About 240 laundry workers went on strike Monday at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries in St. Paul to protest their loss of sick days.
Members of Workers United Local 150 said they voted down the company's "last, best, and final offer" on July 26.
Despite Monday's walkout, the two sides remained in federal mediation in Minneapolis late Monday afternoon, union officials said.
Employees, mostly Hmong, Latino and Somali immigrants who often work in temperatures over 100 degrees, "poured out of the building at 1 p.m. today, completely shutting down operations at the commercial laundry facility," union officials said.
Cooperative Laundries managers reached by phone Monday declined to comment.
The cooperative provides hospital bed sheets and other linens to health facilities across the Twin Cities including Fairview Hospitals, Hennepin County Medical Center, Allina Health East and Park Nicollet.
"Going on strike is not something we wanted to do, but our workers said, 'Enough is enough,' " said Julie Boots, area director for Local 150. "The company first took away our four sick days a year. I guess they wanted workers to come to work sick despite working with medical linens."
Besides the sick days, the union said the cooperative board demanded an end to a policy that had given workers up to six months of unpaid leave for family emergencies abroad. It also sought the right to alter the labor contract at any time without bargaining and to terminate all labor agreements should the business be sold.
