Standards for Workers
First Annual Member Convention – September 20, 2014
WHEREAS, workers who care for patients, nursing home residents, and home care clients are driven by a love of service, dedication to their professions, and pursuit of the highest quality care for the people they serve; and
WHEREAS, workers performing similar jobs or even more difficult jobs are being paid less than other workers covered by our contracts; and
WHEREAS, employers have been engaged in a systematic and deliberate effort to eliminate full time jobs in favor of part-time jobs in order to increase “flexibility”; and
WHEREAS, workloads have been continually increased for employees in every part of the industry, through leaving positions unfilled, layoffs, restructuring of work and subcontracting; and
WHEREAS, the increasing complexity of work in health care and home care, pressure from both federal and state governments, expectations from payers and the safety of the people we serve requires highly trained employees; and
WHEREAS, the health care and home care industries continue to have high rates of work-related injuries and unsafe conditions, as exhibited by injury reports and reports from members; and
WHEREAS, defined benefit, union sponsored pension plans are the most secure and stable means to provide a dignified retirement and our union has available such a plan for our members; and
WHEREAS, our employers, other corporate officers and some political leaders continue to disregard the voices of our members as important at the bargaining table and in the policy arena; and
WHEREAS, just months before he was murdered, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was initiating a campaign to demand jobs, unemployment insurance, a fair minimum wage, and education for poor adults and children designed to improve their self-image and self-esteem; now, therefore, be it
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED, that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members, through their labor contracts, will fight to establish Martin Luther King Day as a holiday to recognize his fight for racial and economic justice; to establish a $15/hour minimum wage for all workers delivering and supporting health care and home care services; for safe staffing to protect the people in our care; for jobs that are full time; for training and education in order that workers may advance their careers and provide quality services; for safe working conditions and reducing injuries; for union pensions that support retirement with
dignity and security; and be it finally
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members will fight for respect for themselves and their union through effective contract campaigns, public messages, political action, policy engagement and working with community partners in order to establish these standards, improve care, support our families, and reclaim the American Dream.
Enhancing Democratic Processes in Our Union
First Annual Member Convention – September 20, 2014
WHEREAS, a vibrant and effective labor union and social justice organization builds power only with the informed and active participation of its members; and
WHEREAS, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota leaders are committed to responding to the voices of union members and having leaders throughout the organization be held accountable to the members; and
WHEREAS, many of our members are new to our union or any union, and thus unaware of both history and internal operations; and
WHEREAS, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota has changed its bylaws to both reflect its mission and to establish new ways to engage a larger segment of its members; and
WHEREAS, the Executive Board has focused attention on expanding opportunities for member voice in the union and is committed to informing our members of our success in the fights we wage; and
WHEREAS, expanding opportunities for member leadership requires that members know and understand how our union operates and that they receive information in a timely manner; now, therefore, be it
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED, that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will adopt the following practices:
• Provide the details of negotiated changes in contract agreements to members eligible to ratify those changes at least 3 days prior to scheduled vote;
• Allow minority reports from members of a bargaining team when unanimous recommendation is not attainable, but only on the condition that such reports are not neutral but must either recommend approval or rejection (and thus recommending a strike, if applicable);
• Send copies of Executive Board minutes to Stewards for discussion at meetings; allow posting of Executive Board minutes on bulletin boards in facilities (noting that such minutes shall not include confidential information);
• Require that stewards will be subject to rank and file votes, to take place with a minimum frequency of once every three years;
• Affirm that individuals who serve as stewards must sign and abide by the Steward Pledge, be confirmed in their position by a designated officer and be subject to removal for cause by that same officer; and
• Reject employer demands for confidential settlements over any issues involving Unfair Labor Practice charges for anti-union animus and/or discrimination.
Our Fight Against Discrimination and Oppression
Second Annual Member Convention – September 19, 2015
WHEREAS the work we do, across all the different sectors of our Union, was for many years not even recognized or respected as “real work,” specifically because it was work done overwhelmingly by women and disproportionately by women of color, and our Union has fought against that discrimination and invisibility for over 80 years, winning recognition and respect in sector after sector;
WHEREAS the same forces of discrimination and oppression based on race, gender and other forms of difference that we have to fight back against in our work also shape many other parts of our lives, such as where we live, the quality of the schools our children attend, how much physical safety we experience, whether we get pulled over by the police, whether we are treated fairly by the criminal justice system, and whether we have access to health care;
WHEREAS the patterns of violence rooted in discrimination and deeply embedded in our history continue to play out in front of us today, both in national news and in our own communities, with people getting not just harassed or mistreated or imprisoned but outright killed because of the color of
their skin;
WHEREAS in the course of our work we witness every day the horrific racial health disparities in our state, which are worse than in any other state in the country, and racial disparities are also reflected in the health care workforce, with many workers of color stuck in lower-paid, lower-status positions;
WHEREAS we recognize that many of the biases that perpetuate systems of discrimination, privilege and oppression do not take obvious, clearly oppressive forms but instead operate unconsciously inside all of us, where we see that our own fears of tension, conflict, the unknown, and being wrong are often the
biggest obstacles we face in building solidarity and unity across our differences;
WHEREAS we have seen the bosses in our workplaces and the wealthy elite in our society, far too many times, use the differences among us as an effective means to divide us, using disparate treatment, disrespect, and hierarchy; and
WHEREAS we recognize that discrimination and oppression take many different forms, sometimes in complicated combinations, based on differences or perceived differences of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, disability, age, and class, and the strength of our Union lies in our unity and our equality as workers and as people, across all our differences;
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will fight discrimination and oppression in all their forms, in our workplaces, communities, state, and country;
RESOLVED that this commitment can only be made real if we take on those same forces inside our organization, our families, and ourselves;
RESOLVED that we will seek out training for our Board and staff in the ways different forms of discrimination and oppression play out, along with training in effective means for actively combatting these forces;
RESOLVED that we all have a responsibility to understand how our own identities and conditioning shape our perceptions and experience, and a responsibility to actively share that learning with our sisters and brothers, inviting them to do the same – “Each One, Teach One”;
RESOLVED that we will build a culture that supports trust, listening, and honest discussion of the unconscious biases that often perpetuate systems of discrimination, privilege and oppression;
RESOLVED that member caucus organizations, such as AFRAM (the SEIU African-American Caucus) and API (the SEIU Asian Pacific Islander caucus), need to play a central role in shaping this new dimension of our work as a Union;
RESOLVED that we should push both employers and elected officials to create opportunities for health care workers of color to advance their careers;
RESOLVED that we should ally ourselves with organizations fighting racism, sexism and the many other forms of oppression in our public and political work as a Union; and
RESOLVED that we will deepen our solidarity, unity and equality as Union members through actively learning about and valuing all the things that make us different. Unity across difference is our strength.
We Care for Minnesota
Second Annual Member Convention – September 19, 2015
WHEREAS the work we do, across all the different sectors of our Union, was for many years not even recognized or respected as “real work,” specifically because it was work done overwhelmingly by women and disproportionately by women of color, and our Union has fought against that discrimination and invisibility for over 80 years, winning recognition and respect in sector after sector;
WHEREAS the same forces of discrimination and oppression based on race, gender and other forms of difference that we have to fight back against in our work also shape many other parts of our lives, such as where we live, the quality of the schools our children attend, how much physical safety we experience, whether we get pulled over by the police, whether we are treated fairly by the criminal justice system, and whether we have access to health care;
WHEREAS the patterns of violence rooted in discrimination and deeply embedded in our history continue to play out in front of us today, both in national news and in our own communities, with people getting not just harassed or mistreated or imprisoned but outright killed because of the color of
their skin;
WHEREAS in the course of our work we witness every day the horrific racial health disparities in our state, which are worse than in any other state in the country, and racial disparities are also reflected in the health care workforce, with many workers of color stuck in lower-paid, lower-status positions;
WHEREAS we recognize that many of the biases that perpetuate systems of discrimination, privilege and oppression do not take obvious, clearly oppressive forms but instead operate unconsciously inside all of us, where we see that our own fears of tension, conflict, the unknown, and being wrong are often the
biggest obstacles we face in building solidarity and unity across our differences; WHEREAS we have seen the bosses in our workplaces and the wealthy elite in our society, far too many times, use the differences among us as an effective means to divide us, using disparate treatment, disrespect, and hierarchy; and
WHEREAS we recognize that discrimination and oppression take many different forms, sometimes in complicated combinations, based on differences or perceived differences of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, disability, age, and class, and the strength of our Union lies in our unity and our equality as workers and as people, across all our differences;
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will fight discrimination and oppression in all their forms, in our workplaces, communities, state, and country;
RESOLVED that this commitment can only be made real if we take on those same forces inside our organization, our families, and ourselves;
RESOLVED that we will seek out training for our Board and staff in the ways different forms of discrimination and oppression play out, along with training in effective means for actively combatting these forces;
RESOLVED that we all have a responsibility to understand how our own identities and conditioning shape our perceptions and experience, and a responsibility to actively share that learning with our sisters and brothers, inviting them to do the same – “Each One, Teach One”;
RESOLVED that we will build a culture that supports trust, listening, and honest discussion of the unconscious biases that often perpetuate systems of discrimination, privilege and oppression;
RESOLVED that member caucus organizations, such as AFRAM (the SEIU African-American Caucus) and API (the SEIU Asian Pacific Islander caucus), need to play a central role in shaping this new dimension of our work as a Union;
RESOLVED that we should push both employers and elected officials to create
opportunities for health care workers of color to advance their careers;
RESOLVED that we should ally ourselves with organizations fighting racism, sexism and the many other forms of oppression in our public and political work as a Union; and
RESOLVED that we will deepen our solidarity, unity and equality as Union members through actively learning about and valuing all the things that make us different. Unity across difference is our strength.
Member Leadership Roles
Third Annual Member Convention – September 24, 2016
WHEREAS we know that strong, diverse leaders are necessary to address the crisis we face and that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is dedicated to providing more leadership opportunities to members in order to achieve its mission and vision; and
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare Minnesota believes that more members will take on leadership roles in the Union if they are able to focus on and develop skills in an area of individual interest; and
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare Minnesota wants to establish a path for leadership development of members regardless of their prior level of experience with the Union; and
WHEREAS the Member Political Leader role has been established to improve the lives of members and the people we care for in three major ways: help inform and educate coworkers about issues and
candidates that affect them; lobby political leaders on SEIU issues and volunteer to door-knock and phone-bank to hold them accountable; and work with staff on plans to create active roles that suit their political interests; and
WHEREAS the Member Grievance Leader role has been established to uphold the standards of our collective bargaining agreements and commit to advocating for the membership from pre-grievances to
arbitration, through personal growth in the grievance process and in partnership with the Member Action Center for guidance, support, and resources; and
WHEREAS the Member Orientation Leader role has been established for members to take ownership of welcoming new members to the Union by sharing the vision of the Union through meeting with new members, educating the members on the benefits of and opportunities within the Union, and building a strong connection and sense of pride between our newest members and the Union; and
WHEREAS having a variety of leadership roles expands the diversity and power of the Union, creates a flexible and responsive organization, and prepares SEIU Healthcare Minnesota for the future;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE
MINNESOTA WILL:
• Continue to commit to an organization-wide leadership development system that is integrated in all our daily work and can adapt to the new challenges ahead.
• Build a united, integrated model to capture the leadership potential of all our members, making sure that our leadership-development programs reflect our commitment to organizational equity and inclusion.
• Establish, develop and provide training and support for Member Leadership Roles in our political program, grievance and advocacy, welcoming new members, growing the Union, strengthening our worksites, communications, and additional roles as identified.
• Ensure that these programs are designed to empower and to build leaders at the highest level to lead the fight and win for working people and uphold the core values of our Union. These values include: organizing, accountability, integrity, and teamwork.
• Develop and utilize innovative technologies to engage more members in all aspects of the Union and continue to track and report member leader and activist data.
Building Our Retiree & Youth Programs
Third Annual Member Convention – September 24, 2016
WHEREAS our movement must harness the shared energy of our retirees and our youngest members to win economic, racial, environmental, and immigrant justice and equality for women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA people;
WHEREAS in 2015, millennials became the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, making up one-third of the electorate in the 2016 election, and yet the majority of the jobs they can find are underpaid
and part time, and many millennials start working in massive student loan debt and can’t work themselves out of it, causing many to not be able to achieve the American Dream;
WHEREAS we now engage with new technologies to connect with one another, and those rapid developments are also reorganizing how work is done, transforming our industries, politics, our organizing drives, and communications;
WHEREAS retirement-age people are often anchors of their families and communities as well as a political force, and as the fastest-growing segment of our society, the power and influence of
seniors and retirees is reaching new heights;
WHEREAS the vast majority of retired people do not have the pensions and retirement savings required to sustain them for the rest of their lives, and a report by AARP found that nearly half of Americans over the age of 50 have $25,000 or less saved for retirement;
WHEREAS working-age adults continue to work longer hours and years, but low wages limit families’ ability to save, private sector pensions are all but gone, and public sector pensions are cut every year, as political extremists continue to campaign to defund and dismantle programs that provide some hope of retiring with dignity, namely Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; and
WHEREAS as each generation prepares to pass the baton to the next, we recognize that their combined leadership, energy and wisdom will be critical in building a wider movement for justice to create the kind of state and country we all want;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA
WILL:
• Establish and develop powerful Retiree and Youth programs.
• Provide opportunities for all members to remain active in the Union after retirement through programs that meets their needs and interests, enhancing our capacity to retain and activate retiree members with a $5 membership dues rate per month.
• Increase the influence and visibility of our retirees and youth to maximize their potential as powerful voices in our movement through participation in local and national political, organizing and issue-campaign work, including the Fight for $15 and the fights for retirement security, racial equity, environmental justice, and comprehensive immigration reform.
• Build and deepen partnerships with other retiree and youth organizations, including not-yet-Union young workers and grassroots community activists in local campaigns led by youth, and with other community organizations around issues important to our retiree and youth members.
• Actively pursue new and emerging approaches to become a more technologically advanced organization where the perspectives and energy of our younger members enhance all the work of the Union.
Building a Wider Movement for Racial and Economic Justice
Third Annual Member Convention – September 24, 2016
WHEREAS at our 2015 SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Convention we adopted a resolution that committed us to fight discrimination and oppression in all their forms, in our workplaces and communities and also in ourselves and our own organization;
WHEREAS our Union has a long and proud history of linking arms with other social-justice movements to spark something far greater than what would be possible acting alone, and we understand that to build and wield real power for working people, we need the strength of a wider movement that can win on multiple fronts – mobilizing in the streets, disrupting the structures that hold us all back, building worker power, winning elections, and holding the people we elect accountable to our values – and that it is by doing all these things together that we make the impossible possible;
WHEREAS the same billionaires fighting to keep people of color marginalized and oppressed are also fighting to keep wages down and to divide us based on our gender, where we were born, where we live, how we worship, and whom we love, using these divisions to keep working people and our allies from building and wielding real power;
WHEREAS those same forces of division and exploitation have spent millions trying to convince us that climate change isn’t real, even as we watch extreme weather events destroy communities across the country and the world, with droughts and other weather-related problems occurring with much greater frequency here in Minnesota, and scientists warn that time is running out for us to avert a global climate crisis whose burden will fall hardest on the poor;
WHEREAS the Fight for 15 has won extraordinary victories throughout the country, with tens of millions of workers getting huge wage increases, sparked by courageous fast-food workers who started striking even though they had no Union and no clear path to form one – and yet 64 million workers in the U.S. still make less than $15 an hour, many forced to string together two or three jobs to make ends meet for their families;
WHEREAS we understand that it’s no coincidence and no accident that the recent poisoning of the water supply of hundreds of thousands of people in Flint, Michigan affects mostly Blacks and immigrants, or that children struggling with asthma because of pollution are mostly children of color, or that new voter-restriction laws like the one we helped lead the fight to defeat in Minnesota overwhelmingly disenfranchise people of color – just as it was no coincidence and no accident that the founding labor laws in this country excluded domestic workers, who were mostly Black women;
WHEREAS over the last year, since passing the “Our Fight Against Discrimination and Oppression” resolution, our Union’s officers, Board and staff have begun intensive training and discussions about how to become a more equitable and inclusive organization, with a new committee created to advise the local’s President on further actions needed to advance toward that goal;
WHEREAS our International Union, at its May 2016 convention, adopted a resolution acknowledging the painful history of structural racism in our country, from genocide against Native Americans and enslaving Black people to today’s institutional biases against Blacks and other people of color, seen with particular clarity in our criminal justice and policing systems, and committing SEIU in no uncertain terms to fight anti-Black, historical and structural racism in all our work; and
WHEREAS we recognize that we simply cannot achieve economic justice without racial
justice;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Continue, deepen and redouble the efforts made since our last Convention to build and wield independent political power in Minnesota and to fight discrimination and oppression in all their forms, in our workplaces and communities and also in ourselves and in our Union.
• Build a wider movement for justice on multiple fronts (gender, LGBTQIA, disability, immigrant, environmental, and racial justice, along with the Fight for 15 and other worker-focused fights), one where we at times lead, at times join in partnership, at times follow the lead of others.
• Engage, together with our International Union, in a sustained process of education and engagement that supports our transformation to become an anti-racist organization, committing to fight anti-Black and structural racism in all our work, and evaluating our programs and strategies for their impact on dismantling racism.
• Actively partner with people-of-color-led organizations to fight for issues like criminal justice reform that are of central importance to many of our members of color, and in doing so deliberately focus on supporting the development of the organizational infrastructure needed for issues of racial equity to become lasting priorities in our state.
• Seek to lift up, in the core fights we engage in as a Union to win and enforce great contracts, the connection between those fights and the wider movement for justice we are part of, the impossibility for many of our members of separating the struggle for justice as a worker from the struggle for justice in other aspects of their identities.
UNSTOPPABLE: Member to Member Empowerment Resolution
Fourth Annual Member Convention – September 26, 2017
WHEREAS, we are facing the most profound attack on working people in our local Union’s 84 year history, including court cases that threaten our ability to joining together in unions, regressive federal and state legislation, executive actions and health care cuts, and
WHEREAS, transforming our union to a 21st century organization is both imperative for our Union to survive and thrive in a highly challenging and rapidly changing environment, and a powerful opportunity to modernize, innovate and engage our members and future members in new and deeper ways, and
WHEREAS, our path forward is centered on organizing workers and making unions our central political demand, driving a turnaround in 2018 and beyond by building power in states and cities and creating our 21st century Union through an unprecedented member outreach and engagement effort, and
WHEREAS, we have created leadership roles that focus on the work needed to meet these challenging times, including Political Leader, New Member Leader, Worksite Leader, Grievance Leader and Circle Leader, are determined to have the right people in the right roles, and
WHEREAS, to build national power to achieve economic, immigrant, racial, gender, healthcare, and environmental justice, we will need to engage in an unprecedented member outreach program led by member leaders under SEIU’s “Together We Rise” program.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Involve, educate and recommit all members to transform our union to build and sustain the power to win for working people in our rapidly changing environment.
• Strengthen our Union by focusing on building and developing member leaders to engage and reinforce relationships with all members so that we are prepared and ready to fight and win in any future.
• Empower member leaders to understand that their participation is more important than ever to build member networks and structures in order to mobilize around and expand our vision of a just society for all.
• Engage in a sustained equitable process of education and engagement that supports our transformation toward becoming an anti racist organization, beginning with developing accountability, structures, practices, policies and analyzing all our work through a racial justice lens.
Midwest Initiative
Fourth Annual Member Convention – September 26, 2017
WHEREAS, increasing corporate power has been allowed and encouraged by our public policies, creating an economy that has been failing the many for the benefit of the few, and
WHEREAS, those in power have been effective at creating and exploiting divisions, especially divisions around race, gender and geography to maintain power regardless of which political party wins an election, and have split and pitted people against each other who are similarly hurt in the current economy, and
WHEREAS, Mayo Clinic has become the largest private sector employer in Minnesota and has also become the largest symbol of run-away corporate power in our state as it demands taxpayer funded subsidies to continue operating in Minnesota, seeks to eliminate bargaining rights from workers and is engaged in a pattern of driving down living standards for healthcare workers and communities across the Mid-West, and
WHEREAS, even though workers have won important victories, we need
to win on a much greater scale to truly transform our members’ lives,
and
WHEREAS, we can no longer rely on the past tactics and theories to win for working families, and therefore must expand methods and try new ways of building solidarity with community members to change the dominant narrative.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Partner with progressive organizations across the state to use our collective power to shape the nature of the 2018 elections and set the stage whereby our collective agenda can become the agenda of our state. To accomplish this we will:
o Engage our membership over the next 18 months around our core values and connect our issues with the issues of other organizations to build unity among all Minnesotans and across differences.
o Change the dominant narrative from one of corporate dominance to one powered by the people, so that the issues and values of working families are what candidates must run on to win and govern in Minnesota.
o Create the environment that our issues are winning issues and candidates run for office with us as a partner.
o Develop innovative ways to organize around our issues with our members and our communities.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Launch and support C.U.R.E. (Communities United for Rochester Empowerment), to support Mayo workers and community members in holding Mayo Clinic accountable as it builds the Destination Medical Center. We will do this by:
o Advocating for affordable housing and transportation in Rochester, MN.
o Fighting to end outsourcing and benefit cuts among Mayo workers.
o Working to organize unorganized health care workers into our Union.
o Fighting to expand access to Mayo Clinic for patients on Medicaid, Veterans Administration benefits and other health care plans that Mayo Clinic currently does not accept.
o Working for tax fairness in the Rochester community.
A Sanctuary Union
Fourth Annual Member Convention – September 26, 2017
WHEREAS, our Union has repeatedly adopted resolutions and programs committed to fighting discrimination and oppression in all forms and in all places including our workplaces, communities and in ourselves, and
WHEREAS, our Union has a long and proud history of linking arms with other social-justice movements to build a wider movement that can win on multiple fronts and wield power for working people– regardless of race, immigration status, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, and
WHEREAS, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan have said they feel empowered to openly mobilize and come out of the shadows, and inflict further terror on American communities as witnessed in St. Paul, Charlottesville, Boston, and cities across the country, and
WHEREAS, our members and leaders strongly condemned the violence that took place at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, a place of worship in Bloomington, and
WHEREAS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have reportedly been targeting Nursing Homes where many of our immigrant members work, thus increasing levels of fear, anxiety, and insecurity among patients, healthcare workers and their family members, and
WHEREAS, the current administration is rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that has provided over 800,000 young people (“DREAMERS”) relief from deportation since 2012, and allowed these young people to work, serve in the military, and go to college and, therefore, contribute to the nation’s well-being.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Unconditionally denounce fear-mongering, racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry and violence perpetrated by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups.
• Continue to actively partner with people-of-color-led organizations to fight for issues that are of central importance to our members of color, and fully support the development of an organizational infrastructure needed to make racial equity a lasting priority in our state.
• Call on this Administration to maintain and expand the DACA program, and urge Congress to permanently address the legal status of DREAMERS.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Declare itself a “Sanctuary Union” and will:
o Actively protect the rights and safety of every member of our union, our community and all patients regardless of one’s immigration status.
o Not voluntarily cooperate with federal agents to enforce immigration laws – and will not record any information from our members that may be used against them in terms of their immigration status.
o Request that our hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other healthcare providers declare support and protection of undocumented people and their families, affirmatively creating a welcoming environment as “safe zones” so that no member of our community feels threatened when seeking medical care.
o Commit to holding ‘Know Your Rights’ training and sharing legal resources with our community, and to collectively bargain new contract languages that strengthen workplace protection for our immigrant members.
o Continue to build alliances with others organizations engaged in similar work while continuing to resist on the streets and disrupting structures that attempt to divide us
Celebrating “85 Years Strong”
Fifth Annual Member Convention - September 15, 2018
Whereas SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is celebrating its 85th anniversary as a healthcare
workers’ Union on September 23, 2018; and
Whereas the original National Labor Relations Act, when it was passed by Congress, left out
occupations like agricultural work, domestic work and healthcare work, jobs which were
comprised primarily of women and people of color, because the work was not considered “Real
Work”; and
Whereas a few hundred workers in Twin Cities hospitals came together anyway and voted to
strike to form this Union; and
Whereas our Union was born out of this struggle against racism and gender discrimination and
for the right to form a Union; and
Whereas our Union has grown to include workers from all over the state of Minnesota, in every
county and every major health care system in our state, in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and
home care; and
Whereas we are now the largest and fastest growing local Union in the state; and
Whereas the best health care provided anywhere in the world is provided by our members
right here in Minnesota;
Therefore be it resolved,
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will celebrate our Union’s legacy this year
and renew our commitment to:
• Organize the unorganized health care workers in our state,
• Raise the standards for healthcare workers in wages, hours and working conditions through the power of collective bargaining,
• Increase the quality of care we provide and advocate for everyone who lives and works in our community to have access to that care,
• Advocate for more rights and more justice for all workers in our state, and to continue our 85-year struggle against racism and gender discrimination in our laws and in our community,
• Be the best local Union we can possibly be, one in which our members feel pride and which other workers look to as a positive example of what is possible when workers come together and build power as a Union.
Leading Strong in an Open Shop Environment
Fifth Annual Member Convention - September 15, 2018
Whereas in 2016, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota adopted member leader roles in order to expand the
diversity and power of the union to create a flexible and responsive organization by creating member
leader roles beyond the steward role to invite and transform our engaged activists to leaders who are
empowered to build union strength through member engagement and to lead the fight and win for
working people; and
Whereas the Supreme Court Janus vs AFSCME decision overturns existing and state laws that protect
the rights of working people, making it even harder for public service workers to band together at work
and speak up for quality schools, better patient care, and safe neighborhoods, setting an extremely
dangerous precedent; and
Whereas SEIU HCMN supports the value that everyone who works hard should be able to make ends
meet, have a say about their futures, and have the right to negotiate together for better wages and
benefits that can sustain them and their families; and
Whereas “Right to Work” attacks against the private sector workers are a continuous and impending
danger;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT SEIU HEALTHCARE MINNESOTA WILL:
• Allow for the creating and filling of member leadership roles and suspend steward elections, if the Executive Board determines it will create more opportunities for leadership in the union.
• Create a vibrant culture that encourages and makes participation meaningful and enjoyable.
• Invest early in all new leaders through a leadership program that provides education and support in order to create fully trained leaders with strong ownership and a high level of loyalty to the Union, and who understand Labor history and how Unions function, as well as trade Union strategies that make a difference.
• Support member leadership as well as affinity groups and caucuses: API, AFRAM, SEIU Conservative Caucus and any others chartered under the SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Constitution & By-Laws.
• Support all Minnesota public service workers and fight for the right of all people to be part of a union, inform all members about the impact of the Janus decision, the impending “Right to Work” threat for private sector workers, the larger plan to destroy the labor movement, and how it further tips the scales in favor of big corporations and the wealthy few.
• Lead the charge as we unite with workers across Minnesota to do everything in our collective power to fight back against right-to-work laws.
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL
Fifth Annual Member Convention - September 15, 2018
WHEREAS our existing health care system does not provide care for everyone, and charges some people
far more than others for the coverage they receive, and produces massive health inequities, and delivers
worse care or no care to people based on their inability to afford the services they need; and
WHEREAS people need access to quality and affordable health care, not just health insurance; and
WHEREAS the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Medicare have provided many great benefits we don’t
want to see go away, but they are far from enough and do not cover all Minnesotans; and
WHEREAS through the power and organizing of our Union, some of us have had the experience (which
everyone deserves) of receiving excellent health care with little or no out-of-pocket costs; and
WHEREAS many seniors and people with disabilities are left out of our existing system, or experience
services that are severely underfunded and short-staffed, and they are often overlooked in proposals for
overhauling the whole system; AND
WHEREAS our healthcare system should be based on care for all people, not profits;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will:
• Support a health care system that provides every resident of Minnesota with affordable, quality healthcare, with no role for profit-making or private gain, as part of a path to a national Medicare for All system;
• Raise the voice of frontline caregivers and patients – the people who know about the care we need from their own experience every day – to play an active, direct role in shaping the health care changes we pursue;
• Create standards for a true, full health care for all program that includes in-home and nursing home care for the elderly and disabled, and does not discriminate against anyone due to their inability to pay for services;
• Work with our employers, through collective bargaining, to make sure our members capture the resources currently invested in health insurance in increased wages and other benefits members need; AND
• There are a few important first steps we need to pursue in order pave the way toward a broad transformation of our health care system with full health care for all Minnesotans:
• Make MinnesotaCare available to all Minnesotans;
• Remove insurers from our public programs (with the state instead directly contracting for health care services with providers);
• Extend coverage to all Minnesotans, not just citizens; and
• Ensure that all Minnesotans have access to affordable prescription drugs.
STICKING WITH MY UNION
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
WHEREAS the labor movement is the largest and most powerful independent voice for working people and is the best way to raise wages, improve working conditions, create family-sustaining jobs, and begin to fix the rigged economy, and
WHEREAS the Freedom Foundation and the National Right to Work Committee and other corporate-funded entities have been waging a 30-year assault to weaken the labor movement through open-shop laws and by other legislative, judicial and regulatory means, and by encouraging workers to decertify their union, drop their union membership and to otherwise distrust the ideas and efforts of workers acting collectively to improve their lives, and
WHEREAS our movement must organize and harness the shared energy of all our members to win economic, racial, environmental, and immigrant justice and equality for women, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQIA community, and
WHEREAS more than 60 million workers in the United States would like to join a Union today, but find themselves unable to do so under our current legal framework, and
WHEREAS our union seeks to organize healthcare workers and community allies around a shared vision for a “Just Society” not only through collective bargaining, but also through independent political power and community action,
WHEREAS our union has been experimenting with new categories of membership to organize workers and grow our power, including the formation of Retiree, CURE (i.e. community), and Movement membership programs,
WHEREAS each month more than 700 members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, leave our Union as their lives develop including, terminations, transfers or job changes to non-Union jobs, retirements, illness or injury, and we know that many such members would like to maintain their Union membership and their association with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota as we fight for justice for all workers in our State;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that we will fight all efforts by the National Right to Work Foundation and others to weaken our movement, will continuously educate our members about the self-interest of their corporate backers and we will organize our members to “Stick with the Union” regardless of any court decisions or any new legal obstacle;
RESOLVED that we will establish a program to communicate with and survey the members who leave our Union each month and invite them to “Stick with the Union” as well, by maintaining membership in SEIU Healthcare Minnesota through our Retiree, CURE or Movement Membership programs, which include all the benefits associated with non-bargaining unit Union membership; And therefore, be it further
RESOLVED that we will expand our investment of organizing resources dedicated to helping members, who move to non-Union positions in the healthcare industry, to “Stick with the Union” by organizing their new workplace and uniting the strength of their new co-workers together in SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.
UNION LEADERSHIP AND EDUCATION
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
WHEREAS the most powerful and effective unions are member driven and filled with educated and organized members, who know their power and boldly use it to improve their wages, hours and working conditions while standing in solidarity with others;
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is a growing and thriving Union of healthcare workers, with a bold vision to improve the lives of our families and all working people;
WHEREAS our Union has more than 500 current leaders who are skilled in the art of care and who desire even more opportunities for education and skills development to lead our Union, build power, bargain better contracts, run for public office, and to advocate for better public policy and change in our communities;
WHEREAS our Union has set an ambitious goal to recruit 3% of our members into Union leadership across a variety of leadership roles, at the same time we expect to grow by thousands of new members across all categories of Union membership, including retirees, CURE and Movement members;
WHEREAS this means we will need to double the number of members in Union leadership from 500 to 1,000 over the next 5 years, and we will need to increase the effectiveness of both our new and existing leaders;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that we will organize and make available world-class education opportunities for the members of our Union to build a more powerful and effective Union by:
• Establishing an advanced leadership program to focus on raising skills and the education of our current leaders;
• Sponsoring staff and member leaders to classes at the University of Minnesota Labor Education Services program, at New Brookwood Labor College and to other education and skill building classes;
• Launching a paid member internship program with opportunities for members to work full-time with staff to learn all the aspects of our Union, from defending our contracts through the grievance process, to bargaining new contracts and lobbying for change;
AND BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED that we will plan and provide 2-day Union leadership workshops for 100 new and interested leaders each year, to learn about our union and to explore the leadership opportunities our union has to offer.
END THE HOME CARE CRISIS
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
WHEREAS in-home care work has been exploited and undervalued for generations, driven by racism and sexism; and
WHEREAS unionization and collective bargaining are the only way home care workers have succeeded in powerfully fighting back against exploitation and winning professional recognition, training, and decent pay and benefits; and
WHEREAS all SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members value caregiving, want to see home care work honored and well compensated, and believe that people with disabilities and seniors should have the choice to remain in their homes and communities; and
WHEREAS thousands of home care jobs remain unfilled, because clients all across the state cannot find anyone willing to work for the meager pay and benefits; and
WHEREAS clients unable to find caregivers are moving into institutional care settings against their will, losing the ability to live in their homes and be active in their communities; and
WHEREAS other clients who remain at home are experiencing easily-avoidable physical and emotional harm as a result of not getting the care they qualify for and need, and some have even died as a result;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that the care crisis must end for all people with disabilities and seniors in Minnesota. This can only happen through major advances in the wages, benefits, recognition, professionalism, and certification of that work; and
RESOLVED that all home care workers in Minnesota must earn a true living wage; and
RESOLVED that home care workers deserve health benefits, retirement benefits, and access to orientation and training; and
RESOLVED that to win all these needed steps forward, our union membership in the open-shop home care sector needs to, at a minimum, double over the next three years.
WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!: SPECIAL ASSESSMENT TO PROTECT OUR HEALTHCARE
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
WHEREAS the members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota have adopted, through a previous convention resolution, a commitment to fight for high-quality, affordable healthcare for every Minnesotan; and
WHEREAS as long as we have not yet won such high-quality, affordable healthcare through the passage of new laws covering every Minnesotan, we must fight for the highest quality, most affordable healthcare we can possibly win for the largest number of people through collective bargaining; and
WHEREAS one of our Union’s largest employers, HealthPartners, has – despite having adopted “To improve health and well-being in partnership with our members, patients and community” as their mission statement – openly announced its intention to win concessions from the collectively-bargained healthcare benefits of nearly 2,000 SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members and their family members; and
WHEREAS all of us who have taken the SEIU membership oath have sworn that “I will not knowingly wrong a member or see a member wronged if it is in my power to prevent it”; and
WHEREAS we all understand that if any SEIU Healthcare Minnesota group takes concessions on health benefits, the health benefits of all other SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members who have established such benefits through collective bargaining will be imperiled; and
WHEREAS HealthPartners members appreciate deeply the support and solidarity of their fellow Union members, want to pay their fair share of any new costs borne by Union members to fight off healthcare concessions, and are committed to fighting to win the same quality and affordability of health benefits HealthPartners members and their families currently experience for all SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members and families;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that any time an employer tries to win healthcare concessions from any of our members, all members of the Union will join them and support them in the fight to protect what they have previously won through years of organizing and collective bargaining; and
RESOLVED that all SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members will do whatever it takes to make sure HealthPartners member win this fight and defeat all concessions, ensuring that they keep the excellent health benefits they now have; and
RESOLVED that if the only way to stop HealthPartners management from achieving its stated goal of taking healthcare concessions from Union members is for those members to authorize an open-ended strike, all other, non-striking members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will pay a special dues assessment of $4 per two-week pay-period, up to a maximum of $4 higher than their normal maximum pay-period dues, for as long as the open-ended strike lasts; and
RESOLVED that after we win such an open-ended strike, all HealthPartners members will then pay the same $4/pay-period special dues assessment, up to a maximum of $4 higher than their normal maximum pay-period dues, as all other members had previously paid to support their strike.
NURSING HOME FIGHT FOR A MULTI-EMPLOYER BARGAINING TABLE
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
WHEREAS each day approximately 100,000 nursing home workers in Minnesota who are almost entirely women, a great many of them women of color, go to work in nursing homes where they attend to the needs of people who need assistance with the daily tasks of living. Most choose their work because of a desire to help people and an interest in working in healthcare; and
WHEREAS while the majority of nursing home workers find their jobs personally rewarding, they are often low paid with limited or no benefits, high workloads, unsafe working conditions, a lack of respect from supervisors, lack of control over their jobs, and few opportunities for advancement, all of which contribute to high turnover; and
WHEREAS less than 50% of nursing home workers have health insurance provided by their employers, while another 18% are insured through Medicaid and other public programs. And where health insurance is provided by their employer, it is often unaffordable; and
WHEREAS 0% of nursing home workers have a pension offered, less than 50% of their employers provide any sort of retirement support like a 401(k), and where a 401(k) is available through their employer their contributions to it are often unmatched by any employer contribution: and
WHEREAS unstable staffing undermines quality of care in nursing homes, nursing homes must begin to invest in their workers today, to end the cycle of turnover and improve care – but also to ensure that they are positioned to meet future demand for safe, 24-hour care; and
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare members believe it is way overdue and time to raise the floor for nursing home workers by paying competitive wages, providing affordable health coverage, pensions, and consistent shifts with full-time hours – by calling on new public investment, along with greater accountability, to ensure funding is directed to the needs of the workers rather than administrative overhead and nursing home profits;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare members will, through organizing and political leverage establish a multi-employer bargaining unit in nursing homes to raise nursing home standards across the industry for the first time in our state, providing better stability to nursing home workers in an industry where employer turnover is so high by transferring their seniority and benefits to their new nursing home employer in the multi-employer unit;
RESOLVED, that SEIU Healthcare members’ bargaining goals should be to win union healthcare and pension plans, starting wage rates of $15.00 or more for non-direct care members and wage adjustments for direct care members, and to advance a legislative agenda that includes improvements to staffing and other benefits that reflect the dignity of their work;
RESOLVED, that we will actively partner with Senior Advocacy groups so we can educate them on the advantages of establishing a multi-employer bargaining unit in Minnesota;
RESOLVED, that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will fight to align all nursing home contracts to expire on 12/31/2023, as part of our plan to win a multi-employer bargaining group in Minnesota.
OUR FIGHT FOR HOSPITAL STANDARDS
Sixth Annual Member Convention - September 21, 2019
Whereas, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is proud to be the oldest Union of hospital workers in the United States, with a long record of fighting and winning the highest standards for our work;
Whereas, our Union led a multi-year coalition effort that will raise the minimum wage in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to $15 an hour by 2021, which reflects an increase to the wage floor of 35%;
Whereas, private sector employers across the labor market have already adjusted their wage rates to reflect a $15 minimum, lifting wages and expectations for tens of thousands of workers, and increasing competition for qualified employees across the labor market;
Whereas, the Union contracts at Allina, the Twin Cities Hospitals and Mayo Clinic, do not expire until 2021, and we are already experiencing difficulty hiring and retaining qualified employees in our hospitals, due to the rising wages from competitors in our labor market, the historically low unemployment rate and the physically demanding nature of our work;
Whereas, employers have eliminated certification requirements and other qualifications for our jobs, along with granting new levels of experience credit to new hires that have historically and unfairly been denied to long term members;
Whereas, we have no interest in raising wages that are then offset and reduced by corresponding increases in healthcare costs, or diminished retirement plans;
Whereas, we are approaching a workforce crisis due to the hospitals’ refusal to adjust to the new labor market dynamics;
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will submit notice and demand to open the Allina, the Twin City Hospitals and Mayo Clinic contracts early to increase wages and adjust for the changes in our labor market;
RESOLVED, that upon the full expiration of our contracts in 2021, we will fight for improved contract language to protect our seniority rights, a $19 minimum wage in our hospital contracts, a pension benefit of no less than $40 a month per year of service, and access to health insurance plans that provide fully employer paid premiums, with no deductibles, co-insurance or co-pays.
Justice. Power. Unions for All.
Seventh Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2020
WHEREAS over the next year, due to the convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, structural racism, a looming state budget crisis, and everything that’s at stake in this November’s election, we face some of the biggest challenges, and also some of the biggest strategic opportunities, our Union has faced in many years, all at the same time; and
WHEREAS over 8,000 of our hospital members’ contracts will be expiring in the first few months of 2021, at a time when the worst economic crash since the Great Depression and the pandemic are emboldening healthcare employers to seek huge concessions from our members; and
WHEREAS our 2019 convention resolution “Nursing Home Fight for a Multi-Employer Bargaining Table” charted our long-term strategic direction for the nursing home sector of our membership, but did not emphasize organizing rights for non-union nursing home workers to expand our power; and
WHEREAS the nursing home industry in Minnesota has routinely relied on our Union’s political efforts to extend and protect the funding they receive from Minnesota taxpayers; and
WHEREAS the outcome of the November 2020 election will profoundly shape our future, at the local, state and national level, with realistic potential outcomes ranging from the elimination of healthcare for tens of millions of Americans and the destruction of what remains of our collective bargaining rights to a historic wave of progressive policy-making here in Minnesota to improve the lives of all our members, families and communities and correct for generations of racism and inequality;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
Our Union will take on three major strategic campaigns, all at the same time, while continuing to organize new healthcare workers into our Union and bargain and enforce the best healthcare-worker contracts in the Midwest for all our members. Specifically, we will:
Do whatever it takes to make sure that our 8,000+ hospital members win their contract campaign and defeat all concessions, including enlisting active support from all the members in other sectors of our Union (see additional proposed resolution #2, “WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN! SPECIAL ASSESSMENT TO PROTECT OUR STANDARDS”); and
Initiate a comprehensive strategic campaign to organize and improve standards in Minnesota’s nursing home industry, pushing nursing home employers for both a master contract with common standards and benefits and a new agreement to respect the rights of thousands more nursing home workers who want to join unions; and
Prepare our organization to face the unprecedented challenges and to seize the unprecedented opportunities that may result from this November’s election, ranging from a need to defend the basic institutions of our democracy, preserve collective bargaining rights, and fight back against organized white-supremacist violence all the way to making historic progress on establishing a living wage for home care workers, a $15/hour minimum wage and paid sick leave for all workers statewide, an expansion of union rights, higher taxes on the rich and corporations to pay for the healthcare and education we all need, and substantial new investments and policy commitments to address the legacy of systemic racism in our state, among many other progressive priorities that will be achievable if our endorsed candidates win big this November.
WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!
SPECIAL ASSESSMENT TO PROTECT OUR STANDARDS
Seventh Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2020
WHEREAS the members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota have built a strong Union with the highest standards for our work, while providing the best quality healthcare in the world; and
WHEREAS the essential healthcare workers in Minnesota’s hospital industry have labored through the worst pandemic in 100 years, and yet have found ourselves among the only essential workers in the country who were denied HERO Pay or any other remunerative appreciation for the increased risk in our work or the increased sacrifice we and our families have made simply by going to work to protect our community; and
WHEREAS our hospital employers have instead focused narrowly on their bottom-line and have indicated a clear intention to improve their profit margins by seeking concessions and wage freezes from our members, who are HEROES, when our contracts expire in February 2021; and
WHEREAS the interests of our hospital employers and the interests of the essential workers who make up our membership have never been further apart,
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that all SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members will do whatever it takes to make sure our hospital members win this fight by defeating all concessions and all wage freezes that may be proposed and by ensuring that our essential work is rewarded with higher standards than we have today; and
RESOLVED that if the only way to stop management from taking concessions from our members, from imposing a wage freeze, or denying a proposal from members to join our Union’s pension fund, is for those members to authorize an open-ended strike at any hospital bargaining unit, all other, non-striking members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will pay a special dues assessment of $8 per two-week pay-period, up to a maximum of $8 higher than their normal maximum pay-period dues, for as long as the open-ended strike lasts; and
RESOLVED that any member, at their discretion, may make further contributions in addition to the $8 per-pay-period special assessment to support the striking SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members; and
RESOLVED that the Executive Board shall have authority to make hardship exemptions to the special assessment on a case-by-case basis for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members, at the Board’s exclusive discretion; and
RESOLVED that after we win such an open-ended strike, all members of the striking bargaining unit will then pay the same $8/pay-period special dues assessment, up to a maximum of $8 higher than their normal maximum pay-period dues, as all other members had previously paid to support their strike.
Healthcare Worker Health and Safety
Eighth Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2021
WHEREAS healthcare workers, in all settings, have the highest rate of work-related injuries and illnesses,
almost four times higher than in any other industrial sector. Nursing Assistants alone have a 53% higher
rate of musculoskeletal disorders than the next highest industry. [US Department of Labor: Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)], and
WHEREAS healthcare workers, whether they work in nursing homes, home care, clinics or hospitals, face
multiple serious safety and health hazards at work, including bloodborne pathogens, biological hazards,
chemical and drug exposures, waste anesthetic gas exposure, respiratory hazards, ergonomic hazards
from lifting and repetitive tasks, laser hazards, workplace violence, harassment and abuse by their
clients or residents, hazards associated with laboratories, and radioactive material and x-ray hazards,
and
WHEREAS healthcare workers are essential to the health of our entire communities, as evidenced by their unwavering commitment to their patients, residents or clients and to each other during the COVID-
19 pandemic as they continue to work despite the risks to their own health and the health and safety of
their families, and
WHEREAS healthcare workers are being increasingly subjected to alarming rates of violence and abuse
at their various workplaces - physically, mentally and emotionally from patients and the outside
community, and
WHEREAS healthcare workers and patients will be at higher risk for physical and emotional harm when
there is a shortage of staff to care for the needs of their patients, residents or clients both in number
and acuity levels, and
WHEREAS maintaining appropriate staffing in healthcare and long-term care facilities is essential to
providing a safe work environment for healthcare workers and safe patient and resident care, and
WHEREAS healthcare workers routinely work though their break times, which leads to further
exhaustion and poorer care quality, and
WHEREAS healthcare workers are facing increasing work expectations while remaining deeply under-
staffed and the employers are refusing to acknowledge and address the root problems regarding
recruitment and retention of workers, and
WHEREAS SEIU HCMN has seen a decline of 10% in membership as a result of the pandemic as workers
leave or retire from the industry and employers lag in recruitment of new hires,
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will fight for the highest standards of health and safety
protections for all healthcare workers -- in hospitals, clinics, long term care, and home care -- that are
flexible enough to address the changing environment. We will push to raise health and safety
protections at the legislature and the bargaining table and hold employers and the state accountable
when they fail to provide the healthy, safe environment we all deserve.
RESOLVED that SEIU Minnesota will demand to participate in staffing committees for all job
classifications to ensure proper workloads and staffing.
RESOLVED that we will push to reopen our collective bargaining agreements to address these shortages
by demanding higher pay, hiring bonuses, longevity bonuses, extra shift bonuses in order to proactively
address the recruitment and retention of positions.
Support Certification of Surgical Technologists
Eighth Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2021
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is charged with advancing patient safety and the professional
interests of its members; and
WHEREAS surgical technologists are an important part of the surgical team, and that patients are best
served when all members of the team are appropriately educated and work in concert for positive
patient outcomes; and
WHEREAS the Minnesota Adverse Health Events Reporting Act requires public dissemination by
healthcare facilities of 28 adverse medical events, analysis of this data, by facility, reveals that adverse
surgical events were 40% less, and incidents of retained foreign objects were 55% less in hospitals that
require certification for all employed surgical technologists; and
WHEREAS certified surgical technologists are educated and trained thoroughly in aseptic technique and
best practices in preventing surgical site infections. Surgical technologists are the professional in the
operating room responsible for preventing surgical site infections; and
WHEREAS the American College of Surgeons strongly supports the adequate education and training of
all surgical technologists, the accreditation of all surgical technology educational programs, and the
examination for certification of all graduates of accredited surgical technology educational programs
WHEREAS in the interest of patient safety, the Association of Surgical Technology (AST) promotes a
policy that would require healthcare facilities to employ only individuals who satisfy the baseline
educational requirements and possess the CST credential
WHEREAS the Affordable Care Act addresses health care initiatives that will improve patient safety and
reduce health care costs by reducing preventable medical errors and hospital-acquired infections and
implementing positive programs to increase quality patient care;
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that every surgical patient deserves a surgical technologist who is a graduate of an accredited
program in surgical technology and who holds and maintains the Certified Surgical Technologist
Credential administered by the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting (NBSTSA);
and be it further
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will make Surgical Technologist Education and Certification
legislation in the Minnesota Legislature a top priority for legislative efforts in 2022 and beyond if
necessary.
Long-Term Care Workers’ Bill of Rights
Eighth Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2021
WHEREAS long-term care workers have been and still are the frontline force for the most vulnerable in
our society, working in nursing homes and assisted living centers amid the biggest outbreaks of COVID-
19 in the United States, and;
WHEREAS long-term care workers have been and still are working through a severe worker shortage,
experiencing double shifts and endless hours while wearing multiple hats to fill the vacant gaps and
simultaneously trying to providing for their families, and;
WHEREAS long-term care workers have one of the most demanding and needed jobs, yet are still
compensated with some of the lowest wages in the healthcare industry, and;
WHEREAS long-term care workers experience daily exposure to physical injuries as well as the extremely
high risk of contracting COVID-19;
WHEREAS long-term care facilities employ a large number of women and immigrants workers who
report rampant issues of discrimination by race, gender, and country of origin, sexism and disrespectful
practices inside and outside the facilities, and;
WHEREAS the best way to improve wages, hours and working conditions in Minnesota’s long-term care
facilities is by organizing the workers into our Union for a real voice and power on the job;
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will enact an organizing campaign to organize the
unorganized long-term care workers in our state and together with our current members demand the
following Long Term Care Workers’ Bill of Rights for our industry:
- Protect long-term care members from short staffing practices
- Promote recruitment and retention partnerships for affordable career training and development in long-term care
- Push for a $20/hr minimum wage by 2023 for all long-term care members and a
- Push for a $30/hr minimum wage for LPNs by 2023
- Create a pathway for affordable healthcare for all long-term care members
- Allow presumption of Worker’s Comp coverage for all long-term care members
- Protect and respect all long-term members from anti-blackness and all other forms of discrimination based on sex, gender, race, ability, and sexual orientation.
- Secure a 6-month inventory of personal protective equipment for future public health emergencies
- Demand all facilities to grant Union Representation access, Union orientation, and paid Union leave.
- Create a pathway to retirement (pension) with dignity for all long-term workers.
Worker Representation on the HealthPartners Board
Eighth Annual Member Convention - September 19, 2021
WHEREAS SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members at HealthPartners have one of the strongest union
contracts in healthcare anywhere in the country, built through decades of member organizing and
collective bargaining; and
WHEREAS Group Health Inc. (now HealthPartners) was one of the country’s first consumer-owned
health insurance cooperatives, and maintains that democratic governance structure today; and
WHEREAS for many years the member-elected HealthPartners Board of Directors included at least one
strong advocate for workers’ rights and collective bargaining; and
WHEREAS in the last few years, there has been no strong voice for workers on the Board: and
WHEREAS over those same years SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members have noticed a significant
change in how HealthPartners leadership’s treats its employees and patients, seeking major concessions
to our industry-leading healthcare benefits in the last round of collective bargaining, closing a clinic that
served the company’s highest-need and most racially diverse patient base, and moving away generally
from the collaborative labor-management partnership we’d experienced for many prior years;
THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota will lead an effort to ensure that a candidate who is a strong
voice for workers gets elected to the HealthPartners Board of Directors in the next election; and
RESOLVED that SEIU Healthcare Minnesota leaders will reach out to other unions representing
HealthPartners employees, unions representing the employees of HealthPartners contractors, and
unions with substantial numbers of members receiving the health benefits in their union contract
through HealthPartners to enlist their support in this effort.
