ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Nurses at Sanford Bemidji Health Center have approved a new contract that includes a 3 percent pay raise over three years.

The agreement also gives the nurses more say in staffing and scheduling, and makes changes in health care and retirement benefits.

The deal comes after months of negotiations and a threatened strike.

Joy Johnson, chief operating officer for Sanford Bemidji, tells Minnesota Public Radio News that both sides compromised.

In a statement, union bargaining team member Peter Danielson calls the contract one the “nurses can feel good about.”

Bemidji union nurses overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer and authorized a strike July 28. The union never set a strike date, and the nurses continued to work.

The Minnesota Nurses Association has 230 members working as RNs at Sanford Bemidji.

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