Minneapolis Park workers reject latest contract offer; strike continues into 3rd week

On Friday, the Minneapolis Park workers, represented by LIUNA Local 363, rejected the Park Board’s latest contract offer, with over 91% voting against it.

The board and union members have been trying to reach a deal on a new contract for weeks, resulting in the current strike, which began on July 4. That strike was supposed to last one week, but the union announced last week it would continue indefinitely.

The announcement also comes days after the Park Board filed an unfair labor practice charge against striking union members.

“This overwhelming vote leaves no room for doubt,” said AJ Lange, business manager of LIUNA Local 363. “We’re ready to end this strike today, but management needs to stay at the table and show real commitment to bargain. If they step up, we’ll have this resolved in no time.”

Both parties entered negotiations Friday morning for a contract related to seasonal Park Board employees. After several hours, no resolution for that contract was reached and the Park Board continued to insist on provisions in the full-time contract.

Local 363 states they have already accepted the Park Board’s proposed wage adjustment and are willing to accept the proposed wage schedule.

“The remaining issue is the Board’s insistence on anti-worker language that will cause irreparable long-term harm to workers,” said Lange.

The union iterates that since the bargaining initially stalled on July 1, the Park Board has taken “several bad faith actions” that have halted negotiations, including:

• Responded to 94% of Park Workers voting to strike by substantially worsening their offer, including adding anti-worker language, specifically proposed language that would take away union rights to annual wage increases that are currently guaranteed and make them subject to management discretion in the future. This language would enable favoritism, bias and discrimination. Local 363 resisted Superintendent Bangoura’s calls to put the offer up for a vote – it is substantially worse than the offer members voted to strike in response to.
• Threatened to illegally lock out striking workers.
• Assigned Teen Teamworks to striking workers’ duties which exposes young workers, primarily youth of color, to complex labor issues and potentially encourages scabbing (strikebreaking), undermining the principles of fair labor practices and worker solidarity.
• Walked away from the negotiating table on July 1.
• Canceled the July 17 Park Board meeting citing in part the “the seriousness of the on-going Local 363 negotiations”.
• As recent as Friday, the Park Board continued to pursue proposals that are intentionally vague or dense with complicated language to obscure the damage they would cause, including:
  • Steward limitation: Removing all but two union stewards with compromised rights and privileges, placing further restrictions on their activities, and illegally interfering with union business through invasive tracking will make it more difficult to seek fair treatment on the job.
  • Probation: Doubling the probation period.
• Rejected Mayor Frey’s offer to bring both sides back to the table to negotiate a fair contract and end the strike.

In response, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board provided a follow-up statement addressing multiple claims made by Local 363:

• “91% voting against it” – The MPRB does not know how many Local 363 members voted from 5-6 pm at Minnehaha Park last night, July 19, while picketing and an art fair was underway; however, the Star Tribune has reported that “just under half of the union’s nearly 200 full-time, dues-paying members turned out for the vote.” The MPRB has consistently reported that more than half of MPRB’s full-time and seasonal Local 363 employees have been working since the strike began July 4.

• “Local 363 has already accepted the Park Board’s proposed wage adjustment” – The July 19 Local 363 vote was on the MPRB’s July 16 offer, which is $1.4 million less than the Local 363 counter offer. Contrary to Local 363 leadership’s repeated claim, there is no agreement on the wage package, specifically the timing of the market adjustment, and there continues to be significant language differences. The MPRB was in mediation all day Friday with Local 363, but the issues remain unresolved.

• “Take away union rights to annual wage increases that are currently guaranteed and make them subject to management discretion in the future” – The MPRB’s offer to Local 363 park employees includes language for step increases that is the same or similar to the contract approved earlier this year by the City of Minneapolis for Local 363 city workers. The MPRB has an established system-wide annual performance review process that is used for all other MPRB employees who receive annual step increases, which requires a satisfactory performance review for an annual step increase. The MPRB has more than 630 full-time staff, of which the majority are represented by one of ten unions. 

• “Threatened to illegally lock out striking workers” – While it could have legally chosen to lock out workers; the MPRB chose not to and on July 8, the MPRB announced it would welcome all striking employees back to work. In order to keep striking employees from returning to work, the MPRB would have to keep all Local 363 members from working – including the more than 50% who have been working since the strike started July 4.

• “Assigned Teen Teamworks to striking workers duties” – Absolutely false. For more than 40 years, the MPRB has had a youth employment program for hiring, training and mentoring youth from under-represented and/or underserved communities who live in Minneapolis. In 2024, almost 300 youth are participating in the eight-week summer work season.  This summer is business as usual for the program – nothing extra or different is being asked of youth workers due to the Local 363 strike.

• “Walked away” – Local 363 Leadership has repeatedly stated the MPRB has “walked away from” or “walked out of” negotiations. This is not true. During mediated negotiations since July 1, the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) releases both sides. Park officials have only left after being released by BMS. After 11 hours of negotiations, BMS released the MPRB and 363 at 12:01 am July 2 after Local 363’s contract expired. More recently, on July 16 and July 19, after a full day of negotiating, the Bureau of Mediation Services came in and released both the MPRB and Local 363 representatives.

• “Steward limitation” – The MPRB’s offer to Local 363 park employees includes language for union stewards that is the same or similar to the contract approved earlier this year by the City of Minneapolis for Local 363 city workers, language that is currently in other MPRB collective bargaining agreements. The MPRB is trying to limit the number of stewards the MPRB will pay to do union work. The City of Minneapolis approved Local 363 contract allows one union steward to be paid for work on union matters.

• “Probation” – The MPRB offer aligns the probation period for newly hired full-time Local 363 employees to be 12 months to match the 12-month probation period for all other full-time, civil service positions at the MPRB. Local 363 is the only group of employees that currently have a six-month probation period.