Essentia reaches tentative agreement with MNA hours after St. Luke’s

9:30 A.M. UPDATE 12/6-- Essentia hospital leaders say they have reached a tentative agreement with the Minnesota Nurses Association, days before nurses were supposed to walk off the job for a second time.

The news of Essentia’s agreement comes hours after St. Luke’s reached an agreement with its MNA nurses overnight.

Essentia spokespeople say the MNA will share details of the tentative agreement with its membership and conduct a ratification vote on the agreement no later than Dec. 12.

The MNA bargaining committee unanimously agreed to recommend ratification, according to Essentia spokespeople.

“At Essentia, we are privileged to have skilled, compassionate nurses, and we value their contributions to make a healthy difference in people’s lives. Thanks go to all our colleagues for the teamwork demonstrated as we have been preparing for a potential work stoppage. We appreciate the efforts of the negotiating teams to reach a resolution, allowing us all to continue focusing on providing high-quality patient care to the communities we are privileged to serve,” Essentia spokespeople wrote.

Essentia nurses were set to walk off the job December 11, striking until Dec. 31.

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5 A.M. UPDATE -- A tentative contract agreement has been reached between St. Luke’s Hospital and the Minnesota Nurses Association.

That word came from St. Luke’s representatives just after 11:30 p.m. Monday.

According to the announcement, this agreement means that MNA has withdrawn its strike notice and will bring the contract to nurses for ratification soon.

“We want to thank all who have worked so diligently at the table to reach a fair and equitable contract,” said St. Lukes’s in the announcement.

This agreement does not include nurses at Lake View Hospital in Two Harbors. According to St. Luke’s officials, they will be resuming negations with Lake View nurses because the strike notice was issued after only two sessions.

This all comes as 2,000 Twin Ports and Two Harbors nurses planned to walk off the job again.

RELATED: Twin Ports nurses plan to strike starting Dec. 11

Now, it appears that strike will only involve MNA nurses at Essentia -- unless they also reach an agreement.

That strike is set to start Sunday.

Essentia nurses say they’ll picket through the end of the month.

Editor’s Note: As reflected at the top of this news article, Essentia has since reached a tentative agreement with its MNA nurses after this original article about St. Luke’s tentative agreement was posted.

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