AFSCME united for ‘substantive change’ in talks with U

October 18, 2021 by

AFSCME members rally at the U of M Twin Cities campus.

The maroon and gold that typically adorn the University of Minnesota’s campuses have been spiked with AFSCME green this fall, as frontline workers make a public push for higher wages and other demands in contract talks with the school.

Clerical, technical and health care workers, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, have been in bargaining with the university since May. Their previous, two-year contracts expired June 30.

But the slow pace of negotiations has prompted unions to begin putting public pressure on the U to get serious about their demands.

AFSCME members staged rallies on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses Sept. 22 and, two weeks later, marched on a Board of Regents meeting. Tomorrow, Oct. 19, workers will hold informational picketing from noon to 1 p.m. on the corner of Delaware St SE and Church St SE, near Boynton Health Services.

Union members say they will keep the heat on the university until its words of support for frontline workers translate into real gains at the bargaining table.

“The U is interested in image,” Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk said during a rally last month on the steps of Coffman Memorial Union. “U of M AFSCME is interested in substantive change. That’s why we’re here today.”

Demanding pay and respect

Wage raises and “essential pay” are among AFSCME locals’ top demands in bargaining.

All workers deserve wages that keep up with the rising cost of living, the unions say, and workers who kept the university running during the pandemic deserve “tangible appreciation for risking our lives,” said Deb Pavlica, the president of Local 3260 and a nurse at Boynton Health Services.

“The Board of Regents all stayed home safer. President Gable, management, leadership all stayed home safer,” Pavlica said. “But they sent us to the frontline for an extra $16 a day for less than three months…

“We want raises and compensation that acknowledge our sacrifices.”

Beyond higher pay, workers are pushing for contract language that would keep in place remote and flexible work schedules introduced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their demands also include a formal process for appealing management decisions related to remote work.

Diane Blumenfeld, a clerical worker in the university’s dentistry program, said all workers should have the right to “meaningful flexibility” in their work schedule. “During the last year and a half, we have proven that we do not need to be physically in the office to do our jobs well,” she said.

Other AFSCME members at the Sept. 22 rally demanded a more robust Regents Scholarship program for U of M employees. Sarah Vast, a transgender, nonbinary worker, called on the university to do more to make its workplaces “safe, healthy and just for workers of all identities, needs and abilities” and described having to “walk three buildings away to use a restroom that is safe and comfortable.”

Lei Simmons, a clerical worker at Masonic Cancer Research Center and member of Local 3800, demanded the contract reflect a commitment to racial and social justice that goes beyond “diversity training” and begins the work of addressing and eliminating bias.

“The University of Minnesota has a history of turning that blind eye. We have a history of managers rationalizing and justifying behaviors that demean people,” Simmons said. “Each person that is at the university as a student and as a worker has the right to be respected.”

Support and solidarity

University students and non-AFSCME staff joined the rally in support of the workers’ contract campaign. Members of other unions – including the Communications Workers (CWA), Service Employees (SEIU) and Education Minnesota – also showed their solidarity.

“We support the workers here fighting for what’s right,” CWA Local 7250 President Kieran Knutson said. “No business as usual until there’s justice for the workers.”

Greg Namacher, president of SEIU Local 26, noted that U of M AFSCME members supported janitors when they went on strike in February 2020.

“It is critical that we stand with each other when we’re fighting for what’s right, especially in this moment,” he said. “It is also critical that we stand together to push the university to be an engine of economic and racial justice – and not an impediment to it.”

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U of M relents in contract talks as workers stick together for raises and respect

December 11, 2015 by
Teamsters and AFSCME members rallied on the Twin Cities campus earlier this year as part of their joint campaign for fair contracts.

Teamsters and AFSCME members rallied on the Twin Cities campus earlier this year as part of their joint campaign for fair contracts.

Frontline workers at the University of Minnesota stood together for nearly six months, waging a contract campaign for raises and respect.

Now that strategy is paying off, as three bargaining units – Teamsters Local 320 and AFSCME Locals 3800 and 3801 – have announced tentative agreements with the U that include 2 percent wage increases, equitable family leave policies and other union demands.

Bargaining teams for all three local unions are recommending members vote to ratify the two-year contracts in the coming weeks.

By sticking together and staging several public events, workers were able to move the U’s negotiators, who for months held firm that they had no interest in discussing expanded family leave and could do no better than annual raises of less than 1 percent.

“We arrived today in bargaining on Dec. 10 and found that the university was finally willing to negotiate over our core issues,” Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk said in a video announcing the union’s tentative agreement, posted online.

“It is because (of) the efforts of all of us collectively that we were able to get the best contract that we have achieved in years,” she added.

Local 3800 and 3801, which represent clerical workers at the U, won tentative agreements that include a $15 minimum wage, annual wage and step increases amounting to about 2 percent and no increases in workers’ health insurance premiums.

Clerical workers also won six weeks of paid parental leave for birth mothers – a four-week increase that achieves equity with faculty and administrators – and a memorandum of understanding with the university regarding bullying in the workplace.

“This is a contract that, we believe, begins to address the disparities between employee groups at the university,” Horazuk said.

Local 320, which represents custodial, food service, animal and land-care workers at campuses across the state, reached an agreement with similar wage increases and benefit terms earlier this month.

“By standing with AFSCME, we showed the university that it’s no longer business as usual,” Local 320 said in a statement. “We showed the university that frontline workers at the university are ready to fight for a fair contract.”

AFSCME Local 3937, which represents technical workers at the university, resumes bargaining Monday. AFSCME Local 3260, which represents non-professional health care workers at the U of M, is also in negotiations.

All told, the contract negotiations affect about 4,000 workers at the U.

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Bragg lends star power to AFSCME rally at U of M

September 26, 2013 by
afscme-billybrag1

Billy Bragg performs during an AFSCME rally for affordable health care on the steps of Morrill Hall.

Folk-rocker Billy Bragg gave a union rally on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus a kick in the pants today, performing an impromptu, two-song set on the steps of Morrill Hall – and throwing his support behind the U’s frontline workers as they bargain for affordable health care coverage.

[Click here to sign a petition in support of U of M workers’ proposal for a sliding-scale health care plan for all university employees.]

Bragg, an Englishman whose songwriting blends the energy of punk rock with the protest spirit of American folk music, said people in his country are puzzled by the United States’ for-profit approach to health care.

He acknowledged Americans’ “spirit of individualism,” but said unless access to health care, education and other services are guaranteed for all, “only the rich and powerful will get to express their individualism, and the rest of us will be exploited by them.”

Bragg, playing a sold-out show in Minneapolis tonight, performed “I Keep Faith,” a song off his most recent album, and the classic labor song “There Is Power in a Union,” which, not surprisingly, went over well with the crowd of about 100 people.

“Political parties change their spots, but labor unions are always standing up for working people,” Bragg said.

Randy Brooks, a library worker at the U of M and members of AFSCME Local 3937, joins the rally for affordable health care.

Bill Hill, a library worker at the U of M and member of AFSCME Local 3937, joins the rally for affordable health care.

Clerical and technical workers at the university, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, planned the rally as a demonstration against the U’s most recent contract proposal, which would shift $1.8 million in health care costs onto all employees.

AFSCME leaders say the proposal would hit the U’s lowest-paid workers hardest. They countered with a sliding scale, which would determine health care premiums according to an employee’s wages or salary.

“We are leading the charge in our collective bargaining sessions to stop these changes to our health care,” AFSCME Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk said. “We reject the U’s proposal for higher co-pays and deductibles and other cost-shifting schemes.”

Administrators say the U must shift some costs onto employees in order to avoid taxes on the health plan under the federal health care reform law. AFSCME Council 5 Chief of Staff Eric Lehto rejected that argument, pointing to the most-recent contract bargained by AFSCME members and the State of Minnesota.

“Gov. Dayton didn’t use the Affordable Care Act as an excuse,” Lehto said. “I ask (U of M) President Eric Kaler, why are you trying to do that when the State of Minnesota didn’t?”

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