Former employees of Rainbow Health, a local health and social care provider, are seeking explanations from the board of directors following the organization’s abrupt closure last week.
Rainbow Health, which has served and supported the Twin Cities’ LGBTQ+ community for more than 40 years, notified about 80 employees on Thursday that it was closing immediately, and union members said Monday that few reasons have been given since then.
“Nobody was prepared,” Ash Tifa, former legal services program coordinator for Rainbow Health, said Monday.
According to a news release from the Rainbow Health union, which is represented by SEIU Healthcare of Minnesota and Iowa, workers, including 60 members, received an email Thursday morning about an all-staff meeting and were informed of the closure just two hours later.
Tifa said that during an all-staff meeting, staff demanded an explanation for why the store had to close for the day, and the only answer they were given was, “We can’t pay you after today,” Tifa said.
Days before the nonprofit’s closure was announced, CEO Jeremy Hanson-Willis resigned following a unanimous vote of no confidence, according to the union.
Tifa said employees had been calling for accountability and transparency in the run-up to the closures, adding that “a pattern had emerged” of the organization’s leaders “not being able to answer questions about its finances.”
Rainbow Health did not respond to a request for comment as of Monday afternoon, but an automated phone message from the organization said, “Due to insurmountable financial challenges, we are no longer able to continue operations.”
Community impact
Lee Sturt was meeting with clients during an emergency meeting last Thursday.
“We found out a few minutes before 1pm that we had to cease serving around 40 customers by 5pm,” Sturt said on Monday. “There were customers in the waiting room and staff crying in the hall.”
Ms Sturt, who has worked as a psychotherapist at Rainbow Health since 2019, said the sudden closure has further traumatised people who are already traumatised.
Rainbow Health’s origins in the Twin Cities date back to 1980, when volunteers started the Minnesota AIDS Project, which focused on providing a support network and information for gay and bisexual men at the height of the AIDS epidemic. It eventually grew to include a formal referral network in the early 2000s and merged with Rainbow Health Initiative in 2018, briefly becoming Just Us Health, before being renamed Rainbow Health in 2021.
“For many of the clients we see, this is the only safe place and support they have,” Start said.
As a result, some former Rainbow Health employees are providing pro bono services to clients, such as helping with meals and transportation, while they sort out their next steps, Sturt said.
On Friday, the day after the closure, Tifa hosted a name-change clinic that more than 50 people attended, Start said.
“There are thousands of people affected by this and we want and deserve an explanation,” they said. “Our customers deserve better than this.”
Next steps
In addition to the response, the union is demanding paid vacation for employees and the 30-day notice period that was specified in the contract but was not given, which Tifa calls a severance notice period.
The union is currently trying to contact the board to discuss its demands. The board, which said it would respond on Monday, has not yet done so, Tifa said early Monday afternoon.
Uzoamaka McLaughlin, a former medical case manager coordinator for Rainbow Health, praised the union on Monday, saying, “This platform has given us a voice. Without the union, I don’t know who would be speaking for us.”
Rainbow Health Workers voted to unionize in early 2022 due to alleged racial discrimination and retaliatory firing practices, McLaughlin said.
In an open letter to the community in 2022, Rainbow Health staff wrote that they had witnessed instances of “symbolicization and exploitation of Black staff by Rainbow Health management,” “potential/perceived retaliatory termination of employment against those who challenge Rainbow Health management’s treatment of staff,” and “hostile shutdown tactics that create a culture of uncertainty and fear among staff.”
McLoughlin also said the union held its “best meeting ever” in December and that the outgoing board had recommended that the new board meet with the union within three months. But despite repeated requests, the meeting never took place, McLoughlin said.
“I don’t even know who to ask,” McLaughlin said. “Who should step down this fall?”
Caleb Hensin contributed to this story.
First published: July 22, 2024, 5:21 PM
