Minnesota Caregivers Win Contract With HealthPartners
More than 1,500 SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members at 29 HealthPartners clinics in the Twin Cities metro area have ratified a new three-year contract. In addition to protecting their health benefits with no givebacks, and securing annual wage increases, the contract calls for the formation of a patient care committee to which clinic workers can bring disputes with doctors and administrators over staffing and safety.
The agreement also sets the stage for another SEIU Healthcare training and education fund in the Midwest. SEIU Healthcare Locals in California and on the East Coast have created longstanding, thriving training funds.
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota represents all caregivers-except physicians-in the 29 clinics. The contract includes wage increases of 3.5 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent over the three years of the contract. The workers were also able to maintain fully-employer paid single health insurance and affordable ($70 per month) family health care coverage.
"We had a good contract and wanted to keep what we had won. We wanted good successor language," explains Elsie Urman, an LPN at HealthPartners since 1980. "The employer has grown from one clinic to 29 clinics, it is also an HMO, and is now affiliated with Regions Hospital in St. Paul. With some institutions downsizing, other institutions buying up others, nothing is certain so we wanted to make sure that our collective bargaining rights travel with us should there be a change in employer.
"A big addition for us is our new Training and Education Fund. This will be a labor-management fund, and the two sides still have to bargain how to put it together and what are the priorities for education. "
Kate Lynch, an LPN at HealthPartners for 19 years, agrees. "This is a good contract with many gains. "We were ready to walk on February 13th. We'd sent a strike notice and had the full backing of the members. Fifteen hundred workers walking off the job would have a huge impact and this probably convinced management to come back to the table. "I'm a single mom with two kids, so I can tell you that I'm thrilled we didn't give back on health coverage.
"And I'm excited about the new training and education fund. The whole healthcare industry is in constant change. At HealthPartners, departments close and workers are reassigned jobs but don't always make the best fit because they aren't trained for their new responsibilities. It's great to now have this opportunity to move up. I'm an LPN and I hope to become an RN."