Blog

St. Luke's Hospital Negotiations Set to Start

St. Luke's Hospital Update: Contract negotiations between the St. Luke's hospital in Duluth and the Steelworkers are going to start at the end of this month. If you'd like to talk to the union before negotiations kick off, we're inviting folks to make an appointment to come down to our office (either individuals or small groups). We are available to meet from 10am into the evening on Sept. 21, 22 and 23, or from 3-5pm on Sept. 24.

Essentia Health Green Book Wage Re-Opener

Due to the pandemic and the layoff crisis at Essentia Health, our union opted to delay the Year 3 wage re-opener for our members covered by the Green Book contract until today. After going back and forth with the company, we came to an agreement on a 2% across the board raise for all Green Book workers. You will see this raise on your September 4 paycheck, and you will be receiving retro pay at the 2% rate back to July 1.

St. Luke's Hospital Contract Extended 1 Month

ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL UPDATE: The contract for the St. Luke's Hospital workers was set to expire, but the company and the union have agreed to extend it for one month until July 31st. The extension is because of the pandemic. We'll keep you posted about any further changes.

July 1 Green Book Update

The layoff meetings are continuing for the Green Book every week day. Each meeting is scheduled to be 45 minutes long. Sometimes they take much less time than that, but every once in a while they go over that. During these meetings the company presents its reasons for the job elimination, and what options are available for the worker. As we continue to make our way through the list, we are now getting to folks with significantly less seniority than those we were first meeting with at the beginning of June, which unfortunately means there are not always bump options for them.

Essentia Health Red Book Update

CONTRACT: The Red Book contract was set to expire today.  The company and the union have agreed to extend it until a successor agreement is agreed upon.  Either party can give 30 day notice to begin negotiations at any time.

SAL: An agreement has also been made on the Special Administrative Leaves for the Red Book.  The old agreement expired today.  A new one has been agreed to that calls on any department that doesn’t have enough work to ask for volunteers for the SAL.  If there aren’t enough volunteers, the least senior folks can be mandated to go on leave.  People who volunteered for the leaves in the past will have a chance to either volunteer again, or come back to work this way.  The agreement allows for the leaves to be in effect for up to 90 days.    If you are currently on leave, you should be hearing from your management team today.

LAYOFFS: There was one Red Book layoff meeting today.  There is a possibility of one or two more layoffs, but they have been delayed, and will possibly not happen, because of some issues we have raised about them.

Red Book Contract Survey

Because of the COVID-19 crisis the start of our Essentia Health Red Book contract negotiations has been postpooned for at least one month (meaning the old contract will stay in effect).  However, we are still going ahead with preparing.  We mailed out contract surveys this Spring, and have gotten a number mailed back.  However, if you lost yours or never got one, feel free to download and mail in the survey attached here.  We use these surveys to develop our negotiations strategy, so it's very worthwhile to fill these out.  Make sure your voice is heard!

EH Green Book Layoffs to Start Next Week

UPDATE: Essentia has notified us that they are looking to start layoffs for those covered by the Green Book contract next week. Layoff meetings may even start as early as Monday. Please know though it will take multiple weeks and we don't know when your turn will come that much in advance. These next few weeks our office will be hard pressed to handle much other than the layoffs. We understand you may have questions though. If you can message us on facebook, that is a little easier for us than phone.

CAR CARAVAN & INFORMATIONAL PICKET TO STOP THE LAYOFFS AT ESSENTIA

On June 1st we are asking folks with cars to gather at the Miller Hill Mall in Duluth in front of JC Penny.  At noon our caravan, covered in signs, will leave for the main Essentia campus, where we will drive around and honk in support of health care workers.  There will also be a small number of folks standing on the corners at the Essentia campus holding signs and helping to guide the caravan.  Please join us in saying that the Northland needs healthcare workers to be at their jobs and helping to save lives during a pandemic!