Essentia Health reported it reached an agreement with members of the Service Employees International Union in Brainerd on a new three-year contract.
Essentia and the SEIU reached a tentative agreement last week. This Tuesday, April 8, union membership voted to approve the contract, which covers 158 employees and features a 10.5% wage increase over three years as well as shift bonuses. The deal also includes important staffing language known as “cross-facility floating,” which gives Essentia the flexibility to schedule team members according to patient needs.
This staffing practice is entirely voluntary, meaning Essentia colleagues decide if they want to pick up a shift, or shifts, at a different Essentia facility with greater patient demand. Cross-facility floating is a tool used to maintain care with highly skilled and well-trained team members. Essentia maintains contracts with 54 organized bargaining units, which cover approximately 6,500 employees. Last year alone, Essentia successfully negotiated more than 20 contracts with individual bargaining units. A commitment to delivering and maintaining access to exceptional patient care guides every contract negotiation at Essentia.
Here are statements from Essentia Health and the SEIU:
“We are excited that these dedicated employees have voted to approve this agreement, which acknowledges the outstanding work they do every day to help care for the patients we are privileged to serve,” said Todd Defreece, Essentia’s senior vice president of operations in the Brainerd lakes area, in a news release. “This contract also supports our patients by ensuring continued access to the high-quality care they rely on from Essentia, right in their local community.”
“I’m happy we were able to win one of our best contracts and proud that our bargaining team of both new and veteran members worked so hard to make this contract a reality,” said Dawn Norris, an SEIU member, in the release. “In addition to great wage increases and differentials, we also updated wording to separate old vacation and sick time from new PTO for better understanding for members. Because we worked so hard to communicate within our membership, we won gains for all of our different groups of health care workers. This contract is a big win for workers and the patients we serve.”