Twin Cities Labor Report 4/21
Health Partners workers set new strike date, MFT begins negotiations, AFSCME and grocery workers to rally
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Twin Cities Labor Report! I hope everyone had a wonderful Passover, Easter, and 4/20, and got some time in with friends and family. To continue in the holiday spirit, May Day is around the corner, and a coalition of unions across the country, headed by the Chicago Teachers Union, have collaborated to make it into a whole week of action. You can check the whole calendar here, and I’ll have it posted in next week’s newsletter as well. The week of action starts on Friday with AFSCME Local 3800’s rally for the first day of contract negotiations, and continues on Sunday with my union, UFCW Local 663, holding a picket at the Southdale Lunds & Byerly’s. Come on down and spread the solidarity!
Upcoming Labor Events
AFSCME Local 3800- U of MN- AFSCME Local 3800 is kicking off bargaining with the U this week, and is having a rally this Friday, April 25, at 8:30 AM to mark the occasion. Besides wages and benefits, workers are also concerned about threatened federal funding cuts and their effects on the workforce. As we have seen over the past few months, higher education workers are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, and this is going to be a fight worth supporting.
SEIU HCMNIA- Niki Villavicencio, a co-founder of the SEIU campaign to organize home health aids, and her long-time partner Darrell Paulsen are facing a threat of eviction by their landlord, and are asking for the community to come out today in support of them. They’re both disabled and rely on a PCA, and have made $85,000 in state-paid accessibility modifications to their home. Their landlord, a property management company that bought their apartment last year, wants to kick them out and keep the modifications for themselves. Their address is 1681 County Road C, Maplewood, MN 55109, and they are looking for people to come starting at 11am and onwards.
UFCW Local 663- Twin Cities Grocers- Our contract fight continues, and we’re back to bargaining this Thursday and next. We’ll be having a picket next Sunday, 4/27, from 2:30-3:30 at the Southdale Lunds & Byerlys. The store director there likes to make up rules about how many union buttons people are allowed to wear, which is too bad, because wearing buttons is protected concerted activity!
Recent Labor Events
AFSCME Local 2822- Local 2822, which represents around 1200 clerical workers, library workers, and service center workers in Hennepin County, recently elected new leadership. The new president, Omari Hoover, works at the Government Center Service Center and has worked for the County off-and-on since 2018. There’s a lot of crossover between retail work and government services work, and the pay is pretty similar as well. Omari put it well- it’s a survivable job, but not thrivable. He stressed to me that the best parts of the job are being able to help people new to the state or country, or getting out of prison, get settled and connected to resources.
One of the challenges with organizing Local 2822 is that it stretches across most departments, and many workers transition into different unions as they change job titles or get promotions. They just settled their last contract, so they have three years to build for the next fight, and his main priorities are to increase member participation and build up the union throughout the County. Like a lot of labor people I talk to these days, he noted UAW President Shawn Fain’s call to line up contracts to expire in May 2028. Hennepin County contracts expire December 31, 2027, so hopefully 2822 can gain from that collective energy. Union leadership elections aren’t frequently covered by the mainstream media, so it’s something I’m looking to cover more. If your union is having an election coming up, let me know!
IUE-CWA Local 87140- Wrico Stamping- Thirty employees at this small stamping company in Plymouth defeated a decertification attempt by a large margin. CWA Minnesota reports on Facebook- “On April 17, 2025, the workers at Wrico, represented by IUE-CWA Local 87140, faced a pivotal moment with a decertification election. For decades, the IUE-CWA contract has been a cornerstone of job security and workplace fairness at Wrico. As the original organizers retired, the new generation of workers questioned the value of the Union. However, the election results were a resounding affirmation of Union solidarity: 25 workers voted YES to their Union, while only 5 voted NO.”
MNA- In March, ICE invaded the Avera hospital in Marshall, MN and arrested an employee, Aditya Harsono. MNA represents the nurses there, and has now put out a statement opposing the arrest. According to Harsono’s lawyers, he was targeted because of his participation in protests over the killing of Daunte Wright in 2021. Harsono describes being arrested after being told to report to the basement, which sounds to me like the hospital actually collaborated with ICE to arrest one of their own employees.
MFT 59- MPS- The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers held the first bargaining session for their contract negotiations last Thursday. For the first time, all three units (Teachers, ESPs, and Adult Ed) are bargaining together at the same table. Negotiations are open to everyone and the community is invited to come. The next date is set for April 30, at the MFT office.
SEIU HCMNIA- Jamie Gulley, the president of SEIU HCMNIA, has posted one of his occasional commentaries on the union's website. I'd recommend that people read it. There are some interesting insights, including that SEIU spent more on their 49 day strike by 80 workers in Deer River than they did on a recent statewide minimum wage campaign, and that a union (my guess would be Operating Engineers Local 49 but not certain) is planning on leaving the state AFL-CIO because they won't support giving tax breaks to build data centers.
SEIU Local 26- Cedar Management- Four desk attendants at the CityWalk condos in Downtown St Paul unfortunately deadlocked 2-2 on unionizing with Local 26, which means that they lose.
OPEIU Local 12- Health Partners - 1,000 clerical workers at Health Partners are now set to strike on May 5. They had been ready to go out earlier this year, but HP improved their offer enough that Local 12 had to take it back to the membership for a re-vote. According to the press conference, the workers will be picketing at every facility they have members at, a list of those is here. Health Partners is a “non-profit” that pays its CEO millions while stiffing its workers and closing clinics. I support OPEIU!
UFCW Local 663- Twin Cities Grocers- As our contract fight continues, we held a picket last Tuesday at the Northside Cub on West Broadway. Jerry’s Foods has their commercial bakery there as well, and their workers, BCTGM Local 22 members, came out to support us as well!
UFCW Local 663- JBS- Workers at the JBS meatpacking plant held an informational picket last Thursday. Their contract, which covers around 1500 workers, expires in June. UFCW actually has national negotiations with JBS (called “chain negotiations” in meatpacking), and other locals chose to take a wage offer of $1.20 in raises over three years. 663 and Local 431 in Iowa were the two holdouts to this deal.
New NLRB Filings
IBEW Local 949- Center for Energy and Environment - 47 workers at this energy efficiency non-profit are unionizing with the IBEW. Obviously a lot of electrical workers are unionized with them, but I haven't seen a lot of office workers in this field unionize.
Checking the Card Check
Back in 2024, Minnesota passed a bill reforming PELRA, the law that governs public sector labor relations in Minnesota. One of the many positive changes made was a card-check provision. If a union has cards signed by over half of a unit, it doesn’t have to run an election to be certified. Obviously, this makes organizing the unorganized public sector a lot easier out here. I finally figured out how to view data on card check authorizations on the Bureau of Mediation Services website, so here’s a list of new units certified so far this year (excepting law enforcement).
AFSCME- Naturalists and environmental educators for the Minneapolis Parks and Rec Board
Education MN- Owatonna school nurses, Mabel-Canton paraprofessionals
IAFF- City of Shakopee firefighters, Eden Prairie specialists and captains, Eden Prairie assistant fire chiefs
IUOE- City of Alexandria Public Works employees in the Streets/Stormwater Division
Minnesota School Employees Association- Benton-Sterns paraprofessionals
SEIU- Interns and residents at HCMC, outreach workers for the Richfield ISD
Teamsters- Public works directors for the city of Bovey