Bargaining Update December 11, 2021

The Local 12 Bargaining team returned to the table on Wednesday and Thursday this week and spent some long days and late nights fighting back the Employer’s extensive health insurance plan and insulting and low wage proposals.

WE HAVE REACHED A TENATIVE AGREEMENT!

• This agreement is tentative because the members have not voted on it yet.  The agreement will be final if a majority of the members who vote agree to the changes.

Highlights: (A complete document with all changes is being prepared and will be sent to all members)

Healthcare:

The bargaining team proposed a counter to HealthPartners on healthcare that would get their outrageous proposal for increases off the table and were able to get HealthPartners to agree.  Fighting off these huge healthcare increases was a major win for the team and all of our members.  2022 will remain the same but beginning in 2023 we can expect to have a 10$ raise in cost of the premiums. A new term to this agreement is those who have spouses both the spouse and employee need to complete a health assessment and well-being program to qualify for zero-dollar co-pays. If you and/or your spouse do not complete the health assessment and well-being program the new co-pay is now 30 dollars. These were small concessions on our part in comparison to their initial proposal on health care that would have resulted in hundreds of dollars more spent on health care each month for members.

Wages:

Leads will have a 25-cent increase making the lead pay 1.25 an hour. Floats will have an additional 25 cents in year 3. Starting in year 3 they will be getting $1.50 an hour.

Year 1: 5%- retroactive to December 1, 2021 after ratification of the contract

Year 2: 2.5%

Year 3: 2.5%

Attached is a spread sheet of the counters throughout the night of the wage increases. This took all night to finally get this. This is a good visualization of the low wages that HealthPartners wanted you to receive and the perseverance of the members on the bargaining team to get to fair wages for all the members.

Remote work:

We have a new Remote Work agreement that is like the original from the previous contract but updated and agreed upon to the benefit of both the enterprise and our members working from home. We were unable to secure any type of reimbursement for the members who went home and used their own equipment. The employer proposed a LOU that would not be in favor of our members and was next to impossible for a member to use to get reimbursement. We dropped that LOU without prejudice meaning we may be revisiting this later through other methods. It was important to us to let the employer know that those of us who bought our own equipment did so in good faith with the need to protect ourselves, family, and each other during a pandemic. This fight is not over.

What’s next:

Our Union Rep Traci and HR will be working on checking the contract for spelling and grammar and finalizing the tentative agreement Monday. More info to come regarding the vote of when and how we vote for this. We will be offering a few different meeting opportunities for members to get all their questions answered on the tentative agreement from the bargaining team, etc.  We want to make sure all members are clear on what they are voting on prior to the vote.

What we need from our members:

We have 3 years to prepare for our next contract. Many issues with unfair treatment from management specifically can be resolved through the contractual grievance process. We learned that gaslighting of the unfair treatment some of our members have endured from bad managers will happen in negotiations and could possibly be better fought through grievances. We need more people to step up and be stewards and report any issues you are having in your workplace so we can solve these problems as they come. Those who may be interested in being a steward, please reach out to our Union Rep so we may continue to find new leaders.

HealthPartners management likes to refer to the union as a third party this is NOT TRUE. We are the union. We have a voice thanks to our contract and collective solidarity. It is incredibly important to report these issues as they come up so we can fight them and hold the employer to the intentions and terms of the contract. A union can only be as strong as its members. So, if you can help at any capacity, please reach out.