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DULUTH — More than 700 Essentia Health workers — including over 300 clinic nurses and roughly 400 Advanced Practice Providers — are returning to work this week following the conclusion of two coordinated unfair labor practice strikes aimed at drawing attention to alleged labor violations by the Duluth-based healthcare system.
The nurses and providers, represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association, accused Essentia executives of failing to bargain in good faith and cited numerous unfair labor practices (ULPs), including alleged threats against workers and interference in union activity.
The two-week strike by clinic nurses is scheduled to end Wednesday, while the APP strike concluded Tuesday. Together, the job actions marked the first coordinated ULP strike of clinic nurses and APPs in state history.
“We’ve made it clear that patients in clinics deserve the same safe standards as patients in hospitals — and we won’t stop until they get them,” said Dana Bukovich, a registered nurse at Essentia’s Superior Clinic.
The nurses work at several area clinics and outpatient facilities, including 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street, Superior Clinics, and the Miller Hill Surgery Center, along with Solvay Hospice House. The APPs — including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists — represented 69 rural and regional facilities across northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
Union officials said the decision to end the strike came after Essentia agreed to consolidate four separate bargaining units of clinic nurses into one group and scheduled additional negotiating sessions.
MNA spokespersons said they were encouraged by recent movement at the bargaining table, but expressed frustration that Essentia held only three sessions during the strike and walked away from negotiations on both Wednesday and Friday last week.
“We offered to meet every day,” an MNA statement said. “Essentia instead chose to pay expensive replacement workers and delay progress.”
The APP union members continue to face what MNA describes as stonewalling through a legal appeal Essentia has filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The union maintains that the appeal does not exempt the health system from its duty to bargain, as the union remains legally certified.
“This wasn’t just a strike in Duluth,” said Kelly Higgins, an APP at Essentia. “Rural providers, small-town clinics — we all showed up. We made sure people saw the real story: care in our communities is on the line, and we’re ready to fight for it.”
The MNA emphasized that unfair labor practice charges filed against Essentia remain active and unresolved. Those charges, union leaders said, will not be dropped until management takes demonstrable steps to address the alleged violations.
“This campaign has redefined what healthcare workers in Duluth — and across Minnesota — are willing to fight for,” the MNA said in a statement. “From clinics to hospital floors, from RNs to APPs, the message is clear: patients must come first.”
The union argues that better working conditions, meaningful bargaining, and greater clinician input into healthcare decisions will improve outcomes and reduce workplace violence and patient readmissions.
As workers return to their jobs, both sides are expected to resume talks in an attempt to reach long-awaited first contracts.
