Allina, nurse talks stall after daylong effort
Source: Star Tribune
Sticking point is over who pays for rising costs of union health plans.
By Jeremy Olson
Allina Health and union negotiators for 4,800 of its Twin Cities hospital nurses met Friday for the second time since a one-week nursing strike last month, but they failed to reach agreement on a new contract.
The day started with a new offer from the Minnesota Nurses Association, which proposed to eliminate two of its union-backed health plans for the nurses and increase their costs on two others, in the hope of finding compromise and preventing a second strike.
Both sides traded counteroffers throughout the afternoon, and Allina eventually agreed to retain two of the union health plans — which it called a "significant" concession given that it wanted to eliminate all four plans and switch nurses over to its corporate plans.
But talks stalled Friday night around who would pay for the rising costs of those union plans. The nurses had agreed to increases in their deductibles and copays, but Allina wanted to cap its responsibility for any cost increases in the plans to no more than 2 percent per year.
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Read more: http://www.startribune.com/allina-nurses-seek-to-meet-halfway-on-insurance/387944172/
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