Blog

Red Book Solidarity Action This Friday!

RED BOOK SOLIDARITY ACTION: We are asking all of our members to wear a red, union sticker at work tomorrow (Friday, June 30). If you're a Red Book member, and you have gotten a sticker yet, reach out to the WIN team or Negotiating Committee to get one, or you can get them here at the union office. And don't throw away the sticker when you're done - hold onto it to get a t-shirt and other supplies for our next actions!

June 27 Green Book Wage Re-Opener Update

There was another negotiation session today between our union and Essentia Health over the Year 3 raise for the Green Book contract. We were able to get the employer off there insulting proposal for only a 1% raise, at least a little bit. But now they're proposing to compress the wage grid. We were way too far apart to reach an agreement today, so we're going to have to schedule more negotiation dates. Stay tuned.

June 26 Green Book Wage Re-Opener Update

We met with Essentia Health for the second time to discuss the Year 3 wage re-opener for the Green Book contract. The employer is claiming that they are stretched financially due to inflation, low reimbursements and high costs. And they are refusing to even acknowledge the dramatic increase in our work loads. They offered only a 1% raise. We rejected this, and will be going back to the table tomorrow.

June 22 Red Book Negotiations Update

RED BOOK: There will be an in person meeting tonight for Red Book members. We'll be updating folks on how negotiations are going with Essentia, and what our next steps are going to be. We'll also be distributing supplies for future actions.  Please try to make it if you can. We'll be meeting at 5:15pm in Hall A in the basement of the Duluth Labor Temple (2002 London Road).

New Vice President!

Congratulations to Lindajean Thompson, who was elected as our new Vice President last night! When Deanna Hughes resigned as president, our then Vice President, Tuan Vu, automatically moved up into the president slot for the remainder of this term. Our Executive Board then voted to invite members to apply for the vacant vice presidency. Six members applied. Last night the Executive Board met and voted to select Lindajean. She will hold the office until the next regularly scheduled elections for all of our local union officers, which will be in April of 2024. She will also continue to hold the office Unit Chair for the Blue Book (former SMUMS) contract at Essentia Health. We have no doubt that Lindajean will do an amazing job! Thank you to everyone who applied for the VP role - they were all amazing candidates!

Red Book Negotiations Update Meetings

The Red Book Negotiating Committee is going to be holding a facebook live virtual update meeting tomorrow (Thursday, June 15) at 5:15pm.  Click on this link at 5:15pm:

June 12 Green Book Wage Re-Opener Update

GREEN BOOK WAGE RE-OPENER: We began negotiations today with Essentia Health for the Green Book's Year 3 wage re-opener. We presented our initial proposal for a substantially adjusted wage scale the is reflective of the market realities.

Essentia wasn't ready to counter, so we'll have to wait and see what they say on June 26, which is when negotiations will resume. Stay tuned!

June 9 St. Luke's Negotiations Update

The union contract negotiations for the St. Luke's hospital tech workers contract kicked off without a hitch on June 5. There was a lot of discussion over the initial non-economic proposals by the union and company. Among the items discussed was contact language governing low need days, attendance, changes in job duties and descriptions, and changes to work schedules. However nothing major has been agreed to on any of these. The negotiations will continue at the next scheduled session on June 19. We hope to have more to report after that session.