Bargaining Session #4
12/17/2024
Employer Proposal: Hours and Scheduling
Employer Proposal: Union Stewards and LOAs
We met with Allina on December 17, 2024 for our fourth negotiation session.
- We reached a Tentative Agreement on establishing stewards and steward office hours. This will be a benefit to us when our contract takes effect because it will give us paid time to enforce our contract, support each other and keep our union strong.
- Allina proposed language around Leaves of Absence that would default to current Allina policies for non-contract employees, which they could change at any time. We rejected this proposal and proposed that we adopt the LOA language in the Therapist contract. We are waiting for a response back from Allina.
- Allina presented us with a proposal on hours of work, overtime and rest periods. Their proposal is that we become hourly employees, clocking in and out and earning overtime if we work more than 40 hours in a 1 week. We rejected this proposal and share our reasons including:
- 100% of those who completed the bargaining survey want to remain salaried.
- We’ve been salaried for 25+ years and there is no reason to change.
- There are weeks where we must work over 40 hours to meet patient care needs--- for example, a social worker stayed until 6pm last week due to a court hearing. Of course, we all told her to flex that time, but it wasn’t possible without impacting patient care. If we were hourly, it would be stressful to try to manage a 40-hour week, it would put tasks on co-workers and affect continuity of care for our patients.
- Managers may not approve employees to pick up extra shifts beyond 40 hours a week, based on Allina’s current financial situation.
- In Mental Health, management would have to approve overtime for us to work on Sundays based on budgets. This could result in us not being able to work Sundays, which makes a huge difference for us in managing our work.
- In Care Management, we currently work weekends, working 7 days in a row--- that would have to be overtime under their proposal, we don’t know if they thought that through.
- Allina said that social workers have been asking for clarity on hours of work and that is why they are proposed we become hourly employees. When we asked what they meant about clarity-- they said social workers have brought concerns about other social works not working their full shifts. We told them that this is something that should be address by management with individuals who are not fulfilling expectations, rather than changing the whole system for everyone.
We negotiate again on January 14th. At that time, Allina can hold, drop or modify their hours of work proposal, or they can accept our proposal. We don’t know what they will do. We are also expecting responses from Allina on: Leave of Absence, Low Needs, Holidays & PTO (when we get to economics).
Union members have an opportunity to make our voices heard—please check your email or reach out to your bargaining team members to get a link to a form where you can write a message to Allina about their proposal that the negotiating team can share during the next bargaining session.
Bargaining Session #3
11/19/2024
Union Proposal - Job Vacancies
Union Proposal - Cross Over and LMC
Employer Counter Proposal - LMC, Cross-Over, H&S, and Job Vacancy
Tentative Agreements
Hi, Team. Here's your Union Update from Tuesday 11/19 Negotiations:
Tentative agreements were reached on Labor Management Committee, Cross-over Work, Job Vacancy as well as Layoff/Recall language. We continue to await some responses from Allina on some non-economic items, but we continue to be proactive, looking ahead to our economic items (e.g. Wages, Holidays, etc) and preparing for larger discussions at the table, beyond just "standard contract language," of which a large chunk of these initial bargaining sessions have consisted.
We have also been offered a number of additional bargaining dates (as follows):
Tuesday December 10th, 2024
Tuesday December 17th, 2024
Tuesday January 14th, 2025
Tuesday January 21st, 2025
Tuesday January 28th, 2025
All proposals are accessible on our SEIU Campaign page on the SEIU website.
If you have any questions, please reach out to any of us on the bargaining team.
Your Bargaining Team,
Libby, Megan, Devin, Elly & Katie
Bargaining Session # 2
11/12/2024
Employer Proposal - Job Vacancy Layoff Recall
Employer Proposal Counter Proposal
Tentative Agreements
Here is your union update from today Tuesday, 11/12/24:
We had discussions on many non-economic items including job vacancies, cross-over work, layoff and recall, leave of absences, and labor management committee meetings. We reached tentative agreements on COPE, health and safety, and the definition of seniority. You can view all of the proposals exchanged, linked above.
If you have any questions, please reach out to any of us on the bargaining team. We negotiate again next week on Tuesday 11/19/24.
A note about open enrollment for Health Insurance:
While we have not started negotiating economic items and we cannot guarantee any outcome of this negotiation, we want you to know that our union has negotiated the percentage of the premium Allina pays for the Allina First plan in other contracts. This has previously resulted in much lower cost to union members compared to non-union employees. In other contracts, SEIU has not negotiated the percentage of the premium Allina’s pays for the other plans, but union members can choose any non-contract plans at the non-contract rates. The union contract is not finalized so we cannot guarantee any outcome, but this is just for your awareness. Please reach out to you union bargaining team if you have further questions.
Your Bargaining Team,
Libby, Megan, Devin, Elly & Katie
Bargaining Session # 1
October 30, 2024
Employer Counter Proposal
Union Non-Economic Proposal
Good afternoon, team! Here's your Union update from today, Wednesday 10/30/24:
The Bargaining Team met with our SEIU reps on Monday 10/28/24 to draft the final pieces of our non-economic portion of the contract (e.g. all the nuts and bolts that do not pertain to wages/healthcare/dollars & cents). Today, we engaged in our first contract bargaining session, proposing said non-economical components and, in fact, did reach tentative agreements on the following articles:
- Union Security
- No strike, No Lockout
- Management Rights
- Recognition
- Grievance & Arbitration
- Corrective Action & Discharge
It will be important to present as a united front throughout this process, so wear those SEIU buttons/gear loud and proud to present as a united front! If you don't have any SEIU gear, you're welcome to swing by my office on West 5th floor and snag one out of my middle drawer, or ask a member of the bargaining team to acquire.
We are feeling energized and prepared to fight for you/us all 💪 !!! Be sure to access our SEIU campaign website as negotiations progress to remain up to speed on any outcomes. All proposals exchanged between the bargaining team and Allina will be accessible on the site.
ANW Social Workers Bargaining (seiuhealthcaremn.org)
In Solidarity,
The Bargaining Team
YOUR BARGAINING TEAM:
Libby Vogel
Devin Farlow
Megan Stuart
Elly Pederson
Katie Wegler