Nurses have an agreement

The Minnesota Nurses Association and more than a dozen hospitals in the Twin Cities area and Duluth reported tentative agreements on new three-year labor contracts Tuesday, averting a walkout by thousands of nurses that was scheduled to start Sunday.

The union said it has reached tentative deals with Children’s Minnesota, North Memorial, Allina Health, M Health Fairview and HealthPartners — all in the Twin Cities — as well as Essentia Health and St. Luke’s in Duluth. It’s recommending that its members vote to ratify the agreements, and has called off the strike.

The union said the new contracts include pay raises of 18 percent over three years for Twin Cities nurses, and 17 percent for nurses in Duluth.

It also said the agreements contain “unprecedented language” giving nurses a say in staffing issues — something Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association and a nurse at North Memorial, said was the “most important part.”