Service Employees International Union filed charges against Mayo Clinic Health System on Tuesday evening with the National Labor Relations Board relating to what the union said were retaliatory measures the hospital system engaged in against employees who went on a one-day strike in December.

The new charges allege Mayo “took retaliatory action against Albert Lea employees who spoke out around the strike immediately after workers returned to work,” according to SEIU. “It also highlights that Mayo has refused to engage with the union about ongoing concerns from longtime employees — via the legal grievance process — and is not allowing the union their legally protected communications within the hospital.”

The charge relates to the one-day strike approximately 80 SEIU members took part in. The strike was the result of a conflict based on union objection to a clause that union benefits could change in accordance with a change in benefits for non-union employees. Though the strike was only for one day, Mayo required the workers miss at least one week of work due to one-week contracts the hospital system said it had to sign with replacement workers.

According to the hospital system, it received word “from local media outlets that the SEIU has apparently filed another unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.”

“We have not received a copy of the charge, which suggests to us that SEIU is more concerned with making headlines than they are with trying to make progress at the bargaining table,” said Mayo Clinic spokesman Ricky Thiesse. “Although filing of unfair labor practice charges is a common union tactic, it is nevertheless disappointing considering we have negotiations with SEIU scheduled for next week.”

He said since the hospital system has only heard of the matter through the media and has not received a copy of the charge, “we cannot speak to the allegations.”

“We can share that our primary concern throughout the entire negotiations process is our commitment to our patients, our employees and our community,” Thiesse said. “Mayo Clinic remains firmly committed to the negotiations process. Talks have always focused on finding an agreement that provides the same benefits on the same terms offered to other employees throughout Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System.”

In the SEIU press release, longtime Albert Lea hospital utilities employee Dave Larson said SEIU members want “good jobs and quality health care for our families.”

“But Mayo continues to push their demands that would undermine our jobs and take away health care,” he said. “Now, information is out that when workers stood up and called out Mayo for their un-Minnesotan behavior with a one-day unfair labor practice strike — and were subsequently locked out for seven days — leaders of the group faced retaliation when they returned to work.

“This is wrong. SEIU members are willing to meet halfway — and have proposed many options that would allow for compromise — but Mayo continues to demand that it is their way or the highway.”

Larson said Mayo executives have taken that approach “to the extreme in the behavior described in the most recent NLRB charges. It is beyond time for Mayo to treat their workers, patients and the entire Albert Lea community with the respect we deserve.”

The news came after the NLRB announced in March the union and Mayo will present their sides before an administrative law judge in a hearing slated for July 30 in Minneapolis pertaining to the strike.

Thiesse said the health system “remains firmly committed to the negotiations process.”

“Talks have always focused on finding an agreement that provides the same benefits on the same terms offered to other employees throughout Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System,” he said. “Our benefit proposals have been accepted by 24 of our 26 union groups, leaving only the two SEIU groups in Albert Lea demanding different.”

Negotiation sessions are expected to resume next week.

“We will continue to bargain in good faith, as has been confirmed by the National Labor Relations Board, and we remain hopeful that SEIU will do so as well,” Thiesse said.