Target Field workers dig in for fair contract: ‘We love the Twins. We love the fans. But that love is not going to pay our bills.’

July 20, 2026 by
Roxy Hoda holding a picket sign outside Target Field

Target Field suites worker Roxy Hoda, a resident of St. Paul, is on her union’s bargaining team in talks with Delaware North.

For as long as the Twins have been playing baseball at Target Field, Roxy Hoda has been hosting fans in the luxury suites. The 37-year-old from St. Paul went to work at the ballpark in 2010, and she now serves on the bargaining team for her union, UNITE HERE Local 17, in contract negotiations with the team’s concessionaire, Delaware North.

Union members made history June 22, staging the first ever strike at a Twin Cities sports stadium, and Hoda was among those walking the picket line before the Twins and Dodgers took the field. In this interview, which has been edited for length, she talked about the decision to strike, why workers are pushing so hard for their demands and what hospitality workers want Twins fans to know.

UA: Did Delaware North make any effort to avoid this strike after you announced the date almost two weeks ago?

RH: We’ve met several times since then, and the only improvement that they made was saying that they would give our non-tipped employees and minimum-wage employees an extra 10 cents an hour, so a 60-cent raise over the life of the contract.

UA: That doesn’t sound like much movement.

RH: No, and they’re very careful with their language. They’ll say things like, ‘We only have so much allocated money. We only have so much in the pot.’ They want it to come across that they can’t afford it, but we know that’s not true. Otherwise, they would show their economic data to our union. They just don’t want to eat into their profit margins at all, not even for their own employees.

UA: You’re supposed to take their word for it.

RH: It’s tricky because we know our local management is just responding to corporate directions.

UA: Did management reach out today before the strike began, or have the Twins stepped in at all?

RH: My understanding is that everything has come to a halt. Delaware North has requested a mediator for our negotiations, which we as a union will not do (because) we know that will silence our voices. They want to sit in a separate room, so they don’t have to operate so carefully with their words and don’t have to listen to our employee impact statements. That’s unacceptable to us. We deserve to be in that room, especially since there has been little to no movement on many of our very reasonable requests.

As far as the Twins are concerned, they have not reached out to us as employees. I’m not sure about the union. I feel they are just trying to stay out of it. But I really hope that they see what we’re doing here today. We love the Twins organization. We love our guests. We love the fans. But that love is not going to pay our bills. It’s not going to get us healthcare. And we deserve, as hospitality professionals, to be treated that way.

UA: What are the big issues for you, personally?

RH: No. 1 is healthcare. My partner and I have two kids. Both of us are hospitality professionals, and we’ve had to rely on marketplace insurance for a long time. About three years ago we were paying $800 per month, not including deductibles. That was a lot, but it was doable. That amount has almost tripled. It is almost as much as our mortgage.

Delaware North has this opportunity to join the UNITE HERE Health Fund, which nationwide has over 200,000 union workers in it. Because of that, insurance companies are able to offer steep discounts. All we’re asking Delaware North to do is join that trust, but they’re not interested.

UA: With all the money made off of these stadiums, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask that employers pitch in toward healthcare.

RH: There are other stadiums (in the Twin Cities) with contracts that are coming open with other hospitality companies. A lot of my co-workers work at multiple stadiums, and that makes up a full-time job for them. We’re the first ones that are kind of setting the tone, and we want to make sure that we’re holding firm. We deserve healthcare.

UA: What do you like about working in the Target Field suites?

RH: It’s like my second family. I feel like I grew up here. A lot of us have been to each other’s baby showers, and I’ve had the same clients for a lot of the time too. I work with a lot of big companies throughout Minnesota, and I love them to death. Overall, I think it’s just such a joy.

Working here is important, too. I think the pandemic really showed us, when you take the fun out of life, what that looks like. That’s what we do. We want people to come to the game, have a good time, forget the worries going on in their lives, and make memories with their friends, family and loved ones.

UA: Have you ever been on strike before?

RH: No.

UA: What do you want people coming to the game – and all Twins fans – to know about this?

RH: We are hospitality professionals, and this is a real career. A lot of us have degrees in other fields. We do this job because we’re good at it, and it really does make a difference in people’s lives. I think people just don’t realize that because we’re always smiling, but it is socially taxing. Still, it is a passion of ours.

UA: You and many others are not going in to work today, but what do you expect will happen with those who do?

RH: We have seen some scabs coming in today. However, I’m giving them some grace because I know that this is scary, and a lot of people are very worried about their jobs. I understand that there is a hard decision to make here.

But even though not every issue on the table affects me personally, I know it affects a lot of other people at the stadium. To me, I think it’s more important to stand up for everyone and to be unified.

– This “Labor Q&A” appeared in The Union Advocate’s August 2026 print edition.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , ,

Target Field workers call June 22 strike, urge Twins to ‘step up’

June 11, 2026 by

Nariel Green (L) leads fellow Target Field concessions workers in a chant: “Fifty cents won’t pay the rent.”

Got tickets to the Twins’ home game June 22 against the Dodgers at Target Field?

Expect picket lines outside and long lines inside, as concessions workers plan to strike during the opener of a three-game series against the defending World Series champs.

UNITE HERE Local 17 announced the one-day strike outside Target Field this morning. Union officers and rank-and-file members warned fans, the team and its concessionaire, Delaware North Company, that picket lines will go up June 22 unless the sides settle before then.

The bargaining unit brings together about 500 workers in Target Field’s concession stands and premium restaurants. Members voted last month to authorize their negotiators to call a strike, with 81% support.

Union members entered bargaining with Delaware North in April seeking a $20 minimum wage, job protections and a pathway to healthcare benefits for workers at Target Field and other local stadiums.

But in six sessions since then, the union says, management has refused to take those demands seriously.

The two sides are meeting again today, but Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer Sheigh Freeberg said workers’ patience is running out.

“They’ve had our proposals for months,” Freeberg said during a press conference. “We only just got their economic proposal.”

That offer would hold hourly wages flat for some workers and raise others’ by 50 cents. Many Target Field concessions workers earn minimum wage, which is just over $16 per hour in Minneapolis.

Purnell Payne, a bartender at Target Field, said the stadium’s increasing use of nonprofit volunteers to sell concessions raises safety concerns – especially when it comes to alcohol sales.

“Fifty cents won’t pay the rent,” Local 17 member Nariel Green said, leading union supporters in a brief chant.

Green added that Delaware North’s refusal to discuss issues – like faulty equipment, unequal treatment and an increasing reliance on nonprofit volunteers to do union members’ work – shows a lack of respect for the workers who are critical to fans’ experience at the ballpark

“They expect us to show up with a positive attitude when we are treated like second-class citizens,” Green said. “All they have done (in bargaining) is waste our time repeatedly.”

Local 17 has had “minimal” engagement with the Twins about the slow pace of contract negotiations, Freeberg said, but he called on the club to “step up” and “tell Delaware North to come to a fair agreement because the Twins organization will be affected by a strike.”

Local 17 has represented workers in Target Field concession stands since the ballpark opened in 2010. Last fall, about 200 workers in the facility’s premium restaurants won their campaign to join the union too, nearly doubling the size of the bargaining unit – and increasing its leverage at the table.

Local 17’s previous contract expired in January but remains in effect as negotiations continue.

If Delaware North workers stage a strike June 22, it would be the first of its kind at any Twin Cities sports stadium, according to the union.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: 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: , , , ,

Unions decry Trump shutdown, urge health care fix

October 21, 2025 by

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa member Tametria Johnson worries about the impact that cuts to Medicaid and expiring ACA subsidies will have on her family.

Using public-service workers as political pawns, President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress allowed the federal government to shut down Oct. 1 rather than negotiate with Senate Democrats over a mounting health care crisis.

As the shutdown extends into a fourth week, over 750,000 federal workers are locked out, furloughed or working without pay.

Trump and administration officials have made no attempt to hide their intent to use federal workers as leverage in the standoff. The president called it an “unprecedented opportunity” to slash payroll, and thousands of workers across multiple federal agencies had received reduction-in-force notices by mid-October.

The administration also floated a memo arguing furloughed workers were not entitled to back pay, flouting a law passed after the government shut down for 35 days in 2019.

Unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), swiftly challenged both the firings and the memo, winning a temporary restraining order to block the reductions in force and threatening another lawsuit if the administration withholds back pay.

Still, the strain on federal workers and their families increases with each day the shutdown drags on, AFGE District 8 Vice President Ruark Hotopp said. District 8 represents over 19,000 federal workers in Minnesota and four other states.

“To be used as political footballs, to shut down the government and hold us hostage while many of our members are going without a paycheck – in many cases while they still perform their work – it’s just frustrating and maddening,” Hotopp, an immigration officer on leave while he works for his union, said. “People are feeling a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty.

“But it’s par for the course with what we’ve been dealing with since January, with DOGE and (Office of Management and Budget Director) Russ Vought and Elon Musk, and agencies refusing to recognize our union contracts.”

Holding out for health care fix

While AFGE and other federal workers’ unions are calling for an immediate end to the shutdown, other labor unions have ramped up pressure on Trump and Republicans to negotiate a health-care fix with Senate Democrats as part of a spending bill.

Already, hospitals are bracing for a $900 billion cut to Medicaid coverage in the tax and spending bill Trump signed into law July 4, which will force providers to absorb billions in unpaid care costs.

Adding to the crisis, Trump and Republicans are set on allowing some tax credits that help people afford insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire Dec. 31. Over 22 million Americans, access the credits to make their health coverage more affordable.

MNsure, Minnesota’s ACA exchange, noted the impact of the expiring credits as it released rates and coverage options in advance of open enrollment beginning Nov. 1. Nearly 90,000 Minnesotans will pay more for coverage – on average, about $177 more each month – and another 20,000 will lose all financial assistance.

“These cuts would be a snowball that would be awful for so many families,” home care worker Tametria Johnson said during a press conference called by her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, on Day 1 of the shutdown.

Johnson works as a caregiver for her developmentally disabled adult daughter, a service reimbursed by Medicaid funding, but she gets her own health coverage through the ACA exchange. She worries her family’s Medicaid benefits are in jeopardy at a time when her premiums are set to increase by over 20%.

“Many of us live paycheck to paycheck,” Johnson said. “When costs go up … something has to go – groceries, medicine, gas to go to work or appointments, utilities, cell phone. It’s very scary.”

Make a deal or take a stand?

Labor leaders and Senate Democrats have acknowledged the tension between fighting to lower health care costs for union members like Johnson and getting federal workers back on the job. But they agree that the blame lands squarely on the White House.

“Our livelihoods should not be used as pawns or bargaining chips, whether it is threatening one set of workers after another, canceling construction projects, or jacking up electricity prices on top of higher health insurance premiums,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler wrote in a letter to Trump sent Oct. 7.

“We implore you to meet with the leaders of the House and Senate to find a solution that funds the government, fixes the health care crisis and puts working people first.”

One thing AFGE’s Hotopp is sure of, he said, is that the Trump administration’s attacks on federal workers won’t end when the government reopens. He recalled the argument that convinced enough Senate Democrats to sign off on a Republican budget the last time Congress reached the brink of a shutdown, in March.

“What we heard then was, ‘We had to make a deal to save your jobs,’” Hotopp said. “Then we watched DOGE rip through our staffing, watched agencies rip away our unions. It didn’t save any jobs.

“To insinuate that if there weren’t a shutdown that they wouldn’t terminate people? That’s simply not the truth.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Union approves first contract at Planned Parenthood North Central States

January 19, 2024 by

PPNCS United members held informational picketing in November – a strategy that workers credit with pressuring management to improve its health coverage.

Planned Parenthood North Central States workers in Minnesota and four other states voted to ratify their first union contract this week, capping a tumultuous round of negotiations with the reproductive health organization, where workers voted to unionize in July 2022.

The new contract takes effect retroactively to Jan. 1 and covers about 430 members of PPNCS United, who will see immediate gains in wages and health benefits, according to the union.

The contract establishes a 15-year wage scale and provides raises of 11.75% over three years, including a 4.5% increase in year No. 1. For Planned Parenthood’s lowest-paid employees, a new $19 minimum wage, combined with the first-year wage hike, will mean 17% increase in their pay.

“That’s a huge victory,” said PPNCS triage nurse Nicole Anschutz, who served on the union’s bargaining team. “Some staff who were getting $17 an hour are seeing that increase to almost $20 per hour immediately.”

Union members also won grievance and arbitration rights and a progressive discipline process that requires just cause for terminations – no small victory for a union whose elected leaders alleged that they were targeted and intimidated by management away from the bargaining table.

Anschutz joined the bargaining team after a wave of resignations and firings, prompted by PPNCS management’s move to deliver “final written notices” to all 14 workers elected to represent their union in negotiations. With no grievance or arbitration process in place, union members filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board last March – and are still awaiting a decision.

“There were other staff that weren’t a part of the bargaining team that were fired during this process for various reasons too, and we couldn’t fight that,” Anschutz said.

Shay Gingras, a senior research coordinator who served on the union’s bargaining team from the start, noted that the process has played out as PPNCS and its workers face new challenges – and attacks – in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“We’ve lost too many amazing staff members because of issues we have been facing inside and outside of the organization, so I am happy we won protections and other gains to recognize our important work supporting our patients,” Gingras said.

“As an original bargaining team member, I’m so proud of our team who have fought so hard for so long to win these gains. This has been a really long and difficult process and our fight will continue, but I’m really proud of what we were able to win in this first contract.”

Union leaders and PPNCS reached a tentative agreement on the three-year contract in their 37th bargaining session. Among members who participated in the ratification vote, 84% voted to approve the deal.

Nothing came easily at the bargaining table, committee members said, prompting union members to steadily dial up their public pressure on PPNCS leadership to settle a fair contract. Informational picketing in November outside several facilities, including in St. Paul, had an immediate impact, according to Anschutz.

“Prior to the informational picket, the employer had made it very clear we were going to get nothing on health insurance,” she said. “After the informational picket, we started getting things done on health insurance.”

James Willging, a senior community organizer at PPNCS, said health insurance will become more affordable, especially for workers with children and families, under the new contract.

“This contract gives frontline staff more stability so we can focus on the critical work we do every day,” Willging said. “We hope this will help address our staffing shortage so we can provide the compassionate and kind care our patients deserve.”

Although they celebrated their first contract, Anschutz and other union leaders were quick to note that their union’s efforts in support of workers’ rights and abortion rights is not done.

“It seemed impossible at times, like it was never going to happen,” Anschutz said. “I didn’t expect to cry as much as I did in the whole process. But it’s worth it to have the protections we have now and this foundation that we can build upon in the future.”

PPNCS United is an affiliate of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

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

Allina Health clinicians file for union election

August 11, 2023 by

Doctors and advanced practice providers (APPs) at Allina Health primary and urgent-care clinics filed for a union election this week, seeking to become the nation’s largest union of private-sector clinicians.

The election would cover about 550 clinicians working in over 50 facilities across the region, according to organizers with Doctors Council SEIU, Local 10MD.

Physicians and APPs, who are not physicians but perform many of the same duties, said in a press release issued today that they are unionizing to gain more say over their working conditions, which right now are dragging down “patient care, professional practice and personal well-being.”

“As health care providers, we are committed to delivering the highest quality care to our patients, but we cannot do that when we are overworked, understaffed and unsupported,” Dr. Matt Hoffman, a physician at Allina’s Vadnais Heights clinic, said. “By forming a union with Doctors Council SEIU, we can better advocate for the resources and support we need to provide safe, effective and compassionate care to our patients.”

The decision to unionize, according to organizers, came after months of discussions among Allina health care providers about common concerns like safety, moral injury and eroding professional agency. Dr. Katherine Oyster, who practices family medicine in Cottage Grove, said the goal is a more collaborative, sustainable health system.

“Voting to unionize gives us in primary and urgent care the opportunity to, en bloc, work collaboratively with Allina leadership to re-center our patients as the focus of our work,” Oyster said. “It would give us a seat at the table where practice-changing decisions are made so we can properly advocate for the needs of our patients. It gives us an opportunity to decrease provider burnout/moral injury with the ultimate goal of keeping us happily providing care with Allina for many years to come.”

If the National Labor Relations Board grants their petition for an election, Allina primary and urgent-care clinicians will become the second group that includes Allina physicians to vote on union representation this year.

Mercy Hospital physicians voted in March to join the Doctors Council, but Allina challenged the eligibility of some employees for the bargaining unit. The NLRB has yet to rule on the appeal.

Meanwhile, nearly 800 frontline workers across Allina’s hospital operations in the Twin Cities – lab technicians, nursing assistants, dietary aides, mental health workers and dozens of other classifications – have joined SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa in the last two years. And nurses at Mercy Hospital’s sexual assault unit recently filed for a union election with the Minnesota Nurses Association.

In addition to its track record of rocky labor relations, Allina has come under scrutiny after a New York Times investigation revealed that the provider routinely denied non-emergency care to patients with higher levels of medical debt, raising ethics concerns.

Among their reasons for seeking a union, Allina clinicians cited “moral injury caused by the pressure to prioritize productivity and profit over patient needs and values and from a lack of support and resources to provide high-quality care.” The list also included:

  • Patient safety concerns due to understaffing and inadequate resources.
  • Limited input and decision-making power in matters affecting patient care, provider safety and professional autonomy.
  • The erosion of the clinician-led model of care and the threat of corporate influence on medical decision-making.

Doctors Council SEIU, which represents thousands of health care providers across the U.S., said Allina clinicians plan to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

“We believe that every health care provider deserves a safe and supportive workplace where they can provide the best possible care to their patients,” said Dr. Frances Quee, president of Doctors Council SEIU. “By joining together in a union, these health care providers can have the power and resources they need to make real improvements in their workplace and for their patients.”

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

MSP workers unite to support health care campaign, Delta union drive

December 8, 2022 by

Brahim Kone of SEIU Local 26 leads a rally outside MSP Terminal 2.

Airport workers marched and rallied for health care and union rights outside Terminal 2 in Bloomington today. The action was among dozens staged by airport workers and their unions fighting for safe and stable jobs across the country.

In Minnesota, workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport used the day of action to advance their campaign for affordable health care.

Dawit Meles, who works for airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs, said he picks up overtime shifts to cover the cost of his individual insurance plan. A more affordable option, he said, would give him more time to spend with his family.

“For my single insurance I pay over $300 a month,” he said. “My wife and kids get their insurance through the state because I can’t afford the (family) insurance LSG Sky Chefs offers.”

Meles’ union, UNITE HERE Local 17, and other unions representing airport workers are pushing the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to amend the ordinance it passed three years ago increasing MSP’s minimum wage, adding an “hourly health and wellness benefit” to the minimum compensation airport contractors must offer their employees.

State Rep. Kaela Berg, a member of the Flight Attendants union, offers solidarity to workers at the rally.

Earlier this year, unions surveyed nearly 300 MSP service workers from 17 different employers and found that, among workers who had health insurance, just 15.2% reported getting coverage through their employers.

“We know that essential airport workers – often Black, Brown and immigrant workers – make this airport the award-winning airport that it is,” SEIU Local 26 Secretary-Treasurer Brahim Kone said. “But too often to make ends meet they have to struggle, and that’s not right. It’s time for those in power to stand up and do what is right for these workers.”

A MAC commissioner who attended the rally sounded receptive to the idea.

“We will look to this coalition for guidance and support as we move forward to try to solve health care and other issues that are important,” Commissioner Rich Ginsberg said, “because it’s the workers that make the airport work.”

The coalition of airport unions behind the rally also included the Teamsters, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and the Machinists – three unions that recently announced a coordinated campaign to support workers attempting to unionize Delta Air Lines.

Delta is turning massive profits, and executives like CEO Ed Bastian, whose pay was 26% higher last year than his peers’, are reaping the benefits. But rank-and-file workers like Miles Dousette, who works for Delta Cargo at MSP Airport, are working two jobs to make ends meet.

“We need a union now,” Delta Cargo worker Miles Dousette tells airport workers at the rally.

“There’s no work-life balance,” said Dousette, in his third year with the company. “They say we’re a family. They say they want this to be a career. Then why don’t we get career wages?”

Dousette said workers in his department earn $18 per hour for their first three years, followed by modest annual increases that top out after the 10th year.

“Delta likes to brag about profit sharing, but I worked six days a week for 10 months straight, and I got the same check as everyone else,” Dousette said.

He told workers at the rally that the company is plagued by understaffing, outdated warehouse equipment and executives who turn a deaf ear to workers’ concerns.

“The scheduling is atrocious, and when we ask management to do something about it, we always hear, ‘we can’t’ or ‘we’re working on it,’” he said. “We need a union now.”

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

Mental health workers notify Allina, Fairview of intent to strike again

September 26, 2022 by

Mental health workers picketed outside MHealth Fairview hospital during a one-day strike in May

More Twin Cities health care workers are poised to strike for safer hospital staffing.

Mental health workers at MHealth Fairview and two Allina Health hospitals notified the providers today of their intent to open a three-day strike Oct. 3. The bargaining units bring together over 400 essential employees who organized unions with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa last year.

The union announced 98% of participating members voted to authorize a three-day strike last month, a sign of increasing frustration with the lack of progress toward first contracts that address their top priorities.

“We are ready to strike because we are facing dangerous staffing levels and it feels like no one in power cares,” said Dana Disbrow, a psychiatric associate at MHealth Fairview. “The current staffing situation is a nightmare, and we are fighting for a fair contract that finally addresses these concerns.”

In addition to staffing shortfalls, union members want contract language that addresses safety issues inside their buildings, including threats of gun violence.

“We face many challenging and risky situations every shift,” said Amanda Reasor, a senior mental health coordinator at Allina Unity Hospital. “We want to be able to have the resources we need to cope with the constant stress that we are under and have guidelines that further protect us from harm.”

Union members raised those concerns in a one-day strike May 24, during Mental Health Awareness Month. But Kellie Benson, senior mental health coordinator at Abbott, said hospital administrators still aren’t listening.

“The longer our employers dismiss the significant concerns raised by staff working face to face with patients in mental health care, the harder it will be to heal, not only for those experiencing mental health crises, but for our entire community,” Benson said.

Union members work as psych associates and behavioral assistants at MHealth Fairview Hospital, and as senior mental health coordinators at Allina Health’s Abbott Northwestern and Unity hospitals.

MHealth and Allina employees bargain at separate tables, and each unit has one scheduled session left before the unfair-labor-practice strike is scheduled to start.

The systems were among those affected by a historic, three-day strike by 15,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association earlier this month. Like nurses fighting for contracts that put patients over profits, mental health workers said they are fighting for contracts stabilize their industry for workers and patients

“It is unfortunate that we feel the only way Allina will hear us is if we take drastic action,” Reasor said. “We have made immense strides toward a fair resolution while also demanding fair wages, wholistic benefits, and a safer workplace. We deserve to be treated like the professionals we are, yet Allina has come back time and time again saying ‘not interested’ to some of the most important facets to our contract.

“If we don’t see significant strides on Allina’s part, we will strike.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , , ,

After March strike, MN Epilepsy Group workers settle contract that preserves longevity pay

June 24, 2022 by

Minnesota Epilepsy Group workers picketed outside the employer’s headquarters in Roseville on the last day of their March strike.

Union members at Minnesota Epilepsy Group (MEG) went on strike last March to defend the hard-fought, longevity-based wage scale in their contract.

This week they claimed victory, ratifying a new agreement that will continue rewarding workers for their longevity with the company.

The contract covers 60 EEG technologists, who provide brain-wave testing to patients at hospitals and clinics across the Twin Cities. They are members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

Leah Olsen, a member of the union’s bargaining team who has been with MEG for 11 years, said she was proud that her union “stuck together, stood up for what is right and even went on strike” in a contract campaign that began last October.

“The biggest part of our fight was making sure we kept the wage scales in the contract that we’ve had for decades, and I’m so glad we won on that issue,” she said. “We showed through this process that we are united and that we will always fight for what is right for workers and patients.”

MEG workers’ five-day strike over unfair labor practices, which ended March 14, brought picket lines to several hospitals where EEG technicians provide services, including United Hospital in St. Paul and Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis.

At the time, MEG management was offering technicians annual wage increases of less than 1% and taking aim at the longevity-based wage steps that had been part of their union contract for decades.

MEG technicians rally on the last day of the ULP strike.

That didn’t sit well with union members, who voted unanimously in favor of authorizing the strike. On the picket line, workers called MEG’s approach to bargaining “insulting,” given that they had stuck with the employer through the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented staffing shortfalls.

Keeping the wage scale in place wasn’t the only win for union members in the new contract. It will also improve workers’ retirement benefits, guaranteeing an annual employer contribution of 3% of workers’ gross pay.

The contract also adds two new paid holidays, improves sick time accrual, enhances mileage reimbursement and increases shift differentials for members working night, evening, or charge-technician shifts.

Renee David, a senior EEG technologist with three years of experience at MEG, said the new contract is just a starting point.

“I’m proud we stood together to win this deal, but also know that we deserve much more than what we got,” David said. “As frontline health care workers, we will continue to advocate for the pay and respect we know we deserve so we can continue to provide world-class care to our patients.”

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