ST. PAUL - The strike by clerical, technical and health care workers at the University of Minnesota is on, including at the school's Crookston campus.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees confirmed its members would go on strike today, the second day of fall classses.
AFSCME Local 3800 President Phyllis Walker says the strike will continue until the university improves its offer.
The strike announcement was expected after the union rejected the latest contract offer, and no new talks were scheduled.
Overall, the university says its offer would have provided 94 percent of AFSCME employees with at least a 4.5 percent pay increase each year of a two-year contract.
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The union calculates the university's offer at 2.25 percent per year for clerical and technical workers and 2.5 percent for health care workers.
The university says on its Web site that it has contingency plans in place to keep the university operating during a strike.
In Crookston
A total of 36 University of Minnesota-Crookston employees will be on the picket line today, officials said.
The 36 Crookston employees represented by AFSCME plan to picket outside every university entrance beginning at 7:30 a.m., said Angelika Huglen, president of the Crookston local and a senior administrative specialist in the university's food service unit. Huglen said the picketing will continue throughout the day and until university administrators and union officials reach a compromise.
"We're hoping to show our strength and to show the university we're able to stand up for what we believe is right," Huglen said.
Huglen said she thinks clerical and technical workers are even more indispensable to the university's Crookston campus than to the main Twin Cities campus because the university's small size means each employee wears many different hats.
The striking employees represent roughly 15 percent of the university's 239 faculty and staff, UMC spokeswoman Krista Lemos said. She said supervisors of each university unit have created plans to reassign work or shift employee duties to cover the work not being done by striking employees.
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Those strike plans will be updated and altered depending on how long the strike lasts, she said.
"The campus is taking the strike seriously," Lemos said. "We anticipate being able to service our customers and continue fulfilling the university's mission."
UMC's AFSCME employees work in a number of departments across the university, Huglen said, ranging from employees in the registrar's office to lab technicians and computer repair workers.
