Hello and welcome everyone to another edition of the Twin Cities Labor Report! This week features a look at the big contracts that will expire in 2025. Next week, I’m going to write about the broader trends in the labor movement, so please stay tuned for that. I would like to thank all of the new subscribers, and ask that you all keep sharing and sending this around. We’re almost at 200 subscribers, which is so cool! And if you’re in the Twin Cities, come out to support the SEIU nursing home workers on strike in New Hope, featured below. Now, without further ado…
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Ongoing Labor Actions
SEIU HCMNIA- Essentia- Workers at Essentia Deer River went on an open-ended strike last week, a rare event in healthcare, where shorter strikes are more common. The strike is ongoing one week later, and workers have braved some extreme temperatures and snow in cold, cold Northern MN. Other Essentia workers in USW Local 9460 came out in support. You can donate to their strike fund here.
SEIU HCMNIA- Woodlake nursing home-On Friday, 12/13 180 workers at the Woodlake at New Hope nursing home began a five day ULP strike. According to SEIU, “Key issues separating the groups include the employer not keeping promises made to workers on pay and benefits during the sale, along with seniority issues, wages for new hires and issues workers are facing around access to benefits on pay stubs.” The strike will continue until 6am Wednesday, so send them some solidarity if you can.
Workers in Deer River and New Hope braving the cold. Photos by SEIU
Recent Labor Events
AFSCME Local 66- City of Duluth- Around 500 AFSCME Duluth City workers announced that they had authorized a strike after rejecting a final offer from management. The last time that these workers authorized a strike was in 2007, not sure the last time they actually walked out. According to the local prez, a strike could begin as soon as mid-January, with scheduled mediation on January 6.
AFSCME Local 151- Ramsey County- It was reported to me that Local 151, representing social services and financial workers in Ramsey County, won a TA last week.
IATSE Local 745- Timberwolves & Lynx- 50 Audiovisual workers for the Timberwolves and Lynx won their union on December 10, after ballots were tallied in an NLRB election. Another win for Local 745 after unionizing MN United FC AV staff last year.
Macalester Undergraduate Workers Union- Macalester College- An election has been scheduled for February 25 and 26 for the massive new unit of Macalester student workers. This will be the biggest NLRB election in terms of numbers in years.
UFCW Local 1189- Vireo Health- Workers at medical marijuana company Vireo Health, which operates a production facility in Otsego and the statewide chain Greengoods, won a TA earlier this month. We are the only state with a 100% union medical marijuana industry!
UNITE HERE Local 17- Delaware North- Delaware North workers at MSP won a new contract, as part of a national agreement with the airport services contractor.
MNA- Mayo Clinic Health System Fairmont- A Decertification petition has been filed for 45 nurses at this Mayo-ran hospital. The right-wing scab “National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation” has run a lot of decertification efforts in collaboration with Mayo bosses over the last few years and has successfully kicked out over 800 workers from their unions. I hope they lose here!
Carpenters Local 548- ADM- Another decert petition, this one for 21 mechanics at the ADM elevator in Marshall.
2025 Preview- What are the big contracts up next year?
Let’s start first with unfinished business- contracts that are about to expire. As covered above and before, Duluth city workers and Hennepin County clerical workers, both with AFSCME, are without settled contracts. Duluth workers have voted to strike, and we’ll see what happens after Local 2822’s next mediation session this week. Teamsters Local 120 flight attendants at Sun Country have been working on an expired contract for years now, and have voted to authorize a strike, but the Railway Labor Act slows everything down to an obscene degree. The SEIU statewide homecare contract expires at the end of this year as well. OPEIU Local 12’s contract with Health Partners is the other big one that I’m tracking.
In 2025, the biggest fight in healthcare will be MNA’s contracts with the big hospital groups, which expire this summer and cover 15,000 workers. Back in 2022, nurses shut down most of the hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth over three days in the summer, but got TAs before a longer strike was set to begin in December. Another thing to note here is the new leadership of MNA. The other large contract on my radar is SEIU HCMNIA’s agreement with Mayo Rochester Methodist, which expires in January.
In the public sector, AFSCME and MAPE’s contracts with the State expire June 30, negotiations will start this spring. MMB, who conducts negotiations, is warning of a future deficit, does this mean that they’ll play hardball? That’s around the same time that teachers will start negotiating their new contracts, and with budget cuts hitting some of the biggest districts across the state, we should expect some school boards to try to squeeze their employees. AFSCME Local 3800 and Teamsters Local 320 will bargain for new contracts at the U of MN this summer, on the heels of UE grad workers winning their first contract. Saint Paul city workers negotiate in the fall, and- guess what- business leaders are warning that the city is “fiscally stressed.”
For the private sector, the biggest contracts that I know about are in my union, UFCW Local 663, where our contracts with Cub, Jerry’s, L&B, and Kowalski’s are all up in March, covering all of the western half of the Metro and something like 6,000 workers. Another 2,000 workers at the huge JBS meatpacking plant in Worthington are up June 1, and around 1,000 at QPP, a Hormel spin-off that runs their killing floor in Austin (exactly what it sounds like). UFCW Local 1846, an Iowa-based local, represents two vegetable processing plants in Southern MN that expire early 2025 as well. I’m personally invested in all of these, and I have 30 books on meatpacking and food processing history to send you if you’re not.
The other major contracts expiring I know of in the private sector are the Carpenters, who are up May 31st, and Star Tribune workers in the News Guild, who are up on June 30. Some nationwide contracts, like the ongoing fights at Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, and REI, also will impact Minnesota. There are others, I’m sure, so please let me know what I left out.
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any way to send our own stories to be published here?