Amid strike, nurses union asks attorney general to scrutinize Allina's finances

Allina Health and union leaders for some 4,800 striking nurses are trading increasingly pointed barbs as the strike continues.

The union said it figures Allina will spend some $25 million on replacements for striking nurses. Union attorney Mathew Keller questioned whether it's reasonable for Allina to spend that much money on a strike when it's demanding much smaller savings on union health benefits.

"Allina is spending over $25 million on this nurse strike at least. In order to save $10 million. Just doesn't make sense," he said.

Union leaders also called on the state attorney general to scrutinize Allina's executive pay, board membership and finances.

The union said Allina makes so much money from caring for patients that the company doesn't need the health benefit savings it's demanding at the bargaining table.

But Allina CEO Penny Wheeler said her organization's focus is health care, not profits.

"Our operating margin is about 3 percent and an operating margin of about 3 percent is what is needed in healthcare organizations to reinvest in medical equipment, the facilities they have and the staff that they have," she said.

Allina has about $3.8 billion in annual revenue. A 3 percent operating margin would put the nonprofit about $114 million in the black.

Wheeler said the union is misrepresenting everything from the performance of replacement nurses to Allina's finances. She said replacing striking nurses for a week could indeed cost the company $25 million. But Wheeler questioned the union's decision to launch a strike when the company is offering the nurses "perfectly good health insurance."

Allina says that the nurses' current health plan is too costly to be sustainable. The company wants to shift the nurses to a plan that covers most employees. Premiums would be lower but an individual's net health care costs would depend on the person's health needs and care.

Allina says the union has misrepresented the plan's potential costs to employees, saying it could cost $12,000 to have a baby, for instance. The hospital system says the average patient cost for a vaginal delivery, without complications, is about $1,000.

A spokesperson for the attorney general says the office will review the union's concerns about Allina once a request comes in.