Join fellow Retiree Members as we discuss important issues affecting us like Social Security, healthcare, pension, and housing! Let’s use the collective strength
of our Union to win a secure retirement for all!
When: January 12th, 2021 at 10am
Meetings take place on the second Tuesday of each month
Where: Online via Zoom
To join the Zoom Meeting go to: https://seiuhcmn.zoom.us/j/91378521370
Please RSVP to mackenzie.flynn@seiuhcmn.org
Congratulations to the members at Guardian Angels nursing home on winning a one-time $200 bonus from the employer for getting the COVID-19 vaccine! Our Union has taken a strong position that the COVID-19 vaccine should be voluntary for all members. This principle of voluntarism is the rule in the U.S. for as long as the vaccine is authorized for “Emergency Use”.
Guardian Angels Nursing Home management offered this one-time bonus to show their encouragement for members to get the vaccine. We applaud the bonus and hope other employers will adopt a similar approach in the near future.
Congratulations to the members at Parkview Care Center on winning a great, new three-year contract! Details include:
Year One:
Year Two: 3% Wage increase for all employees.
Year Three: Contract will reopen in October 2022 to negotiate wages for year three.
Last month, thousands of SEIU healthcare workers around the country and in Minnesota started receiving the COVID-19 vaccine! Many members have shared photos of themselves getting the shot on Facebook and it has been a true joy seeing all of the smiles on member faces.
This week, even more members and nursing home residents will have the opportunity to receive the shot and be vaccinated. Nationally, SEIU has developed a set of principles and FAQs for the COVID-19 vaccine. They are attached to this email and shared on our website for your information. Please take a look and please consider getting the vaccine to protect yourself, your family and our community.
In December, our Union filed a lawsuit in Federal court against the Monarch Nursing Home chain over their refusal to arbitrate Union grievances. For the past year, our Union has been fighting the Monarch Nursing Home chain to comply with the grievance and arbitration clause of our contracts. Because of their continued refusal to comply with the contracts, or submit disagreements to binding arbitration, we filed a lawsuit in federal court to compel their compliance with the contract. We look forward to seeing them in court and finally getting justice for SEIU members across the Monarch Nursing Home chain.
Last week, the SEIU members at Fairview Ebenezer nursing home reached a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract with significant wage increases. Please join me in congratulating the bargaining team and members at Fairview Ebenezer for this incredible settlement. Details include:
Other changes include:
On Friday, our Union submitted a formal letter on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Minnesota. Our letter urges the state to include all healthcare workers in the first tier (1a) for vaccine distribution- including hospital, clinic and nursing home workers who are not involved in direct patient care as well as consumer-directed home care workers. Our letter advocates for all vaccine distribution be made voluntary for health care workers at this time.
Over the last two weeks our Union has been conducting a membership survey with important questions related to newly developed COVID-19 vaccines. More than 600 members have responded to the survey and we want to share the results with you so you can see what we are learning from those responses. We also want to invite additional feedback and input from members who have not yet had an opportunity to respond. In addition to the responses to the survey questions we received more than 150 questions and comments from members about the vaccines that members want to see answered to help inform decisions about the vaccine.
In the weeks ahead, our Union will work to share with you reliable information about the vaccines and we will advocate for all of our members who want the vaccine to have access, on a voluntary basis, as soon as possible. Check out the responses to our survey questions below:
Later this week, on December 4, Rita Robinson will be retiring from Open Cities after 33 years as a Dental Assistant. Rita has been a leader in the union from the very beginning. In the early 90s, she and two others reached out to form the union when the facility used to be Model Cities.
“It was exciting forming the union, the things we were seeing just didn’t seem right. I noticed people would work for a year and then they would go on to something else. A lot of us liked our jobs and we wanted to stay there and it was time for management to change. People weren’t getting raises, weren’t getting breaks, or going to lunch. I said, no I like working here, if they did better we could stay.”
Rita has been fighting every year since, continuing to serve on the bargaining committee and
becoming a steward a year after the first contract. She says overall being a steward has been good, with ups and downs, lots of grievances and arbitrations. Rita even had to fight for her own job at one point, “I had to use the union myself, I was fired after being there for 25 years, and thankfully my union stood by me and I got my job back. Some people probably would have given up but I hung in there. I had faith in [the union] and they had faith in me.”
Throughout her time as a union steward and leader Rita always appreciated the leadership from the union, “they helped my work experience be better.”
When thinking about the future of the union at Open Cities and advice she has for new members she said, “you guys need it, you guys need to stick together and don’t let them run you away. If you like your job, stay there, fight for it… sometimes you lose faith as the process takes a while, but people have to hang in there, we have a contract and we have to know our rights.”