Service workers at the University of Minnesota are preparing to go on strike following the rejection of the school’s latest labor contract.

Members of Teamsters Local 320, which represents janitorial, maintenance and food service workers, were expected to start halting work Monday night as part of the systemwide strike.

“If we have to strike, we will,” said Grady Johnson, a union steward and gardener at the Twin Cities campus. “We want a fair contract, and we’re very close. I still think, I hope, this can be resolved, and we can go back to our day-to-day being at the university.”

The workers’ strike was to begin at 10 p.m. Monday on the Crookston and Morris campuses and expand to Duluth and satellite campuses early Tuesday morning. Workers at the Twin Cities campus were scheduled to join the strike Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The union’s current contract expired June 30, and negotiations have been ongoing since late March. Union members filed an intent to strike Aug. 7, with initial plans for the strike to begin Aug. 20, just as students were starting to return. The university put forth a new contract — its last, best and final offer — on Aug. 19, and the strike was put on hold so workers could consider the contract.

Votes were held across campuses leading up to last Friday’s deadline, when the contract offer expired. With an 82% majority, union members voted to reject the offer, citing frustrations over annual wage increases and changes to the contract’s expiration date.

“The university likes to talk about all the uncertainties that they’re facing, but we are facing significant uncertainties as workers as well,” said Kayli Staubus, who works as a cook at UMD and served on the union’s negotiation committee. “If there are cuts and belt-tightening that needs to be done, there are other places that can happen, besides our bargaining unit, which is some of the absolute lowest-paid workers on campus.”

In response to Friday’s vote, the university stated that current financial pressures have played a role in union negotiations this year, but it remains committed to prioritizing faculty and staff members.

“The University must balance the needs and desires of Teamsters Local 320 members with the University’s obligation to its many stakeholders to be good financial stewards, particularly given the financial challenges we are facing,” Gregg Goldman, executive vice president for finance and operations at the university, said in a statement released Friday.

As part of their membership, the Teamsters union includes cooks and other food service workers, as well as groundskeepers, janitors, parking attendants, maintenance workers, mechanics and more.

“We are all over campus. Basically, every kind of service position that there is, is performed by Teamster staff,” said Staubus. “So there’s going to be a huge gap in the student experience until the university makes this right. Obviously, we don’t want that.

“We’re out here for a living wage job that people can afford to stick with for the duration, and retire from someday,” she said. “That’s what we’re here to win.”

While the university has stated that it hopes to avoid a strike, plans are being developed to ensure that “vital services” on campus continue if a resolution isn’t reached.

“There’s a lot of frustration at the administration, and a lot of determination that we deserve better, and we’re going to get it,” said Johnson. “I’m personally very proud of my job. I really like my work, and I’m proud to work for the university. And to that measure, it does feel like a bit of a betrayal to get an offer that, I think, really doesn’t give us a fair shake for what we do.”

The university’s last offer included a 3% pay raise and two lump sum payments of $500, to be paid out in fall 2025 and July 2026. Union members would also see a minimum 2% pay increase the following year.

Shift differentials, or added pay for employees working non-standard hours, were also increased as part of the Aug.19 contract. Additionally, the university’s offer included an extension from six to 10 weeks for how long an employee can be on leave before their job is optioned for reassignment.

Concerns over wage increases and the change to the contract end date have become the biggest “sticking points” in negotiations, Staubus and Johnson both said. In the past, the Teamster contract ended in the summer, giving members time to organize outside of the school year. However, in this negotiation cycle, the university has pushed for a December expiration date, with the last offer optioning for a year-and-a-half-long contract, concluding Dec. 31, 2026.

“That’s something we’re not willing to accept, and membership has been very clear,” said Johnson. “We feel this is a maneuver to ensure that we have less leverage bargaining with the university, and given the way they’ve been bargaining with us, we’re not willing to concede on that. So it’s just a non-starter.”

At the start of negotiations, union members asked for a 9% pay increase, after conducting an internal audit that showed several of their most populated job classifications had not kept up with the rate of inflation. Other requests, like increases for weekend shift differentials and free campus parking for workers, were pushed to the wayside during negotiations, said Staubus, to get to this point.

“The tentative agreements that we have come to, there was a lot of compromise involved in those on both parts,” Staubus added. “We have dropped a lot of things that are important to either subsections or the entirety of our membership. … We hoped that the university would recognize all the movements that we’ve made and respond in kind, but it seems that they are digging in. So if they’re here to play hardball, so are we.”

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Royce Lewis was just a couple of months out from knee surgery when the Twins visited the Los Angeles Angels in 2022. He was still on the mend from that same surgery when the Twins visited in 2023. And last year, when the Twins played at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Lewis was dealing with a quad strain.

That made this trip a long time coming for the Southern California native, who kicked off his return home by inviting his teammates to dine at his father’s restaurant, The Winery, on Sunday night after their flight from Kansas City.

“We were excited to do that and have everyone come out and enjoy … what I think is the best restaurant in town — and possibly the world,” Lewis said. “It was just awesome.”

He expects the rest of the week to be, as well.

Lewis, who had a special pair In-N-Out-themed cleats lined with little red palm trees that he expected to wear at some point during the series, grew up about 25 minutes away from Angel Stadium.

He remembers coming to games as a young kid, watching players like Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Gary Matthews Jr. and Torii Hunter, who was on hand on Monday.

Lewis doesn’t remember it, per se, but he attended the 2002 World Series at Angel Stadium, as well. Monday marked his second game at the stadium, as he played once there in high school.

“I’ve been waiting three years to play here, so it’s exciting and (I’m) glad that family and friends could come out and show support,” he said.

Injury updates

Byron Buxton was out of the starting lineup Monday, a day after taking a pitch to the left knee and leaving the game early. Buxton received treatment and was out on the field early on Monday running, but manager Rocco Baldelli said he “couldn’t run the way we wanted him to to be out there and playing.”

“We’re going to take a look at him, get him inside, get him some more treatment and hopefully the discomfort and maybe a little bit of swelling will go down,” Baldelli said.

Baldelli said the training staff relayed that Justin Topa, who left Sunday’s game early with knee soreness, was “doing OK,” but the Twins did not plan on having him pitch in Monday night’s game.

“We’ll see how he comes out of the next day or two and hopefully we can avoid anything IL-related or anything like that,” Baldelli said.

Prospects in St. Paul

Outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez was reinstated from the injured list at Triple-A after recovering from an oblique strain that has kept him out since mid-July. Rodriguez, one of the Twins’ top prospects, has played in just 56 games this season between injuries.

Tuesday should mark the first time he shares the field at Triple-A with top prospect Walker Jenkins, who is set to make his CHS Field after being promoted in August.

Briefly

Jen Pawol, Major League Baseball’s first female umpire, is working the Twins-Angels series. It’s her third series of the season after debuting at the major league level and making history in August. Pawol, who has been a minor league umpire since 2016, is in a rotation of Triple-A call-up umpires who work major league games.

This is a 2024 photo of Royce Lewis of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. This image reflects the Twins active roster as of Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 when this image was taken. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Two motorist from Apple Valley were killed Saturday morning when a driver believed to be under the influence of alcohol struck their vehicle head-on.

Peter Foxvang Olson, 68, and Patricia Ann Olson, 49, both died at the scene of the 11 a.m. crash on Minnesota 56 just north of the Cannon River in Randolph in southern Dakota County, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

A State Patrol report said a 28-year-old man from Kenyon was driving a 2016 Ram 1500 pickup truck northbound in the wrong lane of the two-lane highway when his vehicle struck the 2019 GMC Terrain compact SUV of Peter and Patricia Olson.

The Kenyon man was taken to St. Paul’s Regions Hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening. The State Patrol report said that alcohol played a part in his role in the collision, which remains under investigation.

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CHICAGO — Asked last week about making his NFL debut roughly 30 minutes from where he grew up in Chicago’s inner suburbs, young quarterback J.J. McCarthy shifted the narrative with a perfect response, saying, “Hmm. I feel like home is in Minnesota.”

There’s no arguing with that statement as McCarthy steps into the spotlight as the new face of the franchise. If he’s everything the Vikings think he can be, his home will be in Minnesota for a very long time.

That didn’t stop McCarthy’s hometown of La Grange Park, Ill., from showing up in droves to watch the hometown hero in action.

A few hours before McCarthy took the field for the Vikings against the Chicago Bears, his parents Jim and Megan arrived in the tailgate lot adjacent to Soldier Field. It was something of a grand entrance for them as they pulled up with an entourage of people that also included the parents of rookie left guard Donovan Jackson.

Dozens of JJ McCarthy’s friends and family members gathered for a tailgate ahead of the Vikings quarterback’s first career NFL start in Chicago on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (Dane Mizutani / Pioneer Press)

The next 45 minutes or so featured Jim basically running for mayor of the tailgate lot while Megan served as the welcome committee for a steady stream of newcomers.

There were more than 200 people in the group at its peak, including McCarthy’s longtime quarterback coach Greg Holcomb, as well as dozens of family friends, some who had shifted their allegiance to the Vikings, some who were clearly still rooting for the Bears.

All of them were invested in McCarthy’s success. That much was clear even if he has a new home.

Darrisaw out

After working tirelessly to get himself back to full strength, left tackle Christian Darrisaw was inactive for the Vikings. He was spotted going through a workout with offensive line coach Chris Kuper before a decision was made. 

Though he looked rather spry during his simulated reps, the Vikings decided it was best to give Darrisaw extra time to recover from a surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

In the absence of Darrisaw, veteran left tackle Justin Skule got the start, tasked with protecting McCarthy’s blind side when he dropped back to pass. 

Meanwhile, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, cornerback Kyler Gordon and linebacker T.J. Edwards were inactive for the Bears. All of them are typically starters on defense.

Poor playing surface

A video clip posted by local radio personality Chris Hawkey created quite the stir on social media. It showed the playing surface at Soldier Field looking less than ideal despite being resodded last week.

It wasn’t a good look considering the venue hosted a string of concerts over Labor Day weekend, including shows by Oasis, My Chemical Romance and The Lumineers, then a pair of shows from System of a Down.

Ultimately, the game between the Vikings and the Bears went on as scheduled, meaning the NFL deemed that the playing surface met the minimum standards required to host.

Remembering Annunciation

Members of the Vikings and the Bears wore shirts pregame honoring the victims of last month’s mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

The shirts had the word “ANNUNCIATION” prominently displayed on the front, and the words “BE KIND, BE RESPECTFUL, BE INCLUSIVE, BE MY BEST SELF, BE BRAVE” listed on the back.

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