As of this writing, the Department of Health has advised its unions that 233 people are directly impacted by the cancellation of federal grants. 57 of those are contractors who were immediately let go. The remaining 176 are full-time employees (FTE) who have contract protections including a 21-day notice period. We are grateful that, so far, no one in MGEC is affected by a layoff. We hope that continues to remain the case. But if circumstances change, we will communicate them as soon as possible and we will fight to maintain the protections of our labor agreement. Those affected FTE ... Read More >>
Newsletters
The Intersection of Funding Uncertainty and Seniority Lists-Position Descriptions- Resumes: Make sure they are accurate and complete!
At most state agencies, your seniority lists are available in your local network. MGEC requests seniority lists on a regular basis, but those requests are not always timely responded to by the agencies. Check your local list to make sure the dates that establish your seniority are accurate. Similarly, your Position Description (PD) should be accurate, up-to-date, and complete. Take a moment to make sure this is all true for you. Work with your supervisor to ensure what you actually do in your role is reflected in your PD, especially if you feel your PD is missing pieces of your ... Read More >>
Beware of MGEC-Sounding Phishing Attempts
We are aware of emails going around that seem like they could be from MGEC board members or other MGEC people. They seem to be scraping contact information from our website to engage people with their nefarious websites. As always, please be careful of who you are responding to with particular attention to email addresses and websites. Make sure the domains are correct (.mgec.org, not a bit.ly or some such) and not suspicious. ... Read More >>
SAVE THE DATE
This year’s MGEC Annual Meeting and Golf Event are scheduled for MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd. Like last year, we plan on having a 9-hole golf tournament with a shotgun start at 2pm at Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale, MN. After the golf event, we will hold the Annual Meeting and Dinner at about 5:30pm. Come for the Golf Event, the Annual Meeting and Dinner, or both! Registration along with additional information coming soon. ... 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 >>