SEIU members, Twin Cities hospitals reach agreement

Health care workers at eight Twin Cities hospitals are poised to enjoy greater health and safety protections on the job as part of their new union contract. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota announced today that its members have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract covering about 3,500 workers at five health systems: Children’s Hospitals, […]

Sun Country pilots unanimously back strike if mediation fails

With their contract negotiations stuck in a holding pattern, Sun Country Airlines pilots have voted unanimously in favor of authorizing union representatives to call a strike. The Air Line Pilots Association announced the voting results yesterday, noting that 209 of the 216 eligible Sun Country pilots participated in balloting. Pilots have been in negotiations with […]

As talks stall, Cambridge nurses rally for safe care

CAMBRIDGE – Nurses at Cambridge Medical Center picketed the hospital today, warning the public that looming staff cuts pose a threat to patient safety. Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association called on Allina Health, which operates the Cambridge facility, to put patients over profits in contract negotiations that began Sept. 30, when management opened the […]

Staff at two St. Paul charter schools are back to school, union strong

  The state that introduced charter school legislation to the country has its first union of charter-school employees, as teachers from two St. Paul schools returned to the classroom this fall as members of Education Minnesota. About two dozen teachers at Twin Cities German Immersion School, a K-8th grade charter located at 1031 Como Ave., […]

Hastings nurses OK contract with Allina

After waging a public campaign to gain parity with nurses at other Allina Health facilities in the Twin Cities, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association at Regina Medical Center in Hastings voted May 1 to accept a contract that comes up short in the areas of pension and health insurance – with a vow to […]

Hastings nurses authorize strike as Allina sticks with second-rate offer

Union nurses are keeping the pressure on Allina Health to do right by their colleagues at Regina Medical Center in Hastings, where nurses voted yesterday to authorize their leadership to call a strike if contract talks break down. Meanwhile, about 100 nurses and supporters from the labor community staged informational picketing outside Allina-owned United Hospital […]

St. Paul Schools, teachers reach tentative agreement

Three days before members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers were scheduled to take a strike-authorization vote, negotiators for the school district and the teachers’ union reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that will run through the 2014-15 school year. Teachers planned a ratification vote for March 4, and the union’s executive […]

Community rallies behind teachers’ campaign for ‘schools our kids deserve’

Wearing red scarves, hats and shirts to show their solidarity with union teachers, families packed the parking lot outside St. Paul Public Schools headquarters yesterday during a rally in support of smaller class sizes, expanded pre-kindergarten and other community-driven priorities teachers have brought to the table in contract negotiations with the district. “Parents are standing […]

Parents, students support teachers’ walk-in demonstrations across St. Paul

On days when the cold or snow delays the start of school, some students trickle into Ryan Long’s classroom at American Indian Magnet school, while others stay home altogether. Sadly, it’s on these rare occasions that Long and other St. Paul teachers glimpse what it’s like teaching a manageable class size of students. “All of […]

Allina stonewalls Hastings nurses as contract talks continue

Negotiations on a new contract are dragging into the new year, but nurses at Regina Medical Center in Hastings, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, continue to resist Allina Health’s effort to treat them differently than nurses in every other Allina hospital in the Twin Cities Metro Area. The two sides returned to the bargaining […]