The announcement by Governor Walz yesterday about the state’s telework policy changing June 1 to require most state agency employees to work in-person for at least 50% of their scheduled workdays each month was as much of a surprise to MGEC as we’re sure it was to you. We only learned about the policy change after hearing about it from your fellow MGEC members. There was no attempt to communicate with MGEC by anyone at MMB, the Governor’s Office, nor any agency about this sudden and significant change. We’re completely blindsided. MGEC and the other union partners met with MMB earlier ... Read More >>
Bargaining Update
The results of the MGEC membership survey are in! We are now in the process of collating and analyzing the results to determine what our membership needs. To those FULL MGEC members who completed the survey, THANK YOU. Your voice is critical as we move forward. MGEC has notified both the State of Minnesota and the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) of our intent to begin negotiations. This is the first step in the bargaining process and lets the BMS know that bargaining is on the horizon, which can be helpful if we decide that we need to bring in a mediator to reach a settlement. It ... Read More >>
Health Insurance Bargaining
Unlike regular contract negotiations where each of the state’s unions negotiates their individual contracts with the State, the healthcare plans offered to employees are negotiated jointly in a coalition. Because having different healthcare plans for each collective bargaining group would lose economies of scale and be difficult to manage, this approach has been beneficial to state employees by using the leverage of a massive pool of insured people to achieve plan offerings that meet people’s needs and are fiscally prudent. Healthcare negotiations run in tandem with normal contract ... Read More >>
Scholarships
Do you have someone in your family studying in a STEM field? MGEC has several scholarships available: the Connie Mentor Memorial Scholarship and the Family Members Scholarship. Applications opened March 1st, and applications will be accepted through June 30th. ... Read More >>
Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement (LPCR) Update
The LPCR held its first meeting of the legislative session on March 11th. It called itself to order and the State’s pension managers made reports. The State Board of Investment had a return of 12.3% through the end of the last fiscal year ending in June. This brings value of the assets of the general employee fund to slightly over $18 billion which, balanced against future liabilities, means that the MSRS fund is 99.8% funded. In the last legislative session, the future assumed rate of return was reduced to 7% to account for potential future volatility in the market and to err on to a ... Read More >>
Potential Effects of Federal Actions
Senior leadership at the State of Minnesota, from Minnesota Management and Budget down through the agencies that MGEC members work for, are all reacting and planning for changes that may occur at the federal level. While there haven’t been any significant actions that have a direct effect on the MGEC as of the time of this writing similar to what federal employees have experienced, State agencies have been directed by MMB to begin conversations with State Unions about potential ramifications through the “meet and confer” model. This is similar to what happened when COVID disrupted state ... Read More >>