Allina nurses, represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association, began their second strike of the summer on Labor Day at five Minnesota hospitals. The two sides have failed to reach a deal. No further talks between Allina and the nurses are scheduled.
A key issue in the dispute has been the nurses’ health insurance. Allina wanted to eliminate the nurses’ four union-backed health plans, which include high premiums but low or no deductibles, and move the nurses to its corporate plans, reports the Star Tribune. Allina has estimated that eliminating the nurses’ four union-backed health plans would save the health system $10 million per year.
Roger Feldman, an economics professor at the University of Minnesota, had his students dispute the issue. Writing for the Star Tribune, he said he divided his students into 10 groups of four to five and asked each group to represent the union or hospital management and bargain for 30 minutes. Two issues the students took on were “cost-sharing” and “diminishment of benefits.”
In the Allina dispute with nurses, the health system has proposed a limit on the total amount it will pay for premiums in 2019 at 3 percent more than the 2018 level; however, the union does not want a cost-sharing cap, he said in the report. As far as diminishment of benefits, he writes that Allina wants “a free hand to cut the actuarial value of the company plans by up to 5 percent per year” once the nurses switch health plans, while the MNA wants “no more than a 5 percent cut over the life of the contract.” Allina wants its actuaries to verify the cuts, while the union wants hand-picked actuaries chosen by both sides, he notes.
Mr. Feldman said in the report all of his students agreed to use an independent actuary or the union’s proposal for actuaries representing both sides.
But not all groups were always on the same page. Mr. Feldman said in the report one group, for instance, agreed to hospital management’s diminishing target, but set the cost-sharing cap at 6 percent and agreed to give each member a $2,000 ratification bonus. Another group, he wrote, also gave hospital management the right to cut benefits, but stipulated that if the cutback is too large, some of the value will be given back to the nurses. That group set the cost-sharing cap at 5 percent and raised the bonus from $500, what Allina is offering, to $700.
In the end, Mr. Feldman claims all of his students realized they would have to compromise. The strike ended after the 30-minute bargaining session.
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