Minnesota nurses strike

Nurses, hospitals continue talks today

by Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — Federal mediators will try again Tuesday to help Minnesota nurses and 14 Twin Cities hospitals resolve their differences over a new contract.

The meeting is the second trip to the bargaining table for union and hospital negotiators since nurses authorized an open-ended strike last week.

During their first round of talks on Thursday, hospital management and nurse leaders failed to make any significant headway on staffing, pay and pension issues -- despite meeting for 13 hours.

The Minnesota Nurses Association says the lack of progress from that meeting is one of the reasons the union filed its 10-day strike notice. The union notified hospitals on Friday that its members will walk off the job at 7 a.m. on July 6, if a contract agreement isn't reached before then.

Earlier this month, 12,000 Twin Cities nurses participated in a one-day strike at 14 metro-area hospitals.

The hospitals say another strike is unacceptable and benefits no one.