Strike ends as Hazelden nurses ratify historic contract with safety guarantees

July 30, 2026 by

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association vote on the proposed contract with Hazelden.

Nurses ended their strike at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Center City campus this week, settling a first contract that, union members say, will address concerns that sparked their historic organizing campaign.

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s bargaining unit – about 60 nurses in all – voted to ratify the contract today. Union negotiators reached a tentative agreement with Hazelden on Tuesday.

That brought a halt to picketing outside the prestigious addiction-treatment facility that began July 15 and persisted through steamy temperatures, smoky air and gridlock at the bargaining table.

That resolve sent a strong message to management, members of the bargaining team said.

“It was taxing physically, financially, mentally and sometimes spiritually, but the best thing about it was we were really able to bond on that line,” Anne Coleman, a registered nurse at Hazelden for the last two years, said. “And not only did we bond, but we were able to have our voices heard, which we know has not been the case consistently for years and years – especially around security and safety.

“This was historic, and I’m really proud of our team.”

Indeed, nurses at the Chisago County campus became the first anywhere across Hazelden Betty Ford’s system to win a union contract, and one of their key gains – providing staff with panic buttons – will extend to nurses and other caregivers nationwide, veteran registered nurse Jody Burton said.

“It’s going to be in California, Chicago, Florida – it’s a huge win,” Burton said. “From Day 1, they were like, ‘No, this (safety language) is never going to be part of your contract.’ But we won it, and we won it for everyone. We’re a powerful team.”

The contract establishes a firm deadline for management to implement panic buttons and other workplace safety measures. Nurses also pushed Hazelden to staff their rural facility with security or safety personnel, and the employer committed to “a contractual pathway to implement safety staff,” according to MNA.

Safety emerged as a top issue in negotiations for union members, who pointed to the increased abuse of highly potent drugs, like fentanyl, among their patients. MNA pulled public data that found county sheriff’s deputies responded to nearly three calls each week, on average, to the Center City campus between Jan. 1, 2025, and July 19, 2026.

Coleman called the contract “a move in the right direction that I don’t think would have happened if we had not gone on strike,” and she pledged that the union would “keep promoting and advocating for safety protocols to help us do our jobs.”

“And it’s not just about the nurses,” she added. “I think about the techs who have been in verbal and physical altercations. I think about the other nurses who have been kicked, punched, spit on. I think about the other patients who are terrified by a psychosis event. In a highly emotional, stressful environment, there should be better safeguards, and this contract is leading that way.”

The contract also delivers economic gains and puts nurses’ health-insurance benefits in writing, protecting against the kind of sudden, arbitrary cuts that many Hazelden employees experienced two years ago – and provided the spark for nurses to form a union with MNA.

Additionally, nurses gained recognition of their full bargaining unit, including casual and on-call nurses. Hazelden fought to divide the unit during their organizing drive, forcing two separate union elections, both of which were successful.

Now, Burton said, nurses are eager to get back to work and back to their patients. The financial strain of going on strike was significant for many union members, she added.

“But you could never tell by the way people showed up on the line with their family, shouting and screaming and digging in their feet,” Burton said. “We would have fought longer if we’d have had to.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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

Report: Healthcare costs are eroding Minnesotans’ wage gains, and hospital consolidation won’t help

July 22, 2026 by

An independent report issued last month by North Star Policy Action digs into the factors behind Minnesotans’ rapidly rising healthcare costs, warning that proposed health-system acquisitions could make things worse.

The report comes as two Minnesota-based health systems, North Memorial and Allina, are in the process of being sold to South Dakota-based Sanford and California-based Sutter, respectively.

Aaron Rosenthal, research director at the progressive research institute, said those transactions warrant public scrutiny, as they would further a trend of consolidation in the state’s healthcare industry. Twenty years ago, he said, two-thirds of Minnesota providers were independent; today two-thirds are part of a larger system.

Consolidation, he added, “decreases competition and leads to bigger players, who use their increased power to charge patients more.”

The report, “Rising Health Care Spending in Minnesota,” found that specialists in health systems charge 16-20% higher prices for services than independent practices.

Another key finding: healthcare spending in Minnesota increased by 15% between 2019-2023, despite Minnesotans utilizing healthcare services at a lower rate, 3.5% less. Over the same period, hospitals’ operating costs increased by 87%, while their charges for services increased by 116%.

When hospitals charge more for services, of course, insurance companies pass along those higher costs to their customers.

“Most people are quick to blame health insurance companies for their high premiums,” report co-author Jen Schultz, an economics professor at the University of Minnesota, said. “But folks only need to look at their bill or (explanation of benefits) to see another reason: high hospital prices.”

The report found that employee contributions toward health insurance premiums in the state grew 67% over the last 11 years, far outpacing the state’s 42% wage growth.

That means the cost of keeping health insurance has “essentially eroded workers’ wages,” Schultz said.

Minnesotans who purchase their own health insurance are facing even steeper price increases – as much as 54% this year – as federal subsidies that helped reign in marketplace premiums expire.

Data released by the state’s health exchange, MNsure, a week after North Star Policy released its report showed about 17,000 fewer people purchased insurance coverage this year, a decrease of 12% from 2025.

That won’t help contain prices, according to Rosenthal.

“Keeping Minnesotans insured is itself a cost-control strategy,” he said. “Every person who loses coverage … drives up hospitals’ uncompensated care costs.”

The report includes policy recommendations that, the authors argued, could help contain Minnesota’s healthcare spending.

Not surprisingly, hospitals are the target of most proposals. In addition to keeping people insured and addressing the rate of consolidation in the industry, state lawmakers could take aim at hospital prices more directly, authors said.

Indiana recently passed a law capping what its five largest hospital systems can charge patients covered by employer-sponsored insurance plans for certain procedures. If the providers fail to meet the new caps by 2029, they risk losing their tax-exempt status.

Other states have looked to leverage their public employees’ health plans to drive down hospital prices, tying reimbursement rates to those paid by Medicare. Costs for privately insured patients are roughly three times higher than Medicare rates, Rosenthal said.

“The worst thing we could do is treat rising healthcare spending as inevitable,” Rosenthal said. “Federal policy has put Minnesota in a tough spot to be sure. Even so, we have the power to make healthcare more affordable for working families in this state, and we should use it.”

Read the full report on North Star Policy’s website.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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

Lawmakers take up educators’ call for new insurance pool

March 24, 2026 by

Rep. Liz Reyer of Eagan joins members of Education Minnesota at a Capitol press conference about the Educator Group Insurance Program.

House and Senate authors of a statewide health insurance pool for school employees, one of Education Minnesota’s top priorities this session, outlined their legislation’s path forward last week.

The statewide educators’ union held a day of action at the Capitol March 18 to drum up support for the idea among lawmakers. During a press conference, Rep. Liz Reyer (D-Eagan) and Sen. Mary Kunesh (D-New Brighton) said they hoped to pass bills this session that would survey school districts about the insurance coverage they provide.

The data is necessary, Kunesh said, to calculate costs of the full proposal, known as the Educator Group Insurance Program (EGIP). Kunesh and Reyer said they are aiming for EGIP’s passage in 2027.

“This session, the goal is to vet concepts through committees,” Kunesh said during a press conference with educators at the Capitol on March 18.

Modeled after an existing program that covers State of Minnesota employees and after programs in other states, EGIP is Education Minnesota’s preferred approach to stabilizing school districts’ skyrocketing health insurance costs.

The issue has increasingly become a stumbling block for local unions in contract negotiations, as educators and other school employees are repeatedly forced to choose between absorbing big premium hikes or accepting lower wage increases.

Over 150 union members joined the day of action at the Capitol, and many carried signs bearing the exact amount by which their district’s health insurance costs have increased in recent years – 30% in Mankato, 34% in Lyle, 54% in New Ulm.

By consolidating the purchasing power of every school district into a statewide risk pool, EGIP would cut down on brokerage fees and level the playing field in negotiations with large insurers like UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross MN, advocates say.

“Minnesota’s school districts are small buyers in a market that rewards large ones,” Education Minnesota President Monica Byron said. “Every year, hundreds of school districts negotiate alone against a multi-billion-dollar insurance industry that knows exactly how much leverage it has. Educators pay for that power imbalance in higher premiums, worse coverage and impossible choices.”

Because the risk pool in most school districts is relatively small, they often see a dramatic spike in coverage costs after an employee experiences a health crisis, Byron added. “Every school district in Minnesota is just one sick employee away from a crisis that it cannot manage.”

A high-deductible insurance plan left Glencoe-Silver Lake science teacher Amanda Kottke’s family with steep medical bills after her son’s hospitalization.

That’s what happened to Amanda Kottke, a science teacher in the Glencoe-Silver Lake district. Her son spent 10 “long, terrifying days” at Children’s Hospital last year receiving treatment for complications from a ruptured appendix.

Kottke, who has a high-deductible plan through her employer, acknowledged that concerns about out-of-pocket costs factored into her family’s initial decision to hold off on a $250 trip to the urgent care. But the hospital stay left Kottke with a much larger bill – and feelings of “guilt and trauma” that she now can’t afford to address in therapy.

“We were asked to pay our $10,000 deductible up front, and we couldn’t,” Kottke said. “They then suggested $900 a month until the bill was paid off, and we couldn’t do that either.”

Now her district, which already has seen insurance costs increase 165% over the last six years, is seeing bids for insurance plans next year come in 30% to 50% higher, she said.

The rising cost of their health insurance comes with public costs beyond the strain it creates on districts’ budgets. (The proposal would include a “hold harmless” provision to ensure districts’ costs don’t increase with EGIP.)

Education Minnesota reports that high insurance costs are a leading factor in driving licensed educators away from the profession. Lower-paid school employees, meanwhile, often forego the district’s insurance and look to public programs for coverage.

Kunesh and Reyer, EGIP’s authors in the legislature, said most lawmakers agree that public schools’ rising insurance costs are an urgent problem. Reyer had a message for those who are still skeptical EGIP is the solution.

“They have not offered a systemic solution, and that’s what we need,” she said. “Every day without a solution is another educator choosing between a paycheck and a family’s health care. Minnesota can do better than that.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

After authorizing strike, SEIU members at HealthPartners celebrate TA

February 5, 2026 by

Workers at HealthPartners clinics across the Twin Cities put their bosses on notice last month that they were willing to strike to defend their industry-leading health benefits. Yesterday their union reached tentative agreement on a new contract that does just that.

If ratified, the three-year contract also will deliver wage increases – 4% in year No. 1 and 3% in the second and third – to nearly 2,000 members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

“This (tentative agreement) shows what happens when we stand up for workers and patients and allows us to continue to give the exceptional patient care we pride ourselves on giving,” Jean Pfarr, a nurse with 48 years of experience at HealthPartners, said in a statement issued by the union last night.

Members of the bargaining unit work in nearly all facets of care, excluding doctors and dentists, at more than 25 HealthPartners clinics. The unit brings together nurses, dental hygienists, midwives, physicians assistants and lab techs – in total, workers in over 80 different jobs.

Citing a sluggish start to negotiations, the union’s bargaining team took the extraordinary step of calling for a strike vote several weeks before their contract was set to expire Jan. 31. The vote saw support from 99% for a weeklong strike, if necessary

The union followed up its strike vote with pre-dawn informational picketing Jan. 23 – in sub-zero temperatures – outside the HealthPartners Como Clinic.

Union members said they hoped their solidarity would push the employer to improve its wage proposal and drop proposed cuts to their hard-fought health benefits.

“We know these things always go to the last minute,” longtime HealthPartners worker Chris Grimes said. “But it’s time they get serious and get the job done.”

Others warned HealthPartners that changes to its industry-leading insurance plan would hurt the provider’s efforts to recruit and retain workers.

Health coverage was a critical factor in Dr. Beth Smith’s decision to accept a position as a psychotherapist in the system nearly a decade ago. But Smith, a member of the union’s bargaining team, said she was “shocked” to see the out-of-pocket increases the employer brought to the table.

“It is hard for me to think about the negative impact this is going to have on my colleagues, my fellow union members, if these proposed health insurance cost increases go into effect,” Smith said after the strike vote. “Many people choose to work for HealthPartners because of the benefits, just like me.”

HealthPartners got the message. Other highlights of the tentative agreement, according to the union, include:

  • Additional wage increases for registered nurses, certified medical assistants, medical assistants and EMTs.
  • Increased bonuses for members who pick up additional weekend shifts.
  • Stronger non-discrimination language for LGBTQ+ members.
  • A new labor-management committee focused on the impact of artificial intelligence on health care workers.

The union planned a ratification vote in the coming days. Crystal Peterson, a radiologic technologist who served on the bargaining team for the first time, said she was proud of the tentative agreement.

“We fought for everyone in our bargaining unit across all 80-plus job classifications,” Peterson said. “Despite this being just as hard of a fight as we knew it would be, we got a good outcome.”

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

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

July 22, 2025 by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AFSCME, MAPE team up

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting personal

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

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

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

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

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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

After insulting wage offer from HealthPartners, office staff vote to authorize strike

February 10, 2025 by

HealthPartners workers held a strike-authorization vote at the Carpenters’ union hall in St. Paul.

Members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 12 who work at HealthPartners have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced Saturday, with support from over 98% of voting members.

The union represents about 1,000 workers at 31 HealthPartners facilities in the Twin Cities. Union members staff the check-in desks at clinics and work in back-office positions like scheduling, claims and accounting.

Members of Local 12’s bargaining team said they could file a 10-day notice of their intent to strike as early as this week, depending on the outcome of negotiations scheduled today and Tuesday.

The union began talks with HealthPartners in September, and negotiations have continued past the previous contract’s expiration date Nov. 30.

The two sides remain far apart on wages. After initially offering annual raises of just 0.25% over the next three years, management came back to the table last month with proposed 2.5% increases. HealthPartners also reduced its proposed cut to workers’ health care benefits, from a 500% increase in costs to a 150% increase, according to Local 12.

Those are steps in the right direction, union members said during a strike vote in St. Paul last Wednesday, but not enough to settle the contract.

Denise Dilla, a scheduler who works at HealthPartners’ Specialty Center in St. Paul, called this round of bargaining the worst she has experienced in her 27 years working for the health care provider. Management’s initial wage proposals amounted to pocket change, she said, and insulted many rank-and-file members.

“I can’t afford to strike, but I can’t afford to take their proposal either,” Dilla said.

HealthPartners also has demanded changes to Local 12 members’ seniority rights and sought to remove long-standing provisions, like sick-and-safe-time benefits, from the contract.

Chaytia Burnett, a clinical assistant at the clinic in Woodbury, said bargaining team members have put their calculators to work, comparing HealthPartners’ meager contract proposals to the compensation increases CEO Andrea Walsh has seen in recent years.

Walsh earns about $3.6 million annually, according to the most recent nonprofit filings available.

“The employer is making it seem that we’re asking for too much and that they are broke, which is not true, when the CEO makes $1,800 hour, and most of our members don’t make that much in a two-week pay period,” Burnett said.

Local 12 members gave HealthPartners a glimpse of what a strike might look like during informational picketing at all 31 facilities last November. Burnett, who works two jobs to make ends meet, said union members will look to the labor community for support if they are forced to walk off the job.

“Some of us are losing our homes, staying in our cars, worrying about where our next meal is coming from, and worrying about our families and children being fed,” Burnett said. “This strike has a lot more on the table that we’re willing to fight for. This strike stands for human dignity and respect toward members who are putting everything on the line.”

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

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: , , , , ,

St. Paul lawmaker vows to act on health care for MSP workers if MAC won’t

January 29, 2024 by

State Sen. Erin Murphy spoke during a press conference held by unions at MSP Airport in December.

Airport workers are dialing up the pressure on employers at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport and the airport’s governing body to do something to make their health insurance more affordable.

Health benefits have been a sticking point in separate negotiations covering two groups of workers at MSP Airport, about 450 airline catering workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 17 and over 1,000 wheelchair agents, cabin cleaners, cart drivers and others represented by Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26.

Membership surveys have shown the overwhelming majority of low-wage airport workers do not access their employer-sponsored health insurance, instead relying on government programs for coverage.

Their unions have been fiercely lobbying the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) in recent years to pass a minimum standard for affordable health insurance that all MSP-based employers would be required to offer.

In a press conference the week before Christmas, union members announced they had gained a powerful ally in the campaign, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul). If airport leaders and employers fail to act, Murphy said, she will introduce a bill mandating that MSP employers offer affordable health coverage.

“We don’t have the benefit of travel without the people who staff our airports,” Murphy said. “These are physical jobs, where they can be injured in the workplace. They are working in close proximity to other people where they could easily catch something. They need meaningful health care coverage to protect themselves and to protect their families.”

Determining health benefits “is rightfully done at the bargaining table,” Murphy added. But if she and other lawmakers don’t see workers and management reach a negotiated solution, they will look for a legislative fix.

Sheigh Freeberg, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 17, said most of the union’s members who work in airline catering cannot afford to access employer-provided health insurance.

Sheigh Freeberg, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 17, welcomed Murphy’s support.

“We’ve pushed employers for affordable health care, and they’ve said no,” Freeberg said. “We’ve pushed the airport council … for affordable health care, and they’ve said no. We are continuing those fights, but we are excited to have state Sen. Erin Murphy … to fix this problem at the state level if those who have the direct power will not.”

MSP Airport workers have succeeded in lobbying the MAC for higher standards in recent years, including a minimum wage above $15 per hour and a mandate requiring employers to offer paid sick days. But union leaders say workers’ lack of access to health coverage remains a stain on MSP Airport’s reputation.

In a recent survey of nearly 300 airport workers from 17 different employers, just 15.2% of workers who reported having health insurance said they access the benefit from their employer.

“The workers who make this an award-winning airport continue to show up day after day, and they will step up and make sure that the (passenger) experience is great, that the spaces are clean and that the food is delivered on time,” Freeberg said. “It is time for those in power to do the same and step up to make sure that these workers have affordable health care. We are not going to stop fighting until they do.”

SEIU Local 26, whose members are employed by MSP subcontractors, remain in contract negotiations. Their contracts were scheduled to expire Jan. 31.

About 450 catering workers based at MSP Airport are covered by nationwide talks between UNITE HERE and SkyChefs that have dragged on for over two years. The talks fall under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act, which severely limits union members’ ability to exert pressure on their employers through a strike.

“Federal law has failed these workers,” Freeberg said. “We’re looking for the MAC to step up and set a minimum standard of health care that is affordable.”

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

Retail janitors brace for busy holiday weekend with no holiday pay

November 22, 2023 by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Bill of Rights’ would fund $25 minimum wage, health benefits for hourly school staff

March 9, 2023 by

Sara Rapp, a school cook on strike in Hastings, testified at the Capitol in support of the ESP Bill of Rights.

As striking food service workers in Hastings put a spotlight on hardships faced by some of the lowest-paid school employees, state lawmakers this week debated bold, new legislation to lift standards for all hourly school workers.

The “Education Support Professionals’ Bill of Rights,” introduced by DFLers in both the House and Senate, would establish a minimum wage of $25 for paraprofessionals, bus drivers, clerical workers and other hourly employees.

It would also require schools to offer affordable, year-round health coverage and to sustain hourly workers’ pay during e-learning days, among other provisions.

To cover schools’ increased costs, the measure would provide new state funding – beyond increases to the per-pupil formula – determined by a district’s ESP staffing needs.

Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee, lead author in the House, touted the bill as a matter of fairness for the trusted adults who work in their communities’ school systems.

“All throughout the summer (while) talking to folks, I ran into dozens and dozens of paras, janitors, bus drivers, lunch workers that are really struggling,” he told members of the House Education Finance Committee on Tuesday. “As a state we should be valuing that work.”

Senate author Alice Mann (D-Edina) said school districts need new, dedicated funding to make their hourly positions competitive with other employers.

“You can walk down the street to McDonald’s and get paid more to work there than in our schools taking care of our children, feeding our children, transporting our children and helping to educate them,” Mann said during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday.

Labor market data shows the job vacancy rate at school districts across the nation has been rising for a decade. In Minnesota, where overall workforce participation is higher than the national average, employment in school districts has dropped by 6.4% since October 2019, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute’s Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN).

“There’s a lot of reasons why this could be, but the most simple and obvious one is compensation,” EARN policy coordinator Dave Kamper said. “Workers are leaving ESP jobs for higher-paying gigs elsewhere.”

Rep. Brad Tabke holds a press conference with school employees after committee hearings on the ESP Bill of Rights.

Hourly school workers who want to continue serving students have found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet, as several ESPs – including one food service worker on strike for higher wages – testified at the Capitol.

Sara Rapp, a cook at Hastings High School, earns just $15.05 per hour in her fourth year with the district. A $10-per-hour raise, she said, “would mean we could take care of ourselves and our families with the same care and compassion we take care of our students.”

Staffing shortfalls in her district have gotten so bad, Rapp told lawmakers, that three employees recently were tasked with doing the work of eight.

“And we know it’s not just us,” said Rapp, a member of Service Employees Local 284. “Our strike shows the crisis facing school workers because of the low wages and disrespect we are facing. We need to fix this before the staffing crisis gets worse, so we can do what we do best – caring for our students.”

Carloline Long, a special-ed teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools and member of Education Minnesota, said most hourly school employees work multiple jobs to cover rising costs. Health care costs, in particular, have risen faster than ESPs’ wages, she said.

“I believe everyone who works with children should have access to affordable health care,” Long said. “Due to the low wages, some ESPs will work all their hours in one pay period and not have anything to show for it because every dime they made went to pay for health insurance offered by their employer.”

In addition to a $25 minimum wage and affordable health care, the ESP Bill of Rights would require schools to dedicate two days of paid training to all school staff members who work with students, and to build time into special education teachers’ schedule for managing their students’ individualized education program (IEP).

Annie Gibson, a paraprofessional in the South Washington County Schools, said steps to recruit, retain and treat ESPs like the professionals they are will ultimately benefit students.

“Our children with IEPs are so much more successful when they have consistency in staffing,” Gibson said. “I take pride in building my relationships with each child, and I love being a part of a child’s growth, education, and social and emotional wellbeing.

“We need to make this a profession people seek out and stay in for a long time. This legislation would be a great start.”

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