breaking their bargain with the public.
Money for Nothing? How Minnesota’s Not-for-profit Hospital Systems Profit from Their Tax-Exempt Status shows how taxpayers are getting short changed and publicly funded hospitals are leveraging a taxpayer benefit to bolster profits. From 2018 to 2022, Twin Cities-based systems including Allina Health, Fairview Health Services, and HealthPartners received nearly $4 billion in tax exemptions, yet provided just a fraction of that—$607 million—in charity care statewide.
Despite record revenues, hospitals like Allina and Fairview have repeatedly cut services and failed to hire enough nurses to meet patient demand. Yet, both systems are responsible for a large portion of medical debt lawsuits in Minnesota.
“This is corporate behavior in charitable clothing,” said Chris Rubesch,
RN and MNA President. “If these systems want the benefits of being tax-exempt, then they need to start acting like it—by investing in the charitable care our communities need.”
In 2023, Essentia Health opened a $900 million hospital overlooking Lake Superior. Yet in the preceding years, its charity care declined, and local providers including nurses and Advanced Practice Professionals such as Physician’s Assistant’s (PA’s) and Nurse Practitioners (NP’s) were stretched thin, “floated” without notice to unfamiliar sites, and even asked to sleep in hospital morgues due to inadequate lodging. Despite Essentia paying very little income, property, sales or other taxes, staff retention is suffering amid worsening working conditions and patients are facing delays in care.
Since 2013, the average percentage of hospital expenses spent on charity care has been nearly cut in half, dropping from 0.78 percent to just
0.41 percent in 2022 across Twin Cities and Duluth systems.
Allina Health has received the largest tax breaks but has returned only 10 percent of those savings back to the community, for an $820 million loss to the public. At the same time, studies prove understaffing nurses leads to longer wait times, increased workplace injuries, avoidable complications and higher healthcare costs.
Essentia and St. Luke’s received $680 million in federal, state, and local exemptions between 2018 and 2022, yet returned only a fraction of that in charity care. Despite being Duluth’s largest employer, Essentia gave back less than 16% of the value of its tax exemptions as charity care in that period, according to the study.
“I didn’t become a nurse to rush patients through care or leave them alone when they’re scared,” said Jessica Busselman, RN at Abbott Northwestern, RN, “But hospital leadership keeps asking us to do more with less—while they build new towers and collect bonuses. That’s not care. That’s exploitation.”
MNA members are calling on city leaders, lawmakers, and taxpayers to demand transparency and accountability from their employers.
“This is about restoring trust,” said Rubesch. “Taxpayers are footing the bill and funding these hospitals. Nurses are keeping them running. The least they can do is put people before profits.”
Scan the QR code to read the Money for Nothing? report.
2026 MNA Union-wide Elections Timeline
Call for Candidates (Nomination Notice) will be posted to the Member Center, including all information required by both the Department of Labor (DOL) and MNA Bylaws.
Deadline to submit Call for Candidate (Nomination) forms.
MNA Members Celebrate at the State Fair
MNA members volunteered at MNA’s State Fair kiosk in the AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion, talking to the public about issues facing our healthcare workforce and patient populations.
The Committee on Elections will submit a ballot to the MNA President by this date and a sample ballot will be publicized to membership on the MNA Member Center.
Ballots sent out electronically for members who have provided MNA with an email address and via U.S. Postal Service First Class to allow for the election to take place in September per MNA Bylaws.
Deadline for ballots to be received.
All candidates will be notified as soon as official election results are certified. Once candidates have been notified, the election results will be posted for the membership on the MNA Member Center.
