Organizers from the state’s largest health care union planned a rally on Friday to pressure four Twin Cities nursing homes to negotiate better wages.
But workers at Providence Place in Minneapolis barely had time to attend. Five minutes after they joined the 2:30 rally, they put down their banner, took off their union shirts and went back to work.
“When we fight, we win!” the group chanted twice before walking back into the nursing home to continue their shift.
The rally comes just a year after 1,000 workers walked off the job in the largest nursing home strike in Minnesota history.
This time, 250 workers say they’re ready to strike over low pay and persistent staffing shortages. All are represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.
“This strike [notice] comes after so many days of negotiations with these amazing members, and the employers still insisting [they would] not to give the members what they deserve,” Rasha Ahmad Sharif, the union’s vice president, said at Friday’s news conference.
The strike, planned for March 25 and 26, would affect Providence Place, The Villas at St. Louis Park, Regina Senior Living in Hastings and Cerenity Senior Care-Humboldt in St. Paul.
Amy Oliver, a health unit coordinator at Providence Place, said she’s been working in nursing homes since 2011, but the problems the industry faces have led to her colleagues quitting the industry “left and right” in search of better opportunities.
“The current situation we have is not working. I’m ready to strike because of our low staffing ratio and our low pay,” Oliver said.
Nurse home contracts are negotiated separately with each employer, Ahmad Sharif said.
Union negotiators have met multiple times over the last three months with the nursing homes, except for Providence Place, which only met once with the union, according to Yankuba Fadera, the lead union negotiator for the nursing homes.
Last year the union bargained with each nursing home individually and asked for a $25 per hour minimum wage for members. They also sought better health care and retirement benefits, and measures to increase staff retention.
After last year’s strike, the union bargained for 11 different nursing homes, with at least 10 agreeing on a new contract.
Three out of the four nursing homes, where workers are threatening to walk out are back at the bargaining table for a second year in a row.
Providence Place, The Villas at St. Louis Park and Cerenity Senior Care-Humboldt had workers walk out a year ago, but later agreed on one-year contracts with workers, Ahmad Sharif said.
In a statement, Providence Place said it respected employees’ rights to go on strike while also maintaining its commitment of ensuring there is no disruption to resident care while the strike occurs.
“We believe and understand the need for livable wages that reflect our employees’ work and it’s why we continue to work with the SEIU to ensure fair and equitable wages occur,” Providence Place Executive Director Noel Lovas and Assistant Executive Director Nick Abernathy said in a statement.
According to them, the wages and compensation provided to employees are based on the reimbursement rates set by the state.
Lovas and Abernathy called that funding “inadequate” in their statement and said those rates don’t support fair wages for caregivers.
Paxton Wiffler, the chief operating officer for Monarch Healthcare Management, said the Villas at St. Louis Park had the staffing to continue operating during a walkout. He said the nursing home would continue bargaining sessions, but he questioned the union’s strategy.
“Rather than working with us to reach a meaningful resolution SEIU appears more focused on a public relations campaign than sitting down to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement,” Wiffler said.
According to him, the nursing home in St. Louis Park’s contract ended the last day of February, at which point Monarch offered to sign an extension, but as of Friday all requests have been ignored by the union.
Wiffler referred to caregiving as an “honorable” profession and said better wages were needed.
“Rather than threaten to disrupt the care of aging Minnesotans, it may be better to join forces to mutually advocate to Governor [Tim] Walz and the legislators for more funding for higher wages. Something our organization has offered for years, but as of today, been rebuffed by the leadership of SEIU Minnesota and Iowa,” Wiffler said.
Representatives from Cerenity Senior Care and Benedictine Living Community, which own the other two nursing homes, could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
The union push for better wages and staffing comes as the Minnesota Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board agreed on a statewide minimum wage of $19 per hour and added overtime pay for 11 federal holidays for workers.
The new minimum rates were set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, and increase to $20.50 per hour in 2027.
But in November, nursing home associations sued to get rid of the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board
The lawsuit rolled back the time-and-a-half holiday pay that had already gone into effect for nursing home workers across the state, according to a news release from the union. The minimum wage increases due to start in 2026 were also put on pause.
A House bill introduced in late February would have repealed the statutes that created and governed the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board.
The bill was amended to keep the board intact with the added provision that new nursing home standards could not go into effect unless they were fully funded by the Legislature.
Ahmad Sharif said union negotiators are bargaining to try to get pay rates “close to” the rates suggested by the Standards Board.
“The wages are not going to take place until 2026 so we want to get some of those provisions so we can bargain more after that, just to raise the standards in general for all of the workers,” she said.
