Labor World Newspaper

03/02/2025

Legislators need to know how their constituents are feeling and what they think. Here’s how to contact federal-level legislators for northern Minnesota.

27/01/2025

SOLIDARITY!

🚨BIG NEWS🚨 SEIU Members at Essentia Deer River Win Contract Settlement to End 49-Day ULP Strike!

Workers celebrate gains, thank community for support as they plan return to work

DEER RIVER, MINN – SEIU Healthcare MN & IA members are celebrating their contract agreement with Essentia Deer River. The new contract significantly improved on the offer proposed by management before the strike. The new contract was tentatively agreed upon early this weekend, after two days of bargaining, and approved by the full membership Sunday afternoon with 92% support. Today’s vote to approve the contract will end the ULP strike that lasted 49 days. This was the longest strike by SEIU Healthcare MN & IA members in more than 40 years.

Becky Shereck, a Radiologic Technologist at Essentia-Deer River for 16 years, shared their pride in workers standing up for what is right and winning a strong new contract:

“I’m so proud of our membership for sticking together. Despite the many cold days on the strike line we became a family. We are proud of the progress we made and that Essentia came to the table to provide a better offer. We are a strong union here in Deer River and we are dedicated health care workers. We love our job and we are ready to go back to work to care for our community. Thank you to everyone who supported us in our fight for a fair contract.”

The group is composed of 70 workers in the Deer River hospital and nursing home/long term care facility. The union committee and management started contract negotiations in August. Workers were pushing for higher wages so the facility could hire enough staff to provide the world-class patient and resident care that members proudly provide to their community. The group had also conducted a 5-day ULP strike in November.

Key gains in the agreement include:

12% across the board raises that will apply to all members- with 3.5% in year 1, 3.75% in year 2, and 4.75% in year 3 of the contract.

New language to prevent wage “leap-frogging”- if the employer hires a new employee at a higher wage rate than a current worker with similar experience, that worker will now also have their wage rate adjusted.

Additional market adjustments for Pharmacy Techs and Cooks.

An agreement to “meet and confer” during the term of the agreement when the new minimum wages established by Minnesota’s Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board take effect.

Increased Call Pay, Shift Differentials and Established a new Preceptor Pay Premium.

Increased bonus for workers who return to work with less than 10 hours between shifts.

A new uniform allowance of $100.

Maintenance workers will now be eligible for $.50 per hour in certification pay for up to two certifications: Refrigeration Certification and Class 2-C license (staff may qualify for one or both).

The Union agreed to a modified version of the Cross Facility work proposal that was important to Essentia, but working across facilities will be voluntary for SEIU members and a new premium pay incentive was agreed upon for any members volunteering to work under the terms of the program.

With the agreement in place, workers will begin to return to work this week. The parties are continuing to negotiate over the terms of the return to work agreement, as the facility returns to normal operations. All striking employees will be reinstated to the employer’s insurance effective February 1st and the employer will waive collection of the Union staff’s insurance premiums in arrears for December 2024.

Jobs done by the group include: Nutrition Services Assistant, Activity Aide, Laundry Aide, Environmental Service Tech, Sterile Processing Tech, Cook, Nursing Assistant – LTC, Nursing Assistant (Hosp.Acute Care, HUC Duties), Health Unit Coordinator (HUC), Phlebotomist, Pharmacy Tech, LPN, Med Lab Tech, Maintenance I, Surgical Tech, Floor Care Tech, Medical Tech, Radiology Tech and more.
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12/01/2025

BREAKING: SEIU Home Care Workers Reach Tentative Agreement With Gov. Walz and State of Minnesota | Deal reached early Saturday morning will improve benefits and wages for 35,000 caregivers

SAINT PAUL — After more than 19 hours at the bargaining table on their final day of negotiations, home care workers with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa reached a tentative agreement (TA) with the State of Minnesota early Saturday morning. The deal, which covers over 35,000 care workers across the state, came after months of bargaining for their sixth union contract.

Workers and clients spoke out earlier this week ahead of today’s deadline to reach an agreement so their contract could be included in this year’s budget. Speakers at the Capitol rally highlighted the ongoing need for improved wages benefits for the workers whose care allows Minnesota seniors and people with disabilities to stay in their homes.

The full details are being shared with members, but highlights of the agreement include:

-Increasing the Enhanced Rate wage differential for those working for clients with the most hours of care (10 or more hours per day) from 7.5% to 12.5%

-Initial steps toward creation of a defined-contribution retirement program for home care workers

-New $1,200 stipends to help defray home care workers’ out-of-pocket healthcare costs, and a commitment to collaboratively explore options for healthcare benefits for home care workers in advance of our next round of contract negotiations

-40-cent hourly wage increases for workers on steps 2-5 of the new wage scale now in effect (thanks to the current union contract) for workers in the PCA Choice and CFSS programs, and an additional 40-cent increase in the second year of the contract available to workers on the wage scale

-Adding time-and-a-half pay for those who work on Christmas, as the union contract’s ninth time-and-a-half paid holiday

-Funding and a process for the state to develop a new, effective matching service to help clients find workers and to help workers find clients

-And many more steps forward for home care workers and their clients

Jeremy Heyer, a home care client from Rochester who served on the SEIU bargaining team, shared the pride the group felt about continuing to improve this critical industry:

“I feel proud of our work to make sure the state hears and acknowledges us. The amount of passion, dedication and focus my fellow bargaining team members brought to the table and the support from people not in these bargaining sessions was awesome. It was powerful to know we were fighting to improve the lives of thousands of Minnesotans. I appreciate the passion that care workers show for me, and I wanted to support them as they support me. Progress is never as fast as we want it to be, and this year in particular the state budget situation means we can’t make as much progress as we’d like to, but with this new agreement we are making a more positive future for workers and clients across the state.”

Because of years of low wages and lack of benefits, there has been an ongoing “care crisis” where there aren’t enough workers willing to do this critical work supporting Minnesota’s seniors and people with disabilities. Workers unionized in 2014 and have seen huge improvements, including historic wage increases in 2023 that have begun to bring more people into the workforce and reduce the crisis for clients. But the majority women and people-of-color workforce continues to push to ensure this essential job receives the pay, benefits and respect it deserves.

Rechel Bendickson, a union member from Mankato who has been a home care worker for 11 years, shared what it means to win these improvements as a member of the bargaining team:

“I am proud of the work and effort we put into this. I do my job by myself and through my union and this fight it has felt like I have found a second family. For so many of us doing this work isn't a choice, and we shouldn't have to struggle to survive because we do care work. I shouldn't have to choose between decent pay and benefits or making sure my son has the care he needs. I'm so grateful to be part of my union to continue the work to make sure workers and clients have what we need.”

The tentative agreement (TA) will now go to the union membership for a ratification vote, then to the legislature for approval and funding. Previous contracts have had broad bipartisan support, including multiple bill authors from both political parties. The final step would be having an appropriations bill signed by Governor Walz, with the new contract then going into effect July 1, 2025.

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United Home Care Workers & Clients of Minnesota
Governor Tim Walz

10/01/2025

Turn out for an informational picket and rally to show Essentia that the Labor community supports the workers in Deer River! who have been on strike for over a month. Wednesday, January 15!

07/01/2025

✊Tentative Agreement Reached✊

We’re happy to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached after 12 hours of mediated Negotiation!

Members, Check your emails for important details, and attend Wednesday’s (1/8) meeting for details and next steps.

Thank you for all your support and solidarity through out this long process.

06/12/2024

Heads up! The SEIU workers at the Essentia Health Clinic in Deer River are set to start an open-ended ULP strike starting Monday morning. The group held a successful Five-Day ULP Strike in early November, but subsequent bargaining has seen the employer refusing to back off key issues including:
1) management’s proposal to allow non-unit workers to float in to do work (including at higher rates of pay) in a manner that would undermine long-time union workers in the community;
2) sub-standard wage proposals that do not recognize the essential work done by these workers and do not address lost buying power from inflation over the past 3 years. The employer’s proposals are 5% less – on average – than what has been agreed to by all other Minnesota Health systems that reached agreements this year.

20/06/2024

We are hiring! The duties of this flexible, union, part-time position include bookkeeping, office assistance, some mailing list database work, and payroll. Please email laborworldorg (at) gmail dot com to apply or if you have questions.

25/04/2023

DULUTH, Minn. — We’re getting a new look at just how intense the flames were for firefighters and residents of an apartment building early Saturday morning in Duluth that killed two people and injured two firefighters. The fire victims were a mother and son who lived together, and that son, acco...

18/04/2023

Pack the bar at Vikre this afternoon to show support to organizing workers!