Blog

Regional Contract Update

Negotiations for the Year 3 wage re-opener for our Essentia Health Regional contracts (Ashland, Hayward, Spooner, Hibbing and Ely) have wrapped up. We were able to get a 2.2% raise for year 3 of the contract, which will go into effect starting July 1.  Thank you to everyone on the Negotiating Committee for their hard work!

Green Book Negotiations Update #4

Green Book Update: Negotiations resumed for the Green Book today. Unfortunately, the company continues to push for removing portions of our detailed benefit language and replacing it with non-contract policies. This isn't something we are interested in accepting. To move things along, both parties agreed to move all "open" non-economic proposals to economics. We presented our economics proposals this afternoon and the company expects to have a full response for us at the next session on June 9. Given how slow the progress has been, we are asking for you, the members, so show your support for the Negotiating Committee by wearing a union sticker on June 9 - the next day we meet with the company.

Protect the Caregivers

The patient intended to commit suicide and knew the worker making his bed at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Minn., stood in the way.

So he crept up behind the caregiver, grabbed the cord to the call bell and began choking her with it.

Only chance saved her, recalled Tuan Vu, a longtime hospital worker who was on duty in another part of the facility that day, noting the woman’s colleagues rushed to the rescue after the struggle inadvertently activated the call bell.

Red Book Negotiations Update #5

After another long day of negotiations with Essentia, there are still multiple proposals "on the table". One of which is wages. The union is holding strong on our proposal for fair and equitable wage increases for all Red Book members. But after five sessions meeting over economics, the employer is offering to increase the wage grid by only 2% over the next three years;

-Year One: 1.0% (one percent)
-Year Two:

Green Book Negotiations Update #3

The union had negotiations today with Essentia Health over the Green Book contract. Not much movement was to be had initially. However at the end we finally had some good dialogue on parking, the COVID shot and seniority. This gives us hope that we may be able to wrap up the non-economic portion, and move into economics, by mid-June.

Green Book Update #2

1. MEET YOUR NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE:

-Brenda Simon: Green Book Unit Chair, Patient Scheduler

-Lindajean Thompson: Blue Book/former SMUMS Unit Chair, HUC

-Marnie Schaffer: Patient Account Representative

-Julie Remington: Clinical Assistant

-Lori Johnson: Department Coordinator

-Adam Ritscher: Environmental Services

Red Book Negotiations Update #5

We finally got a full set of counter-proposals from Essentia today. After the Committee reviewed them, we a number of questions about possible oversights by the company. They acknowledged our concerns and ended up revising one their larger proposals twice. Even with these delays, we were able to give our counter response back at the end of the day. Included in our counter is a proposal addressing the discrepancies with our call pay. The union believes that everyone's time, spent away from work with our families (whether you're on call or not) is equally valuable regardless of what job title you have.

Green Book Negotiations Update #1

We had our second meeting with the company today. We're still in the early, non-economic phase of negotiations. Unfortunately, very little progress was made. One of the issues we're far apart on involves access to seniority lists. The company doesn't believe there is a problem, but we've gotten a number of complaints that it's getting difficult to get management to provide a seniority list in some departments.