Members at UNITE HERE Local 21 vote to merge with SEIU Healthcare!

The members of UNITE HERE Local 21 Healthcare Division voted to merge with SEIU on Wednesday! Now our union represents employees from the two best health systems in the country—Mayo and Allina!   This makes us more Bold, Stronger, and United! Congratulations to all the stewards that went down to Rochester to help on the campaign!

 

Take Back Labor Day Festival and Concert—Order Your Tickets Now!

Harriet Island, Saint Paul, MN

Monday, September 1

This labor day we’re celebrating the opportunity to build an America that works for everyone.  Healthcare for All! Freedom to join a union! Wages that support families! Musicians include Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Mos Def, Tom Morello, The Pharcyde and Atmosphere.  All SEIU members can get up to 10 FREE Tickets by calling 651-203-0401, ext. 9 and leaving a mailing address. Tickets should be requested by August 26^th to ensure that you get them on time! Tickets at the door will be $15.  For more information go to http://www.takebacklaborday.com/index.php

Reminder! PTO Vacation Bid Requests now occur TWICE a year!

There are now two (2) vacation bidding periods in the contract.  The bidding periods are listed below.

 Bidding Period 1: January 1 through March 1:

Vacation Requests for: May 1 through Oct 31

Hospital Posts Approvals: April 1

 

Bidding Period 2: July 1 through September 1

Vacation Requests for: November 1 through April 30

Hospital Posts Approvals: October 1

 

Things to Remember:

If the time has already been approved, the employee does not have to rebid.

There will be no change of any scheduled PTO time except by mutual agreement between the affected employee or employees and the Hospital.

Employees shall have the right to make PTO requests with less than seven (7) days notice with the understanding that all requests for time off shall be granted subject to staffing needs.

 

 

Contract Education: Extra Hours

In our most recent contract there were changes made to how extra hours are awarded.  Although your schedules will still be posted at least two weeks in advance, you will now be able to see the open shifts on the schedule six weeks out.  In essence there will be a proposed schedule (the schedule with the open shifts) and a final schedule (the schedule with the open shifts filled).  The schedules will be posted in your department with the exception of Nursing Positions who are not in closed units, those lists will be posted in the staffing office.

At the same time the Hospital posts the schedule with the open shifts, they will post an availability list for people to sign up for extra hours.  In order to be eligible for extra hours and exercise your seniority rights, you will have to make sure you sign up on the availability list.  The availability list and the schedule with the open shifts will both be posted for five (5) calendar days.  So for example, if your manager puts up the proposed schedule on Tuesday of this week, you will have until Saturday of that week to sign up on the availability list for extra hours.

On the 6^th day, the availability list will come down and the open shifts will be filled using that list. Hours will first be awarded to employees in the job classification.  So if there is an open shift for a nursing assistant, they would get first preference for that shift.  Only after that has been exhausted will hours be awarded to a qualified person in a different job classification.  Afterwards, the new schedule will be posted.  Extra Hours are to be awarded based on the following process:

The most senior employee in the classification on a non-overtime basis.

The most senior employee in the classification on an overtime basis.

The most senior qualified employee outside of a classification on a non-overtime basis.

The most senior qualified employee outside of a classification on an overtime basis.

 If all employees who have signed up on the availability list have been exhausted, the Hospital can award extra hours to whomever else will work within that job classification, including anyone not scheduled to work that day or those who are scheduled to work a later shift.  This will not be done by seniority, as employees had the right to exercise their seniority by signing the availability list.

 Lastly if there is a sick call, the Hospital will fill the hours based on the availability list and the process outlined above, but it is the hospital’s choice as to whether to fill a sick call.

NEW Cultural Holiday

All members now have the option to designate a day as a cultural/personal holiday with 60 days notice to their supervisor. This day is holiday just like any other—if multiple employees requests the same day as a holiday then management would determine the staffing needs for that day and grant the holiday in seniority order. You also have the option to take the day without pay or use PTO for the day, just like other holidays.

New Health Insurance Administrator

Most of us have heard that Allina has switched health insurance administrators from Medica to Health Partners. This switch does not affect our health plan nor the networks—it simply an administrative switch. Allina found that Health Partners could administer their health insurance for them for a lower cost than Medica.

Next General Membership Meeting

Thursday, September 18, 2008

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Union Hall

345 Randolph Ave.

Saint Paul, MN

7:30pm

Call 651.294.8100  for more info

During the ratification vote on Tuesday April 29th, the slate of stewards was elected:

Congratulations to:

Vivian Straumann - LPN

Mary Wood - LPN

Bill Braski – PCA

Tara Wangen – PCA

Miatta Turay – PCA

Irene Gonzalez – PCA

Vernard Sullivan – PCA

Bree Hanson - CVA

Tammy Pederson – Materials

Sandy Koski – Transport

Elva Neubauer – E.S.

Tyler Winans – ES

Jim Koepke – ES

TJ Schindler – ES

Emilio Calixto – ES

Dave Selden - Maintenance

James Gessner – Surg

Shawna Robles – Surg

Scott Gyssels – Surg

Paul Munoz – Nutr

Judith Rivera – Nutr

Yesenia Bazan – Nutr

APRIL 8th, 2008
WHEN: 1:30pm - 2:30pm & 4-5pm 
WHERE: In the Nasseff Conference Room.

You have seen the fliers. You have talked to your co-workers about what you need from this contract. What you said you needed when we started this groundbreaking contract for hospital workers across the midwest:
1. One Wage Scale - you do the same work at Allina, you get the same pay
2. Better Health Insurance
3. Better Retirement!

Your elected negotiations team has achieved a monumental amount of work. 44 consensus issues - before we even hit wages, and benefits. No one would have believed we'd accomplish so much in one negotiation. You should be very proud of yourselves and your negotiating team for bringing about such a breadth and depth of improvements to your contract.

Come and find out what they've done so far. Give them guidance about what else you need to see. The following week - April 17th - all 55 of your negotiating team will reconvene to vote to recommend, or not recommend this contract.

This is one of your last, best opportunities to bring about the change in the contract that you want to see!

Together we can achieve great things in negotiation for our master Allina contract this year. Why can we achieve great things this year? Why can expectations be so much higher than in years passed? There are a few things. The bargaining team is the largest ever - we have nearly 60 members from all seven of our represented facilities. The bargaining unit has grown from 2200 three years ago to 3600 today. And we are all bargaining together for the first ever Allina Master Contract.

Some of the things that may be achievable in this contract are:
- Fully employer paid single health insurance
- A better pension
- A single pay-scale for all of Allina; equal pay for equal work!
- A wage increase that helps us make it in these distressing economic times; gas going up, food going up...you name it, it's gotten more expensive in the last year!

But, Allina needs to know that you are serious about these things; that what our bargaining team is telling them across the table, is what we want in the facilities. Maybe they think we aren't serious about getting fully employer paid healthcare; maybe they think nobody really wants a single wage scale for every classification across Allina; maybe they think we aren't serious about getting a wage increase that lets us survive this economic environment.

So let's prove to Allina that we will not give up on these things, that attracting and keeping the best staff is the key to the best patient care. We will prove this on Animo Day! What is "animo"? Animo is life, energy, soul, positivity. On March 19th we will prove that we are together by everyone in SEIU wearing stickers with our Animo Day message! There is NO question that it is important for every member to show their Animo!

Yes we can!

On Thursday February 21st, 2008 at 2pm in the big Nasseff Conference Room, and at 4pm in 3816. We need to hear from the Contract Negotiating Team, what they've been working on, how things are going, what sorts of things we can expect.

In this negotiation, we have had a great opportunity and our negotiating team has not wasted it. We've had 9 subcommittees meeting every day for the last month. With 9 subcommittees, we have been able to address every single issue brought  forward from the surveys and bargaining priorities meetings. This is unprecedented.

For some perspective, keep in mind that normally we pick 4, 5, or 6 things that we absolutely require and build a campaign around those. In the strategic alliance, we are able to air scores of important priorities and make progress toward each of those things that we need in order to create an environment of high quality patient care.

Please Join with Your Co-Workers and get involved in your contract talks.
WHO - All SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Members at United Hospital
WHEN - 2/21/2008 at 2pm in John Nasseff Conference Room
                                     4pm in 3816.

"This negotiation is working great. We're digging through the whole contract," says Judy Rivera, Cook, "We're clarifying the whole contract for employees and managers. We're going to have a great master contract."
    

A huge part of what we do as SEIU members is raise the voice of working people to politicians. We work in a hospital and we know that 45% or better of the money which comes in to our hospital is Medicare or Medicaid - money controlled by politicians. So we better let the politicians know where we think this money should go, what our priorities and insights are.

Some of us have spent the day at the Capitol in St. Paul getting "face time" with our elected leaders. But most of us haven't. We have learned that when we get in front of our elected leaders and tell them our story, and raise our issues to them, they listen. We leave a strong impression. Add to that our outlandish purple presence on the capitol - EVERY politician knows that SEIU is there because they can see us from a mile away.

This session at the state legislature we have huge opportunities. Our friends at the Capitol now have a veto-proof majority is both houses of the legislature, so the opportunities are tangible.

Fliers are up in every break room in every nursing area around the hospital for the past week, alerting PCA's and NA's to the meeting of the PCA council.

WHERE: United Cafeteria
WHEN:   Tuesday 2-12-2008, at 2pm or 4pm (not a paid meeting - attend on break, before/after shift)
WHO:    All PCA's NA's that want to improve patient care at United Hospital by organizing the voice of PCA's NA's.

We will be discussing: the effect of the restructuring on patient care, the workload effects of the restructuring of Environmental Service on Aide work, a method for gathering information about the priorities of Aides around United.

Any questions or comments please call: Bob Rouillard 612-805-8988, or Contact one of your stewards: Tara Wangen, Irene Gonzalez, Kerry Grant, or Miatta Turay.

Over the last months, Campus Services has gone through a dramatic restructuring. It has been hard for most of us, and many of us feel that our workload is too much - even impossible.

SEIU Stewards, Sandy Koski, Elva Neubauer, Tyler Winans, and Tara Wangen, representing areas affected by these changes met with Kim Sorbel, Director of Campus Services on the issue of workload, and its effects on patient care, our membership, and the morale of the hospital. The stewards shared what they were hearing which was something very different from what management was hearing.

As a result, we determined together that we need to have a forum in which every member of SEIU in Campus Services feels that they can express openly what they are experiencing every day. Kim Sorbel assured us that she wanted to hear all of this and take it into account as we try to provide the best patient care we can together.

So...on February 18th in the following blocks: 11:30-12:30pm, and 5:15-7:00pm we will have the opportunity to eat together and talk about what we're experiencing. The place is yet to be determined.