As you no doubt have heard, the Minnesota Legislature has adjourned without passing the budget and spending bills required to maintain continuity of service without the risk of layoffs for MGEC members. While no one is stating that a state shutdown is their goal, the fact remains that planning for a shutdown must take place in the absence of funding bills that pay for services.
MGEC, like the state’s other unions, knows as much as the public about what happens next. The Legislature has passed bills that significantly reduces projected future structural imbalances, including public safety, state government, agriculture, and military affairs bills. But bills on health and human services, higher ed, bonding, taxes, and transportation remain incomplete. If there is a shutdown, it’s difficult to determine exactly what would be shut down.
MMB has informed state unions that it hopes to know the timing and scope of a special session by the end of this week. In the meantime, because labor agreements require notification periods for layoff, it is highly likely that layoff notices will go out as early as June 1st.
MGEC asks two things of its members: first, make sure we have your personal email! We only receive your state email address and have no way to contact our members if they have not provided another email address. Second, let your legislator know that you’d like to keep working AND get paid for your work. That should be an obvious, non-partisan position, but our elected officials need to hear that any talk of a shut down only harms our members and citizens.
While there seems to be momentum to pass required bills in a special session, we must nonetheless be aware of other potential outcomes. We will pass along more as we learn further details.