Health care union workers at St. Marys Hospital in the Rochester area are celebrating after they made significant contract gains with Mayo Clinic over the weekend.
SEIU Healthcare announced that a three-person arbitration board ruled union workers at St. Marys, which include certified technicians, personal care attendants, patient escorts and maintenance workers among others, will get at least $20 per hour with increases over the next three years that bring people to almost $22 per hour at minimum.
The new agreement also includes retro pay backdated to April 2024 and a cap on mandatory overtime to 18 hours.
“These wage increases are some of the biggest we’ve ever seen, and the back pay is going to be amazing for so many people,” said Kirsten Schulz, a personal care attendant at Mayo.
Union workers at St. Marys were locked in negotiations with Mayo Clinic for more than a year, turning to arbitration last fall. Union members say this was the first time they had to find a mediator for their agreement.
The new agreement will likely influence other union contracts with Mayo, including current negotiations between union workers at Mayo Clinic Hospital-Methodist Campus and Mayo leadership. Mayo Methodist workers’ contracts expired in January after a one-year deal that gave most union members there a similar $20 per hour minimum wage.
Union workers say bargaining with Mayo leadership has become more difficult over the past decade, as Mayo has offered raises that haven’t kept up with cost-of-living increases while the medical giant has struggled with staffing issues.
Many workers say they’ve taken on too much overtime and feel overworked in some departments, leading to concerns over patient care and worker burnout.
