Boycott of REI’s anniversary sale begins today

May 15, 2026 by

Over 70,000 REI Co-op members have pledged to boycott the outdoors retailer’s anniversary sale, which runs today through May 25, in a show of solidarity with workers at 11 unionized stores across the country, including one in Maple Grove.

REI Union members voted in March to authorize a boycott of the co-op’s largest event of the year and immediately began appealing to shoppers for support. (Take the boycott pledge.)

Workers say the boycott is a response to REI’s decision in February to declare bargaining at an impasse and implement the economic terms of its last, best and final offer, which over 98% of union members voted down in January.

The imposed terms cut benefits, starting wages and raises for many union members. The REI Union’s bargaining team, which brings together members of the Retail, Wholesale and Depart-ment Store Union (RWDSU) and six United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals, have called the move union-busting – and illegal.

Jacob Lish, a sales specialist at the Maple Grove store who represents UFCW Local 663 on the nationwide bargaining team, noted that REI implemented only the punitive economic terms of its final offer, not tentative agreements reached earlier in talks that introduced new rights for union workers.

“It’s really important for us that REI hears that its members don’t support the union-busting they’ve been trying to do this whole time,” Lish said.

Union members are hoping the anniversary-event boycott delivers just that message.

In addition to co-opmembers who have taken the boycott pledge, the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, has endorsed the boycott, adding REI to its “do-not-buy” list.

“Their bottom (line) is what they care about at the bargaining table,” Lish said “Even our most modest asks are too expensive; they tell us they can’t afford it.

“So by asking members to withhold their money for those 15 days, we think, is really going to impact REI – and hopefully drive them back to the table to reach an agreement with us.”

Union negotiators say they were “within inches” of a tentative agreement with REI before talks broke down. Management, they say, refused to guarantee union members wages on the same level as their non-union peers – a poison pill designed to thwart future organizing.

More recently, REI has demanded union members accept non-disparagement language in their contracts that would prohibit speaking out publicly against the company.

“REI has refused to offer us a fair contract, despite our willingness to compromise, and instead has insisted on provisions that would prevent more workers from joining the REI Union and that would ban us from speaking out,” Alex Pollitt, a worker at the REI in Bellingham, Wash., said in a statement. “Their anti-union stance is deeply incompatible with the values REI claims to profess.”

In June 2023, REI workers in Maple Grove voted 22-4 in favor of joining UFCW Local 663. After the vote, workers said they looked forward to winning a contract that addressed the rising cost of living, ensured consistent and adequate hours and improved staffing in their store.

Maple Grove was the seventh REI location to unionize. Organizing has continued, with workers at a twelfth store, in San Diego, scheduled to vote in a union election May 27-28.

Despite its reputation as a progressive-friendly retailer, REI has dug deep into the union-avoidance playbook since workers in New York unionized the first store in March 2022.

But the approach has not gone unnoticed by the co-op’s members.

When the REI union campaigned last year to elect two labor-friendly environmental leaders to the co-op’s board of directors, REI refused to put either on the ballot. The union then encouraged members to vote “no” on the co-op executives’ hand-picked candidates, who were running unopposed in the board election.

It worked, as over 115,000 members responded to the union’s appeal.

Two months later, REI agreed to establish a national bargaining structure with the union to settle contracts at its unionized stores – and to provide wage increases and bonuses that it had withheld from workers for the previous three years.

Now, REI members are being asked to deliver a similar message to executives by boycotting their co-op’s anniversary sale.

“We know REI really values themselves as a member co-op, or at least they say they do,” Lish said. “And we already know members support our goal of having some rights in the workplace and basic dignity as workers.

“With that really broad support from the membership, we think this boycott is going to be the most effective way to drive the response we are looking for.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community, Organizing, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Hospitality workers at MSP make gains after holiday strike threat

December 12, 2025 by

Victor Arreole, a line cook at Bottle Rocket, speaks during a press conference at MSP Airport.

Travelers passing through Minneapolis-St. Paul International this holiday season can congratulate the airport’s food service-workers on a new union contract that delivered the strongest economic gains for their bargaining unit in recent memory.

The victory for members of UNITE HERE Local 17 came after they voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike – and threatened to do it the week of Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.

The union’s bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with HMS Host on Friday, Nov. 21, and members voted to ratify the contract, with 98% support, the following weekend.

A multinational corporation, HMS Host is one of MSP Airport’s largest food and beverage operators, employing about 250 members of Local 17 at bars, restaurants and coffee shops in both Terminal 1 and 2, from Starbucks and Auntie Anne’s to Chili’s and The Wild Sports Bar.

Local 17’s previous contract with HMS Host expired in December 2024, but union members stuck to their economic demands as bargaining dragged on for over 12 months.

Kifle Habtemarian, a cook at The Wild Sports Bar, said workers in the bargaining unit felt strongly about locking in wage and benefit increases – even if it meant going on strike.

“Life is expensive now,” he said. “In the store, before I could pay $300 for two weeks and be good. Now it’s $500.”

A no-strike clause in the previous contract expired last May, freeing workers to leverage a strike as pressure on the employer to meet their demands.

And it worked, as cooks, utility workers and engineers in the bargaining unit – some paid as little as $15.98 previously – won historic wage increases in the new contract.

Tipped workers made gains too, including benefits that address the income they forego – their gratuities – when accessing paid time off.

The contract also introduces a tip line for airport fast-food workers and baristas.

And the new contract also improves airport hospitality workers’ benefits, providing them with access to affordable health insurance coverage for their dependents.

Victor Arreole, a cook at HMS Host’s fast-casual restaurant Bottle Rocket, said the gains made in the new contract were “a long time coming” for workers who have stuck with the employer during a challenging five years for the travel industry.

“We fought for more than a year to win back what we lost during the pandemic, and we’re finally getting the wages and benefits our families deserve,” Arreole said.

“This contract is going to change lives.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

Twin Cities doctors, nurses to picket June 3-4 as progress stalls on contract campaigns

May 29, 2025 by

Nurses at United and Children’s hospitals in St. Paul picketed during their 2022 contract campaign. (UA file)

Picket lines are coming to several Minnesota hospitals and clinics next week, as unionized doctors and nurses escalate their contract campaigns at Allina and other local health systems.

Newly organized doctors, physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners at Allina Health clinics and urgent cares will hold picketing June 3 from 6 to 7 a.m. at four locations: Bloomington, Coon Rapids, Maplewood and West St. Paul.

It will mark the first time Minnesota doctors have staged informational picketing, members of the Doctors Council, a Service Employees (SEIU) affiliate, said during a virtual press conference yesterday.

“The contract Allina is offering us will unquestionably worsen primary care,” Dr. Matt Hoffman, who practices at Allina’s Vadnais Heights clinic, said.

By picketing, he added, the bargaining unit of over 600 doctors and clinicians hopes to show the public that “we are fighting to make primary care sustainable, and we want the same things as our patients.”

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association will hold informational picketing the following day, June 4, at 17 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth, where the union is bargaining contracts covering more than 15,000 members.

Nurses’ contract demands include minimum staffing levels in their units and other provisions to ensure the safety of both workers and patients. MNA President Chris Rubesch said “shoestring, COVID-era staffing levels” remain in too many Minnesota facilities.

“Nurses are doing everything they can to keep patients safe, but we are being stretched beyond our limits,” he said. “Patients are facing longer waits, and overworked staff are facing dangerous conditions. Nurses are taking action because our health care system cannot afford more delays or excuses.”

Nurses plan to picket at hospitals in the Allina, Children’s Minnesota, HealthPartners, M Health Fairview, North Memorial, Essentia and St. Luke’s systems throughout the day. Supporters are encouraged to sign up to join them on the picket line.

Unionized doctors in the Allina system held a press conference in Minneapolis last fall.

Both the doctors and nurses stressed that they are not striking, and their actions will not interrupt care.

Improving patient care is a top priority for both unions. Doctors and practitioners formed their union in 2023, Hoffman said, to gain back a voice in health care decisions that many felt they had lost at Allina, and that remains an issue “important enough for us to picket over.”

Since the two sides began bargaining a first contract in February 2024, they have reached tentative agreements on scheduling, a new mentorship program and labor-management committee, discipline language and safety protections.

But Allina has refused even to discuss union members’ proposal to ensure adequate staffing among support staff – clinical assistants, nurses, lab workers and others – in their clinics. And union members want more assurances that they will have adequate time to devote both to their patients and the ancillary tasks their profession requires, like paperwork, trainings and meetings.

Dr. Dain Meyer said Allina has introduced a troubling new metric to evaluate the urgent-care clinic where he works: patients treated per hour. “We should be aiming at highest quality and not fastest speed,” he said.

“I feel like progress has stalled (in bargaining), and I’m picketing to draw attention to this so that, in the same way we support our patients in the clinic, they might support us in winning the changes we all need,” Meyer added.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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OPEIU members warn HealthPartners they’re ‘not going back’ on health benefits

December 13, 2024 by

Local 12 members rallied outside HealthPartners’ offices in Bloomington on a day that saw the union hold informational picketing at over 30 locations across the metro.

Members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 12 held informational picketing Nov. 26 at the 31 HealthPartners offices and clinics across the Twin Cities where they work, hoping to give the health provider a preview of what’s coming if workers are forced to strike.

The picketing, held four days before OPEIU members’ contract was set to expire, drew solidarity from members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa who also work at HealthPartners.

At a rally outside HealthPartners’ corporate offices in Bloomington, Local 12 members blasted the organization’s executives for pleading poverty at the bargaining table while their CEO earns $1,500 per hour – more than many members earn in a pay period.

OPEIU members are sticking to three priorities in bargaining: maintaining their health insurance benefits, raising wages to keep up with inflation and ending abuse and harassment on the job.

“I don’t get paid enough to get abused over the phone,” Tia Burnett, a Local 12 member and clinic assistant HealthPartners’ Woodbury facility. “I’m one of the many people here who work three jobs. I’m a single person with no kids, and I’m still struggling to make ends meet due to the fact that I’m not getting paid enough.”

The union said HealthPartners has demanded a 400% increase to members’ health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. At the rally in Bloomington, which union members at other locations were looped into via Zoom, bargaining team member Paula Moyer called the employers’ health benefit proposal “punitive and outrageous.”

“We know we have great benefits, but the benefits we have fought for are what we think everyone in the country should have,” Moyer, a clinic assistant, said. “We’re not going back.”

Local 12 members work at the front desks and check-ins at clinics and in support positions such as scheduling, claims and accounting.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , ,

AFSCME members to Ramsey County: ‘Residents First = Workers First’

December 12, 2024 by

AFSCME members who work at Ramsey County held a contract rally outside the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul Oct. 29.

Four local unions representing over 2,000 Ramsey County employees are holding firm to their key demands – dignified wages, safe and adequate staffing, and respect on the job – as bargaining with the county inches closer to their contracts’ Dec. 31 expiration date.

Members of AFSCME Locals 8, 151, 707 and 1935 – librarians, social workers, child protection workers, parks employees and workers in scores of other job classifications – were also holding firm to their solidarity, union members said during a rally outside the Ramsey County Courthouse as talks entered a third month.

“The employer is still using the same old playbook of stalling, sewing division amongst the locals and attempting to erode our union legacy rights like seniority, the freedom to determine when we take vacation or receiving extra payments for working undesirable shifts,” Local 8 President Mario Lee, an animal control officer, said Oct. 29.

Rather than asking their employees for takebacks at the bargaining table, county administrators should be engaging their unions in meaningful discussions about how to address serious staffing shortfalls plaguing several county agencies, Lee and other union leaders said.

Several media reports in the last year have exposed the impact short staffing has had on county services. An October 2024 report by KSTP-TV found that the county’s Medical Assistance program had a backlog applications for benefit renewal, with more than 500 applicants waiting over 60 days.

Peggy Bloomstrand, a social worker and president of Local 151, said the county’s service delays are not isolated to Medical Assistance.

“Children at risk of abuse and neglect are not getting the services they need because our child protection workers are overwhelmed with high caseload sizes,” Bloomstrand said. “Support staff are working overtime to process cases…

“And it’s not because of the workforce,” she said. “It’s because Ramsey County has decided to eliminate positions and add top management that don’t work with clients or residents.”

“You have been asked countless times, consistently, every day to do more with less,” AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Bart Andersen told county workers. “I’m sorry, but more with less is simply unsustainable.

“Your employers should be coming to the table proposing respectful wages, affordable health care, workplace safety and protections.”

Members of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, in voting to raise their own salaries by 3 to 5% earlier in 2024, cited the need to attract quality candidates – a fact not lost on union members, who say their pay has fallen by 13.5% over the last four years when adjusted for inflation.

According to an AFSCME payroll analysis, Ramsey County frontline workers’ wages are the 65th percentile in comparisons with their peers. Union members say the county needs to offer better compensation to recruit and retain staff in many positions, especially given the cost of living in the area and the scope of their work.

“We want a contract that aligns with the work we do and enables us to support our families,” Bloomstrand said. “We want more staff so our workforce has the ability to serve residents of Ramsey County.”

Those residents are making their voices heard in the bargaining process, too.

After their Oct. 29 rally, union members delivered a petition with over 1,000 signatures to the County Board. County workers gathered many of the signatures outside county libraries and other facilities, engaging residents in conversations about their campaign for adequate staffing and respect on the job.

“Our members go above and beyond the work they do, and we’re asking Ramsey County to compensate our members fairly for the work they do,” Bloomstrand said. “Hire additional staff so our residents get the service they need, and provide safe staffing levels.”

Ramsey County residents can sign onto AFSCME members’ petition in support of their contract campaign here.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Allina doctors mark one year since union vote with call for progress in talks

December 12, 2024 by

Dr. Cora Walsh, who practices at Allina’s clinic in West St. Paul, spoke during a press conference outside Abbott Northwestern.

Unionized doctors in the Allina Health system are frustrated with the slow pace of contract negotiations and management’s failure to address concerns about ongoing lab-processing delays.

That frustration that boiled over in a press conference outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis on Nov. 16. Doctors publicly called out members of Allina’s board of directors for failing to respond to their letters – sent to each board member individually – warning about the lab delays and their serious impact on patient care.

Not one board member responded, Dr. Matt Hoffman, a family clinician at Allina’s Vadnais Heights facility, said.

“What we hear from that is that the board of directors does not seem to care or feel accountable to the communities they serve,” Hoffman said. “They certainly don’t seem to care or feel accountable to the health care providers who depend on them.”

The press event marked one year since 600 physicians at Allina clinics across the region voted to form the largest private-sector doctors’ union in the country, joining the Doctors Council, an affiliate of the Service Employees (SEIU) union.

They were the second group of Allina doctors to unionize, following a vote at Mercy-Unity in the north metro that brought together about 150 hospital doctors. The two groups are bargaining first contracts with Allina separately.

Members of both bargaining units, wearing their white lab coats, joined the event in Minneapolis. They described shared concerns about the pace of bargaining and the continued corporatization of their health care facilities.

“There are some days where I feel like Allina’s representatives are showing up and really being thoughtful (in bargaining), and there are some days where it feels like there are deliberate delays,” Dr. Jess Boland, who works in Mercy-Unity’s intensive-care unit, said.

Dr. Kristin Sanders-Gendreau, a pediatrician in Allina’s Maplewood clinic with 30-plus years of experience, said that Allina executives were “squandering a great opportunity to join with us to make the careful corrections needed in health care to realign and bring the healing relationship between clinician and patient back to the forefront.”

“But we need a real seat at the table in order to do so,” she added.

Dr. Kristin Sanders-Gendreau said collective bargaining is an opportunity to restore physicians’ voice within large health care systems like Allina.

The lab delays – which result from Allina’s move to outsource its clinical lab work to Quest Diagnostic, a private company, in September – are a point of contention inside – and outside – bargaining between the clinicians and Allina. Hoffman said his patients have had to wait several days for diagnoses that would previously take hours, delaying necessary care.

“Our CEO, Lisa Shannon, makes $2.7 million,” Hoffman said. “Our health care executives gave themselves 20-30% raises recently. We believe they can bring these services back.”

But doctors said Allina’s indifference to the delays and disruptions that have come with outsourcing lab work is reflective of a broader approach that prioritizes the bottom line over patient care. It’s why doctors are also seeking contract language that would ensure adequate staffing across their facilities – not just for physicians, but for all members of the care team.

“While corporate health care continues to grow, staffing shortages and cost cutting measures mean we give more of ourselves to deliver the care our patients deserve,” Dr. Cora Walsh, who practices at Allina’s clinic in West St. Paul, said. “This is why we are fighting for contract protections that will provide us with time, resources and staff to do this essential work.

“When we do this work long after the clinic day has ended or late into the evening, we struggle to provide the care our patients deserve, and we struggle to care for our own well-being.”

Boland added, “I want another 20 years out of my career, and it’s worrisome to think of doing another 20 years with the trends we’ve seen of increased administrative distance and decreasing administrative interest in the actual provision of patient care.”

Union members said some progress had been made toward a settlement, pointing to language that will create a new mentorship program and a “collaboration council” to give health care professionals a voice in Allina’s decision making. New safety provisions will protect doctors from being forced to provide care to patients who have harassed or threatened them.

But members of the bargaining teams stressed that the finish line remains far from sight.

“They need a contract,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul), a registered nurse who attended the rally. “I’m asking those on the other side of the table to stand in common cause with those who are licensed to provide care, in advocacy for Minnesotans who need care. Find a path forward for a contract … so that providers are able to practice in a way that puts patients first.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

OPEIU members say Wilson-McShane is shortchanging them in talks

December 10, 2024 by
Union member lifting picket sign during rally.

Members of OPEIU Local 12 picketed outside Wilson-McShane’s offices in Bloomington.

The Wilson-McShane Corporation serves unions in Minnesota and across the Midwest as a third-party benefit administrator, but workers at the company say management is trying to shortchange their union in a surprisingly combative round of contract negotiations.

Members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 12 set up informational picket lines outside Wilson-McShane’s offices in Bloomington and Kansas City on Oct. 24. Organizers said it was almost certainly the first time that workers at the company, which works closely with organized labor, had resorted to picketing.

Deb Johnson, a claims administrator with 20 years of experience at Wilson-McShane, said bargaining is taking far longer this time than during any of the previous four times she served on Local 12’s negotiations team.

“Our contracts have always been settled, like, in three days,” she said. “This is uncharted water.”

Sign reading "You support union benefits but not YOUR UNION EMPLOYEES"Local 12’s previous contract with Wilson-McShane expired Oct. 1. Wages and benefits have been the primary sticking points in negotiations that began in August.

At the rally in October, Johnson said the company had only recently increased its initial offer of 50-cent raises to 55 cents in the first year, with smaller increases in the following two. The company also looked to slash short-term disability benefits.

According to OPEIU estimates, Wilson-McShane workers have seen their wages lose 12% in value as a result of inflation since 2010.

The union, which represents about 180 workers at offices in four states, appealed for solidarity in a letter to the company’s union customers.

“I wonder, do the other unions know what we have to do here, what our contract is?” Johnson said. “I’m not asking them to break the bank, but I’d like to be paid a fair wage. There are people in our bargaining unit who have to work two jobs.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Bargaining moves at slowest pace in two decades as Minnesota educators get bold

March 25, 2024 by

Members of the Burnsville Education Association held informational picketing before the March 14 school board meeting.

Union educators in Lakeville earlier this month voted down their district’s best contract offer 99% to 1%. Days later in Burnsville, hundreds of educators lined the street outside the district’s offices to demand administrators do better at the bargaining table.

Educators in the east metro and across Minnesota are being bold in their contract demands during this bargaining cycle, sticking together for compensation gains that, union members say, are overdue after years of underfunding – and key to addressing a teacher shortage.

“Every teacher in the Lakeville district is making less money in real terms than they were 10 years ago, even with raises for additional experience,” Johannah Surma, lead negotiator for Education Minnesota Lakeville, said. “Our pay just hasn’t kept up with inflation.”

Union members don’t expect to catch up in one contract, but their “no” vote, Surma said, sent a strong message that it will take more than the district’s last offer – a 1% raise in the first year and 5% in the second – to get them to settle.

Lakeville isn’t the only district where educators are holding out for more this year, following a record $2.2 billion state funding increase for public education. As of earlier this month, roughly 71% of Education Minnesota-affiliated local unions had settled their contracts.

“That is the slowest number in the last 20 years,” Education Minnesota Vice President Monica Byron said. “But that shows the hard work that all the locals across this state have been doing because they deserve it. We are all worth more.”

Already this school year, educators in large school districts like St. Paul, Anoka-Hennepin and St. Francis have voted to authorize strikes, although all three unions settled before a work stoppage.

Dozens of other Education Minnesota locals have staged informational picketing or public demonstrations before board meetings and outside schools, rallying community support for their contract demands.

The Burnsville Education Association (BEA) served pie to some 300 union members and supporters who joined an informational picket and rally on March 14, or “Pi Day” for math enthusiasts.

Afterward, union members spoke at a school board listening session, demanding a bigger share of the economic pie, particularly for adult basic education teachers and early learning teachers who are not yet on the union’s main salary schedule.

Educators are holding firm to some non-economic demands, too.

BEA members are looking to address concerns about violence in their schools, and demanding that educators who are injured at work don’t have to use their personal days to cover any absences before they qualify for workers’ compensation.

In Lakeville, educators are resisting a district proposal that would give administrators the power to transfer teachers into other positions that they are licensed to fill. Union members would be subject to involuntary transfers before or even during the school year, Surma said.

“Teachers develop relationships with kids, that’s kind of the foundation of how we do our work,” she said. “Students build trust with us, and we get to know them and know what they need. Disrupting that is really disruptive to kids.”

Both Education Minnesota Lakeville, which represents 765 educators, and the BEA, which represents about 650, had bargaining or mediation dates scheduled in late March.

“We hope to make progress,” Surma said. “That’s our first choice, to continue to make progress at the table toward a settlement that meets everybody’s needs and doesn’t disrupt the classroom for the kids.”

Lakeville educators will hold a rally with community supporters at 6 p.m. March 26 at the district offices, located at 17630 Juniper Path, Lakeville.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

After ‘unprecedented’ disrespect from Planned Parenthood, union plans to escalate contract campaign

September 8, 2023 by

Planned Parenthood North Central States workers rallied behind their bargaining team in July, with support from elected and labor leaders.

The union of over 400 Planned Parenthood workers in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas will enter mediation with the North Central States (PPNCS) chapter after a frustrating round of bargaining last week prompted another elected union leader to resign from the organization.

In a press conference yesterday, April Clark said she used to joke that she was a Planned Parenthood “lifer,” but the senior training and development specialist is now working her final two weeks with the sexual health nonprofit after eight years of service.

Clark was among 14 original members of the union’s bargaining team, and her departure will mean more than half those elected leaders are no longer with PPNCS, after management slapped all 14 with “final written notices” four months into the bargaining process.

The disciplinary action, which the union has challenged as retaliatory and illegal, means any subsequent infraction – no matter how serious – could result in termination. “I feel paranoid about every action that I take, which is not a great way to feel the majority of your waking time,” Clark said.

The move has had a chilling effect throughout the bargaining unit, which voted 264-26 in favor of forming a union with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa last year. The nonprofit’s already high turnover rate – a reason workers cited as a factor in forming their union – has climbed to 44% since contract negotiations began, according to organizers.

“For my mental health, I am leaving – like so many other leaders of this bargaining team have done since receiving their final notices,” Clark said, choking back tears. “Unfortunately, so are many of our other coworkers. I don’t know anyone who isn’t actively looking for employment elsewhere, and that isn’t hyperbole.”

For Clark and others, the final straw came during negotiations last week. Previous sessions had yielded “slow but steady progress,” health educator and LGTBQ care coordinator Elizabeth Wolfe said, and at a meeting in July, management pledged to bring a new health insurance proposal to the next session.

But instead of new health care language, Wolfe said, PPNCS executives offered the union a choice between a three-year contract with “minimal wage increases,” or one with bigger raises that clawed back several agreements reached earlier in negotiations, including longevity pay, increases to paid time off and floating holidays, expanded bereavement leave and new professional development opportunities.

“What the negotiators and leaders of our union have told us is that they’ve never seen an employer make a proposal to undo so many substantial pieces of progress already won through the bargaining process,” Wolfe said.

Workers have long since given up hope that Planned Parenthood, an organization with deep progressive roots, would seek a collaborative relationship with their union.

PPNCS refused workers’ petition for voluntary union recognition despite overwhelming support, and the attacks on bargaining team members have drawn comparisons to Starbucks and Amazon from veteran SEIU leaders. The union rescinded its endorsement of PPNCS CEO Ruth Richardson, who served in the Minnesota Legislature until her abrupt resignation last week.

But until now, the union’s frustrations had stemmed from actions away from the bargaining table. The unprecedented exchange last week has union members planning an escalation of their contract campaign.

Raven LaBeau, a health center associate in Minneapolis, said no options are off the table.

“We will accept nothing less than (contract) language that honors and is appropriate for the work that every single one of us does every day,” they said. “This work and those that perform it are too important – too necessary – to tolerate half measures and weak proposals made by management at the table.

“My message to management is this. There are more of us than there are of you, and truly we don’t need you as much as you need us. We are the lifeblood of this affiliate, and it’s time to treat us accordingly.”

PPNCS union members encourage supporters to track their social media feeds – @PPNCSUnited – for information about upcoming calls to action and events.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

SEIU pulls MN lawmaker’s endorsement over union busting at Planned Parenthood

July 7, 2023 by

(SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa photo)

Planned Parenthood workers this week pledged to continue fighting back against an intimidation campaign targeting elected union leaders at the reproductive health organization’s North Central States chapter.

Meanwhile, the Service Employees (SEIU) union announced it had rescinded its endorsement of the Minnesota legislator who serves as the nonprofit’s CEO. 

Over 440 employees of Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) voted to form a union with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa in July 2022, and they have been in contract negotiations with management for about eight months. 

While the two sides have made some progress toward a first contract, members of the union’s bargaining team allege that, away from negotiations, they have come under heightened scrutiny from management, resulting in excessive and unwarranted disciplinary measures.  

In February, management placed “final warning” notices in all of the bargaining team members’ personnel files, and in March PPNCS used that warning to fire one member, Grace Larson. 

Now, half of the 14 workers originally elected to serve on the bargaining committee have stepped down or no longer work at PPNCS, union leaders said during a virtual press conference yesterday. Those who remain said they fear a misstep as minor as a time card infraction will cost them their jobs. 

“I fear losing my job and being unable to pay my bills,” PPNCS researcher Shay Gingras said. “And I will continue to hold this fear for as long as I am a PPNCS employee and the final warning remains in my file.  

“I joined the process in order to make a positive difference in the lives of PPNCS employees and patients, and I feel as if I am being punished for this work.” 

The union has filed charges against PPNCS with the National Labor Relations Board. SEIU members and staff, meanwhile, have attempted discussions with management, including CEO Ruth Richardson, a DFL state representative from Mendota Heights, about the chilling effects of targeting union leaders, particularly during negotiations. 

But PPNCS has refused to pull back the final warnings or reinstate Larson, who was fired for sending an email from her private address alleging abusive behavior by an ex-colleague, who was seeking employment with another organization at the time. 

“It was something that I grappled with, and ultimately I still stand by my decision,” Larson, a former PPNCS nurse, said. “Planned Parenthood decided my email was retaliation against a co-worker and terminated me. 

“A union contract could have kept me in the clinic. After years of dedication to this organization, giving my blood, sweat and tears and taking pride in what I do every single day, I’ve been left feeling pushed out and unwanted by people in the organization who didn’t know my name 10 months ago.” 

Executive officers and staff at SEIU Healthcare, which represents workers across the table from powerful and notoriously anti-union employers like Allina and Sanford Health, have never seen firsthand such an aggressive attempt to intimidate union leaders, Executive Vice President Phillip Cryan said. He called it “union busting” on par with campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon. 

“This is a long way off from the kind of pro-worker, progressive approach to their staff union that these workers expected and the labor movement expected when these workers organized last year,” Cryan said, adding that SEIU leadership had given PPNCS, including Richardson, “countless opportunities to walk back these extreme actions” before asking the SEIU Minnesota State Council to rescind its endorsement. 

Richardson did not directly respond to a request for comment on union busting at PPNCS or the SEIU endorsement. But PPNCS issued a statement denying the bargaining team members’ allegations and emphasizing its commitment to completing the negotiations. 

“Planned Parenthood North Central States leadership remains committed to bargaining in good faith with SEIU and remain committed to adhering to the law,” the statement reads. “As we have stated previously, no staff have been disciplined or fired by PPNCS for union organizing, however, unions are not designed to be a shield for misconduct.” 

As the NLRB investigates workers’ charges, SEIU members plan to raise awareness of the increasingly toxic work environment at PPNCS – and demand Larson’s reinstatement – at public rallies across the organization’s five-state jurisdiction. The rallies will also demand accountability from PPNCS leaders regarding a recent decision to close three clinics in Iowa. 

During the press conference, workers said they are hopeful of drawing support from both the reproductive care community and the labor movement.  

“We don’t want to pit abortion rights and workers’ rights against each other, especially right now,” Larson said. 

No other union has pulled its endorsement of Richardson, who has a strong voting record on labor issues and drew praise from labor leaders as a lead author of the new statewide family leave law.  

But the dispute is likely to draw increased attention with the Legislature adjourned. Delegates to the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation last month approved a resolution in support of SEIU’s campaign to hold Richardson accountable for union busting at PPNCS. 

“A CEO who engages in this course of conduct toward the elected leaders of a union and who stands by those decisions and refuses to make any changes to them – even as the actions cause fully half of the union bargaining team to no longer be working for the organization she leads – does not deserve the labor movement’s support,” Cryan said. “She has done some great things as an elected official, but her actions as CEO fly in the face of those accomplishments.” 

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