HealthPartners workers held a strike-authorization vote at the Carpenters’ union hall in St. Paul.
Members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 12 who work at HealthPartners have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced Saturday, with support from over 98% of voting members.
The union represents about 1,000 workers at 31 HealthPartners facilities in the Twin Cities. Union members staff the check-in desks at clinics and work in back-office positions like scheduling, claims and accounting.
Members of Local 12’s bargaining team said they could file a 10-day notice of their intent to strike as early as this week, depending on the outcome of negotiations scheduled today and Tuesday.
The union began talks with HealthPartners in September, and negotiations have continued past the previous contract’s expiration date Nov. 30.
The two sides remain far apart on wages. After initially offering annual raises of just 0.25% over the next three years, management came back to the table last month with proposed 2.5% increases. HealthPartners also reduced its proposed cut to workers’ health care benefits, from a 500% increase in costs to a 150% increase, according to Local 12.
Those are steps in the right direction, union members said during a strike vote in St. Paul last Wednesday, but not enough to settle the contract.
Denise Dilla, a scheduler who works at HealthPartners’ Specialty Center in St. Paul, called this round of bargaining the worst she has experienced in her 27 years working for the health care provider. Management’s initial wage proposals amounted to pocket change, she said, and insulted many rank-and-file members.
“I can’t afford to strike, but I can’t afford to take their proposal either,” Dilla said.
HealthPartners also has demanded changes to Local 12 members’ seniority rights and sought to remove long-standing provisions, like sick-and-safe-time benefits, from the contract.
Chaytia Burnett, a clinical assistant at the clinic in Woodbury, said bargaining team members have put their calculators to work, comparing HealthPartners’ meager contract proposals to the compensation increases CEO Andrea Walsh has seen in recent years.
Walsh earns about $3.6 million annually, according to the most recent nonprofit filings available.
“The employer is making it seem that we’re asking for too much and that they are broke, which is not true, when the CEO makes $1,800 hour, and most of our members don’t make that much in a two-week pay period,” Burnett said.
Local 12 members gave HealthPartners a glimpse of what a strike might look like during informational picketing at all 31 facilities last November. Burnett, who works two jobs to make ends meet, said union members will look to the labor community for support if they are forced to walk off the job.
“Some of us are losing our homes, staying in our cars, worrying about where our next meal is coming from, and worrying about our families and children being fed,” Burnett said. “This strike has a lot more on the table that we’re willing to fight for. This strike stands for human dignity and respect toward members who are putting everything on the line.”
Union Advocate 