Gov. Dayton meets with Allina, striking nurses
Gov. Mark Dayton called leaders of Allina Health and the union representing more than 4,000 of its striking hospital nurses together Monday — hoping to hasten an end to what is now a historically long nursing strike for Minnesota.
The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the governor’s residence, and a statement from Dayton’s office indicated that “both sides are asked to continue meeting at the residence until their remaining differences are resolved in a way that puts patient care first.”
Allina and its nurses have engaged in more than 20 negotiating sessions since February that have focused largely on health insurance. Nurses have voted three times in the past five months to reject contract offers that would have phased out their popular union health insurance plans — with the first of those votes prompting a seven-day strike in June and the second prompting the open-ended strike that started Labor Day and has lasted 36 days so far.
Together, the two strikes are longer than the 38-day strike in 1984 that also involved Allina and its nurses in a battle over seniority rules.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/dayton-meets-with-allina-striking-nurses/396535871/