Walker Methodist Workers Win

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFSCME.org

Walker Methodist Workers Win!

May 11, 2007

Nearly four years after voting to join Council 5, LPNs and other employees at Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis have their AFSCME union following the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) certification of their votes.

“Nursing home workers deserve respect and quality compensation because they give dignity and quality care to our most vulnerable elders,” says Eliot Seide, executive director of Council 5. “We look forward to negotiating our first contract with Walker Methodist.”


Walker Methodist Health Center LPNs and other employees have their AFSCME union.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Lovaasen

Walker’s LPNs cast their votes in 2003, but the NLRB sealed the ballots after the management of Minnesota’s largest nursing home appealed. The majority of employees – nursing assistants, housekeepers, maintenance, laundry and dietary workers – also voted to join Council 5 in 2003. Walker appealed that vote as well, but the national NLRB certified the vote in April. The NLRB’s latest decision, on behalf of 67 LPNs, ends that process. Bargaining can now begin over a first contract for all 550 workers represented by Council 5.

Tracy Plante, an LPN at Walker Methodist, says that the employees finally can celebrate “because we know that our votes count. Now we can bargain together for good wages, benefits and working conditions. And we will have a powerful voice to improve patient care.”

Read more: http://www.afscme.org/publications/14175.cfm

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I'm a very proud AFSCME member.

[bread_and_roses]

1. Oh, good for them! good for them for hanging in there!

For anyone who thinks that it shouldn't take four years for workers to get a union that they want, contact your representative and tell her/him to support the Employee Free Choice Act. If s/he is signed on, thank him/her. To find out, go to http://www.aflcio.org/index.cfm