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EH & SLH Vaccine Mandate Update

Essentia Health was unable to get the answers to our informational request on their COVID-19 vaccine mandate by Aug. 16. They are saying they will have it by Aug. 23. St. Luke's has yet to send us a written response to our informational request. We do have dates for both employers for when we will sit down and bargain over the mandate. For St. Luke's our meeting with the company will be August. 26. And for Essentia Health it will be Sept. 15.

LSCHC Professional Unit Ratifies Contract

The Professional Unit of Lake Superior Community Health Center voted unanimously to accept their new contract. Thanks to everyone who came out to vote! Contract negotiations for the Support Staff Unit of LSCHC will be starting up next. Stay tuned for an announcement about dates for that.

Red Book Tentative Agreement Summary & Vote

Attached is a PDF summary of the Red Book Tentative Agreement that the union and the company arrived at, including the proposed new wage grids.  We are also mailing these out to everyone, but feel free to download it here so as to be able to review it earlier.  We'll have complete word for word TAs available at the meetings.  This will be voted on by the Red Book membership on August 23 from 6am to 6:30pm and on August 24 from 6am to 7pm in the basement of the Duluth Labor Temple (2002 London Road).

Red Book Ratification Vote

We are going to be holding the Red Book ratification vote on August 23 and 24.  We had been hoping to hold the vote sooner, but we discovered some errors/unintended oversights in the tentative agreement that had to get resolved.

Next week we'll be able to mail out the summaries and post them online. Stay tuned!

Essentia & St. Luke's Vaccine Mandate Update

Our union has sent in formal demands to bargain, as well as information requests, regarding the Covid-19 vaccine mandates that Essentia Health and St. Luke’s both announced on August.  Both employers have a deadline of August 16 to respond.

So far we do know that both employers will be providing a way for folks to seek medical or religious exemptions, but we don’t yet have a list of what would qualify someone for either.  However, it sounds like the process will be similar to the exemption process that both employers used  for the flu shot mandation.  For those looking for a medical exemption, it may be worthwhile to consult your physician now.

Essentia & St. Luke's are Mandating the COVID-19 Vaccine

Essentia Health notified us on August 4 that they were going to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine to all of its workers.  Wed found out later that same day that St. Luke's sent out an announcement to their workers that they too were going to be mandating the vaccine.

Our union is sending both employers a demand to bargain over this, and we will keep you posted what happens and what we learn as soon as we know more.

LSCHC Professional Unit Ratification Vote

We have reached a tentative agreement with Lake Superior Community Health Center in our negotiations for the Professional Union contract. We'll be mailing out the tentative agreement to all of the members. On August 18 from 5-7pm we'll be holding a ratification vote at the Lake Superior Community Health Center's Conference Room in Superior. And once that is done, we'll be starting negotiations for the Support Staff contract at LSCHC.

Tentative Agreement Reached on Red Book

We have reached a tentative agreement with Essentia Health for the Red Book contract.  We will be mailing out the agreement to everyone and setting up meetings where folks can come and ask questions, and to vote on ratifying the changes.

We were able to get modest increases on shift differentials, call pay and the extra shift bonus.  We are very happy to announce that we were able to negotiate that all year one and year two retro pay will be paid out in full.  Regarding the wage grid, year one will go up by 2.25%, year two will go up 2% and year three will be a wage re-opener.   Be sure to sure check the tentative agreement for more details.  We look forward to talking with you at the Q & A/ratification vote, which we’ll be announcing the details of soon.