After five bargaining sessions comprising forty hours of face-to-face interaction at the bargaining table (and countless hours preparing for bargaining), MGEC and the State of Minnesota have reached a Tentative Agreement (the “TA”). As of this writing, the state just sent us the “redline” of the new contract that will be the precise language that you will see in the final contract, if approved by the MGEC membership. We are currently reviewing the redline. This is a frustrating but critical step in the negotiation process: too many times, in previous bargaining cycles, language items that we fully expected to be in the final agreement contained errors or was missing altogether. We also want to test the wage tables to determine that they are accurate.
Here’s what you can expect in the coming days:
- We are reviewing the redline. Once we determine that is accurate and complete, we will send it to our full-paying members. If all goes well, that will be early in the week of the 17th. If you’re not a member of MGEC, HAVE A SAY in your future by becoming one!
- We will include a summary document of the changes to the contract. The summary will be easier to digest than the redline. We will also include a communication from the MGEC Board– your peers who direct MGEC’s work – that characterizes the Board’s perspective about the Tentative Agreement – whether the board encourages a “yes” or “no” recommendation, or whether it abstains from a recommendation on your vote.
- We will schedule a “Meet with MGEC” virtual townhall meeting open to all MGEC members. This will be the place to learn about the details of the TA and ask your questions. We expect that the Meet with MGEC meeting will occur later in the week of the 17th – watch for another communication with a link for the meeting
- After our “Meet with MGEC” meeting, we will email ballots to MGEC full members. Pursuant to our constitution and bylaws, the voting period will be open for 7 calendar days.
We know that this is a frustrating time to be a state employee. Once again, we’ve seen inflationary pressures supersede wage growth and we’ve lost some of the workplace flexibility that was essential to survive the COVID era. But the defining issue in this contract period is healthcare. The SEGIP plan has experienced financial pressures well beyond anything that was anticipated, and there is no sign that they will abate anytime soon. Working with the other state unions, the highest priority for this bargaining cycle has been to maintain the cost-sharing model between the employer and the employees. Remember, when we began healthcare bargaining, the state wanted to put 100% of the new costs on to employees. Premiums, deductibles, copays, and other out-of-pocket expenses would have soared. Beyond the immediate economic effect, that would have been a shift that would have disadvantaged employees (and devastate some) for the long-term future. We kept that from happening. If you’re “wondering where the money went”, it went to healthcare.
There are some very strong positives coming in this TA. The MGEC Bargaining Team was successful in using data and lived experience to persuade MMB negotiators that they needed to improve our contract. We left no stone unturned and were tenacious about pushing the state as hard as we could. We are excited to share them as soon as possible!