Brainerd Bargaining

Essentia Health recognizes the MNA as the union representing nearly 300 nurses at Essentia Health-St. Joseph Medical Center. Essentia Health is committed to working through the usual process of bargaining in good faith to come to a mutually agreeable contract.

Sept. 11 Update

2025 negotiations with MNA

The collective bargaining agreement between Essentia Health and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) covering nurses in Brainerd expires Oct. 31, 2025. Our goal is to reach an agreement as close to the expiration date as possible. 

We want to ensure you are kept informed with current and accurate information about negotiations. We have established this website to share bargaining updates with you. Please check back often for information before the start of negotiations and for regular updates once contract talks begin.

So far, the MNA has agreed to six bargaining dates: Sept. 23, Oct. 1, Oct. 2, Oct. 8, Oct. 13 and Oct. 21. If need be, Essentia and the MNA will discuss adding bargaining dates to ensure the necessary time to reach an agreement beneficial to both parties. We will share information regularly before and during negotiations to help you remain well-informed throughout the bargaining process. We will also share this information during rounding and through email.

Our nurses’ voices

We recognize that nurses have an important voice in our care teams. We have been listening to our nurses over the last three years through our Nurse Practice Councils, shift huddles, Glint surveys, our Labor Management Committee, as well as through the opinions and concerns nurses have raised directly to nurse leaders and charge nurses. We will do our best to take those issues into consideration through negotiations. We are always open to learning more from our nurses.

Working together

As always, we strongly encourage our nurses to continue to communicate and seek answers to questions from us directly. Through open dialogue, we can work together as a cohesive team.

Earlier this year, we reached a contract agreement with acute care nurses working in the Twin Ports. We are currently negotiating with Essentia Health nurses who care for patients at Essentia Health-Virginia.

We have been able to make progress by coming together and looking for common ground focused on delivering high-quality health care to our patients in a sustainable way, ensuring our colleagues have a safe and healthy workplace, and providing a competitive wage and benefits package. We are very hopeful to have positive results in Brainerd, and we are committed to devoting the proper time to do so.

We appreciate all our nurses do for Essentia and our patients. Our colleagues and our patients are our priority, and we look forward to working toward an agreement at upcoming bargaining sessions, which begin Tuesday, Sept. 23.