Here are updates on public employee negotiations (all the contracts involved expired June 30):
Teamsters Local 320
Members who work at the University of Minnesota ratified their new contract in voting in September, Secretary-Treasurer Sue Mauren said. The contract includes across-the-board and step increases that total 8.5 percent over two years, Mauren said, and lump-sum payments to help employees offset costs in the university's four-tier health plan.
The contract covers 1,300 workers at all the university's campuses, including food service employees, custodians, maintenance workers, mechanics, parking lot attendants, drivers and agricultural specialists.
Minnesota Government Engineers Council
A tentative contract agreement reached Sept. 23 now goes to the union's board of directors for a recommendation, executive director Dana Wheeler said. He declined to release details until they could be shared with members, but said a ratification vote likely will take place by mid-October.
The proposed contract covers 750 state engineers.
Middle Management Association
Middle Management Association supervisors approved the 2005-2007 tentative agreement with the State of Minnesota with 1,007 members voting "yes" and 126 supervisors voting "no." This represents an approval rating of 89 percent of those voting. Approximately 51 percent of MMA members voted in the ratification election.
The contract covers 2,800 supervisors in state government agencies. It provides an across-the-board raise of 2 percent retroactive to July 1, plus another 2 percent on Aug. 23, 2006.
The delay in next year's pay raise helps finance a permanent change in policy that allows supervisors at the top of their pay scale to convert up to 40 hours of unused vacation time each year into deferred compensation, said executive director Gary Denault.
The contract also retains progression pay increases, and increases differential pay, uniform allowances and other types of supplementary compensation for particular classifications of employees, Denault said.
Minnesota Nurses Association
A mediator will enter negotiations Oct. 6 on the contract that covers registered nurses working for the state, said Linda Lange, a business agent for the Minnesota Nurses Association.
The nurses' main push is to eliminate mandatory overtime and to increase wages in order to make state agencies more competitive with the private sector, she said. Those two issues are largely responsible for the fact that more than half the RNs who work for the state ? 380 out of 750 ? have left in the past four years, she said.
"Mandatory overtime is detrimental to the nurses' work life and directly related to the quality of care they can provide," Lange said. "You can't think straight if you're working that long, if you're working 16 straight hours."
The state, she said, argues that eliminating mandatory overtime "would diminish its flexibility."
Lange said the state is offering the RNs a 2 percent pay raise, "but we really have not focused on wages yet."
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Despite receiving $107.5 million in new funding from the state, MnSCU administrators are doing little to reverse a slide in faculty compensation that a MnSCU task force says has made salaries uncompetitive nationally, said Inter Faculty Organization president Nancy Black.
Faculty salaries for the 3,100 instructors at the seven state university campuses rank only at the 60th percentile nationally, Black said, far short of MnSCU's own goal of the 80th percentile. "We realize they can't immediately jump there," Black said, "but the economic proposal we just received is quite disappointing."
Among the results: more than 50 unsuccessful attempts to fill faculty vacancies in the past year, faculty attending retirement workshops in unprecedented numbers, and a growing list of unmet student needs, she said.
"They have to realize that education is the economic engine of Minnesota," Black said. "When your salaries are at the 60th percentile; what does that say about quality, excellence and maintaining Minnesota's reputation as an education state?" Negotiations are scheduled to resume in October.
Michael Kuchta edits the St. Paul Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail him at advocate@stpaulunions.org
Share
Here are updates on public employee negotiations (all the contracts involved expired June 30):
Teamsters Local 320
Members who work at the University of Minnesota ratified their new contract in voting in September, Secretary-Treasurer Sue Mauren said. The contract includes across-the-board and step increases that total 8.5 percent over two years, Mauren said, and lump-sum payments to help employees offset costs in the university’s four-tier health plan.
The contract covers 1,300 workers at all the university’s campuses, including food service employees, custodians, maintenance workers, mechanics, parking lot attendants, drivers and agricultural specialists.
Minnesota Government Engineers Council
A tentative contract agreement reached Sept. 23 now goes to the union’s board of directors for a recommendation, executive director Dana Wheeler said. He declined to release details until they could be shared with members, but said a ratification vote likely will take place by mid-October.
The proposed contract covers 750 state engineers.
Middle Management Association
Middle Management Association supervisors approved the 2005-2007 tentative agreement with the State of Minnesota with 1,007 members voting “yes” and 126 supervisors voting “no.” This represents an approval rating of 89 percent of those voting. Approximately 51 percent of MMA members voted in the ratification election.
The contract covers 2,800 supervisors in state government agencies. It provides an across-the-board raise of 2 percent retroactive to July 1, plus another 2 percent on Aug. 23, 2006.
The delay in next year’s pay raise helps finance a permanent change in policy that allows supervisors at the top of their pay scale to convert up to 40 hours of unused vacation time each year into deferred compensation, said executive director Gary Denault.
The contract also retains progression pay increases, and increases differential pay, uniform allowances and other types of supplementary compensation for particular classifications of employees, Denault said.
Minnesota Nurses Association
A mediator will enter negotiations Oct. 6 on the contract that covers registered nurses working for the state, said Linda Lange, a business agent for the Minnesota Nurses Association.
The nurses’ main push is to eliminate mandatory overtime and to increase wages in order to make state agencies more competitive with the private sector, she said. Those two issues are largely responsible for the fact that more than half the RNs who work for the state ? 380 out of 750 ? have left in the past four years, she said.
“Mandatory overtime is detrimental to the nurses’ work life and directly related to the quality of care they can provide,” Lange said. “You can’t think straight if you’re working that long, if you’re working 16 straight hours.”
The state, she said, argues that eliminating mandatory overtime “would diminish its flexibility.”
Lange said the state is offering the RNs a 2 percent pay raise, “but we really have not focused on wages yet.”
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Despite receiving $107.5 million in new funding from the state, MnSCU administrators are doing little to reverse a slide in faculty compensation that a MnSCU task force says has made salaries uncompetitive nationally, said Inter Faculty Organization president Nancy Black.
Faculty salaries for the 3,100 instructors at the seven state university campuses rank only at the 60th percentile nationally, Black said, far short of MnSCU’s own goal of the 80th percentile. “We realize they can’t immediately jump there,” Black said, “but the economic proposal we just received is quite disappointing.”
Among the results: more than 50 unsuccessful attempts to fill faculty vacancies in the past year, faculty attending retirement workshops in unprecedented numbers, and a growing list of unmet student needs, she said.
“They have to realize that education is the economic engine of Minnesota,” Black said. “When your salaries are at the 60th percentile; what does that say about quality, excellence and maintaining Minnesota’s reputation as an education state?” Negotiations are scheduled to resume in October.
Michael Kuchta edits the St. Paul Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail him at advocate@stpaulunions.org