Nearly 600 nurses at North Memorial Health’s Maple Grove Hospital are set to vote Monday, May 11, on whether to authorize an unfair-labor-practice strike after more than a year of stalled contract negotiations. A “yes” vote would hand the nurses’ elected bargaining team the authority to call a strike later if talks break down and legal notice requirements are met. It would not, by itself, trigger a walkout.
According to the Minnesota Nurses Association, nurses began bargaining in May 2025 and say progress has been slowed by what the union describes as repeated unfair labor practices targeting union supporters. “This vote reflects how seriously we are taking the conditions we are facing,” said Lisa Groebner, RN, a member of the bargaining team. Nurses tell the union they are pushing for safer staffing, equal pay and benefits with North Memorial’s Robbinsdale nurses, and contract protections in case of a sale or merger.
Hospital response and NLRB filing
North Memorial Health says it remains committed to reaching a deal and has circulated FAQs and internal messages urging nurses to gather information and weigh their options, while noting that employers face limits on what they can say during union elections. As explained on North Memorial Health, the system says it favors direct communication with employees instead of third-party representation and maintains it is following federal law throughout the process. The National Labor Relations Board docket shows an unfair-labor-practice case connected to Maple Grove was filed on Feb. 11, 2026, and later closed.
What nurses are saying
Nurses say their priorities are clear and not especially glamorous: safer staffing ratios, pay and benefit parity with North Memorial’s Robbinsdale nurses, and enforceable protections intended to keep care stable if ownership changes, according to the Minnesota Nurses Association. The union points to what it calls a disconnect between those goals and recent system investments, including a $450 million expansion at Maple Grove and reported 2025 operating revenue figures, as evidence that the resources exist to address staffing and retention concerns. If the authorization vote passes, the bargaining team would gain the power to issue a strike notice with required advance warning. The union says such a walkout would be the first in Maple Grove Hospital’s history.
Why this matters
The Maple Grove vote falls in line with a broader pattern of Minnesota nurses turning to strike authorization when talks stall. Last summer, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association at Essentia Health walked picket lines for 13 days before returning to work as negotiations resumed, according to the Duluth News Tribune. For a closer look at how the current dispute is unfolding, local coverage of the Maple Grove vote is available from KARE 11. Both union leaders and hospital officials say they want to avoid disruptions to patient care, framing the vote as a critical test of whether bargaining can still deliver a timely agreement.
Ballots will be counted after Monday’s vote. The outcome will determine whether the union’s bargaining team can escalate to a formal strike notice or keep talks at the table without that added leverage. For now, both sides say they intend to continue negotiating and stress their focus on patient safety, even as they brace for whatever path the vote opens up.
