St. Paul educators reach tentative deal, shift focus to levy campaign

August 14, 2025 by

SPFE members and community supporters rallied in 2020 to support the union’s contract campaign. (UA file photo)

The St. Paul Federation of Educators last week reached a tentative agreement on new union contracts covering about 4,000 teachers, education assistants and school professionals working in the state’s second-largest school district.

If union members and the Board of Education vote to ratify the two-year contracts, they could take effect before the district’s first day of school.

That’s a big departure from recent bargaining cycles, which take place every two years. Talks between the St. Paul Public Schools and SPFE typically extend deep into the school year and have often required assistance from a state mediator.

Educators had voted to authorize a strike in each round of talks since 2018. They went on strike for a week in 2020.

This time around, SPFE and the district committed to a robust summer bargaining schedule, meeting for full days instead of evenings. Union negotiators credited the early settlement to engagement both from rank-and-file members, who spoke to the union’s proposals during open bargaining, and from district leaders.

Erica Schatzlein, SPFE’s lead negotiator, said newly hired Superintendent Stacie Stanley and school board members – at least one of whom attended every session – set a new tone for the collective bargaining process.

Stanley’s predecessor, Joe Gothard, would “show up on the first night in a suit, stand up, give a speech and then we would not see him again typically until very close to a strike date,” Schatzlein, who has been part of the union’s negotiations team since 2012, said.

“Dr. Stanley wasn’t there all the time – we expect that she can’t be – but she was there often. In crunch time she was there pretty much the whole time, for a lot of hard discussions, and she participated. She offered some solutions. It was a very different vibe.”

Focused on dignity

Educators and the district make bargaining sessions open to the public, and SPFE took steps to turn out its members in support of their negotiators. The union provided child care, held cookouts and brought in an ice-cream truck.

SPFE also took a new approach to presenting its contract proposals, organizing members with similar interests into “bargaining action teams,” which joined the union’s elected negotiators whenever those issues were on the agenda.

Schatzlein, an English-learner teacher at Nokomis North Middle School, declined to discuss economic gains until they had been presented to union members, but she said the strategy built on the SPFE’s work over the last two decades to expand the scope of bargaining and push for the “schools St. Paul students deserve.”

“We went into this round talking about dignity,” she said. “We’re in a political climate right now where things that would have shocked us eight years ago are happening all the time. So what do we need to do to shore up our contract language to provide dignity for our members and our students and families across the district?”

The district agreed to language that protects students’ right to be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns – and protects educators from discipline for using them. SPPS also agreed language that recommits the district to educating every student in the district, regardless of immigration status.

The new contract delivers new standards on staffing, training and beyond for educators at RiverEast, which provides therapeutic services to students in the district with acute special-education needs.

Another contract gain will give school nurses more time to complete legal paperwork and track down the authorizations they need to administer medications or other health services to students. Schatzlein said the bargaining action team of SPFE nurses was especially effective at the negotiations table.

“They came and presented the proposal and said, ‘This is what we need,’” she said. “And at the next meeting, the district’s head of Health and Wellness came to the table and actually said that’s not what nurses need.

“That’s really shocking if you think about it, to say, ‘I know better what the workers need than the workers who are doing the work.’ That’s what happens in open negotiations; those voices have been heard by all of our members in attendance. It’s really powerful.”

Rallying behind ‘Vote Yes’

By wrapping up negotiations early, SPFE and school leaders can shift more of their focus to advocating – in harmony – for the levy referendum before voters in the district this fall.

SPPS is seeking an increase to the current annual operating levy of $1,073 per student. If approved by voters, it would generate about $37.2 million per year – and stave off the same amount in cuts to staffing and programs beginning next school year, the district says.

Superintendent Stanley, in announcing the tentative agreement with SPFE, said the district is “focused on coming together as one community,” noting that includes “informing St. Paul residents about the upcoming referendum this November.”

SPFE already has endorsed the “Vote Yes” campaign.

“We did have an eye to whether, if we are all in the throes of negotiations, we were going to be able to devote the energy necessary to campaign,” Schatzlein said. “Our feeling was if the district can get its house in order to settle this sooner, then we’re going to do that as well. And I feel confident that we’re taking our members a good settlement.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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Member support, stories turned tide for state workers in tough round of talks

July 22, 2025 by

Members of AFSCME Council 5’s contract action team support the bargaining committee before a session with the state.

Negotiators for the State of Minnesota and unions representing nearly 40,000 state workers reached tentative agreements June 27 on new contracts that will raise wages, preserve longevity pay hikes and, in a big win for union members, make no changes to their health insurance.

Union members who served on the bargaining team for AFSCME Council 5, which represents about 18,000 state workers, said the state’s demands from the outset of talks included an overhaul of health benefits that would have increased workers’ share of the costs.

“The plan shifts they wanted to do would have shifted thousands of dollars onto our members,” Council 5’s lead negotiator, Joel Hoffman, said. “It would have been terrible.”

With the state bracing for federal funding cuts and a projected budget shortfall in the next biennium, unions anticipated a difficult round of contract negotiations. But even experienced negotiators like Hoffman, a lab assistant at Moorhead State who completed a fifth stint on the bargaining team, were taken aback by the severity of the employer’s demands.

In addition to the health plan changes, state negotiators balked at wage increases and wanted to pause workers’ step increases, too. Steps are like longevity bonuses, giving workers a pay bump on the anniversary of their hiring date until they reach the top of the pay scale.

“We’ve had challenging cycles before, but not like this,” Hoffman said. “All of it together, it was just unacceptable, untenable. We couldn’t deal with it.”

It took 215 hours at the bargaining table, but union members succeeded in moving the state off its demands for takebacks, preserving their steps and their health insurance – and winning raises of 1.5% this year and 1.75% in 2026.

Council 5 said in a statement that every worker in the bargaining unit will see a net gain on their paycheck, and the bargaining team voted unanimously to recommend members vote to ratify the deal in balloting this month.

AFSCME, MAPE team up

Union negotiators cited two factors as key to securing a contract they could recommend: a visible, vocal pool of support from rank-and-file members and unshakable solidarity with the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), which reached a tentative with the state covering over 18,000 workers on the same day as AFSCME.

“They were in the same position as us, and we decided we were going to stick together and have solidarity between the two unions,” Hoffman said. “If they tried to divide us, we weren’t going to have it. We would meet periodically to make sure we’re on the same team, and we had rallies together.”

The unity was especially important in negotiations over health benefits, which bring together over 10 bargaining units at the same table with the state.

When those talks bogged down, union negotiators tapped their “Contract Action Team,” rank-and-file members who had signed up earlier in the year to support their bargaining team. They joined union rallies and showed up at negotiations to send a message to the state – and the Walz administration – that workers were watching the talks.

Jes Shimek, an assistant art studio manager at Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids, credited the team with being intentional about member outreach from the start of the contract campaign.

“They were organizing rallies and a gauntlet during push week and all kinds of outreach – phone banking, workplace actions – throughout this process,” Shimek said. “We communicated more with our members. They could see that they needed to help us fight to not go backwards.”

Getting personal

The turning point in bargaining, Local 2829 President Curtis Seelen said, was when Shimek and two other state employees offered up personal stories that drove home the importance of keeping health insurance affordable.

“Jes brought in her medical supplies and showed just how draconian the state’s health insurance would be to the individuals who work every day to make Minnesota a great place to live,” Seelen said. “I think it was putting a face to all the state workers that keep Minnesota functioning that really helped us turn the tide and prompt the state to drop their more egregious proposals.”

“Two other women, Jess Langhorst and Kate Ella, told their stories too,” Shimek, a member of AFSCME Local 4001, said. “The state’s team was always very cordial to us throughout the process, but this was the first time that we saw emotion from them – a crack in that exterior.

“Right after we shared our stories, everybody walked out of the room to this gauntlet of AFSCME and MAPE members standing silently with their signs, and that was the turning point. We started back the next morning and worked all the way through that night until we reached a tentative agreement at 6:10 in the morning.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Retail janitors brace for busy holiday weekend with no holiday pay

November 22, 2023 by

Contracts covering about 8,000 members of SEIU Local 26 will expire this winter. (file photo)

With shoppers are poised to swarm Black Friday sales across the Twin Cities, it means a busy weekend of work for the union members who clean local big-box stores. And they’ll be doing it – on Thursday, anyway – without holiday pay.

That’s something members of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26 intend to address in contract negotiations with cleaning companies, set to begin in the coming weeks, workers said during a virtual press conference yesterday.

“Us working during the holidays, it brings a lot of income to the stores and to our companies, but I wonder why they don’t invest that money in us, the workers,” said Local 26 member Deyanira Rodriguez, a janitor with Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans Target and other stores across the metro.

“We are the ones who are doing the job. We deserve more. That’s the fair thing to do, and we are going to get it.”

Local 26 called the press conference to kick off a contract campaign that will prioritize paid holidays, affordable health insurance and higher wages for about 700 retail cleaning workers in the bargaining unit.

Retail janitors’ hourly wages begin at $14.50. Local 26 President Greg Nammacher said most members of the bargaining unit earn $15 per hour or less, and just 5% can afford to access the employer-sponsored health plan.

“Remember, it is these workers who were in the grocery stores during the pandemic when it was at its worst, when we didn’t even know what it was, cleaning up the discarded masks and gloves,” Nammacher said. “They were called heroes. It is time now to show it.”

Union members will look to build on gains they have made since joining SEIU in 2016, after a historic, six-year organizing campaign facilitated by the Twin Cities worker center CTUL.

Before unionizing, retail janitors’ wages began at just $9.50 per hour, and worker complaints of wage theft – as stores switched cleaning contracts, or as contractors outsourced work to subcontractors – were common.

Now, retail cleaning workers are among nearly 8,000 Local 26 members whose contracts are set to expire this winter. Earlier this year, these retail and office janitors, security officers and airport workers began strategizing together – and with members of other local unions who will be at the bargaining table this winter – about ways to leverage their collective strength for greater gains. The coalition unites about 20,000 union members in the public and private sectors.

“We’re not going to be silent anymore when many of the corporations in Minnesota made record profits during the pandemic,” Nammacher said. “It is time all these workers in these different sectors are able to move forward.”

For Rodriguez, that means being able to enjoy holidays at home with her family without taking a hit on her paycheck, or getting premium pay on the holidays she does have to work.

“One of the things I remember about Christmas when I was a kid, it was so beautiful to welcome Christmas with a very warm hug within our family,” she said. “Now, I would like to be able to offer that to our kids.”

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St. Paul baristas to Starbucks: ‘We’re not going away’

May 19, 2023 by

Baristas at the Starbucks on Snelling and Stanford avenues in St. Paul went on strike for the fourth time since winning their union election a year ago.

Workers at Minnesota’s first unionized Starbucks store, at Snelling and Stanford avenues in St. Paul, went on strike for a fourth time April 27 – on the one-year anniversary of their historic union election – after management unlawfully removed their union bulletin board.

Workers on the picket line said the bulletin-board stunt is emblematic of Starbucks’ do-nothing approach to labor relations since a wave of successful union drives began sweeping across the country 18 months ago.

Pulling down a union bulletin board isn’t just disrespectful – it’s illegal, too.

But breaking labor law has become the norm for Starbucks’ since the union organizing spree began. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), through its regional offices, has issued over 80 official complaints against Starbucks, alleging over 1,400 charges of unfair labor practices since late 2021. The charges include illegal surveillance of workers, firing union supporters and failing to bargain in good faith.

Workers at Minnesota’s six unionized shops can attest to Starbucks’ failure to bargain.

The company’s representatives walked out of separate meetings with bargaining teams from St. Paul and unionized locations in St. Anthony and Minneapolis after just five minutes – and has refused to meet since.

Workers chalked the union’s logo onto the sidewalk outside the store.

The same scene has played out in over 100 bargaining sessions nationwide, according to Starbucks Workers United.

“Recently, a (district manager) came in to the store, and she asked if I needed anything from her,” barista Graciela Nira said. “I told her I needed some bargaining dates.”

“It’s been a year and we still haven’t had any bargaining sessions that Starbucks has shown up to,” another barista, who requested anonymity, said. “They have refused to release benefits to our store that they’ve released to other stores. They’ve cut down our hours so that we’re extremely short staffed, more so than since I’ve been here. And then they took down our union board.”

The NLRB process is grinding, but Nira, who serves on the union’s national bargaining committee, said she is hopeful it will push Starbucks back to the bargaining table.

Meanwhile, baristas around the country are continuing to organize with Starbucks Workers United, which now represents some 8,000 workers at over 300 U.S. locations.

The national union recently released a list of its contract demands. They include a $20 starting wage, with cost-of-living adjustments for baristas in high-cost areas.

The union also says it will bargain for grievance procedures, employer-paid health insurance with mental-health coverage, consistent schedules, higher staffing levels and more.

On the picket line in St. Paul, workers said staffing is at the top of their concerns. Their bargaining unit had 20 members when workers petitioned for a union election a year ago. Now it’s down to 12.

Nira was one of two baristas who clocked into work at 5 a.m. April 27. Two hours later, as the store was set to open, about 20 co-workers, customers and community supporters showed up in solidarity as they walked off the job.

It was the first strike at the St. Paul location that involved a walkout, and union members said they pulled it together in about 48 hours.

“We just want to sit down and bargain,” Nira added.

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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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Union electricians vote to authorize strike

June 14, 2012 by

About 1,700 electricians in the East Metro are poised to strike if negotiations between their union and members of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) do not progress in the coming weeks.

Members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 110 voted June 8 to reject their employers’ proposal for a new three-year contract. More than 90 percent of voting members cast “no” votes, authorizing union leaders to call a strike if they deem it necessary.

The contractors’ last proposal included modest annual wage increases in each of the three years. The raises were barely large enough, however, to cover the rising cost of members’ health insurance premiums, according to the union.

In the first year of the contract, employers are offering to increase hourly wages by 90 cents. That sounds good, Local 110 Business Manager Jamie McNamara said, “but the rub is our medical plan needs about 80 cents of that, plus the fact is we haven’t had a raise for two years.”

The union is seeking a raise of $1.75 per hour in the first year of the contract, with 10-cent increases in each of the next two years.

McNamara said Local 110 is preparing for the worst, but hopeful the two sides can find common ground.

“We’re moving toward going on strike, but hopefully it won’t go there,” he said.

The agreement between Local 110 and East Metro members of NECA covers about 1,700 electricians, including 500 unemployed members who are eligible to vote on contract proposals.

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