http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2017/07/why_are_nurses_at_tufts_medica.html


More than 1,200 nurses at Tufts Medical Center are set to go on strike Wednesday morning after a last-ditch effort to reach a contract deal with hospital officials failed. Both sides spent hours negotiating Tuesday but couldn’t reach a compromise. The Massachusetts Nurses Association said its members would go on strike at 7 a.m. Wednesday. It will be the first strike at a Boston hospital in more than 30 years.
http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/07/12/tufts-nurses-strike

Minneapolis-based Allina Health saw revenues increase in the first six months of 2016, but the 13-hospital health system’s operating income and net income fell in the first half of the year.
Allina revenues increased 4.1 percent year over year to nearly $2 billion in the six months ended June 30, according to bondholder documents. The financial boost was attributable to increased patient volume. Allina said inpatient admissions were up 0.5 percent and outpatient hospital admissions were up 3.1 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period of 2015.
The system said operating income decreased by 40 percent year over year to $54 million in the first six months of 2016. The decrease was largely due to strike expenses. Allina said it incurred $20.4 million of expenses related to the seven-day strike in June called by the Minnesota Nurses Association.
The nurses association authorized the strike after Allina nurses overwhelmingly rejected an offer by the health system that would have eliminated union-backed health insurance and moved the workers to plans that other health system employees receive. During the strike, Allina brought in 1,400 replacement nurses.



The Oakland-based California Nurses Association won a big union-organizing vote Thursday night at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center, according to the union. The tally was 696 votes for CNA and 305 votes for a rival union, United Nurses Associations of California.