President Forrest Hasty | Vice President Corey Mathisen | |||
Past President Mohammad Dehdashti | Treasurer Gene Hicks | |||
Secretary Laura Lyons | Director Heather Gardner | |||
Director Jason Hedeen | Director Kevin Joyce | |||
Director Mike Kruse | Director Blake Nelson | |||
Director Steven Oswald | Director Jason Radde | |||
Director Mark Trogstad-Isaacson | Director Victor Vasas | |||
Executive Director Dana Wheeler | Robert Haag, Labor Relations | |||
Call to order
Meeting was called to order by President Forrest Hasty at 3:35 pm.
Agenda
Motion to approve the agenda Mark Trogstad-Isaacson, Victor Vasas seconded the motion. Motion passed by unanimous Teams vote.
Secretary’s report (approval of prior meeting minutes) (Laura Lyons)
The minutes from the May meeting were reviewed. Blake Nelson made a motion to approve the May minutes with one name edit, Victor Vasas seconded; motion passed by unanimous Teams vote.
President’s report (Forrest Hasty)
- MGEC Board news
- Executive Committee
Met on June 2 to discuss face-mask policy for the building. Decided to follow CDC guidance.
- Annual Meeting
- Action item: Dana will send a calendar invite to members for the virtual meeting scheduled for Monday, August 30, before the July board meeting.
- Communication Practices
- Board members should be mindful of who they’re emailing. For example – if an email is for a committee, make sure all the committee members are on the email, and just those members. Double-check email addresses to make sure we’re not emailing non-board members with similar names. Don’t reply-all when a response is only required to go to one person.
Anything we don’t want communicated ‘publicly’ (for example, negotiations, bargaining, finances, grievances, etc.) should go to personal emails rather than work emails.
- Discussed the recurring problem of MGEC Constant Contact emails going to people’s junk and quarantine folders, similar to what happened two years ago. Reminder from when this last happened almost two years ago:
- We can send out instructions for checking quarantine and adding MGEC to the safe-senders list, but many members will not read that email or do the follow-up leg work; we need a more substantive solution.
- Directly emailing all ~1000 members from the mgec@mgec.org account or another “@mgec.org” account is not a viable solution. When Kari tried this the State system and Outlook itself flagged Kari as a spam risk and she was locked out of her email account instantly by Microsoft.
- Heather submitted an IT ticket in 2020 to get MGEC’s Constant Contact email address safe-listed on all members’ emails but Mn.IT declined to help.
Additional actions that have been taken on this issue thus far:
- BizzyWeb (MGEC’s website designers) is reviewing our recently-sent emails to see what could be flagging State SPAM filters.
- Dana contacted Commissioner of MMB and the lead Negotiator in the upcoming negotiations to request their assistance. They sometimes request that we provide general information to members rather than providing it themselves, so the state needs to revise its SPAM filters to make that communications partnership happen.
- Dana reached out to all the unions we work with and heard back from three other unions (AFSCME, MAPE, MMA), both of which seem to be using proprietary email programs.
- Action items: Laura submitted a new ticket to try to get Mn.IT’s broad help. Dana will reach out to additional unions to see how they contact members. Dana will try a different email subject line along the lines of “Member Update – date” to the board and see if that goes through State SPAM filters better, since that type of subject line is what Kari had been using prior to this problem recurring.
Committee Check-in
- Communications/Social Committee (Corey, Gene, Heather)
Action items:
- Dana will send out invite to the golf outing to general membership now that the golf outing date is set, Oak Marsh promised not to aerate the course until after our golf date, and the event is listed on Oak Marsh’s website.
- With Kari gone the Communications committee will review emails before they are sent to membership. Any of the Committee members can review drafts. The Committee will have approx. 48 hours for review, or Dana may include a faster deadline he’s trying to meet when he emails the Committee.
- Committee will decide a Chair, and Co-chair if desired.
- Once Kari’s backfill is hired, they will draft written member communication for review by Dana and/or the President prior to being sent to members.
- Promotional/Recruiting Committee (Kevin, Blake, Corey, Mohammad, Victor)
In her continued part-time status while we backfill her position, Kari is still contacting new represented non-members with new-to-MGEC information. We should reach out to these new staff with more “face-to-face” interaction in addition to Kari’s initial email.
Action items:
- Committee will split a list of new represented non-members up by which board member or local representative will contact them. (This may require routine Committee meetings to follow-up on outreach progress and assign new represented non-members outreach as hiring picks up again.)
- Technology/Education Committee (Corey, Heather, Jason H., Kevin)
No updates.
Action items: Continue reviewing P.E. class reimbursement requests as they come in.
- Legislative Committee (Laura, Forrest, Jason R., John Siekmeier, Mark, Dana)
Forrest drafted a “Representative Position Description,” provided to board members via email on June 14. Jason R. made a motion to approve the Representative PD, Corey Mathisen seconded; motion passed by majority email vote on June 15. MGEC Policy III was updated to refer to the new Position Description. The MGEC website was updated to include the new PD with existing board member PDs (available under “Leadership Resources” at the bottom of any page in the blue “Stay Informed” section).
Action items: Continue updating other policies to reflect current practices.
- Member Advocacy Committee (Dana, Forrest, Mark)
Reviewed a situation where the Committee was trying to decide if MGEC would want to file a grievance for a member.
- Negotiations Committee (Dana, Corey, Forrest, Blake, Jason R., Jeff Southward, John Siekmeier, Kevin, Mike, Mohammad, Thomas Villar, Victor)
The team has met several times to prepare opening proposals. We could’ve opened on June 24th, but MMB declined to give their opening proposals that day. This was not ideal because then MMB could change their opening proposals based on what we presented. Our July 19th date was also canceled because it was given to MAPE instead.
The team and MMB agreed to reschedule our negotiations opening day to July 28th. This is after MAPE’s “push week,” so we may know what across-the-board rates MAPE is offered. Thus far MMA and MAPE haven’t had any negotiating proposals accepted by MMB, which is highly unusual for how far they are in their negotiations. This may or may not affect how MGEC negotiations proceed. Further updates and options will be discussed as negotiating proceeds.
MGEC currently has negotiating scheduled for July 28, August 31, and September 2. MGEC lawyer, Jim Michaels, is available all three of those days. The nursing and education unions have not been able to schedule any dates yet with MMB.
Insurance bargaining is getting closer to being resolved. It is a year-round process where some things get tabled and sent to Joint Labor Management Committee to resolve and decide outside of bargaining.
- Finance Committee (Gene, Mohammad, Blake, Laura, Victor)
No meeting this past month. Updates in the Treasurer’s Report.
Executive Director’s Report (Dana Wheeler)
- Potential Layoffs pending State FY2022 funding approval
The Legislature passed many FY22 Agency omnibus bills (i.e. funding) over the weekend of June 26-27, 2021. MGEC members without funding as of the June 28 meeting were Military Affairs (which received funding after the meeting but before the end of FY2021). Governor Walz signed the omnibus budget bills after the June 28 board meeting but before the end of FY2021.
Prior to omnibus bills being passed and signed, each Agency handled potential MGEC layoffs differently. Thirty-day notice layoff letters were sent to all members, but not all Agencies sent the one-week notice layoff letters also required by the contract. In one-week notices employees were advised of their contract rights in the event of a layoff. They were asked to make choices pertaining to bumping, claiming, vacation, and severance within a few days of receiving the notice. This lead to discussions between MGEC, Agencies, and MMB about contract interpretation. Questions included the nature of the layoff, temporary or seasonal; when vacation is paid out or could employee choose to leave it with the employer during layoff; would severance be due, if yes, would it be paid in cash (normal for layoffs) or paid to a Health Care Savings Plan (normal for non-layoff situations). As of this board meeting MMB had not responded to these MGEC statements/questions of contract interpretation or questions about employees filing for unemployment during a layoff.
- MGEC Building update
Tenancy is full, but one office will soon be vacant.
- Staffing Update
Out of the nearly two hundred applications received, Dana has found a few promising applicants based on the MGEC job description and compensation available/requested. Dana had phone or video conversations with those applicants to talk about the position, MGEC, their interests, background, and compensation requirements.
Unfortunately, COVID return-to-work efforts, the potential shutdown, and prepping for negotiations have drawn attention away from hiring a new MGEC Administrative Specialist (Kari’s backfill). Accordingly, interviews by Dana, Forrest or Corey, and Laura or Heather still have to occur.
- COVID-19
- If Agencies find out an unvaccinated employee is not following the MMB policy of wearing masks indoors if unvaccinated, the Agency will be forced to take disciplinary action against said individual.
- A member reached out with concerns about returning to the workplace while unvaccinated coworkers may go unmasked, and not being allowed to telework 100% of the time. They requested that MGEC release an official statement on masking and vaccinations as they relate to returning to work.
We discussed how individual Agencies are enforcing telework rules and policies differently while still having to provide safe work environments consistently. The board decided not to release an official statement on masks/vaccinations, and continue to work to address concerns individuals have with their employer and resolve inconsistencies that we see across Agencies and regional office, like we do with many grievances, arbitrations, etc. We will reiterate to members to please keep us up-to-date on any inconsistencies they see or hear of so we can work to address them.
We understand that there are instances of people not having internet connectivity at home or having at-home work environments that are unsuitable for productive telework; nonetheless, as a union and government we spent 15 months focusing on maintaining staff safety, so there should continue to be flexibility and support for folks’ safety concerns moving forward, especially considering how well most staff performed work from home, and we will continue to encourage HR implement MMB policies consistently across Agencies and regional offices.
Treasurer’s Report (Gene Hicks)
- Review monthly finance report and approve of a budget for FY2022.
- Monthly Financial Update
In 2020 the board set a goal of investing $100k of MGEC’s savings in mutual funds rather than the Certificates of Deposit that all MGEC’s savings were previously invested in. The last $10k to meet this goal is scheduled to be invested in July.
- Contingency Planning for ‘New’ Staff Health Insurance Coverage if State Shutdown had happened
Background: In the event of a State shutdown and MGEC member layoff, our contract requires that the State continue paying the employer portion of members’ health insurance for those with >3 years of continuous classified state service. MGEC could potentially cover the employer portion of health insurance for those with <3 years of continuous classified state service.
Board members suggest that a future board in this situation compile a list of the potentially-affected members and contact them ahead of time. We recommend they describe the potential scenario if a shutdown is looking likely; if able to cover the Employer-portion of health insurance, recommend the affected members apply for Cobra once laid-off; and request the affected members’ personal email (since State email would likely lock out all laid-off State employees on 7/1) to coordinate paying for/reimbursing that service.
- FY2022 Budget for Approval
Gene Hicks made a motion to approve the FY2022 budget as sent to the Finance Committee on June 2, 2022, and shared over Teams at the June 28 board meeting, Victor Vasas seconded. Motion passed by majority Teams vote.
Past President’s Report – (Mohammad Dehdashti)
More negotiations preparation discussion.
Vice President’s Report (Corey Mathisen)
Last meeting Corey offered to help review Administrative Specialist job applications to help speed up the hiring process; that offer still stands.
Other Business:
- Dana will send Position Descriptions to board members and negotiating committee members who haven’t signed them yet. Deadline will be set as July 12, prior to next negotiating meeting.
Adjourn: A motion was made to adjourn by Jason Radde, Kevin Joyce seconded. Passed by voice vote at 5:44 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Laura Lyons Dana Wheeler
Secretary Executive Director