SEIU Local 113 members at Red Wing Health Center have overwhelmingly authorized a strike rather than accept a contract loaded with language and economic concessions.
Proposals from nursing home management could cost some workers as much as $2,000 a year ? more than 10 percent of their pay, said Karmen Ortloff, business representative for Local 113. The 125 workers have been without a contract since Oct. 1.
Trust eroded earlier this year when nursing home management deducted 401(k) contributions from paychecks, but delayed in depositing the contributions into workers? accounts, Ortloff said.
In addition, workers are pushing for the reinstatement of longtime steward Bill Robinson, a 10-year employee. He was dismissed and his job outsourced. The nursing home has refused to handle reinstatement through arbitration, Ortloff said, ?which sets a really dangerous precedent.?
Conditions deteriorated further this week when the nursing home threatened to fire any employee who joined informational picketing the union had planned for Nov. 30. Nursing home lawyers claimed the picketing would have violated the legally required 10-day notice.
?Management wants to play these cheap games that do not bring us any closer to a settlement,? said Kelly Preskorn, an LPN at the home and member of the bargaining committee.
The nursing home is operated by Mission Healthcare LLC, which also operates at least two homes with unionized staff in St. Paul.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org
Share
SEIU Local 113 members at Red Wing Health Center have overwhelmingly authorized a strike rather than accept a contract loaded with language and economic concessions.
Proposals from nursing home management could cost some workers as much as $2,000 a year ? more than 10 percent of their pay, said Karmen Ortloff, business representative for Local 113. The 125 workers have been without a contract since Oct. 1.
Trust eroded earlier this year when nursing home management deducted 401(k) contributions from paychecks, but delayed in depositing the contributions into workers? accounts, Ortloff said.
In addition, workers are pushing for the reinstatement of longtime steward Bill Robinson, a 10-year employee. He was dismissed and his job outsourced. The nursing home has refused to handle reinstatement through arbitration, Ortloff said, ?which sets a really dangerous precedent.?
Conditions deteriorated further this week when the nursing home threatened to fire any employee who joined informational picketing the union had planned for Nov. 30. Nursing home lawyers claimed the picketing would have violated the legally required 10-day notice.
?Management wants to play these cheap games that do not bring us any closer to a settlement,? said Kelly Preskorn, an LPN at the home and member of the bargaining committee.
The nursing home is operated by Mission Healthcare LLC, which also operates at least two homes with unionized staff in St. Paul.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org