Click here to locate your lawmakers' contact information. 

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When HCMC workers discovered that MN State Representatives were intervening on the employer's behalf specifically to block Frontline Staff from getting a voice in our workplace, we were outraged. There was a House bill introduced on Wednesday, May 1st, called HF5442 (https://tinyurl.com/3adnjn7e). Later that day there was a matching Senate bill introduced, SF5507. It is the end of the legislative session, and committees were already closed before it was introduced. The proposed legislation will fundamentally change HCMC governance overnight, without debate or discussion. Lawmakers intend to sneak the legislation into the upcoming Omnibus spending bill, meaning it will not get a vote on its merits (likely because it is without merit). 

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Rushing through state legislation to squash a solution put forward by unions, and with zero input from healthcare workers, is precisely the kind of abusive power dynamic we already experience with our employer. This legislation will harm our community by giving administrators free rein to continue operating HCMC without frontline input in decision-making, which is a detriment to patient care and further degrades the institution we love and cherish. 

It's critically important that your MN State Representatives in the House and Senate hear from you. Tell them to reject this anti-worker and anti-patient law. Withdraw HF5442 and SF5507. 

Click here to locate your lawmakers' contact information. (Put in your address, find your MN House and MN Senate Representatives, click contact, then call and/or email.) 

There is a sample email and phone script you can utilize at the end of the message in bold green below. For more information, read on.

Much love to all of you who take action! Contacting your representatives is a big deal. Stop this legislation from going forward. If you are a Representative reading this letter, talk with union leaders and workers. Two minutes at an informational session doesn't count. 

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AFSCME 2474 members at Hennepin Healthcare (HHS) believe passionately in our public mission. We love our jobs and feel deeply honored to work with patients. Many of us have spent our careers at Hennepin County Medical Center. We believe our coworkers are among the hardest-working and most compassionate healthcare staff in the country. 

We also know Hennepin Healthcare tolerates a degree of instability and dysfunction that no other healthcare system in Minnesota would tolerate. Since the governance structure was changed in 2007, partially privatizing the system, we’ve witnessed a disheartening deterioration in patient care standards that went hand-in-hand with sharp cuts in wages and benefits. Frontline Staff know our work inside and out. It is complex, and nuanced, and requires first-hand experience to understand patient care dynamics. Nonetheless, staff efforts to problem-solve and participate in decision-making are routinely met with administrative resistance. 

On April 2nd, 2024, HCMC unions representing over 4000 Frontline Staff - medical assistants, social workers, protection officers, paramedics, nurses, etc. - demanded that the Hennepin County Commissioners perform their oversight duty. We wanted them to examine the situation at Hennepin Healthcare, uphold care standards, and pursue the transparency and accountability Minnesotans expect - and patients deserve - from our premier public healthcare system. 

It was a huge lift just to get on the Commissioners's agenda, but our unions were successful and made a powerful case (read AFSCME 2474 Local 2474 President Sara Franck's statement to the Commissioners on April 23rd below. A wide range of workers spoke from MNA, AFSCME, and HCAPE.)

Many of us are saddened by the choice of MN State Representatives to weigh in on the employer's behalf without hearing from workers at all. We are deeply frustrated by the lack of interest in our experiences. However, we aren't surprised: It's a familiar trick every employer knows - when local government begins responding to worker advocacy, go above them to legal bodies dominated by wealthy interests and largely immune from political advocacy by ordinary people.

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We expect better from our Minnesota Legislators.

The institution of HCMC is built on our labor. We perform the vast majority of patient care. The law under consideration by MN State Representatives is unnecessary. It also poses a nearly insurmountable challenge to worker and patient advocacy by giving those who administer HHS a cushion for misbehavior no worker is afforded in our jobs, nor should we be. Imagine if you could only be fired if there was a specific legal finding of “malfeasance” involving months of open investigation. It’s hard to set a lower bar for leadership. The law is intended to shield the HHS Board from scrutiny and oversight. 

By modifying the HHS governing provisions, the MN Legislature is throwing an obstacle in the path of transparency and accountability, and giving the HHS Board a wink and nod to continue on its unaccountable course. 

The power imbalance is stark: Workers spent many volunteer hours, away from family and self-care, organizing to get on the agenda of the Hennepin County Commissioners. As soon as we did, the employer mobilized its high-powered and well-connected lobbyists to derail the slow and methodical process of accountability and transparency we had only barely begun. In the past few weeks, the employer held a series of captive audience meetings with medical staff where they used public resources to forcefully encourage doctors - as directed by superiors - to lobby against the Commissioners who were actively considering governance issues related to oversight of the system. Talk about corruption. In the process, they propagated misinformation and played on worst fears, undoubtedly because the facts were not on their side. 

Importantly, doctor-administrators act at the behest of Executive Leadership and DO NOT represent doctors as a whole, many of whom are genuinely supportive of reform that brings transparency, collaboration, and accountability. 

How is it that the employer can have influential people make a few phone calls and get statewide legislation introduced? This undemocratic legislation at the end of the legislative session is designed to withhold accountability and transparency from the public and prevent workers from having a voice. It serves no other legitimate purpose. How else can we explain the MN Legislature, which never has shown an interest in governance issues at HCMC at all, suddenly jumping in at the bell on behalf of administrators? 

With HF5442 and SF5507, Minnesota Legislators are doing the employer's bidding by entrenching the HHS Board and tipping the scale for administrators over workers. We can't let that happen. The scale already is extremely unbalanced.

Is this how Minnesota repays its debt to Healthcare Heroes who worked through the pandemic? 

SAMPLE EMAIL/CALL/VOICEMAIL SCRIPT (Freely individualize if you want): 

Hello. My name is (your name) and I want a strong public healthcare system. As a Minnesotan, I am concerned with the lack of accountability, oversight, and transparency with the current structure of the Hennepin Healthcare Board. I urge you to make necessary reforms and changes to ensure our state's safety net hospital meets the needs of its workforce, patients, and communities. The current version bill HF5442/SF5507 does not do that and undermines the collaborative conversations we have undertaken with the County. Thank you. 

Sara Franck's comments in front of Hennepin County Commissioners on April 23rd, 2024

Good afternoon Commissioners,

I’m a Dental Assistant at Hennepin County Medical Center and President of AFSCME 2474. I represent nearly 1300 professional and para-professional workers from 85 job titles, including medical assistants, mental health workers, pharmacy techs, protection officers, and many more. I love our mission. I love the work we do at HCMC. There is no job I’d rather have.

I’m here to tell you the current governance structure is broken. The HHS Board, who claims to have medical expertise, has never had representation from the thousands of frontline staff who do a big majority of patient care work. We know the real purpose of the insular Board - and it’s not to uphold a high standard of patient care - it’s to cut our wages and benefits behind closed doors, while tolerating a level of dysfunction no other healthcare system would tolerate. No wonder we’re not allowed in the room! 

With proper oversight, I’m confident in the future of Hennepin County’s premier medical institution. I’m confident that with public awareness, open meetings, and transparent processes, the HHS Board would never get away with their takebacks, wage cuts, and abusive dealings with worker leadership. We ask that you dissolve the Board and bring us under a more accountable and transparent leadership. We will hold our elected officials responsible for what happens at Hennepin Healthcare. Thank you