U of M relents in contract talks as workers stick together for raises and respect

December 11, 2015 by
Teamsters and AFSCME members rallied on the Twin Cities campus earlier this year as part of their joint campaign for fair contracts.

Teamsters and AFSCME members rallied on the Twin Cities campus earlier this year as part of their joint campaign for fair contracts.

Frontline workers at the University of Minnesota stood together for nearly six months, waging a contract campaign for raises and respect.

Now that strategy is paying off, as three bargaining units – Teamsters Local 320 and AFSCME Locals 3800 and 3801 – have announced tentative agreements with the U that include 2 percent wage increases, equitable family leave policies and other union demands.

Bargaining teams for all three local unions are recommending members vote to ratify the two-year contracts in the coming weeks.

By sticking together and staging several public events, workers were able to move the U’s negotiators, who for months held firm that they had no interest in discussing expanded family leave and could do no better than annual raises of less than 1 percent.

“We arrived today in bargaining on Dec. 10 and found that the university was finally willing to negotiate over our core issues,” Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk said in a video announcing the union’s tentative agreement, posted online.

“It is because (of) the efforts of all of us collectively that we were able to get the best contract that we have achieved in years,” she added.

Local 3800 and 3801, which represent clerical workers at the U, won tentative agreements that include a $15 minimum wage, annual wage and step increases amounting to about 2 percent and no increases in workers’ health insurance premiums.

Clerical workers also won six weeks of paid parental leave for birth mothers – a four-week increase that achieves equity with faculty and administrators – and a memorandum of understanding with the university regarding bullying in the workplace.

“This is a contract that, we believe, begins to address the disparities between employee groups at the university,” Horazuk said.

Local 320, which represents custodial, food service, animal and land-care workers at campuses across the state, reached an agreement with similar wage increases and benefit terms earlier this month.

“By standing with AFSCME, we showed the university that it’s no longer business as usual,” Local 320 said in a statement. “We showed the university that frontline workers at the university are ready to fight for a fair contract.”

AFSCME Local 3937, which represents technical workers at the university, resumes bargaining Monday. AFSCME Local 3260, which represents non-professional health care workers at the U of M, is also in negotiations.

All told, the contract negotiations affect about 4,000 workers at the U.

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Parental leave policy a ‘giant leap forward’ for City of St. Paul employees

October 31, 2014 by

st-paulApril VanMassenhove gave birth to her second child, Miles, last Tuesday. A clerical worker in the City of St. Paul’s Public Works department, VanMassenhove will exhaust her paid-sick days, then her vacation time and, finally, land on short-term disability in order to maintain an income while she cares for her newborn son.

Fortunately for parents-to-be working for the city, Mayor Chris Coleman and the St. Paul City Council have moved to guarantee paid parental leave for city employees.

The new policy, set to kick in Jan. 1, 2015, will provide four weeks paid salary to employees like VanMassenhove, who are birthing mothers. Non-birthing employees, like fathers or couples adopting children, will have access to two weeks paid salary as they become parents.

“This policy is good for families, and it’s good for bringing in the best and brightest to the City of St. Paul,” Coleman said. “As the manager of a 2,850-person workforce that’s seeing an increase in retirements, I believe this policy will make us an attractive employer to a new generation of public employees.”

City officials estimate the policy will cost $200,000 annually out of the city’s general fund, but it’s worth the price, said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, the state’s largest union of public employees.

“Our capital city is leading the way on paid leave for parents,” Seide said.  “It’s a giant leap forward for working families. And it’s a great benefit to attract the next wave of city employees as baby boomers retire.”

The Family Medical Leave Act guarantees workers up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave after bringing a child into their families – but without pay. That forces new mothers to make difficult choices about caring for their newborn and drawing an income, said Peggy Flanagan, director of the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota.

“All workers should be able to take time off to bond with a new child without having to sacrifice a paycheck,” Flanagan said. “Minnesota is a state that values children and families. We applaud the City of St. Paul for reflecting this value in its workplace policies and encourage other cities and employers to follow its lead.”

VanMassenhove, a member of AFSCME, plans to spend at least three months bonding with and caring for Miles. “I need that time to spend with a newborn, especially at first when we’re not sleeping,” she said. “Bringing a child to day care at 6 weeks – I don’t like that. It’s too young.”

But drawing down her paid-sick time – already low as a result of pre-delivery doctor’s appointments – and vacation, VanMassenhove said, will leave her in a perilous position after she returns to work.

“When Miles starts day care, if he gets sick it’s hard for me to take time off and care for him because I don’t have any time left,” she said. “I have to start from zero.”

VanMassenhove is hopeful the new policy will apply retroactively.

“To have one of those three months paid for would just be wonderful,” she said.

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Panel: Women workers making gains in Minnesota, but work toward equity remains

August 26, 2014 by
Sue Scott, a union performer who appears on “A Prairie Home Companion,” moderates a panel discussion on women's economic security at the Minnesota AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion.

Sue Scott, a union performer who appears on “A Prairie Home Companion,” moderates a panel discussion on women’s economic security at the Minnesota AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion.

On the 94th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S., a panel of three state lawmakers from the East Metro discussed the gains women workers in Minnesota made with passage of the Women’s Economic Security Act this year – and the work for equality that remains to be done.

Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul, chief Senate author of the Women’s Economic Security Act, joined Sen. Katie Sieben of Newport and Rep. Erin Murphy of St. Paul on the panel, hosted by the Minnesota AFL-CIO at the Labor Pavilion on the State Fairgounds today.

The primary goal of the legislation, the DFLers agreed, was to eliminate the gap between what women and men earn for doing comparable work. In Minnesota, women earn 80 percent of what men earn, Pappas said. For women of color, the gap is even larger.

The new law tackles pay equity in a number of ways. It requires businesses with more than 40 employees that have contracts with the state of $500,000 or more to comply with the state’s equal pay laws.

The law also makes it illegal to prohibit workers from discussing their compensation with other workers. Sieben said the measure empowers women workers to root out wage inequality on the job and demand parity with their male colleagues.

“Ability to discuss pay should help narrow the pay gap,” she said.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson introduces state lawmakers (L to R) Erin Murphy, Sandy Pappas and Katie Sieben.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson introduces state lawmakers (L to R) Erin Murphy, Sandy Pappas and Katie Sieben.

Although not part of the Women’s Economic Security Act, raising the state’s minimum wage is another step forward for women workers. DFL majorities in the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016 and adjust it annually for inflation each subsequent year.

“It certainly will do a lot … in the years to come for women in the state,” Sieben said, noting that women make up the majority of workers earning $9.50 per hour or less in Minnesota.

Women and men with the same level of education and work experience should have the same earning power, Muphy said. But too often, women fall behind their male colleagues because they are perceived as less dedicated to their career than their families.

“We need to make sure women who chose to work don’t get dinged because they’re pregnant, don’t get dinged because they have a family, don’t get dinged because they’re nursing,” Murphy said.

To that end, the new law includes protections for mothers and pregnant women, and it requires employers to make accommodations for women who are nursing. It also expands unpaid parental leave for women and men to 12 weeks.

Sieben, who has three children, said she remembers “how difficult it was to go back to work so soon after having a baby. Being able to have 12 weeks off to come for a newborn … is something that will help families across Minnesota.”

The law also provides funds to help women start small businesses, to study gaps in retirement savings between men and women, and to recruit and train women for jobs in fields where they are underrepresented.

That includes careers in the construction trades, where, if they work union, women are guaranteed to earn the same wage as their union brothers because they have the protection of a collective bargaining agreement, Pappas noted.

All three lawmakers agreed the Women’s Economic Security Act was just another step toward achieving gender equality in workplaces across Minnesota.

While the new law expands parental leave, it remains an unpaid benefit. Pappas said she’s committed to ensuring paid parental leave for Minnesotans, adding that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee paid parental leave for its workers.

Murphy said future Legislatures should work to guarantee access to affordable child care for working parents, as well as access to paid sick leave, “especially for jobs where we’re interacting with the public a lot, which often are lower-wage jobs.”

“There’s more to do in terms of women’s economic security,” Murphy said. “We’re just getting started.”

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