Solvay Hospice House Bargaining

Updates

Essentia Health recognizes the MNA as the union representing staff at the Solvay Hospice House. Essentia Health is committed to working through the usual process of bargaining in good faith to come to a mutually agreeable contract. Bargaining on a new first contract began on Nov. 20, 2024.

Upcoming negotiations scheduled

  • Aug. 28, 2025
  • Sept. 8, 2025

August 14 Update

First contract bargaining progress

This week we held our 10th and 11th bargaining sessions to work toward reaching a first contract with the Minnesota Nurses Association for our Essentia Health colleagues at Solvay Hospice House. Solvay leadership was actively involved at the bargaining table, and the sessions concluded around 6 p.m. yesterday.

Once again a mediator facilitated the sessions, ensuring productive discussions. We began by reviewing the 15 tentative agreements already reached. Throughout the sessions, Essentia responded to additional MNA proposals, resulting in 16 new tentative agreements over two days. We also exchanged proposals on key topics, such as benefits, to move closer to final agreements. The 16 new tentative agreements reached included:

    • Management rights
    • No strike/lockouts
    • Union security
    • Confirmation of employment
    • Precepting
    • Union participation
    • Non-discrimination
    • Health and safety
    • Workplace violence
    • Drug and alcohol testing
    • Pandemic/endemic/disaster planning and preparation
    • Educational development (including tuition reimbursement)
    • Parking
    • On-call
    • Union access to facility
    • Duration

We will continue our efforts to reach a fair and comprehensive first contract for our colleagues at Solvay during our next bargaining sessions scheduled for Aug. 28 and Sept. 8.

July 31 Update

First contract bargaining update

Yesterday, Essentia Health and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) held their ninth bargaining session for Solvay Hospice House. The session was facilitated by a mediator, who engaged with both parties throughout the day.  

The discussions were respectful and constructive, with both parties making progress on several key issues. Essentia provided a recap of tentative agreements reached during the last session on articles such as Labor Management Committee, grievance procedures and orientation. The MNA submitted a package proposal with modified versions of prior proposals, focusing on the confirmation of work agreement and cross-facility floating. There was a productive exchange on these topics, with Essentia clarifying the voluntary nature of the cross-facility floating program and the benefits to colleagues and patients. 

In the later sessions, Essentia responded to the MNA’s proposals by accepting certain terms and dropping mandatory overtime to facilitate agreement on revised articles. Discussions also covered orientation and precepting processes, with nursing leaders providing clarity on expectations. MNA emphasized the need for Solvay to receive terms consistent with other sites on participation and pandemic-related articles, and Essentia expressed openness to considering counterproposals. Essentia ended conversations by reminding the MNA about the outstanding proposals still awaiting their response.  

Overall, the time at the bargaining table fostered meaningful dialogue, with both parties showing a willingness to continue working toward reaching a first contract. The next bargaining sessions are scheduled for Aug. 12 and 13. In response to requests for more dates from the MNA, Essentia provided dates at the end of August and early September. We are waiting for confirmation of those days.  

Solvay Hospice House reopened to hospice patients today after services were temporarily suspended during the MNA strike. We are excited to welcome back our colleagues and patients.

 

July 22 Update on MNA strike

The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) has announced it is withdrawing its strike notice involving nurses who care for patients at our downtown Duluth clinics, Superior Clinic and Miller Hill Surgery Center, along with nurses and staff at Solvay Hospice House.

We are pleased to welcome back all our nurses and staff returning to resume care for their patients and communities. Essentia leaders will be in touch with nurses and staff to safely coordinate the process of returning to work.

The withdrawal of the strike notice is a result of an agreement brokered by a federal mediator who is assisting us with bargaining. First contracts take an average of 18 months to negotiate in health care. We have been bargaining first contracts for the nurses and staff who were out on strike for a year or less, depending on the group.

We have been meeting with the MNA throughout July and still have several scheduled negotiation sessions before the end of the month. We also now have dates scheduled for August. We look forward to reaching a first contract at Solvay Hospice House.

July 21 Update

First contract bargaining update

Essentia Health and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) held productive bargaining sessions on Friday. A facilitator joined all sessions and about 10 observers from Solvay Hospice House attended early sessions. We reached six tentative agreements, and the MNA presented its initial wage proposal late in the day.

Several proposals – including counter and package proposals – were exchanged throughout the day on:

    • Precepting
    • Orientation (tentative agreement reached)
    • Posting of Positions (tentative agreement reached)
    • Labor Management Committee (LMC)
    • Union Participation
    • Non-Discrimination
    • Pandemic & Disaster Planning
    • Personnel Files (tentative agreement reached)
    • Bulletin Boards (tentative agreement reached)
    • Grievance Procedure (tentative agreement reached)
    • Union Security
    • Management Rights
    • Recognition
    • Mandatory Shifts
    • No Strikes/Lockouts
    • Cross-Facility Cooperation
    • Confirmed Work Agreement
    • Holidays
    • Insurance (including employer contribution rates)
    • PTO
    • Retirement
    • Health Screening
    • Definitions, Reduction of Hours, Layoff
    • Discipline and Discharge (tentative agreement reached)
    • Wages

Overall progress: The session yielded meaningful proposals and counterproposals from both sides. Essentia is evaluating the MNA’s wage proposal and plans to respond during its next negotiation session on July 30. We appreciate the mediator’s support in facilitating progress. First contracts in health care take 18 months on average to negotiate; we are now around seven months into this process at Solvay.

A note to our colleagues negotiating first contracts

We have previously explained to the MNA why separate negotiations are crucial, and we want to ensure our colleagues negotiating first contracts understand our perspective as well.

    1. Diverse interests and priorities: Each group has a separate community of interest, unique job duties, facilities and priorities. While there are certainly similarities between some of the units, combining all of them in negotiations could lead to overlooking specific needs. If the MNA thought the nurses and staff at the several facilities had the same community of interest, they could have sought to represent all of them together when they were seeking to organize the separate units.
    2. Coordination complexities: First contract groups are at different stages in negotiations. Aligning them into a single negotiation process would complicate contract management and progress.
    3. Fairness and justice: Rushing this process would not be fair to those most affected by the decisions made at the bargaining table, including our patients, other Essentia colleagues and the nurses and staff at each of the separate facilities.

Negotiation timeline: First contracts in health care typically take 18 months to negotiate. Currently, only two of the six groups have reached the one-year mark and others have only been bargaining for less than six months. The last first contract Essentia negotiated with MNA in Moose Lake took over two years to complete.

Upcoming bargaining dates: We have scheduled additional bargaining sessions for various first contract groups on July 23, 25, 28, 30 and 31. The parties are continuing to discuss additional bargaining dates.

Focus on patient care: We are prioritizing patient care. We invite the MNA to do the same by focusing on reaching agreements at the table, rather than striking and attempting to negotiate all contracts simultaneously.

Bargaining units only get one first contract – and we need the time to do this right. We thank our colleagues bargaining first contracts for considering this perspective as we work toward reaching fair and equitable agreements.

June 18 Update

Bargaining update

On May 29, 2024, colleagues from Solvay House voted to be represented by the MNA for purposes of collective bargaining. Approximately five months later, the MNA requested to meet with Essentia to bargain a first contract on our colleagues’ behalf. Essentia agreed and the parties met for the first time on Nov. 20, 2024.

Since then, Essentia has met with the MNA on nine additional days:

    • Dec.19, 2024
    • Jan. 28, 2025
    • Feb. 13, 2025
    • March 25, 2025
    • March 26, 2025
    • May 1, 2025
    • May 2, 2025
    • May 21, 2025
    • May 29, 2025

Over those days, we have reached 10 tentative agreements on a variety of topics:

    1. Separability and Savings
    2. Labor Agreement
    3. Probationary Period
    4. Voluntary Termination
    5. Identification
    6. Employer Committees
    7. Breakage and Loss
    8. Uniforms
    9. Grievance Procedure
    10. Discipline and Discharge

We continue bargaining over 30-plus other topics including wages and benefits. In the meantime, we continue to maintain the status quo. With negotiations ongoing, we also offered to provide staff at the Solvay Hospice House annual wage increases averaging 3.5% this past April, an offer which was rejected by the MNA.

As we shared during the election campaign when colleagues were considering representation by the MNA, first contracts in health care take an average of 18 months to complete from the beginning of negotiations. We are now approximately seven months into negotiations. We will continue negotiating with the MNA in good faith as we tackle the outstanding issues. We have asked the MNA to provide days that it is available to continue negotiations.

We are grateful for our colleagues’ dedication to providing high-quality care to our community.