Still no contract for Walker Methodist workers nearly five years since vote

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2008/03/03/still-n...

By Steve Share , Minneapolis Labor Review
March 07, 2008

Workers at Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis continue to work without a contract. May 2008 will mark five years since nursing home workers there voted to join AFSCME. April 2008 will mark one year since the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finally certified the pro-union vote, a decision rejecting years of management resistance to the union.

Contract negotiations began in July 2007 and “they have progressed slowly,” said Tom Burke, field representative for AFSCME Council 5. “They still have not given us any wage proposal.”

As the Labor Review went to press February 21, mediation sessions run by the NLRB were scheduled for February 22 and February 25.

In January, Walker unilaterally imposed a health insurance increase of about nine percent, Burke said, prompting AFSCME Local 3532 to file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB.

AFSCME also has filed charges with the NLRB accusing Walker of “surface bargaining” — going through the motions of bargaining without bargaining in good faith.


FULL story at link.