SAINT PAUL – Over 300 nursing home workers with SEIU Healthcare MN & IA have voted to call an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) strike at 5 homes across the metro (homes listed below). The groups filed a 10-day notice at the end of last week to hold a 3-day ULP strike on April 20-22. More info on picket times and locations will come at the end of the week.
SEIU Healthcare MN & IA member and Long Term Care Vice President, Jared Mituga, who works as a RN at Estates of Saint Louis Park, shared why he voted yes to authorize this ULP strike:
"The unwillingness of the employer to reach a fair deal is not ok. All they have done at the table is deny and deny. They've only proposed a 2% raise, which simply doesn't keep up with the cost of living. It is frustrating that they seem unwilling to support us while we care for residents. It felt like they slammed the door shut before we could even get started. It's especially frustrating that they claim they can't give wage increases when the industry is spending money on all this other stuff. We are ready to strike because nursing home workers and residents deserve better."
The homes that filed 10 day notices include:
- Estates of Roseville and Yona
- Estates of Fridley and Yona
- Estates of Excelsior and Yona
- Estates of Saint Louis Park and Yona
- Cerenity Care at Humboldt
Nursing home operators have consistently claimed they don’t have enough money to pay fair wages and benefits, yet they have two current lawsuits in federal court fighting to end the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board after the Board proposed new increased minimum wages and that workers get paid time and a half when they have to work on holidays most other workers get off.
Earlier this month the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee held a hearing highlighting two recent reports on the extent and cost of “union avoidance” in Minnesota’s nursing home industry. The reports draw attention to the tactics and the millions of dollars report authors estimate has been spent by the industry on trying to stop workers from joining unions to improve conditions in nursing homes. After hearing from the authors and nursing home workers, the committee chair called findings in the reports “bombshells.”
(You can read the full reports here: Democracy Denied at the Bedside: Union Avoidance in Minnesota’s Nursing Home Sector and Price of Repression: Estimating the Costs of Five Union-Busting Campaigns in Minnesota’s Nursing Home Sector)
Over the last decade, the state of Minnesota has sent over a billion dollars to nursing home owners, yet a 2023 survey of over 1,300 workers found that two out of three nursing home workers report struggling to meet their household’s basic needs every month. Nursing home workers and owners agree there is a crisis caused by short staffing, yet these stunning reports show that nursing home owners have been spending money on union avoidance strategies to stop unions in their facilities, including homes that rely on public funding, rather than on things to help the residents and workers.
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SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa unites nearly 50,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout Minnesota and Iowa. The union seeks to secure the American Dream for all working people, including a paycheck that supports a family, quality, affordable healthcare, a secure retirement, and the freedom to form a union for a voice on the job.
