Minnesota Nurses Association v. Allina Health

Background

Minnesota Nurses Association, a labor organization representing registered nurses, sued Allina Health concerning an arbitration award issued after Allina terminated Cliff Willmeng, who had worked in the Emergency Department at United Hospital. The dispute involved United’s dress-code requirement that nurses in direct patient care wear personal navy-blue scrubs, except in specified circumstances allowing hospital-provided scrubs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Willmeng repeatedly wore hospital-provided scrubs because he believed personal scrubs could carry the virus home to his family. Allina warned him about the dress-code violation and separately investigated an April 24, 2020 workplace confrontation. United terminated him on May 8, 2020, citing continued dress-code violations and violations of its respectful-workplace policy and code of conduct.

The Union pursued a grievance under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. On April 20, 2021, the arbitrator granted the discharge grievance in part and denied it in part, directing Allina to reinstate Willmeng without back pay. The arbitrator denied the Union’s workforce-safety and unfair-labor-practice grievances. After Allina sought reconsideration and a stay of reinstatement, the arbitrator denied those requests.

Motions and legal standard

The Union moved under Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction directing Allina to comply with the arbitration award. The court applied the same standards to both forms of relief. Those standards require consideration of the likelihood of success, irreparable harm, the balance of harms, and the public interest. Irreparable harm means harm that cannot adequately be compensated through money damages.

Allina filed a cross-motion to vacate the arbitration award. The opinion states that the parties agreed they would not address that motion’s merits at that time.

Court’s analysis

The Union argued that Allina’s refusal to comply harmed the Union’s ability to represent its members and that Willmeng faced continuing employment, health-insurance, medical-expense, and retirement-related hardships. The court concluded that these alleged injuries were compensable through money damages. It also found that the Union provided no support for its argument that Allina’s refusal struck at the core of the Union’s representational ability.

Because the Union failed to establish irreparable harm, which the court identified as an independently sufficient reason to deny preliminary relief, the court did not analyze the remaining injunction factors.

Disposition

The court ordered that the Plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction was DENIED. The opinion does not decide the merits of Allina’s cross-motion to vacate the arbitration award.