(ABC 6 News) – An information picket took place Thursday afternoon outside the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
The employees participating in this picket are Mayo Clinic food service employees but are employed by Morrison Healthcare. They said they were fighting for a fair wage increase and a pay scale similar to other union members.
Until about five years ago, these workers were employed by the Mayo Clinic, when Mayo began outsourcing these jobs to Morrison Healthcare.
The workers are part of the Morrison Union Federation which includes 500 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) workers and 100 members from other unions such as Teamsters 120.
“I have to live. I’m not going anywhere else. I have to live. I have to work for a living,” said Morrison Health Care cook Abraham Cuevas. “I live paycheck to paycheck and with the current inflation and economy it’s going up and hurting many of us.”
Cuevas has been with Morrison Healthcare for six years, cooking for doctors and nurses. However, in the last two years of the pandemic, he said he worked more than 150 hours during his two-week pay period. That’s about 75 hours a week.
Jamie Gurry, president of SEIU Healthcare, said, “We deserve a fair raise better than inflation.”
So far, Morrison Healthcare has proposed a 5% wage increase over three years. But workers said it was half the rate of inflation this year.
“All the boats need to be lifted here, not just the boats at the top, but ours as well,” said Gully.
Employees said their work was important to the Mayo patient’s healing process.
“We care for a lot of communities here. said.
Morrison Healthcare said in a statement to ABC 6 News: Last year, he amicably renewed three of his union collective bargaining agreements within the Mayo Clinic system, including SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Teamsters Local 120. Meet and keep negotiating – always in good faith. “
Aleta Borrud, a DFL candidate for the 24th Minnesota Senate, said she has long supported the right to collective bargaining and stands by these food service workers fighting for what they deserve. I was.
“In this moment when people are actually having a hard time getting workers, I think it’s very important that people are actually being treated right. It’s part of the reason I’m here.”
“I love what I do here and I want to stay here. I love my job and taking care of my patients, doctors and nurses,” Cuevas said.
The contract expired in June and was extended by agreement between the unions and Morrison.The unions plan to return to the negotiating table in September and hope to see some progress at that time. . Otherwise, they said, they might picket again.