Newsletters

This year’s Annual Meeting, Dinner and Golf Event are coming up fast!  We will once again host both events at Oak Marsh Golf Course on Monday, September 28th. The Annual Meeting/Dinner will start at 5:30 pm with social time. Dinner will begin around 6:00pm with the Annual Meeting following the dinner. The Annual Meeting will describe the current year in labor relations between MGEC and the State of Minnesota.  We will hear from Executive Director Tony Kelly and President Benton Campbell.  We will also review the previous financial year for MGEC, outline the budget for the year ahead, and ... Read More >>

Thank you to Bollig Engineering and Interstate Engineering for sponsoring this year’s event.  We’re sure there will be more sponsors to follow.  We appreciate their sponsorship as they bring a lot of fun to the game and help us with the prizes that the winners receive. ... Read More >>

The election cycle for the MGEC Board of Directors will take place pursuant to our Constitution and Bylaws.  The election will be held on Tuesday, November 3rd.  The dates that nominations will be opened and ballots will be distributed will be determined at the August Board meeting; they will be communicated after. Ballots will be sent to MGEC members only!  If you are not a member, support the organization that supports you and don’t let anyone else speak on your behalf.  Join today! ... Read More >>

On Wednesday, August 5th, MGEC and MnDOT held the quarterly “meet and confer” meeting.  These meetings are an opportunity for each party to provide updates of events – and identify and address problems - that are unique to an agency. Discussion highlights included an update from the agency on leadership and staffing changes and an update on how MnDOT employees are using the new Minnesota Paid Leave program.  Regarding the latter, in its report to the meeting, MnDOT indicated that 564 applications for the new leave were received and 340 approved.  Leave requests average 21 days and were most ... Read More >>

MGEC members are in every corner of Minnesota, working in over a dozen different state agencies.  As such, it can be a challenge to come together to hear news about current events or bargaining next year.  Meet with MGEC is intended to meet this challenge with a “townhall” style meeting available to all dues-paying members. It isn’t too soon to position ourselves for bargaining next year as well as develop coalitions across bargaining groups to advance our interests at the bargaining table; coalitions also prevent the employer from finding divisions across bargaining units. Join us on ... Read More >>

As we’ve previously discussed in this space over the last two years, MnDOT seems to be engaged in a pattern of testing wage benefits for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “exempt” employees protected by our labor agreement.  Earlier this summer, the agency announced changes to how worked time is accounted for in the payroll system, which potentially impacts for how time is paid under the MGEC labor agreement.  Some of these changes are relatively innocuous and are necessary to maintain the integrity of grant application data that originates in the payroll system.  But other changes, as written, ... Read More >>