Last night, the Local was able to have a brief meeting with Sara Dorfman, Essentia Health's Director of Employee Labor Relations (ELR), to address multiple concerns and questions that our membership has brought forth. The main thing we learned was that the company is currently compiling data from all of the departments and sites about what their specific staffing needs are now that non-essential procedures and appointments have been pushed back. The company will be processing that data during the second half of this week and will start acting on it next week.
We have scheduled another meeting with ELR for Friday morning, to get an update on where they are in their planning process and we will also be having subsequent discussions and then next week with ELR as things continue to unfold.
As of right now, the company confirmed to us that they are looking into finding alternative work assignments for as many workers as possible who will be negatively affected by the upcoming adjustments to staffing. The union requested that the company ask all of our members if they would prefer to take a voluntary administrative leave rather than continuing to work during the pandemic. They agreed to consider this.
At this time the primary goal of our Local union is to push for all of our members to have as many options as possible made available to them by Essentia. One of those big pushes is to try and get Essentia to allow for our members to keep their health insurance if they go on a voluntary leave or if they are laid off. In general, the union is determined to mitigate this crisis as much as possible.
We also learned that Essentia will be paying any employee who was "low needed" last week or this week due to the changes in workflow and patient numbers as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. They will continue to do so until March 29. If you volunteered for or were assigned low need during this 2 week time frame, there is a NEW special code that needs to be entered into Labor Works so that you will be paid without having to use your PTO or take VTO We recommend bringing any questions about this process to your immediate supervisor first.
And finally, with so much happening, we want to let you know ways that you can stay in the loop with your union. We plan to continue to post regular updates on our facebook page and on our website. Our office is staffed, so feel free to call or email us. And we have also just set up a text alert system that you can sign up for which we’ll use for sending out updates. To sign up text USW9460 to 77820.
-Deanna Hughes, President
-Adam Ritscher, Vice President