As this Northeaster was going to press, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Local 363. The union, which represents golf course workers, arborists and park maintenance staff, confirmed it was back at the bargaining table and setting the stage for a return to work.
A quick solution to the strike by MPRB employees failed July 24 when the board, by a 5-3 vote, chose not to allow a resolution on the agenda that called for an end to the strike.
Commissioner Becky Alpert made the motion for the resolution calling for the park board to accept the wage and language agreements that both sides had previously agreed to.
“It’s high time for this strike to end,” Alpert said. “This is a pragmatic, common-sense solution. We need to get our workers back to work. It’s time to become an employer of choice again.”
After the vote, the hundred or so union members at the meeting immediately began a chant of “Shame, shame, shame…” A demonstration including continuous chanting and a bull horn continued while the park board tried to continue its business with little success.
The standoff continued for nearly three hours, with Commissioners Billy Menz, who represents Northeast Minneapolis, and Becka Thompson trying to reason with the union audience, with no success.
Menz said the Alper resolution could undermine the board’s negotiating team and could result in the MPRB losing management people. Menz did offer a motion to suspend the rules to discuss asking the board’s negotiating team to resume negotiations immediately. That motion failed.
The meeting was finally adjourned with no business done.
The disruption of the meeting demonstrated the animosity that has developed between the board and its employees.
The strike began July 4, and includes just over half of the 300 members of Laborer’s International Union of North America, Local 363. Negotiations between the two sides began seven months ago.
The relations between the two sides became more rancorous in mid-July when union picketers began stopping delivery trucks from bringing supplies to two restaurants located in city parks. The park board filed an unfair labor practice against the union calling for them to cease and desist from blocking “ingress and egress to facilities.”
In another incident, a striker sat down in front of a park board vehicle, preventing it from leaving the MRPB’s Southside Operations Center, and was bumped by the driver. Another union employee went to the door of the vehicle and “opened it threateningly” according to a statement by the park board. No one was hurt.
All parks have remained open during the strike. Several concerts at the parks have been canceled when union musicians indicated they would refuse to cross picket lines.
This is the first time in the 141-year existence of the park board that employees have gone on strike. The park board’s employees do not work for the City of Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey offered to intervene in the strike, but was politely told by Park Board President Meg Forney no thanks.
The two sides held a marathon mediation session, directed by the Bureau of Mediation Services, on July 14, and Forney said the park board made three counter-offers during that session. She said the union rejected the offers, and that the union offers were more than the park board could afford.
The MRPB asked Local 363 leadership to let union members vote on the last park board offer, and the union reported that 91% had rejected the proposed contract.
The latest park board offer would have given the union workers a 10.25% wage hike over three years, but also wanted language in the contract that would make the operation of the park system “more efficient and productive.” The offer would have cost the park board $4.6 million.
The union rejected the language and said it would cause “irreparable harm to workers.” Local 363 Business Manager A.J. Lange said the proposed language would limit the role of union stewards, and would allow the park board to change the way employees moved up the salary steps.
The sides have also chosen to disagree on what had been agreed upon. The park board said a market adjustment (cost of living) clause was still in limbo, while Lange said the language was accepted by the union.
The Northeaster inquired about the removal of downed trees after a storm on July 14, and the park board responded that even with a full staff, the park board removal of limbs and trees often takes a while, and that the work is underway.
The park board spokesperson said the agency had received 415 tree-related calls since the storm, and 256 requests had been completed. She said the park board often receives help from the city and from Xcel Energy.
The union has also filed two unfair labor practices charges against the park board during the contract negotiations, one back in December 2023 when the board issued a rule saying employees could not speak critically of the MPRB. Another was filed this month when the board threatened a lockout of union workers. The board reversed itself on that threat.
The MPRB is supported by property taxes in the city. For 2024, the levy for the park board totaled $82 million.
In front of Webster School on 5th Street NE, part of a tree took down wires, which in turn splintered the electric pole in a recent summer storm. (Karen Kraco)