Organizers of the state's largest healthcare union planned a rally on Friday, putting pressure on four Twin City Nursing Homes to negotiate better wages.
However, workers at Providence Place in Minneapolis had little time to attend. Five minutes after they took part in the 2:30 rally, they put down the banners, took off their union shirts and returned to work.
“We'll win when we fight!” The group chanted twice before returning to the nursing home to continue their shifts.
The rally comes a year after 1,000 workers left their jobs on the largest nursing home strike in Minnesota history.
This time, 250 workers say they are ready to attack low wages and sustained staffing shortages. All are represented by the United Nations of Service Employees (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.
“This strike (notice) comes after several days of negotiations with these incredible members. Employers claim they don't give their members what they deserve,” union vice president Rasha Ahmad Sharif said at a press conference Friday.
The planned strikes on March 25th and 26th will affect Providence Place, Villas in St. Louis Park, Regina Seniors in Hastings and Serenity Senior Care Humboldt in St. Paul.
Amy Oliver, health unit coordinator at Providence Place, said she has been working in nursing homes since 2011, but the challenges facing the industry have led to her quitting “right and left” in search of better opportunities.
“The current situation we have is not working. Due to our staffing rates and low wages, I'm ready to attack,” Oliver said.
According to Ahmad Sharif, nurse home contracts are negotiated individually by employers.
Union negotiators have met with nursing homes multiple times over the past three months, according to Yankuba Fadera, the nursing home's main union negotiator.
Last year, the union negotiated individually with each nursing home, seeking a minimum wage of $25 per hour for its members. They also called for better healthcare and retirement benefits, and measures to increase staff retention.
After last year's strike, the union negotiated with 11 different nursing homes, with at least 10 agreeing to new contracts.
Three of the four nursing homes that workers threaten to go out have returned to the negotiation table for the second year in a row.
Serenity Senior Care Humboldt, a villa in Providence Place, St. Louis Park, kicked out workers a year ago, but later agreed to a one-year contract with the workers, Ahmad Sharif said.
In a statement, Providence Place said it respected the employee's right to continue on strike while maintaining its commitment to ensuring there is no disruption in resident care during the strike.
“We believe and understand the need for a livable wage that reflects the work of our employees, which is why we continue to work with SEIU to ensure that we have fair and fair wages,” said Noel Rovas, Executive Director of Providence Place, and Nick Abernathy, assistant executive director, Nick Abernathy, in a statement.
They say the wages and compensation provided to employees are based on state-set reimbursement rates.
Lovas and Abernathy called the funding “inadequate” in their statements, saying these fees do not support fair wages for caregivers.
Representatives from Monarch Healthcare Management, Cerenity Senior Care and Benedictine Living Community, which own three other nursing homes, could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
The union is seeking better wages and staffing as the Minnesota Nursing Homes Labor Force Standards Board agrees to a statewide minimum wage of $19 per hour, adding 11 federal holiday overtime hours for workers.
The new minimum rate came into effect on January 1, 2026 and was set to increase to $20.50 per hour in 2027.
However, in November, the Nursing Home Association was sued to remove the Labor Standards Committee for Nursing Facilities
According to a news release from the union, the lawsuit rewinds the hours and half of the holiday pay that were already in effect for nursing home workers across the state. The minimum wage rise to commence in 2026 has also been suspended.
The House bill, introduced in late February, would have repealed the law that created and governed the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Committee.
The bill was amended to keep the board intact with the additional provision that new nursing home standards will not come into effect unless fully funded by Congress.
Ahmad Sharif said union negotiators are negotiating to seek to obtain wage rates “close” to the fees proposed by the Standards Committee.
“Wages won't be done until 2026, so we want to get some of these provisions so that we can negotiate further afterwards, just to raise the standard for all workers,” she said.
