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| Date: | June 1, 2012 | | Contact Name: | Susan Closmore | | Contact Phone: | 651-296-5712 | | Contact Email: | susan.closmore@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| PARRY STATEMENT ON TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON LABOR CONTRACTS |
Waseca- According to an announcement Thursday from AFSCME Council 5 (AFL-CIO), AFSCME and MAPE have reached a “tentative deal on a two-year collective bargaining agreement with the State of Minnesota.”
This announcement comes after nearly 11 months of stalled negotiations between the Dayton administration and labor unions. As a result, state employees have been working under expired contracts, receiving automatic, unnegotiated salary increases.
Now that a tentative agreement has been reached, employees in the bargaining unit vote to ratify the agreement. If ratified, the contract is then presented to the subcommittee on Employee Relations, which must accept or reject the agreement within 30 days. If the subcommittee does not approve or reject it within 30 days, the contract automatically goes into effect.
Subcommittee on Employee Relations Chairman Mike Parry (R-Waseca) sent a letter Friday, requesting a copy of the contract, to the Minnesota Management and Budget Department. The letter is the latest in repeated attempts by Senator Parry and members of the subcommittee to obtain information about the progress of collective bargaining activities with state employees, as afforded the subcommittee by Minnesota statute 3.855.
“Minnesota statute charges the Dayton Administration with regularly advising the subcommittee on Employee Relations on the progress of collective bargaining activities. Given the Dayton Administration's refusal to substantively participate in past meetings it was not surprising that subcommittee members are first hearing about this agreement from union websites,” said Senator Parry.
According to the AFSCME website, the tentative agreement includes a “2 percent pay raise beginning January 2013, plus step increases both years, with modest cost increases to employees for health insurance effective January 2013.”
“It appears that Governor Dayton is once again taking sides with big union interests instead of Minnesota's taxpayers and job providers. As I have repeatedly said, salary increases for state employees are neither supported by this legislature nor appropriate while private sector employees are facing cuts and layoffs. Minnesotans should be alarmed that Governor Dayton is calling for union raises while as many as 24 other states have already implemented a pay cut or freeze for their employees. Republicans took the lead last session and turned what some said was an insurmountable deficit into a surplus, all without raising taxes. I will call a meeting of the subcommittee on Employee Relations as soon as possible to once again keep Governor Dayton from reaching into our taxpayers’ pockets for more money,” concluded Senator Parry.
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