On Tuesday, more than 400 mental health workers are participating in a one-day strike.
A crowd could be seen outside M Health Fairview early Tuesday morning.
Employees there, as well as at Allina Health, voted for a one-day strike last Monday.
RELATED: Mental health workers at M Health Fairview, Allina vote to authorize 1-day strike
Employees work as psychiatric associates, behavioral assistants, and senior mental health coordinators at M Health Fairview, Abbott Northwestern, and Unity hospitals.
Employees say they have been unable to reach what they call a fair deal on a first contract after unionizing last year.
SEIU strike
They are pushing for more mental health help and better pay, adding that staffing levels are not keeping up with demands.
“I really wish it didn’t come to this because we’re in a mental health crisis and we understand that it affects our patients, but we really didn’t know what else to do and we really hope that Fairview can come to the table.” said Eric Immler, a psychiatric associate.
Allina says they are prepared to continue providing care during the one-day work stoppage.
Picketing began at 6 a.m. and will continue until 11 a.m. before a rally at M Health Fairview at 12 p.m.
M Health issued the following statement Tuesday morning:
“We have an unwavering commitment to our patients and employees to provide a workplace where everyone eats safe, valuable and supported food. Our psychiatric associates, senior psychiatric associates, and behavioral assistants are critical to our ability to deliver high-quality care, especially as healthcare organizations here and across the country face a dual mental health and staffing crisis.
So far, we have negotiated in good faith with the Union to align ourselves with a contract that supports our employees and gives us the flexibility we need to provide the highest quality care to our patients. The Union proposes actions that violate our standards of care and patient privacy rights. These are items that we cannot accept and unfortunately we have not received a health and safety counteroffer from the Union since March. Despite negotiating with the Union 14 times since December 2021, we finally received their opening economic proposal four days after receiving a one-day strike notice. Receiving salary proposals just before a planned work stoppage left us with no time to negotiate and no opportunity to avoid a work stoppage that benefits no one, especially our vulnerable patients.
We sincerely hope that we will quickly align ourselves with a contract that provides fair pay, supports our employees and gives us the flexibility we need to deliver high-quality care to our patients.”
M Health Fairview
