Union informs SMDC of intent to stage informational picket

Talk about it

A week after members of SMDC Health System’s largest union rejected the company’s final contract offer and authorized a strike, the union put the company on notice.

But not for a strike.

The United Steel­workers Local 9460 on Thursday gave the company 10-day notice that it planned to conduct an informational picket and handbilling on Jan. 25, a move that members also authorized last week.

“We’re attempting to get SMDC back to the table to bargain,” said Kevin Nendick, president of United Steelworkers Local 9460, adding that SMDC had been the one to break off negotiations.

“We’re taking the less aggressive approach,” he said. “We hope this will persuade them to contact the mediator and come back.”

Beth Johnson, an SMDC spokeswoman, confirmed the notice came through by fax late Thursday afternoon.

“If the informational picket comes to fruition, we hope it’s not too disruptive to our patients,” she said.

It was the first SMDC had heard from the union since last week’s vote. SMDC officials learned of the results from a News Tribune story.

“They have not asked us to come back to the table,” Johnson said.

Local 9460 represents about 1,400 support staff members at SMDC, including housekeepers, schedulers, secretaries and licensed practical nurses at the clinics. The contract expired June 30.

Management and union are most at odds over a proposed wage freeze and the outsourcing of about 25 jobs in the release-of-

medical-information unit.

The picketing will begin at 6:30 a.m. Jan. 25 outside St. Mary’s Medical Center, Duluth Clinic buildings downtown and in Superior. How long the picketing will last hasn’t been decided, Nendick said.

Tags: news, business, health, essentia, labor, employment