SEIU votes down Mayo Clinic offer, sends bargaining to arbitration
(ABC 6 News) – SEIU Healthcare MN & IA union members voted down Mayo Clinic’s latest contract offer and will send bargaining to arbitration, according to a June 14 release.
SEIU Healthcare MN & IA represents more than 1,600 frontline workers at Mayo Clinic, including patient care assistants, certified surgical technologists, sterile process technicians, escorts, environmental service technicians, janitors, linen workers, Mayo Inventory Center workers, and telecommunications specialists.
“We are tired of the proposals from Mayo that feel disrespectful to the critical work we do every day, which is why we made clear these offers are not enough with this vote. Instead of continuing down this path that seems to be leading nowhere, we’ve decided to use the most powerful tool we currently have, which is sending this to arbitration,” SEIU member Kirsten Schultz said in a statement. “We feel like this is our only option with how Mayo has acted at the bargaining table.”
The union previously voted to let members of the union cancel a 50-year “no strike” agreement during contract negotiations, following widespread dissatisfaction with Mayo’s offers.
Currently, SEIU and Mayo Clinic are held to the previous, expired contract based on the longtime no-strike agreement.
According to the SEIU, arbitration will work in the following way:
“The move to arbitration means that the union will file an official notice to arbitrate and begin the process of picking a panel made up of three arbitrators. During the arbitration itself, the panel will look at the proposals from Mayo and from SEIU, take into account past practices and internal and external factors relating to the proposals, and then issue a binding decision to the parties. That binding decision then will be a contract imposed on both parties. There is no official timeline for the process but it will begin soon.”
Mayo Clinic Communications manager Kristy Jacobson provided the following statement on behalf of the hospital:
“Mayo Clinic has been negotiating in good faith. Our negotiating sessions with SEIU have been productive, and we have reached tentative agreement on several topics.
While we have told the SEIU bargaining team that there is room for negotiating the remaining issues including wages to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, they have decided to stop bargaining and pursue arbitration. A third-party arbitrator will decide the contract terms.
We value the contributions of each of our staff members and remain committed to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement as soon as possible.”