In consultation with its employees and their unions, this nonprofit healthcare system has created model initiatives designed to set industry standards in communication, cooperation, and the provision of quality care.

In Partnership With: ADIT, IUOE, MNA, SEIU

Empowering healthcare employees to improve patient care

Although unions have been present at Allina Hospitals & Clinics for more than 60 years, the emergence of a strategic alliance with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 113 in February 2006 signaled a new era in Allina’s relationship with its employees.

The strategic alliance, modeled in-part after 2005 Labor Day List employer Kaiser Permanente’s labor-management partnership, brings together employees and managers to collaborate on patient care, health and safety issues, organizational goals and operations, and employees’ healthcare plans.  One integral component of the alliance is its stance on giving employees a free and fair choice to form and join unions, as Allina management pledges to stay neutral during organizing campaigns.  Just one month after the agreement was announced, 127 technical workers at Allina’s Unity Hospital formed a union with SEIU.

Allina hopes to significantly improve the patient experience in its hospitals by encouraging employee input.  The strategic alliance creates a framework for an open dialogue between workers and management in which both parties work together to improve hospital care.  Employees participate in decisions depending upon their degree of interest and level of expertise.  Through this process, employees will be involved in the design of their 2007 healthcare plan.

In addition to having a voice at work, employees in the alliance enjoy the best wages and benefits of any hospital workers in the Midwest, according to SEIU.  The contract provides an 8.5 percent wage increase for employees, and families save up to $2,000 in healthcare costs each year.

“We are setting standards that all hospital systems should be working toward,” said SEIU Local 113 President Julie Schnell.

Unlike other hospitals in the Twin Cities area, Allina’s strategic partnership allows the company to avoid costly and time-consuming labor disputes, leaving more resources for improved hospital operations and patient care.  “Old adversarial models of labor-management relations are outdated,” according to Richard Pettingill, Allina’s President and CEO.  “By involving employees in all stages of decision-making, Allina can improve quality of care and make the company a better place to work.”