Allina, Nurses to Meet Friday

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Negotiators will return to the bargaining table Friday in hopes of averting a nurses' strike at five Twin Cities hospitals.

The Minnesota Nurses Association represents 4,800 nurses at the affected hospitals. Union officials and Allina Health representatives said Tuesday that federal mediators have called both sides back together.

The union is scheduled to strike at 7 a.m. Monday, Labor Day, in a dispute over health insurance, workplace safety and staffing.

MNA spokesman Rick Fuentes says Allina's latest health insurance proposal still shifts too many costs to nurses.

Allina spokesman David Kanihan says management expects the nurses to come back with a counterproposal Friday.

The affected hospitals are Abbott Northwestern and the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United in St. Paul, Unity in Fridley and Mercy in Coon Rapids.