Our Green Book contract at Essentia Health (which covers job titles ranging from Clinical Assistants to Environmental Services) has wrapped up our Year 3 wage re-opener. It was a very tough and frustrating fight. And in a wage re-opener, unlike full contract negotiations, a strike isn't an option, which limits our leverage. All that being said, what our team was able to get is that going forward all job titles in the Green Book will now have a starting wage of at least $15/hr. This should help at least a little bit with hiring for support staff positions - though it's the union's position that we need to keep trying to get that number much higher. In addition to that, everyone who is currently on Steps 1 through 19 of the wage grid will get a 2.75% raise, and everyone who is on Step 20 will get a 3% raise. These increases will be retroed back to July 1.
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