SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa

10/08/2026

🚨BREAKING🚨

Allina SEIU Hospice Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement for First Union Contract

After over a year of bargaining and 1 & 7-day ULP strikes, group of nurses wins many improvements for their essential work

MINNESOTA – Allina hospice nurses with SEIU Healthcare MN & IA reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with their employer Wednesday night on their first union contract. The deal came at the end of a day when the hospice nurses had planned to vote on whether to authorize an open-ended ULP strike, following 1-day and 7-day ULP strikes that happened this summer and fall. After significant progress was made on priority issues for the nurses on Monday and Tuesday, the union’s bargaining team decided to postpone the strike vote to see if they could reach a TA with Allina on Wednesday, which they did around 8pm last night.

Abby MacDonald, a RN Case Manager for over three years at Allina and member of the SEIU bargaining team, shared the group’s excitement and relief to achieve this TA::

“We are incredibly proud to have won this Tentative Agreement, which represents meaningful progress toward addressing the key issues hospice nurses have been fighting to change. We are deeply grateful to every member of our bargaining unit, as well as our patients, our community, and our fellow unions who stood with us throughout this fight. The support helped us push for the changes necessary to recruit and retain the best nurses to do this critical work. Through organizing, bargaining, and two ULP strikes, we demonstrated, and experienced, the incredible power of solidarity. This fight has strengthened our collective voice and will continue to guide us as we work to ensure that the essential work of caring for dying patients and their families is respected, valued, and supported. This victory belongs to all of us.”

The full details are being shared with the membership, but highlights include:
-- A union wage scale, establishing a fair and consistent system for compensation and guaranteed additional raises up to 20 years of nursing experience
--Immediate wage increases for all hospice nurses, with an average first-year increase of 10%. And these initial wage increases will be back-dated to August 1.
--Annual increases in compensation for all nurses of 3% in year two and 3% in year three of the agreement
-- Extra pay for extra work. 1.5x pay on a daily basis when nurses complete their assigned patient-care work beyond their normal scheduled day, including when they need to work long to complete their charting.
-- A more fair mileage-reimbursement system, for nurses who have no office and drive for a living, going from one dying patient’s home to another and another throughout their workday.
--And much more

Phillip Cryan, Executive Vice President of SEIU Healthcare MN & IA, shared the union’s appreciation for representatives of Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office helping make this TA possible:

“The hospice nurses have fought so hard for so long to reach this deal, and they experienced great frustration at earlier stages of the process. Hospice nurses don’t go out on strike, twice, without feeling deeply disrespected and unheard. But in the last couple weeks, since the second of those strikes, things changed significantly and we have made a ton of progress in this final stage of the negotiations. We are so appreciative of representatives from Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, who stepped in over the last couple weeks to work with both parties to make this strong first contract possible.”

The group will be holding a ratification vote on the TA next Monday. The group, which brings together over 60 hospice nurses who support Minnesotans who are at home for their final days, voted to form their union in March of 2025 and held dozens of bargaining sessions over the last year and a half.

The TA comes at a time when California-based Sutter Health is attempting to purchase Allina Health, an acquisition that Attorney General Keith Ellison is currently reviewing to determine whether it is in the public interest of the people of Minnesota. The proposed acquisition has raised questions and concerns from frontline workers, patients and community members.

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SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa unites nearly 60,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout Minnesota and Iowa.

10/06/2026

10/03/2026

Our 2026 Convention has started, celebrating 93 years of our Union!

10/02/2026

THE FUTURE IS UNION MADE
Join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa’s 2026 Convention and Leadership Assembly for important resolutions, inspiring speakers and incredible performances by MILK, Minnesota Junoon, Afrocontigbo and Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue!

Saturday, October 3, 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton Bloomington, 7800 Normandale Boulevard, Hwy 100, Bloomington, MN 55439

Convention: 8:45 a.m. to noon
Assembly: 1 to 5 p.m., reception to follow

Open to SEIU HCMNIA members in good standing.
Register: seiuhcmnia.org/2026registration

10/01/2026

The future is union made, and we all have a hand in building it. Join us for the 2026 SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa Member Convention and Leadership Assembly, with important resolutions, inspiring speakers and entertainment as we shape our union’s priorities and build our collective power.
(open to SEIU HCMNIA members in good standing)

Saturday, October 3, at DoubleTree by Hilton Bloomington.
Member Convention from 8:45AM
Leadership Assembly from 1PM
(with a reception to follow)

Bring your voice, your ideas and a food donation for our CARE Food Pantry.

Register: seiuhcmnia.org/2026registration

10/01/2026

SEIU member, Erin Woodruff (they/them) Pharmacy Technician at Allina United Hospital, testifying at the Senate Hearing on Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions. Our coalition who have packed the room today demand that hospital CEOs sign a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement that commits to:

📌Keep our healthcare costs from getting even higher
📌Maintain services and keep facilities open that our families depend on
📌Stronger worker protections for healthcare providers, hospital staff, including honoring existing labor contracts

✊Take Action: https://secure.ngpvan.com/VJ79ogDyYEC63ILds1sR-A2

👩‍💻More info: www.savemnhealthcare.com

10/01/2026

Attorney says one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Minnesota history is a reminder for clinicians to take time with patients and for health systems not to overschedule appointments.

09/30/2026

🚨BIG NEWS🚨At First Bargaining Session Since 7-Day ULP Strike, Allina Hospice Nurses See Continued Lack of Movement on Key Priorities from Employer, Will Be Holding Vote for Open-Ended ULP Strike

MINNESOTA – At their first bargaining session since Allina hospice nurses with SEIU Healthcare MN & IA went out on a powerful 7-Day ULP strike, Allina continued their refusal to address key issues of workload, nurse burnout, and additional compensation for extra hours worked that the hospice nurses brought to the table, leaving the parties far apart on a deal tonight.

Dawn Sloneker, a RN for 30 years who has been an Allina hospice nurse for five years and is a member of the Union’s bargaining team, shared the group’s frustration and anger at Allina’s lack of movement today and why they are going to hold a vote for an open-ended ULP strike:

“We came into bargaining today feeling hopeful there would be serious back and forth about all the issues. We made some progress in the morning on the issue of granting experience credit to nurses for work they’d done prior to being hired by Allina, but after that the employer clearly wasn’t willing to hear our concerns on many other priorities for the nurses. Those other important issues include reasonable limits on the number of weekends and on-call shifts we can be required to work, extra compensation when we are required to do extra work, holiday pay, and a fair mileage policy, Our team did the hard work of narrowing down our requests to a few key things but the employer did not show any willingness to make progress on them.

The bargaining team will be going back to the membership in the next week to hold a vote for a potential open-ended ULP strike.

Sloneker shared the exhaustion and anger the nurses felt following the employer’s unwillingness to reach a fair deal:

“It feels like we are being forced by Allina to move towards another strike, which is 100% not where we wanted to be when we walked into the bargaining room today. Today’s lack of progress, following our 7-day ULP strike, was a total slap in the face. We want to make our lives better so we can give our patients the best care possible. It seems Allina doesn’t care about their nurses or the patients we care for. We are running on empty and cannot continue to do so. Excellent, dedicated hospice nurses are leaving Allina, which is why we are fighting for a fair contract that respects our work and allows us to care for our patients.”

The group brings together more than 60 hospice nurses who provide critical end-of-life care in patients' homes, assisted living communities, and skilled nursing facilities. Since voting to form their union over a year-and-a-half ago, they have held a 1-Day ULP strike and the recent 7-Day ULP Strike as negotiations have dragged on for their first union contract.

This all comes at a time when California-based Sutter Health is attempting to purchase Allina Health, a merger that Attorney General Keith Ellison is currently reviewing to determine whether it is in the public interest of the people of Minnesota. The proposed acquisition has raised questions and concerns from frontline workers, patients and community members.

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SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa unites nearly 60,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout Minnesota and Iowa.

09/29/2026

Minnesota-based healthcare providers HealthPartners and Essentia Health announced Tuesday they are planning to merge, which would create one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the upper Midwest. FULL STORY: bit.ly/4daClbA

09/29/2026

Mayo Clinic charged admitted patients on private insurance more than twice as much as Medicare patients in 2022, according to a RAND study from 2024 on hospital pricing. For outpatient services — procedures that don’t involve an overnight stay — the world-renowned hospital system based in sout...