As many as 4,800 nurses at Minneapolis-based Allina Health plan to strike for one week, beginning at 7 a.m. June 19, according to a Star Tribune report.
The nurses are striking amid a contract dispute over health benefits. Allina Health seeks to eliminate union-backed health insurance and move the nurses to plans that other health system employees receive. However, the nurses rejected that offer June 7, and authorized strike planning.
Allina Health argues the union-backed health plans, which include higher premiums but low or no deductibles, do not provide nurses much incentive to use the most economical forms of medicine, such as urgent care over the emergency room and generic drugs over brand-name medications, according to the report. The health system anticipates it would save $10 million by eliminating the union-backed health plans.
The Minnesota Nurses Association, which represents Allina Health nurses, contend that the union-backed health plans provide nurses with important protection, according to the report. Nurses also told the Star Tribune they didn't want to give up their current health benefits without Allina Health making concessions in other areas.
The strike is scheduled to occur at five Allina Health locations — Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minn., and Unity Hospital in Fridley, Minn.
Allina Health sent a statement to the Star Tribune earlier this week, indicating that the health system is prepared to use replacement nurses during a strike.
"We have hired an agency and have carefully reviewed the qualifications and licensing requirements of each of the nurses they have recruited to help ensure we can continue meeting patient care needs in the event of a strike," Allina Health said, according to the report. "At this time, we anticipate that most of our hospitals will be operating normally."
The report notes that a walkout later this month would be the first in the Twin Cities since 2010, when the union staged a one-day strike at 14 hospitals.
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