Maintenance and general workers at Mayo Clinic Health System held a strike at the clinic's Albert Lea campus Tuesday in an effort to revive stalled contract negotiations.þþAccording to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota, the union represents roughly 80 general and maintenance staff members of the roughly 1,000 employees in Albert Lea.þþA spokesperson with the clinic's Department of Public Affairs told KSTP ÿit is unfortunate that the SEIU has deliberately chosen this time of year to strike, subjecting our hardworking employees to uncertainty, anxiety and lost wages during the holiday season.ÿþþThe spokesperson went on to say, ÿWe remain committed to providing fair wages and benefits. These employees are being offered the same Mayo Clinic benefits package as virtually all other allied health employees, which we strongly believe is better as a whole than the benefits they currently receive.ÿþþHowever, those participating in the strike have said they are frustrated with what they are calling the clinic's ÿunilateral changes to workers' benefits, wages and working conditions.ÿþþÿI've devoted most of my working life to Mayo,ÿ Henry Tews, who has worked at the Albert Lea campus as a maintenance engineer for the past 27 years, said in a statement. ÿMany of us have been working here for decades. I've watched as the hospital has shipped services out of our community and now, as they try to take away our voice at the bargaining table. We've tried and tried to reach a contact, but the proposals that Mayo is bringing to the table, weakening the rights of the people who make their hospitals run, would move our hospital and our communities in the wrong direction. Enough is enough. We're striking to stand up for our families and our community.ÿþþThose who are striking said they have been working without a contract for three years. One of the sticking points, those protesting claim, is that Mayo wants to be able to subcontract work now performed by the union employees.þþRELATED: Mayo, Albert Lea Agree to Facilitated Talks on Future of Services OfferedþþMayo Clinic Health System says the facility will remain open during the strike. It says the union didn't even ask for a bargaining session until recently.þþÿWe are especially disappointed that the union would call a strike now, since SEIU which composes the majority of the impacted workers, didn't even ask us for a bargaining session between May 2017 and just recently,ÿ Kris Johnson, associate administrator for Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, said in a statement.þþThe union said the strike, which began at 6 a.m., would last one day. Maintenance workers will return to work tomorrow, but Mayo says a segment of the workforce that includes housekeeping, nursing assistants and sterile processing employees will not return for seven days because they've been replaced by temporary, outsourced employees because of the strike.þþMayo says it is not recognizing that span as a lockout because those employees had been warned they would be replaced by temps for seven days out of necessity if they chose to strike.þþThe Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: kstp.com
