Author: admin

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, January 20th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. MDH Updates Situation update: Cases in Minnesota are  Increasing at a very high rate Currently very underestimated The exact number of cases is quickly becoming less and less meaningful (in part […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, January 13th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. MDH Updates Seeing large numbers of new cases in Minnesota; test positivity rate has jumped up to the highest level of the pandemic, but hospitalization rate has not followed suit (though […]

Dear Colleagues, Today marks one year since we officially won our union. Like many things about Augsburg University, our union is exceptional. We’re the first union of private university staff members in Minnesota history! We organized our union almost entirely during a global pandemic. Like most unions, we organized it from the ground up. It […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, December 9th. Here are today’s meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates: There is an increasing case count in the 18-24 age range: 3,000 last week compared to 2,000/week recent trend. Positivity rate and hospitalization rate have both […]

Dear Colleagues,Over the last several weeks, the Staff Union Bargaining Team has been working on an updated Leave article, including Parental Leave. Monday night during bargaining, the Union Bargaining Team proposed a Letter of Understanding that would allow the University to immediately institute a New Parent Leave Policy.The policy would provide up to 6 weeks of paid leave–separate from your accrued […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, November 11th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates: Cases remain “high” in nearly all MN counties. Campuses are continuing to do well, but the concern is about a large uptick in hospitalization and the […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, November 4th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates: Cases remain “high” in nearly all MN counties – significant recent increases in regional rates. Vaccination now available for children ages 5-11. Updated CDC guidance for higher education.  Vaccine […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, October 28th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates: MDH suggested keeping the masking requirements indoors through the end of November. During the MDH meeting, there was a discussion of what not to use antibody […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, October 21st. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates: 3,000 cases of COVID-19/week in the 18-24 year old range in MN (down from 4,000/week in previous report). Statewide positivity (8.3%) and hospital usage still very […]

Dear Colleagues, The COVID-19 Task Force had a meeting on Thursday, October 14th. Here are the meeting notes from the Augsburg Staff Union representative. Minnesota Department of Health Updates:  There was no general higher education meeting this week.  Updates from Augsburg’s classroom group: Based on their meeting notes, they are looking into advice for institutions on mask […]