6/18 Bargaining Update
Time For a Strike Authorization Vote!
Video Update: https://youtu.be/9byW4GhX_AY
A quick note before the bargaining update - we did win on a ULP (Unfair Labor Practice). Allina tried to unilaterally stop covering GLP-1 agonists for weight loss and the NLRB ruled in our favor. If you were on one and lost coverage last year, you will be reimbursed.
Allina continues to refuse to bargain in any significant way or work to a middle ground. After listening to Allina’s concerns, our last economic proposal included multiple changes. We also made changes to our non-economic items today. Allina refused to engage in the non-economic items. For the economic package which includes many items outside of compensation like sick leave, time to do in-basket work and more, Allina made one change - they increased their baseline salary guarantee from the 25th percentile to the 30th percentile. They kept the same pay per RVU after exceeding the target at the 40th percentile. We don’t see this as a significant change. The great majority of primary care providers will exceed the 30th percentile for RVUs, so they are essentially still fighting to decrease our conversion ratio from where it is currently set (50th percentile) to the 40th percentile.
For 3 months now Allina has stuck to an extremely regressive proposal:
Salary Guarantee set at 30th Percentile
Pay per RVU set at the 40th Percentile
No mechanism to account for unpaid work - in-basket, meetings, trainings, etc.
No sick leave or family leave
No 5% Deferred Compensation
No 5% Performance (Quality) Bonus
No Change in Staffing
Refusing to Bargain Starting August 1
We have altered our economic proposal 5 times in an attempt to find a middle ground, but have found it very difficult to keep making changes when we are not getting anything back from Allina. Key components we are fighting for include:
Fair Pay - Salary Guarantee set above the 50th percentile to grow Primary Care and keep people in primary care. Continued ability for production pay, deferred comp, and quality bonus.
Paid Leave - Including Sick Time and Family Leave
Time for In-basket Work - 4 hour Reduction of Contact Hours (Decrease from 36-32 for most specialties)
Adequate Staffing - A minimum of 1.5 clinical assistants shall be assigned to each provider each day they are working and one RN to 2 Providers.
We have tried everything we can to get Allina to come to the table in a genuine way - we have written letters, we have brought many people to bargaining, we had a big picket of around 150 providers with a lot of media attention and Allina continues to refuse to work toward a middle ground. And now they are refusing to bargain at all in August.
If we want to make primary care better, attract people to primary care, and make Allina better for the providers that come after us, we need to take a Strike Authorization Vote. A Strike Authorization Vote is for union members (it’s time to get officially signed up) to vote to give the bargaining team the ability to call for a strike if needed to get the best possible contract. We are NOT voting to strike right now and we hope to never have to strike, but we need to show Allina that we are willing to strike to try to get them to come to the table and actually collaborate with us on a contract that will build a strong primary care service. If we get to the point of feeling that we need to strike we would give Allina 10 days notice and have an all member meeting to discuss. We will send out the form to sign up as a member and vote soon.
We are the only primary care providers in the country in union bargaining with a real seat at the table. We came this far because we weren’t happy with the conversion ratio cuts of 2022, the unilateral changes, the increasing unpaid work. We have a real chance to turn the tide but we must take the step of voting to authorize a strike. We will send out the vote shortly.
-Bargaining Team
PS Please come to our bargaining session on Tuesday, July 29 at 830am at the Wilder Foundation (451 Lexington Parkway). This will likely be a very interesting and key session as we hope to be pushing to the end of the contract.
