Bargaining updates

Recently, MGEC and MMB have reached a tentative agreement on a contract for the period of July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023. Prior to reaching that tentative agreement, we were scheduled for Interest Arbitration September 7-9. Recently, MMB asked MGEC to return to mediation to discuss range reassignments for classifications that require a professional license (engineers and surveyors). They stated that recent data, difficulty hiring, and retirements suggests to them they need to move those classes to the next higher pay range. MGEC encourages them to make those changes they’ve determined merit ... Read More >>

MGEC Tentative Agreement Agreement 2021-2023 The MGEC Bargaining Team has reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) to succeed the 2019-2021 MGEC Contract. “Tentative Agreement” means the Bargaining Team reached a voluntary agreement which it strongly supports for presentation to the MGEC Executive Board for their consideration. MGEC President Corey Mathisen called a special meeting of the Board to hear and act upon the tentative agreement. The Board acted today, (Monday, August 1, 2022) to have the TA be sent to full members with recommendation to approve it. Once final language of the ... Read More >>

Arbitration is scheduled for September 7-9. We continue to prepare information for the hearing. The arbitration determination will likely be made in October/November of 2022. It’s likely that backpay is not given until sometime in 2023. MGEC secured James Lundberg as arbitrator for the Interest Arbitration of the MGEC contract for 2021-2023. The hearing will be Sept. 7-9. The arbitrator may allow two more weeks for briefs to be submitted. If that happens, we may have an arbitration award by mid to late October. Then MMB would have a week to submit the award to the legislative Subcommittee ... Read More >>

Is there is any timeline set for when the contract will be signed? It’s likely to be January 2023. How the backpay is calculated? Backpay is typically provided for hours worked from the effective date of the contract (likely to be July 1, 2021 to the date of implementation).  More information will be provided by MGEC to help you estimate this value in the future.  Please remember that this is taxable income.  An employee may make adjustments to their tax withholdings for the pay period in which the backpay is paid. Why are none of the union contracts renegotiated before the ... Read More >>

Our contract continues to move along in the process toward arbitration.  The next steps in the process are to select an arbitrator and set dates for arbitration.  A list of 7 potential arbitrators has been provided to MGEC and the State.  We research past cases that they’ve arbitrated and each side gets to eliminate 3 options from consideration.  The last one remaining will be our arbitrator.  We will work with that person to set dates for arbitration; as of now, it’s looking like the arbitration may not occur until June or July. Recently, 4 issues were certified for arbitration meaning ... Read More >>

What’s new? January 18th the Subcommittee on Employee Relations of the Minnesota Legislature passed contracts and plans for employee groups in the Minnesota State university system. They also passed Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) pertaining to use of sick leave related to COVID-19 and to increase the amount the employer reimburses employees for safety footwear from $125 to $175. MGEC believes the MOU is unnecessary and places arbitrary limitations on the amount reimbursed to the employees. We didn’t agree to it and the employer continues to limit reimbursement to $125 for MGEC. We believe ... Read More >>