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Green Book Negotiations Update #5

GREEN BOOK NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE: Your Union Negotiating Committee met with the company yesterday. We kicked off economic proposals. Our proposals focused on:

- Fair and equitable across the board wage increases
- Elimination of two-tier wages, moving every employee to the pre-2010 hire date wage grid.

To our surprise, Essentia Health is willing to consider the elimination of two-tier wages!

Over the last few weeks YOU HAVE STEPPED UP to show the company that you are opposed to their TAMs proposal. Hundreds of you raised your voice and signed our survey, participated in our sticker day, and/ or showed up to informational meetings! Because of your solidarity, Essentia Health has agreed to withdraw the majority of the TAMs proposal! We have one battle left! Essentia wants to reduce PTO banks to 1.25 times annual accrual instead of our current 1.5 times. We will continue to oppose this.

Local 9460 Election Update

At our May membership meeting on the 21st our Election Tellers reported on the details of our recent union officer elections. While the preliminary results have already been posted, the Tellers pointed out that because of the turmoil that the Post Office is experiencing, many of our members ballots didn't arrive by the April 18 ballot count (in fact more came in the week after our ballot count, than before). This was of no fault of our members. So it was proposed and accepted that we count all of the ballots that came in late that were postmarked April 17 or sooner.

Essentia Health PARs

Essentia Health PARs: Essentia Health is looking to overhaul their entire registration process by replacing Patient Access Reps with electronic kiosks. They have begun this process at three of their facilities, but their plan is to roll out these changes at all of their sites this coming year. We have been frustrated with Essentia's failure to properly notify us, communicate details and hear our concerns. As a result, so far we have filed two class action grievances, a request for information and a board charge with the National Labor Relations Board. There have begun to be regular meetings with the company. We are working on an agreement on how the "priority placement" of registration workers displaced by these machines will go, and what options will be available to people.

Green Book Negotiations Update #4

The Negotiating Committee is going to be holding an informational meeting on the company’s proposal to change our time off policies. It’ll be on Thursday, May 23 at 6pm in the Duluth Labor Temple. Please come if you can! AND, we’re asking everyone to wear a union sticker on May 28 to show our solidarity with the Negotiating Committee, and demonstrate to the company that we are united for a fair contract with a decent wage increase! The Communication & Action Team will have stickers that they will be distributing to folks. You can also pick up stickers at the union office, or at the May 23 meeting.

Next Gen to March in Memorial Day Parade

USW Local 9460's Next Gen Committee is going to be marching in the Duluth Memorial Day Parade.  They'd like to invite anyone from SOAR who would be interested in walking with them.  They'll be assembling at 11:15am at 59th Avenue West between Raleigh Street & Grand Avenue in west Duluth.  For anyone on facebook, there is the facebook event page for it: https://www.facebook.com/events/1417799132431641/

St. Luke's Negotiations Update

So far we have had two negotiations session with St. Luke’s Hospital.  We’ve only been dealing with non-economic issues so far.  We reached a couple of Tentative Agreements on some basic language changes, the most significant was some new language addressing safety concerns and allowing for the tracking of mandations and lengths of shifts.  The union is fighting to get the language about “interest arbitration” removed from the contract, and to add “union successorship” language (which would mean that any new owner of SLH would have to recognize the union).  So far the company has said no to both.  We go back to the table on May 16, where we will begin exchanging economic proposals. 

LSCHC Professional Unit Ratified Contract

The Professional Unit of the Lake Superior Community Health Center reached a tentative agreement with the union last week, and the unit voted on this past Friday. It passed unanimously. Congrats to the Negotiating Committee and membership of the Professional Unit! Negotiations for the Support Staff Unit at LSCHC will be starting next.

Green Book Negotiations Update #3

The Green Book contract negotiations are underway. We had our first meetings with the company on April 16 & 17. Our initial proposals focused on establishing rules and the non-economic issues important to you. We will be back at the table on May 6 & 7. The Negotiating Committee just returned from the Collective Bargaining Conference.