After bargaining for 30 hours on the Final day of the contract a lot of progress has been made. The Employer and the Union have come to some Tentative Agreements, but more proposals have been dropped. In the very early morning hours on December 1, 2021 the Employer and the Union met for another joint session.
The Employer proposed a wage increase of, 0.25% in Year 1, 0% in Year 2, and 0% in Year 3. In efforts to get things moving the employer dropped the raise in out-of-pocket costs, and the outpatient hospital co-pay proposals.
We were not surprised at the insulting and incredibly low offer for wage increases as this is the current MO in HealthPartners Negotiations in recent Bargaining over the years. We just need to keep pushing back.
The Action: HealthPartners Bargaining team has extended our current contract another month to ensure our members are protected under the current language while we continue to bargain. Currently we are hopeful that we will make progress and continue to make moves. More dates have been set. The Negotiation teams will be meeting again next week on Wednesday and Thursday and intend to stay late both those nights.
What we need from you:
-Continue to wear your buttons, if you do not have buttons, please reach out to any of the bargaining team members or email, Kanderson@opeiu12.org and she will work you on getting buttons to your area somehow.
- Start talking to your co-workers and educating each other
- Get ready to take more action, stay engaged
- watch for your emails for surveys, updates and forms we may need from our membership for information to help support our push back at the table.
- share our social media posts to get the word out as much as possible.
Education:
With the extension of the current contract, this means we cannot vote to strike, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t still a possibility later. We will need to let the contract expire first and when the employer and union is at an impasse, we can put it to a vote. After the strike has been approved by the membership, we can give the employer a 10 day notice for a Unfair Labor Practice Strike. The Union will be in contact but please know we are not there YET, we just need more time.
Your rights: All members are allowed to talk about union business in their workplace in break rooms, cubicles etc. Anywhere you can talk about non-union related topics you can talk union. It is considered an Unfair Labor Practice should a leader threaten, intimidate, or try to stop your from educating members. There is a thin line we must walk, these conversations should not impede on your work, but we can have conversations on our breaks or in passing.
If a leader does try to intimidate you or stop you from talking about union business please report this to a steward immediately so we may track these instances and file ULP’s against the Employer.