Every two years, AFSCME 2474 negotiates a collective bargaining agreement with Hennepin Healthcare. The agreement stipulates the terms and conditions of employment and includes everything from wages and benefits to disciplinary process.
When working class people are isolated, we are disadvantaged. Employers can hire and fire at will (without the need for justification), and decide work conditions independently of employee interest or input. Employers increase profit by reducing wages and benefits to the bottom of the market.
Unions shift that dynamic by leveraging our strength in numbers.
Today, members of AFSCME 2474 have quality health and dental insurance, more than five weeks of annual paid time off, a variety of workplace protections, guaranteed raises, and the ability to advocate for ourselves and patients without fear of retribution.
AFSCME Local 1733 sanitation workers strike in Memphis with National Guard members looking on, 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while helping to secure their right to collectively bargain.