Contract negotiations between OPEIU Local 12 and HealthPartners began this week. On Tuesday, October 19th, the Local 12 bargaining team and HealthPartners exchanged proposals and on Thursday, October 21st, the Local 12 bargaining team spent time going through the proposals from HealthPartners, working on our responses, etc. We will be back in negotiations with HealthPartners on Tuesday, October 26th.
In this post, you will find the proposals that the Local 12 bargaining team presented to HealthPartners, these were presented to the HealthPartners membership at the meeting we held on October 12th as well, and were created based on survey feedback from all of you, other issues and concerns, etc. You will also find the proposals from HealthPartners management, and we urge you all to read through it carefully so all of you know exactly what HealthPartners proposed. While not surprising, the proposals from HealthPartners are extremely disappointing and the Local 12 members on the bargaining team felt disrespected and insulted to receive these, especially given everything the members at HealthPartners have been through over the past few years. The Local 12 bargaining team is prepared to fight these proposed changes and health insurance increases that will be detrimental to our members, and the more members we have standing together in solidarity the stronger we will be.
There is a color code on the Local 12 proposals document to explain the document, and for the HealthPartners document, language that has a strike through is a proposal to remove that language, and underlined language is a proposal for new language. The proposal related to health insurance is a proposed complete change to the current contract as well so please review carefully.
We are arranging upcoming meetings to give all of you a chance to ask questions throughout the negotiating process. And more updates will be posted next week and every week thereafter, including our responses to HealthPartner’s proposals.
In Solidarity,
The Local 12 Bargaining Team for Negotiations with HealthPartners
Team Members: Betty Jones, Mary Brown, Kelsie Anderson, Sue Kolias, Heather Neil, Peg Ledel, Donna Schnegelberger, Connie Brown, Stefanie Olson, Nile Mills, Andrea Crist and Janell Kelly. With Local staff support from Traci Murphy, Molly Thul, and Lance Lindeman.