Jamie Gulley: Time is right to organize ‘unions for all’

September 21, 2022 by

Jamie Gulley is president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

As we celebrated Labor Day this year, it felt like there was some wind at the backs of working people and our unions. Don’t get me wrong, we still are facing unprecedented challenges and well-funded opposition who would love nothing more than for us to no longer exist, but there is a spark evident everywhere you look that showcases that we may be entering a new phase of the American labor movement.

The union for which I am the elected president, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, has seen an amazing surge in the last year. We had over 1,500 new members join our union, most of them just in the last half of 2021. There are more organizing campaigns happening as we speak.

It is exciting to see win after win, especially as workers at places like Starbucks and Amazon are taking on big, national fights of their own. Some of the groups joining our union were small shops of just a dozen health care workers. We also welcomed over 400 mental health workers from local hospitals and over 400 Planned Parenthood workers across five states. Each one of these amazing health care workers deserves respect from their employer, and our union plans to fight like hell alongside them to make sure they get it.

Each union win was different, but each also felt linked by the agitation from a system that is so clearly broken. You would think the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed clearly just who is “essential” to keep our state running, would help push the small handful at the top to do better by their frontline workers. But that isn’t the case.

Despite health care workers risking their health and safety throughout the pandemic, too many are still fighting for basic respect, protection and pay. Many workers are finding out what readers of this paper have probably known for a long time: there is power in a union.

It is exhausting to see these billionaires flying to space and seeing local “non-profit” health care leaders having their pay skyrocket, all while too many of our members struggle to pay the rent or mortgage, and to afford the rising costs that have come from corporate greed.

We can’t fool ourselves: unions are in a rough position. With just over 10% of workers in unions (and much less in the private sector), we’ve been beaten back by decades of attacks from those at the top. We know that their playbook is trying to divide us by what we do for a living, where we live or the color of our skin. They want us mad at each other to distract from their greed.

While health care workers who kept our state safe and running during this pandemic are sitting at their kitchen tables trying to make the math work on how to pay their bills, people at the top who care only about profits are taking more and more for themselves.

This is why our work to build a strong union movement is so critical. We’re proud of the growth our local has seen in the last year (not to mention the big gains we’ve made in the last decade, when we doubled our size and expanded into neighboring states), but we need the whole labor movement to grow.

We need to capture the energy that is out there now and make sure this growth results in more people who have a strong union contract. A strong union means higher wages and better benefits, but it also means demanding respect from our employer. It means having a voice and being able to stand up for what is right.

It was exciting to celebrate Labor Day this year with new polls showing the highest approval ratings for unions in decades. But we need to meet this moment.

At SEIU we have been saying we are fighting for Unions For All, and I hope that goal can be closer to a reality in the next year. I hope next Labor Day we’re celebrating continued popularity and growth for not just SEIU, but every union in Minnesota and across the country, and we can begin the real work of taking this country back from the rich and powerful. Together, we will make sure the working people who make this country run are getting the respect and pay they deserve.

– Jamie Gulley is executive director of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, a union of nearly 50,000 health care and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home care across the two states. His column appeared in the October 2022 issue of The Union Advocate.

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‘Insulting’ wage offer prompts strike at MN Epilepsy Group

March 14, 2022 by

SEIU members picket outside Minnesota Epilepsy Group in Roseville, one of two picket lines set up on Day 1 of the unfair labor practice strike.

Union members who work at Minnesota Epilepsy Group (MEG) are on strike this week for wages in line with the world-class care they provide.

The union of 60 EEG technologists, who provide brain-wave testing to patients at hospitals and clinics across the Twin Cities, set up picket lines today outside the employer’s headquarters in Roseville, as well as Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

Workers called the five-day strike after management stuck to its demand for annual wage increases of less than 1% in last-ditch contract negotiations Tuesday.

A day later, MEG presented union members with its “last, best and final” offer and demanded a response – accept or reject – within three hours. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, which represents MEG workers in bargaining, called that an impossible timeline, noting that its bylaws require members have at least three days to review any proposal before voting.

Leah Olsen, who serves on the union’s bargaining team, said MEG employees are “shocked and insulted” by the by the way negotiations have played out.

Leah Olsen is a member of the union’s bargaining team.

“Being here 11 years, this is the lowest I’ve ever heard of them offering in terms of raises,” she said. “It’s very disappointing, especially with working through COVID and being shorter-staffed than I’ve ever seen in the last couple years, as we’ve expanded to a few different hospitals.”

Picketing comes after union members delivered 10 days’ notice of their intent to strike over unfair labor practices. Olsen said the bargaining team made clear to MEG that they were willing to return to the table any time in the hopes of reaching a deal that would have prevented the strike from starting.

But workers are united, too, behind winning higher wage increases than MEG has offered so far – without giving up the longevity-based step increases that have been part of their union contract for decades. Of the 57 members who participated in the strike-authorization vote, 100% voted to strike.

“If the company is struggling to stay afloat, then we need a thorough and honest explanation of that, and an explanation of why – if they are broke – they agreed to several other changes to the contract that would cost them more money,” said Meagan Weitzel, who has worked for MEG for 7 years.

“MEG has added multiple new hospital contracts and two new clinic facilities since we last negotiated with them three years ago,” Weitzel added. “We struggle to understand why they need us to settle for anything less than the cost of living increases we are all facing.”

Meanwhile, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota has filed charges of regressive bargaining, accusing MEG of backing out of positions it had previously agreed to at the negotiating table.

The whole process, Olsen said, has felt “disrespectful given what we do and the level of care we deliver to patients.”

“I don’t know what their goal is, but this does not feel great,” she added. “We’re out here to show them that we’re unified for a fair contract.”

The strike will run through Friday. The union plans to picket from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day outside MEG’s offices in Roseville, at 2720 Fairview Ave. N. Workers also plan to picket each day outside hospitals where they provide services, including United Hospital in St. Paul later this week.

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Frontline workers’ focus turns to Senate after House passes bonus pay

February 25, 2022 by

As lawmakers debate bonus pay on the House floor, frontline workers rally outside the chamber.

The Minnesota House passed union-backed legislation yesterday that would deliver bonuses of up to $1,500 to the frontline, essential workers who have kept the state and its economy running during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unions representing nurses, food-production workers, janitors, public employees and other workers called on Republicans who control the Senate to follow House members’ lead and take up the $1 billion measure, which would tap into the state’s projected $7.7 billion budget surplus.

“When everyone else was locked down safely in their homes, we were out there doing our job, and we continue to do our job,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner, a nurse in the North Memorial intensive care unit, said during a press conference in advance of the House vote. “We deserve a little bit of recognition.”

Turner’s message to members of the Senate: “Do what is right to honor us and the work we did and that we continue to do.”

If the House bill becomes law, an estimated 667,000 Minnesotans would be eligible for payments.

The measure limits eligibility to workers who logged at least 120 hours in frontline positions between March 15, 2020, and June 30, 2021. It also would restrict workers who collected more than 20 weeks’ worth of unemployment benefits from accessing the funds.

But the bill faces an uphill climb in the Senate, as Republicans have sought to carve out a much narrower slice of frontline workers eligible for pandemic bonuses since debate over the issue began last summer.

In July, Minnesota lawmakers agreed to create a $250 million fund to compensate essential workers, but a bipartisan working group failed to reach an agreement on which workers should be included.

Republicans blocked any plan that did not narrowly target health care workers, first responders, long-term-care workers and correctional officers. But Sen. Erin Murphy, a DFLer from St. Paul, called it “unconscionable” to exclude food-processing workers, custodians, child care providers and others on the front lines.

“There are so many people who did their part, and today the Republicans are serving as a roadblock to recognizing their unique contributions at a time when they continue to put themselves in harm’s way,” Murphy said. “It’s time for the Senate Republican majority to get off the dime and to do their work.”

As lawmakers debated the bill on the House floor last night, frontline workers rallied outside the chamber. Members of a coalition of unions and other worker advocacy groups pledged not to be divided as they push for legislation that recognizes the sacrifices of all Minnesotans who showed up to work.

“Other frontline workers supported us inside and outside the hospital,” Turner said, looking back on the early days of the pandemic. “At least I had one N95. They had nothing.”

“I thank you as a Minnesotan for what you’ve done to allow myself and my family to stay safe, but also have the services we need to continue moving forward – and I know that all Minnesotans appreciate you as well,” said Rep. Cedrick Frazier (D-New Hope). “I am imploring our senators on the GOP side to move this bill forward…

“Let’s get together, let’s get it passed and let’s honor all of our essential workers.”

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Push for paid family leave takes on new urgency in pandemic

February 22, 2022 by

A union-backed coalition of groups renewed its lobbying push for paid family and medical leave on Valentine’s Day – and not by accident.

Love is at the heart of the proposed legislation, advocates said, adding that its failure to gain traction in the Senate over the past six years has cornered too many Minnesota families into achingly difficult choices that no one should have to make.

“No family should have to choose between a paycheck and caring for their loved ones,” said Rev. Vanessa Bradby, pastor of New Spirit United Church of Christ in Savage. “If we are serious about loving our neighbor, we should be serious about passing paid family and medical leave.”

Bradby and other faith leaders are once again teaming with small business owners, unions and community groups to push paid family and medical leave legislation at the Capitol this year.

Their proposal, which has support from the House DFL majority and Gov. Tim Walz, would create a statewide insurance pool to cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member.

It would operate like the state’s unemployment insurance system, with workers and employers paying into the proposed fund. Workers who access the benefit would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits averaging two-thirds of their typical wages.

Republicans who control the Senate have been cool to the idea of a statewide family leave benefit in recent years, but advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need to give all workers – regardless of their race, class or zip code – the time they need to care for themselves and their families.

“The COVID pandemic has exposed the inadequate and inconsistent safety net available for families in this state,” the bill’s chief author, Rep. Ruth Richardson (D-Mendota Heights), said. Richardson noted that low-wage workers, workers of color and women are much less likely to have access to family leave than other workers, and she pointed to research showing the “stark disparities” in mental and physical health outcomes that result from lack of access to paid leave, including higher rates of infant mortality and pre-term births.

Advocates praised the DFL proposal to invest part of the state’s projected $7.7 billion budget surplus in pre-funding two years’ worth of benefits while the paid family leave program gets up and running.

“We cannot stand by and pretend we can’t do anything about” disparities in access to essential economic measures like paid family leave, said Gloria Perez, president of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.

The proposed legislation would also help level the playing field for small businesses in the hyper-competitive labor market, said Dan Swenson-Klatt, owner of a bakery and café in Minneapolis.

“As much as I would like to provide paid leave to all of my employees, I cannot do it alone,” he said.

The Minnesotans for Paid Family & Medical Leave coalition brings together over 30 organizations, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, is a co-chair.

“Essential workers have sacrificed their time and risked their safety like never before,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said. “But hopefully, we’ve all gained a greater appreciation of how precious time with our loved ones truly is – and how we need the freedom to care for them when they need us.”

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Essential workers call bonus pay holdup ‘a slap in the face’

December 6, 2021 by

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis, advocates call on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

What do nurses, janitors, educators and other essential workers want from state lawmakers this holiday season? They spelled it out last week during a rally and march through downtown Minneapolis.

“Quit playing politics and get the job done,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner said, standing alongside a chain of essential workers holding large, block letters spelling out “ESSENTIAL PAY.”

In July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in state funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But workers have yet to receive a penny from that fund, and it appears unlikely they will before the 2022 legislative session convenes Jan. 31.

That’s because legislators on a bipartisan working group failed to reach agreement on who should be eligible for payments.

Republicans refused to budge from their position that a smaller pool of workers – including health care workers, long-term-care staff and first responders – should be compensated, while DFLers insisted on including grocery clerks, cleaning workers and child care providers like Tamara Greene, who directed her comments at the rally to GOP legislators.

“Tell us your justification for excluding us from this bill,” said Greene, director of All Ages & Faces Academy in St. Paul. “We want to know. We find it an insult and an absolute slap in the face.”

DFLers on the committee accused Republicans of rejecting their compromise proposal, which would have cast a wider net while compensating some workers more than others.

Turner, a nurse in the North Memorial hospital intensive care unit, said the GOP wouldn’t succeed in its attempt to divide essential workers.

“That’s not going to fly,” she said. “It never has, and it never will.

“The reason is because I have been at the bedside, along with our other nurses. People from security and cleaning and teaching and the food industry and every other industry represented here – we have been at their deathbeds. We have seen the number of essential workers that have died.”

Lawmakers could supplement the fund with additional dollars, but it would require Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session, giving Republican Senators an opportunity to act on threats from some in the caucus to remove Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, an architect of the state’s pandemic response.

As the political fight drags on, workers like Angie Halseth, a caseworker at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility, are left wondering if the compensation they were promised will ever come. A member of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Halseth described the additional duties tacked onto her workload during the pandemic, like administering temperature checks to inmates in quarantine.

“But like so many, extra work is just the start of the hardships,” she added. “We’ve all worried that our jobs will make us or our families sick. I’ve had several colleagues become ill from COVID-19 outbreaks at our facilities, including one who gave COVID to their pregnant wife and elderly in-laws.”

Activists were also keen to point out that CEOs in Minnesota have taken exorbitant bonuses and pay raises during the pandemic, while workers in their companies’ warehouses, on their shop floors and elsewhere on the front lines see their “hero pay” held up at the Capitol.

The event began on the sidewalk outside the Ameriprise Financial building, where workers hoisted a large photo of CEO James Caracchiolo with the tagline, “This guy got a 283% raise last year!”

“We are a state that is lucky to have more resources available,” Halseth said. “I am asking the state to spend those resources helping our frontline workers try to be whole again.”

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Frustration builds as lawmakers blow deadline for plan to pay frontline workers

September 22, 2021 by

Elia Starkweather, a janitor and member of SEIU Local 26, was among frontline workers who spoke at an event commemorating the anniversary of a COVID-19 state of emergency in March 2020.

Essential workers are taking aim at Republican members of a legislative work group tasked with delivering $250 million to Minnesota’s essential workers, accusing politicians of holding up the process in an attempt to pit frontline workers against each other.

“We went to work for the last 18 months,” said Rachel Hanneman, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association who has worked in COVID-19 intensive care units at multiple hospitals. “And now we are asking you to go to work for us.”

Hanneman and other union members spoke during a press conference Sept. 15, nine days after the work group’s deadline for delivering a plan to the Legislature for distributing the $250 million to essential workers, allocated as part of the state budget passed in July.

[Click here to send a message to members of the Frontline Worker Pay Working Group.]

Lawmakers on the working group missed the deadline because they could not agree on an inclusive path forward, with Republican members demanding that the fund be administered in a way that would favor health care workers – and exclude many workers who kept the state running after the outbreak.

That’s not sitting well with some union members, including health care workers like Carmen Brown.

“I am a health care worker, and as a health care worker I am offended that Minnesota Senate Republicans are holding up paying all frontline workers bonuses,” said Brown, who works at Hennepin Healthcare and serves as president of AFSCME Local 977, representing clerical and general workers at the hospital. “To exclude anyone, that’s to say that you’re not part of the team.”

Workers potentially excluded if Republicans get their way include janitors and security officers, child care workers, school staff, meatpackers and retail workers – the same frontline workers celebrated as heroes for facing new, unknown risks after the pandemic hit in March 2020.

Many have been able to work from home during the pandemic. For essential workers, staying home to quarantine, care for family members, wait for test results or recover from illness has meant losing wages or burning through their paid time off.

Lawmakers, in fact, created the $250 million compensation fund as a compromise after failing to reach agreement on legislation that would have provided back pay to essential workers for hours lost during the pandemic.

Elia Starkweather, a janitor in Minneapolis and member of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26, exhausted her sick days after contracting COVID-19 in January. She said 1,000 members of her union have gotten sick or been forced to stay home with a sick family member. Some, she said, have had to quarantine multiple times. Four Local 26 members have died from COVID-19,

Lawmakers, Starkweather said, “see us as just numbers” and not “as human beings, as people who have family.”

Lawmakers also set up the compensation fund as acknowledgement of the psychological and emotional toll the pandemic continues to take on many workers on the front lines.

Laura Heezen, a behavior analyst with Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, said she and her co-workers, members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), were tasked with serving the population most vulnerable to COVID-19, the elderly.

“During the pandemic MAPE members came into (Veterans Homes) to care for veterans who were scared, sick and missing their loved ones,” Heezen said. “Residents had to be quarantined, alone in their rooms, sometimes for months at a time. After a while, we were at a loss for words trying to encourage them in their darkest days and hours.

“This task force is taking too long, and they’ve done nothing to provide actual relief for the workers so desperate for reprieve.”

Several unions and community organizations have signed onto a joint statement to Republican members of the work group, calling both for an equitable distribution plan and for lawmakers to allocate more dollars to expand the fund beyond $250 million.

“We worked to not leave anyone behind during COVID, and now some legislators are holding up Essential Worker pay in order to exclude us?” the statement said.

“Many of us lost pay when we had to quarantine or be vaccinated. Yet when our bills come due, we have to pay them. The bill for this working group is overdue, and it’s time they deliver.”

The statement was signed by AFSCME Council 5, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, the worker center CTUL, Education Minnesota, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, MAPE, MNA, SEIU locals 26 and 284, UNITE HERE Local 17 and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, among others.

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Minnesota AFL-CIO wraps 55th convention with call for solidarity

September 21, 2021 by

During a pandemic-shortened convention that gaveled to a close this morning, delegates from the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s affiliate unions reflected on the importance of solidarity during times of crisis, and reaffirmed their commitment to building a just, inclusive labor movement capable of fighting for all working Minnesotans.

“No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all should have the freedom to come together and negotiate,” Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto said in opening remarks Monday.

Held virtually, the statewide federation’s 55th convention featured guest speakers, resolutions and reports on local unions’ organizing and political work.

During a special presentation, frontline workers discussed their experiences keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryan Ellison, a grocery store worker and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, recalled tense interactions with customers about masks and widespread fear about coming into contact with the virus.

“None of us signed up for what we had to go through,” Ellison, a shop steward, said. “This isn’t something that was ever included in the job description.”

In a live address to the convention Monday, Gov. Tim Walz praised essential union members for “incredible acts of selfless service to others.”

“What’s been asked of you has not been asked of a generation,” Walz said. “I’m incredibly proud of you and the work you’ve done.”

Walz also credited unions for pushing employers, lawmakers and regulators to make workers’ health and safety a top priority after the pandemic hit, noting that “workers who were in unions felt safer in their positions, felt better respected.”

“More Minnesotans are alive today because union workers forced us to treat COVID as it should have been treated – as a life-threatening pandemic,” Walz said.

Looking forward

Convention business also included a series of resolutions that advanced out of committees and onto the convention floor, offering delegates the opportunity to shape their federation’s priorities.

Resolutions ranged from opposing the corporatization of health care to supporting union members in a fight to stop AT&T from outsourcing union jobs. Another put the federation on record supporting truth in education – a response to right-wing hysteria around the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools.

Delegates also celebrated steady growth in the local labor movement’s ranks. Spokespeople from new bargaining units at two charters schools, Fair State Brewing Cooperative and Augsburg University offered insights into their successful organizing drives, which took place in unprecedented times.

“We were organizing virtually,” Augsburg staff member Katie Asfeld said. “We didn’t have an opportunity to bump into colleagues after meetings or get together and have coffee…

“We developed different ways for staff to be able to show their support, and at the end of the day we saw that whether we are virtual or in person, there is power in our collective voices.”

Seizing an opportunity

Recent polling suggests more workers would like to join together and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

A Gallup survey of U.S. public opinion of labor unions, released annually around Labor Day, this year recorded the highest favorability rating – 68%, since 1965. Support is relatively bipartisan, and a whopping 77% of young people view unions favorably.

“As long as I can remember, our opponents have been saying, ‘Unions will die, unions are obsolete,’” Lehto said. “Don’t you believe it.”

Passing the PRO Act into federal law, he added, would give unions a greater opportunity to capitalize on their surging popularity. The measure, which has passed the House, would hold corporations accountable for union-busting, strengthen workers’ rights to form and join unions and repeal right-to-work laws.

Minnesota’s senators assured delegates they are working to advance the bill to President Biden’s desk. Sen. Tina Smith said the PRO Act is necessary to undo the “concerted campaign” by big corporations “to undermine organizing rights.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar added, “I believe in my heart that when unions are strong, our economy is strong, and when our economy is strong, our country is strong.”

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Essential workers tell lawmakers: Minnesotans support emergency leave

June 17, 2021 by

Bill Schwandt, an paraprofessional educator in the Bloomington schools, speaks at a press conference in support of emergency paid leave for essential workers.

Thousands of essential workers in Minnesota have lost hours or exhausted their paid time off after being exposed to the coronavirus over the past 15 months, while a measure that would make them whole remains caught up in Capitol gridlock.

That needs to change, according to more than 5,000 nurses, janitors, educators, child care workers and other Minnesotans who signed onto a petition in support of the Essential Workers Emergency Leave Act.

Union members delivered the petitions to Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders today after holding a press conference on the Capitol steps.

“We deserve more than nice words, pats on the back and hearty handshakes,” said Bill Schwandt, a paraprofessional in the Bloomington schools and member of Education Minnesota. “We deserve to be remembered, respected and, yes, compensated for the work that we did.”

Lawmakers are scrambling to negotiate the particulars of a $52 billion, two-year budget by the end of the month. The budget taps into federal relief funds that, as several workers pointed out, should prioritize support for essential workers, according to guidance from the Department of Treasury.

Emergency leave for time lost would help workers like Eva Lopez, a local janitor, regain their footing. Lopez is vice president of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26, which represents janitors and security guards in the Twin Cities, and she said over 1,000 members of her union have missed work to quarantine or wait for test results.

“Most don’t make enough to have big savings accounts, and we can never work from home,” Lopez said via a translator. “This year has been so hard.”

Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner, an intensive care nurse at North Memorial hospital in Robbinsdale, said members of her union have “dipped into their savings, their retirement, their 401(k)” plans to pay their bills while riding out quarantine.

The financial strain many health care workers are facing, Turner added, has only added to the stress of providing care through a crisis that has resulted in over 7,500 deaths statewide.

“We aren’t asking for a handout,” Turner said. “What we are asking for is justice.”

Turner and Troy Bowman, a Minneapolis custodian who had to quarantine twice in the last year, delivered copies of the petition to Walz, who has pledged support for the measure, and Sen. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul), a lead author of the bill.

The DFL-controlled House included funding for emergency leave in its jobs bill last month, but Republicans in control of the Senate did not. Murphy, a registered nurse, promised to bring the petition to Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka’s attention, and thanked essential workers for their service to Minnesota during the pandemic.

“You went to work, you took care of us, you kept us alive, you kept us healthy and you kept our economy going,” she said.

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Walz joins Building Trades unions in remembering fallen workers

April 28, 2021 by

In a ceremony today on the State Capitol grounds, Gov. Tim Walz and Labor Commissioner Roslyn Robertson joined members of Twin Cities Building Trades unions in paying tribute to workers who died in the past two years due to work-related injuries or illnesses. 

Observed each year on April 28, Workers Memorial Day honors those who lost their lives on the job. In ceremonies across North America, union members pause to reflect on the impact workplace deaths have on families, co-workers and communities, and raise awareness of ongoing efforts to ensure safer, healthier workplaces.  

Walz and other speakers at the St. Paul ceremony noted that COVID-19 has created new hazards and uncertainties for frontline, essential workers, who have not been able to work remotely over the past 13 months. 

“Those that aren’t with us today, those 7,000-plus Minnesotans who aren’t here, no doubt some of them contracted COVID and lost their lives doing their jobs,” Walz said. “And we found out very early how essential workers are.” 

“Today is about remembering,” Walz added. “But there better be some lessons we’ve learned over the last year.” 

Building Trades unions honored 12 fallen members at the ceremony, their names affixed to white crosses held by family members or union representatives. At the conclusion of the observance, a speaker called out each name, followed by a single bell toll, as black sashes were placed over the crosses. 

“They used their God-given talents to provide,” St. Paul Building Trades President Tom McCarthy said during an opening prayer. “They left us too soon. We humbly pray for their families and loved ones.” 

On behalf of the people of Minnesota, Walz extended his “deepest condolences to the representatives and the families here who have lost loved ones doing the work that makes our lives a little better, doing the work that fuels our economy, doing the work that moves us from place to place.”

Nationwide, about 15 workplace fatalities occur each day, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s roughly one fatal injury every 99 minutes. 

In Minnesota, the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated 30 workplace fatalities in 2020. 

In her remarks, Robertson noted that Workers Memorial Day is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the date, now 50 years ago, that federal legislation creating OSHA went into effect. Minnesota won approval to establish its own OSHA in 1985. 

“Workplaces are much safer today than they were before the OSHA Act, but our work is not done,” Robertson said, adding that the legislation “transformed employers’ responsibility to keep workplaces safe.” 

Robertson emphasized the need to do more to protect workers who face greater risks on the job, whether due to the dangerous nature of their work or due to factors that may prevent them from understanding their rights and protections on the job, including language and cultural differences. 

“A safe workplace isn’t a privilege, it is a right of every worker,” the labor commissioner said. “It’s important that all workers have the information and training they need to be safe at the work site, regardless of what they look like, where they come from or what language they speak.  

“If they’re in the workplace, they have a right to a safe work environment.” 

That’s a principle shared by labor unions, which have taken a leading role during the pandemic in winning protections for members and all working people. Unions have fought for access to personal protective equipment, ventilation and paid COVID leave, and they have lobbied lawmakers like Walz for emergency workplace health and safety standards.  

“With the voice of labor and the voice of legislators to back it up, we made sure we wouldn’t ask someone to go back into an unsafe work condition unless we made sure they were taken care of,” Walz said. “We wouldn’t ask them to go back in there unless we were doing all we could to protect them.” 

View the names of tradespeople honored at today’s ceremony here. 

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After nearing strike at Allina, SEIU members at local hospitals ratify new contracts

April 21, 2021 by

Dee Tomic, a nursing assistant who volunteered to work in the COVID unit during the pandemic, chooses a picket sign. “I am disappointed – very – by these negotiations,” she said.

Earlier this month, essential workers at United Hospital and seven other Allina Health facilities were ready to strike for a fair contract that respects their service on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, the 4,000 members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota struck a last-minute agreement with Allina and overwhelmingly ratified the new contract.

“We fought hard to win a contract that respects, protects and pays the workers who provide the best patient care in the world,” said Lynn Carlson, a licensed practical nurse and member of the union’s bargaining team.

“The debt we owe to the frontline, essential workers who kept Minnesota safe and healthy over this last year is immense, and we still have work to do. But I’m proud that our members fought for and won this contract.”

Key gains won by Allina workers include a 5% pay increase over the course of the three-year agreement, including 3% in the first year, with back pay. Workers also will see a 9% pension increase over the next three years.

Hospital talks wrap

Earlier this spring, another group of 4,000 SEIU Healthcare members, after negotiations separate from the Allina table, approved new contracts with their hospital employers, including M Health Fairview and Children’s hospitals, North Memorial and Park Nicollet Methodist.

The three-year contracts include pay and pension increases of 7.5% over the course of the agreement, according to SEIU.

In addition, new contract language will address racial justice, equity and inclusion in the workplace, and seek to improve workplace safety. And a new action plan will provide union members an opportunity to address concerns around safe staffing.

“We’ve worked hard this last year to keep our patients safe, and that is why it was so critical to win the best contract we could,” Hope Dahn, a nursing assistant and Park Nicollet, said. “If you work in health care – no matter what your job is – you are part of the patient’s care. I think the unity shown by our members helped us get this great contract.”

Mayor Melvin Carter speaks during a rally outside United Hospital in St. Paul.

‘You’ve been through a war for us’

Allina workers appeared headed for an unfair-labor-practice (ULP) strike in early May, as talks broke down over the provider’s refusal to budge from a 0% wage increase in the first year of the contract.

Union members staged informational picketing outside several of Allina’s facilities, including United Hospital in downtown St. Paul April 21. Supporters from the labor community, including union nurses at the hospital, walked alongside SEIU members, as did several elected officials.

“You have been through a war for us through this pandemic,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter told union members during a brief rally. “I see the trauma in your eyes. I see the hard work that you have given us, facing down this pandemic every single day.

“We know that we are in such a better place because you have stood between us and this crisis, and we’ve got to stand with you too.”

“You are essential workers, and you are essential to patient care with nurses,” United nurse Emily Sippola, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told SEIU members. “We can’t do it without all of you, and we will have your back because we know we’re all stronger together for patient care.”

The Allina contract also covers workers at Abbott Northwestern, St. Francis, Mercy, Buffalo, Unity and Owatonna hospitals, as well as Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis.

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