After rejecting management?s ?final offer,? workers at Red Wing Health Center will begin informational picketing and hold a rally Sunday to explain why they won?t accept a contract filled with language and economic concessions.
The informational picketing will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at the nursing home, 1412 W. 4th St., with the rally scheduled for 1 p.m.
Proposals from the nursing home could cost workers an average of $2,000 a year, said Karmen Ortloff, business representative for SEIU Local 113. For some workers, that?s more than 10 percent of their pay.
The 125 workers have been without a contract since Oct. 1, and rejected the nursing home?s latest offer 50-18 on Dec. 5, Ortloff said.
Trust eroded earlier this year when nursing home management deducted 401(k) contributions from workers? paychecks, but failed to deposit the workers? contributions into their retirement accounts, Ortloff said. In addition, some payroll deductions for child support also were not forwarded, she said.
Conditions deteriorated further when the nursing home threatened to fire any employee who participated in informational picketing the union had scheduled for Nov. 30. Nursing home lawyers claimed the picketing would have violated the legally required 10-day notice.
?Management wants to play these cheap games that do not bring us any closer to a settlement,? said Kelly Preskorn, a licensed practical nurse at the home and member of the bargaining committee.
Workers also are pushing for the reinstatement of steward Bill Robinson, a 10-year employee who was dismissed when his job was outsourced. The nursing home has refused to handle reinstatement through grievance and arbitration, Ortloff said, ?which sets a really dangerous precedent.?
The nursing home is operated by Mission Healthcare LLC, which also operates at least two homes with unionized staff in St. Paul.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org
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After rejecting management?s ?final offer,? workers at Red Wing Health Center will begin informational picketing and hold a rally Sunday to explain why they won?t accept a contract filled with language and economic concessions.
The informational picketing will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, at the nursing home, 1412 W. 4th St., with the rally scheduled for 1 p.m.
Proposals from the nursing home could cost workers an average of $2,000 a year, said Karmen Ortloff, business representative for SEIU Local 113. For some workers, that?s more than 10 percent of their pay.
The 125 workers have been without a contract since Oct. 1, and rejected the nursing home?s latest offer 50-18 on Dec. 5, Ortloff said.
Trust eroded earlier this year when nursing home management deducted 401(k) contributions from workers? paychecks, but failed to deposit the workers? contributions into their retirement accounts, Ortloff said. In addition, some payroll deductions for child support also were not forwarded, she said.
Conditions deteriorated further when the nursing home threatened to fire any employee who participated in informational picketing the union had scheduled for Nov. 30. Nursing home lawyers claimed the picketing would have violated the legally required 10-day notice.
?Management wants to play these cheap games that do not bring us any closer to a settlement,? said Kelly Preskorn, a licensed practical nurse at the home and member of the bargaining committee.
Workers also are pushing for the reinstatement of steward Bill Robinson, a 10-year employee who was dismissed when his job was outsourced. The nursing home has refused to handle reinstatement through grievance and arbitration, Ortloff said, ?which sets a really dangerous precedent.?
The nursing home is operated by Mission Healthcare LLC, which also operates at least two homes with unionized staff in St. Paul.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org