Union members bristle at Allina plans for more hospital cuts

Health care workers don’t want to see pandemic-level staffing become the new normal.

In memoir, United Hospital nurse reflects on experiences in COVID ICU

After accepting a post in United Hospital’s COVID intensive care unit, Amanda V. Peterson began writing as a form of what she calls “paper therapy.” Two years later her memoir has sold out its first press run in just three weeks.

Union members urge hospitals to address staffing shortfalls with higher wages

Workers have publicly offered to renegotiate their union contracts with Twin Cities hospitals in an effort to help address staffing shortfalls that, workers warned, are only getting worse.

After nearing strike at Allina, SEIU members at local hospitals ratify new contracts

Earlier this month, essential workers at United Hospital and seven other Allina Health facilities were ready to strike for a fair contract that respects their service on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the 4,000 members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota struck a last-minute agreement with Allina and overwhelmingly ratified the new contract. “We […]

With Red Cross blood drive, striking nurses continue to care for community

Jennifer Mlodzik of Cottage Grove was among the first in line for a blood drive today near the United Hospital picket line, but she probably won’t be the last striking nurse who offers a little gallows humor to the Red Cross technicians. “Are you guys hiring?” Mlodzik asked the woman about to draw blood from […]

On Labor Day, nearly 5,000 Allina nurses begin open-ended strike (photos & video)

Thousands of Allina nurses and their supporters are spending Labor Day on the picket line, as members of the Minnesota Nurses Association today began an open-ended strike at five Twin Cities facilities. For the second time this summer, union nurses at United, Abbott Northwestern, Mercy and Unity hospitals and Phillips Eye Institute walked off the […]

As strike ends, Allina nurses say they’re stronger, more unified than ever

Union nurses at five Allina care centers in the Twin Cities lowered their picket signs at 7 p.m. tonight, marking the end of an historic, seven-day strike that energized and unified members of the Minnesota Nurses Association. At United Hospital in St. Paul, organizers expanded the picket line to accommodate an influx of supporters eager […]

Allina nurses’ strike lines swelling with solidarity

  Allina nurses are walking the picket lines outside five Twin Cities health care facilities this week, but they aren’t walking alone. Patients, doctors and other health care workers have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with members of the Minnesota Nurses Association over the last four days. So have members of other unions – teachers, musicians, construction workers […]

Photos: Picket lines go up as 5,000 Allina nurses begin strike

Nearly 5,000 nurses employed by Allina Health began a seven-day strike this morning, setting up picket lines outside five metro-area facilities. In downtown St. Paul, well over 200 nurses and their supporters blanketed the sidewalk outside United Hospital in red, the Minnesota Nurses Association’s official color. Picketers put up cheers as nurses finishing the night […]

Workers unite for safe staffing, job security: ‘We are the face of Allina’

After hundreds marched together outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis yesterday, the picket line shifted to United Hospital in St. Paul today, as health care workers kept the pressure on Allina Health to get serious about contract negotiations with their union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. Workers like Dave Young, a nursing assistant at United, want Allina […]