Allina nurses to vote on contract, strike

A second strike by Twin Cities nurses at Allina Health hospitals is looming after contract talks ended Monday, leaving the union with an offer that falls short of its demands — particularly with respect to health insurance.

Negotiators for Allina and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) ended as far apart, or farther, than after a similar session a week earlier, they said.

The union nonetheless said it would present Allina's latest offer to the 4,800 nurses for a vote on Aug. 18, with strikes possible at any of the five hospitals where nurses reject the offer by a two-thirds majority.

"Nurses don't want to strike again," said Angela Becchetti, a nurse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and a member of the union negotiating team. "But they're angry over how Allina has treated them during these negotiations. Now, they just want an offer to vote on."

Health insurance remained the sticking point. Allina wants to eliminate the nurses' four union-backed health plans with high premiums but low or no deductibles, which it argues are too expensive. The union wants to protect those nurse-only plans, arguing that Allina's companywide plans, which have low premiums but high deductibles, provide inadequate protection and medical benefits to nurses who run high risks of on-the-job illnesses.

In a prepared statement, Allina said, "A second strike will not further the negotiations. We put a big compromise forth to continue the popular nurse-only plans, while appropriately sharing the increased costs. … another strike doesn't mean Allina Health will revert to keeping the nurse-only plans as is or that we will bear more of the plans' increased costs."

Allina had agreed earlier to a union compromise to maintain the two most popular nurse-only plans. However, it wanted the nurses to bear most of the cost increases for those plans in future years, and to agree to eliminate those plans if their enrollment fell below 1,000 nurses and dependents.

Forcing nurses to absorb most of the cost increases would amount to the same as eliminating the plans, which would eventually become too expensive, Becchetti said. "Allina … can price the plans out of existence and still not tell us what causes them to go up. They're putting our health plans on an expensive death spiral."

The impasse over health benefits prompted a similar contract vote by Allina nurses in June, and then a seven-day strike beginning June 19 at United Hospital in St. Paul, Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Unity Hospital in Fridley, and Abbott and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis.

The time-limited strike cost Allina millions of dollars to recruit thousands of nurses from across the country to maintain patient care.

Historically, Allina and its nurses have negotiated in sync with the competing Fairview, HealthEast and Children's hospital systems. In this cycle, however, the other systems reached contracts that left benefits untouched and only determined wage increases for the next three years.

Allina officials have argued that the other systems have already moved more of their nurses to their corporate plans, and as a result, maintaining the union-backed plans costs them less. Allina believes it will save $10 million per year by switching its nurses to the corporate plans, some of which have lower premiums but higher copays and deductibles that provide financial incentives for using cheaper forms of care, such as generic drugs instead of brand names.

On Friday, the union released an analysis of health plans that contain high deductibles, and argued that they might force nurses to defer needed medical care and show up for work sick.

Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744