ST. LOUIS PARK, Minnesota — Hundreds of Twin Cities nursing home workers walked off the job Tuesday to take part in a one-day strike. According to SEIU Healthcare MN & IA and UFCW 663, nearly 1,000 workers are participating across 12 homes in the Twin Cities metro area.
The strike is bringing attention to stalled contract negotiations which have been going on for four to six months.
Nursing home workers are calling for better pay and staffing, along with more affordable health insurance and retirement security.
"It's hard work," said Mavis Yanda, a health information assistant at The Villas at St. Louis Park. "A lot of the workers do work overtime, including myself. If we had more workers, better pay, then... the workers could even out the workload."
Workers on strike include nurses, nursing assistants, aides, cooks and building maintenance mechanics. The 12 homes turned into six picket lines on Tuesday morning, with a rally outside The Estates at St. Louis Park. A second rally took place in the afternoon outside the Minnesota State Capitol, alongside striking janitors, as part of a Week of Action.
Those on strike want to see a $25-an-hour minimum wage across the industry.
"The average pay in Minnesota is less than $20 an hour. We did a survey of 1,300 workers across the whole industry last fall and a little less than $20 an hour is the average. For dietary workers, housekeepers, activities aides, it's about $16 an hour... for certified nursing assistants, just over $20. It's not enough to make ends meet," said Jamie Gulley, president of SEIU Healthcare MN & Iowa which represents 55,000 healthcare workers; 3,000 are nursing home workers.
The pandemic led to many places being short staffed. Marc Halpert, CEO of Monarch Healthcare Management which manages about 62 nursing homes and assisted livings in the state, said it forced them to go through external agencies and pay more money.
"Wages are already from 2020 when COVID hit, we are a good 15% to 20% higher in wages since that happened. So we've been doing our best efforts to continue to keep our facilities full of staff so we can continue taking care of our residents," Halpert said. Monarch has nine sites with union members on strike. "They deserve the money that is being paid and we want to help them get what they're owed."
Halpert said they're happy to negotiate and discuss but some of the union's demands surprised him.
"All of a sudden they were going on strike for $25 an hour. That was the communication to us that that's what they were looking for. So that's the first time that we heard that number," said Halpert, adding it was also his first time hearing about the idea of pensions for retirement.
Halpert said most of their employees showed up for work on Tuesday and that all nine sites affected are fully staffed and covered.
"There's a lot of non-staff people that are striking. We literally went out there, took a look, and a lot of staff are not ours," Halpert said.
At Tuesday morning's rally, many people from different unions did turn out to show their support in solidarity with nursing home workers. A common theme echoed at the rally was that the workers want to feel respected.
Saint Therese President & CEO Craig Abbott said in a statement, "During the 2023 legislative session, we joined providers from across the State of Minnesota in efforts to create long term solutions aimed at paying our workers a livable wage. Despite our industry's tireless efforts, the Legislature chose to provide only one-time funding to support our nursing homes. In short, the temporary resources are insufficient to pay for the cost of ongoing wages and benefits. It's unfortunate that the unions chose not to align efforts with the provider community as part of these rigorous efforts."
Abbott went on to list actions they've taken and investments they've made over the past 18 months. In October 2022, frontline workers received, on average, a 31% wage increase. At the New Hope campus, on average, nursing assistants are paid $24.26 per hour.
Gulley said, "We got to have competitive wages to get people back. We also think that there's a lot of caregivers that would like to do geriatric care or senior care and they go to other places because the wages aren't competitive and the benefits are just not there. So we want to change it. We want to fix it. We want these to be good union jobs that we're all proud of."
There is no deadline for a new contract but Gulley said they plan to be back at the table as soon as possible. Each nursing home has its own contract. The strike ends Wednesday at 7 a.m.
Workers are striking at these locations:
Estates at Roseville
Estates of St Louis Park
St Therese
Cerenity Care Center
Providence Place
Estates at Fridley
Villa St Louis Park
Estates at Excelsior
Cedars at St Louis Park
Robbinsdale, a Villa Center
The Villa at Bryn Mawr
The Estates at Chateau
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