Minneapolis, MN – Around 200 technical workers from Allina’s Abbot Northwestern and Saint Francis Hospitals began a two-day strike at 6 a.m. on Monday, October 5. The workers on strike include diagnostic imaging technicians, medical lab technicians, surgical technicians and others.

The techs are demanding to be paid and receive benefits to stay home and quarantine if needed due to COVID-19 exposure. They work in medical settings where being exposed at work is a serious everyday risk and they deserve to be able to quarantine without loss of pay and benefits, especially given the nature of their jobs, but currently Allina does not guarantee them that right to be able to quarantine while maintaining their physical and economic health.

They are also fighting for increased pay and benefits that would reflect their value to Allina and would bring them up to a level closer to what Allina pays unionized techs in their same positions at other hospitals. This group joined SEIU Healthcare MN around ten years ago and Allina has still not brought them up to parity with other unionized tech groups represented at their hospitals by the same union.

Judy Grock, CT tech at Abbot Northwestern said, “All frontline healthcare workers should get the pay and protections we need to keep ourselves and our patients safe.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #strike #SEIUHealthcareMinnesota #Strikes