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Red Book Negotiations Update

Red Book Update: Once again, Essentia Health wasn’t prepared to start negotiations on time today. The union committee continued to strategize, but had to wait an hour and a half before the Employer was finally ready to meet. We informed them that the union was hoping to stay past the scheduled end time. We were willing to stay as long as it takes to get this done. The employer declined. No doubt our members would LOVE to be able to decline "staying late”.

Essentia's $500 Bonus

It pays to stand up. We held a successful informational picket against short staffing and low wages at Esssentia. Our President, Deanna Hughes was quoted by the local media as saying "They’re not giving any sort of equitable thank you to these employees, especially all of who worked during a pandemic." Four days later, Dr. Herman issues a statement talking about how the company has decided to show its appreciation for us by giving us all a $500 bonus. Coincidence? Thanks again to everyone who turned out on Saturday. Solidarity works!

Informational Picket THIS Saturday!

Tomorrow (Saturday, June 26) we are holding an informational picket demanding that Essentia invest in their workers. We have sacrificed much during the last couple of years. We stepped up to help our community get through the pandemic, and our reward was layoffs, dramatically increased work loads and now tough contract negotiations where what is being offered by Essentia is underwhelming to say the least. We deserve better!

The picket will be from 4:30-5:30pm at the corner of Haines Road and Miller Trunk Hwy. We'll have extra signs on hand. Everyone is welcome!  If you have questions about parking when you arrive, text (218) 391-7793.

Green Book Update - June 22

Thank you to everyone who wore stickers in support of the union negotiating committee! Today, Essentia responded to the union's economic proposals. They proposed a 1.75% raise for year, a .75% raise for year two and a .75% raise for year three. I'm sure you all would agree with us that that is NOT a fair raise for all of the hard work and sacrifices that we've all put in over the past couple of years. We'll be back at negotiations this Thursday. Stay tuned.

Red Book Negotiations

We had another day of negotiations with Essentia Health today.  We continue to debate over a number of issues.  One example is call pay.  The union is pushing to get Essentia to at least be competitive with other local employers, like St. Luke’s (who pays $7.80/hr for call), but the employer disagrees.  Another example regards vacation.  We want the company to commit to responding timely to time off requests, as workers shouldn’t have to wait until the schedule is posted to find out if their time off they requested six months ago has been approved or not!  And then there is wages.  The company has barely moved from their previous proposal.  Essentia seems to believe that all of our hard work and sacrifices are only worth a raise of 1.5% for 2020, ½% for 2021 and ½% for 2022.  What does everybody?  Are you fed up?  If so, see you next Saturday on June 26!

New Contract Ratified at Pine Medical Center

The tentative agreement between the union and Essentia Health Pine Medical Center was approved on Friday by the membership. Thank you to everyone who came out and voted, and congrats on your new contract!  The retro pay will go all the way back to October, and it should appear on your checkes sometime within the next three pay periods.

PMC Tentative Agreement Vote

Pine Medical Center Update: The union negotiating committee and Essentia have reached a tentative agreement on the PMC contract. A copy of the tenative agreement has been mailed out to all of our PMC members. We are going to be meeting to discuss and vote on it this Friday (June 11).

Green Book Negotiations Postponed

Green Book Update: The union and Essentia were slotted to hold a Green Book negotiations meeting tomorrow, but the company has cancelled it, claiming that they need more time to review the economic proposals that we presented to them at the end of the last session.