Albert Lea hospital workers hold informational picket

Kavin Dressen stood in the rain outside Albert Lea Medical Center Monday for one simple reason: “I’d rather have a contract than a promise.”

Dressen and seven other members of the hospital’s maintenance staff are in negotiations where management is seeking language that would allow unilateral changes in pensions, sick leave and other benefits. Joined by dozens of co-workers, family members and community allies, the workers conducted an informational picket in front of the facility in downtown Albert Lea.

The demonstrators said the proposed changes would undercut workplace standards and ultimately could affect the quality of care.

With 27 years on the job, Dressen, who is now the hospital’s chief engineer, remembers when it used to be an independently-run facility known as Navy Hospital. Today, medical centers in Albert Lea and dozens of surrounding communities – from Austin and Mankato to Red Wing – have been swallowed up by the Mayo Clinic Health System.

That means workers aren’t really bargaining with local management – “It’s coming down the pike from Rochester,” where Mayo is headquartered, Dressen said. The company is trying to push language that weakens worker rights into all union contracts, he said.

Becky Bluhm, who recently retired after 35 years at the Albert Lea Medical Center, joined Monday’s picketing in support of the maintenance workers. Even though she is no longer an employee, she maintains her membership in the union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, and said it is important to keep what workers have gained over the years.

“If they put this language in the contract, it just guts it,” Bluhm said.

About 110 certified nursing assistants, dietitians, housekeeping and supply chain workers are covered by a separate contract that will be negotiated next year. If Mayo succeeds in weakening the language of the maintenance workers’ contract, the larger group will be next, Bluhm said.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota also has negotiations coming up with the Mayo facility in Red Wing.

Union and management return to the bargaining table Monday in Albert Lea, where Dressen said he hopes management will heed this advice: “Just put it in writing!”

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