
More than 15,000 nurses in the Twin Cities and Duluth area are set to vote on contracts that averted a massive strike.
The last of the contracts was approved by negotiators Thursday when the Minnesota Nurses Association reached a tentative agreement with Hennepin Health Care.
The deal sets wage increases equal to what was reached in other contract talks earlier in the week.
Voting by all rank-and-file members begins Friday, resumes Monday and ends on Tuesday.
The nurses had planned to walk off the job on Sunday, but those plans were pulled back when MNA members at most hospitals announced contract agreements this past Tuesday morning.
In September, the nurses union staged a three-day strike in an effort to kick-start negotiations.
Union president Mary Turner called the agreements historic for nurses because they include unprecedented language to address understaffing issues, an item that she said was never before included in nurses' contracts.
The nurses union plans to reveal results of the vote next Wednesday