The University of Minnesota Teamsters’ say it is a real possibility that food service and building workers could strike during move-in week, a crucial time for the university.
On the morning of August 7, the University of Minnesota facilities and food service workers, represented by Teamsters Local 320, filed an intent to strike notice for student move-in week. The notice was filed with the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services. The move follows a strike vote in late July, in which 97% of those who turned out voted in favor.
“The University’s service workers may be forced into a system-wide strike across UMN’s five teaching campuses and research facilities beginning on August 20, 2025, which may affect the start of the academic year,” the union said in a press statement.
The unit represents 1,400 food service workers—cooks, food preparation, servers, and dishwashers—and facilities service workers—building maintenance staff, mechanics, custodians, waste management workers, landscapers, and attendants in some laboratories across campus. Members also drive trucks, maintain HVAC systems, and clean and maintain buildings and grounds.
The Teamsters have also approved strike benefits of $1,000 per week per worker, an amount that is greater than the weekly pay of some of the low-wage workers in the bargaining unit.
According to Jackson Kerr, a business agent with Teamsters Local 320, “Any part of the university that keeps the day-to-day operations going, there’s very likely a Teamster working.”
Kerr said in an interview with Workday Magazine that the university has not moved on the members’ core issues since the beginning of bargaining in March. These issues, voted on by the members, include pay increases, shift protections for workers who take family and medical leave, and shift differentials for third shift workers. Workers are also demanding protections against harassment, and improved working conditions in the dining halls, where workers have alleged abusive conditions and discriminatory practices by management.
According to a press release from the Teamsters, “In negotiations for a new contract, UMN has proposed a two and a half-year contract with a 2.5% wage increase in the first year and 1% in the following two years.”
The University told Workday Magazine that its opening wage proposal “was a 2% increase to steps in year 1 and a salary increase in accordance with the amount the Board of Regents approves in years 2 and 3, not a flat 1% in the following two years.” According to the University, “During the last three years, the Board of Regents approved salary increases of 3.0% (FY25), 3.75% (FY24), and 3.85% (FY23), respectively.”
The Teamsters press release says the university is “also proposing a 10% hike in health care costs that would negate most of the wage gain.” Asked about this, the university said, “We understand that premium increases are expected across the healthcare market, and we’re actively exploring ways to limit these costs for our employees. More information will be shared with all benefits-eligible employees closer to open enrollment.”
Kerr describes the university’s proposal as insufficient and lacking when compared to pay increases for other workers on campus. This latest proposal is partially why workers feel fired up to vote for a strike, says Kerr.
Christy O’Connor is a senior building and grounds worker for over 26 years in the health and sciences district at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Teamsters Local 320 bargaining team. The job includes anything from emptying waste bins, carpet extraction, waxing floors, and shoveling snow in the winter. “In this climate, I feel like we need something more significant than 2% raises. Especially when they’re raising our health care costs,” says O’Connor. “It would be going backwards. That just isn’t going to cut it.”
Asked to respond to Teamsters’ core issues, the university said that the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation process “requires confidentiality,” but “the University has provided meaningful responses on the Teamsters-identified ‘core issues’ during in-person negotiations earlier this summer as described on the OHR website.”
“The University is aware that the Teamsters have filed an intent to strike,” the university told Workday Magazine. “We remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and equitable agreement.”
In her over 26 years on the job, O’Connor says this is the closest the workers have ever come to a strike. “We figured this would be the time where we could get them where it hurts the most,” she says.
According to O’Connor, the Teamsters Local 320 workers also feel ready due to the support they’ve received across campus. “For the most part, the students are totally behind us, professors are behind us, the graduate students are behind us, and AFSCME is behind us. We have this giant coalition of people supporting us,” she says.
The union’s intent to strike initiates a 10-day “cool off” period of mandated negotiating sessions overseen by the Bureau of Mediation Services. While the strike could still be averted, O’Connor and other members of the bargaining team say that they are not feeling optimistic due to the way negotiations have been going.
O’Connor says that waste workers striking would result in chaos. “We’re far and wide,” she says. “We are the essential workers there. We make it run.”
Clarification: This article was updated to clarify that the requirement for confidentiality comes from the Bureau of Mediation Services, not the University.