Bargaining Update - November 18

We had a two week break from bargaining and came back today. The main update is the health insurance proposal got even worse.

To recap, GHI (the employer) wants to change us to a dramatically worse and more expensive health insurance plan, and to remove our health benefits altogether from our Union contract (they could change them at any time they wanted in the future). What we found out today is that they also want the plan start date to be FEBRUARY 1, 2026. They would do a special enrollment period instead of letting us complete the plan year of our current insurance which would normally end December 31, 2026.

This not only would hasten the arrival of garbage health insurance but also ensure that we all missed the open enrollment period to jump ship to a spouse's insurance plan for 2026. (Based on our discussions today, a "change" in insurance does not meet the legal requirements to trigger another special enrollment period for a spouse's insurance, so we would be stuck for the rest of 2026.)

Click here to view an infographic that starts to give a sense of how much more expensive this new insurance would be. This still doesn't even begin to address unknown/variable costs including drug prices, lists of actual covered treatments/specialties, etc. -- those comparisons will be coming in future updates from the bargaining team.

Until next time,

Tova and your Union Bargaining Team

Bargaining Update - October 31

Happy Halloween! Slowly, but surely, we are working through the numerous scary proposals the employer gave us on day 1 of Bargaining. We are still working on crunching some numbers and putting together materials on the employer's nightmare of a healthcare proposal, so we wanted to take some time to share some quick summaries of other proposals GHI put on the table.

As a reminder, none of these changes have gone into our contract yet. The stronger we stand together in solidarity, the more we can WIN in our contract rather than lose in concessions! Let's stick together to say BOO to HP and turn the employer's TRICKS into our TREATS.

Health Insurance
Huge increases in premiums and copays for nearly everyone, with some members seeing literally double or triple (or even higher!) the premiums they currently pay if we agree to the employer's offer. We are still crunching the numbers on exactly what this will look like, and will send out a detail email next week with more information and cost breakdown. These worse health insurance benefits would also no longer be specified in our contract, meaning that the employer could change them at-will.

Sick Time
Since Earned Sick and Safe Time is now in effect, the employer wants to take away sick time language written into our contract and deplete all earned sick time in employee's banks. ESST law would then be followed. While ESST is a fantastic new law that will benefit many Minnesotans, we need to keep our sick time language in writing in our contract in case the law ever changes.

Doctor Time
The employer wants to get rid of it, and require us to instead use ESST time (which would have formerly been our sick time) in alignment with the proposal above. Our union bargaining team said NO strongly to both proposals - we want to protect our sick time bank the way it is, and keep our doctor time for our health.

Seniority
The employer has several items on the table that would weaken seniority rule in our contract and instead give managers and HP more discretion to direct our work as they see fit. Seniority has been questioned between FTE status and Benefit status. They have also proposed new language around the position elimination and hours reduction process, which we are still discussing.

Reassignment
The employer wants to increase reassignment mileage from 16 miles to 30 miles. By our calculations, this means that management could reassign folks to virtually any clinic in the GHI metro area. They also want to increase the number of times an individual union member can be reassigned from a maximum of 10 times per year to 20 times in a year.

Trial Period
The employer has introduced new language that would place members on a "three strikes" system for trial periods. After three failed trial periods, rather than being returned to their previous position (as is the case in our current contract language), members would be placed on the Recall List until a new position opens. This language has the potential to unfairly punish members who are seeking new training/education to move into higher-paid job classifications or other new opportunity.

Funeral Leave
Like the sick time language in our contract, HP is seeking to eliminate the language currently in our contract and replace it with their employer policy, which they would then be able to change at-will. There are some improvements in the employer policy that we are seeking to lock into our contract (like aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews, as well as time away for fertility-related loss), but we are not open to eliminating these contract protections altogether.

Paid Holidays
The employer originally proposed no longer having the Christmas Eve half day as a holiday. Following our Purple Parties in clinics last week + advocacy from your bargaining team when they pointed out that Local 12 has already locked in the Christmas Eve half day in their contract, HP ended up dropping this proposal and kept it as a paid holiday.

Wages
So far the employer has made NO proposal for wage increases whatsoever.

There are several additional items we are still working through and discussing, so we will continue to send updates as we work through proposals.

Our next bargaining date is Tuesday, November 18th.

CAT Team: Watch for another email with more resources to support the bargaining team. Our next CAT meeting will be in-person with a hybrid option available upon request on Tuesday, November 11 from 7-8:30pm.

Remember, we are ALL in this together! It's not just your bargaining team or your CAT team doing the work. They need to know you support them as well by standing strong with them!

In solidarity,
Your Union Bargaining Team

Bargaining Update - October 22

Yesterday was the first day of bargaining with the employer, and we are deeply disappointed by the proposals they presented. Despite our expectations of some concessions, we were stunned to receive 57 pages of proposed takebacks on Grinch green paper—a stark contrast to the 14 non-economic proposals across 8 pages that we submitted, focused primarily on modest wording adjustments and protections for our members. (We make all our proposals regarding wages, benefits and other economic issues at a later stage in the bargaining process.)

The proposals we received from the employer yesterday represent the most aggressive rollback attempt we’ve seen in over four decades of negotiations. Every benefit that our current and former members have fought tirelessly to secure is now at risk. Nothing was considered off-limits.

The most alarming change targets our healthcare benefits, which union members have consistently identified as their top priority. The employer’s proposal seeks to remove from our Union contract the healthcare benefits our members have fought to establish and defend over the last 45 years. They proposed to give us instead the health insurance plan non-union employees receive.

Beyond healthcare, the employer’s proposal threatens nearly every aspect of our contract, including:

• Seniority
• Sick time, vacation, and overtime
• Reassignment
• Trial period lengths
• Doctor time
• Meal periods and shift differentials
• Wages, bonus shifts, and lead pay
• Paid holidays and holiday pay
• Funeral leave, CEU reimbursement, and leaves of absence
• On-call requirements and hour averaging

While the employer claims to value our contributions, their actions suggest otherwise. Our members’ dedication to patient care and the success of this organization deserves respect—not cuts. We have historically made sacrifices, including taking smaller wage increases, to preserve our excellent healthcare benefits and support cost-saving initiatives. This proposal disregards those efforts and the history of our collective bargaining relationship.

🚨 Call to Action: We Must Act Now 🚨

This is not just a negotiation—this is a fight for our future. The employer’s proposal is a direct threat to the benefits we’ve worked decades to secure. If we don’t act now, we risk losing everything.

We need every member to step up immediately:

• Attend our next CAT meeting on Tuesday, 10/28 at 7pm on Zoom: Click Here to Register for the Zoom
• Speak out and share your story, and let coworkers know you have your bargaining team's back
• Wear purple next Tuesday and ask your coworkers to wear purple too!

Silence is surrender. Unity is power. The strength of our contract depends on the strength of our solidarity. We must show the employer that we will not back down, we will not be divided, and we will not accept less than what we’ve earned.

Stand up. Speak out. Stay united.

In solidarity,
Your Union Bargaining Team

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10.21.25