Union officials announce indefinite strike by Minneapolis park workers

The Minneapolis park workers’ strike will continue indefinitely, beyond the one-week notice period originally set by the union just before the July 4 holiday weekend.

“We are united. We support each other. The unions support us. The community supports us and we will fight until we get a fair contract and the respect we deserve,” said AJ Lang, executive director of Local 363 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).

The union officials’ announcement came Wednesday afternoon during a rally of up to 100 workers and supporters wearing bright orange shirts and carrying picket signs outside the Mary Merrill Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board headquarters at 2117 West River Road.

After seven months of negotiations, nothing has been done since a 16-hour meeting on July 1, Lang said. He publicly called on the park administration to return to the negotiating table, but park administration officials said they presented their last, best and final offer at the last meeting.

The workers who clean swimming pools, maintain playground equipment, clear debris after storms and search beaches for hypodermic needles have been demanding better wages, better health insurance and better safety precautions for years.

The union represents more than 200 full-time employees and over 100 seasonal workers. The Park Authority is a semi-autonomous administrative body in Minneapolis.

The park system is consistently ranked among the best in the country, and its workers have never before gone on strike in the system’s 141-year history.

On Wednesday, workers repeatedly criticized the park administration for allowing wages to fall behind inflation and the salaries of park workers in neighboring cities. At the same time, workers have been under pressure in recent years from housing the homeless, drug abuse and unrest.

“This is the most demanding job in Minnesota for park rangers, but also one of the lowest paying in the metro area,” Lang said Wednesday.

The parks department’s final offer included a 10.25% wage increase and a $1 hourly wage adjustment for many full-time positions, totaling a nearly $5 per hour pay increase. The deal would cost the parks department $4.6 million.

However, the union described the offer as inadequate and said it contained “poison pills” to deny employees automatic pay increases, among other things.

The union’s counteroffer would cost $6.7 million, according to the park administration.

The union began its strike on July 4 — what Lang called the busiest time of the year for the city’s parks system. About 40 percent of the workforce participated, although the number may have increased since then, as many workers were on vacation over the weekend.

Robin Smothers, a spokeswoman for the parks department, said last week that maintenance work was being adjusted to minimize the strike’s impact on park visitors. She said Wednesday that the only disruptions so far have been three canceled outdoor concerts.

Union members said that over time, golf courses and swimming pools could also be closed.

Staff writer Susan Du contributed to this report.