CERP eligibility bargained for DOC/DHS members Negotiators fight to provide MAPE members doing dangerous work with a retirement comparable to other colleagues 

MAPE members who put their lives on the line every day working with offenders living at a variety of state facilities will see an expensive retirement wrong corrected if members ratify the 2023-2025 contract tentative agreement (TA) later this month. 

“Correctional facilities are tough places to work, it impacts on how you see the world. It weighs heavy on you. You always have to be mindful of your surroundings, always listening to what’s going on around you. For eight hours a day you are turning those senses on hyper-drive – it puts a toll on your mental health and your physical health. That’s why early retirement is so important,” Laura Anderson, program therapist at Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee said.  

“Being able to retire at 55 is one of the reasons I stay here. I have lots of other friends who work in my field and have much more flexibility in their jobs and are able to work from home. Being a mom, that flexibility is really important – and to hear that I’d be paying thousands and thousands of dollars more in health care after retiring, I was mad. I would really question whether it’s even possible to stay,” Anderson added.     

The CERP program allows employees to retire early after meeting specific requirements. Members who provide treatment, rehabilitation or services to clients while incarcerated at a state correctional facility, Minnesota Security Hospital and Minnesota Sex Offenders Program will now receive a substantive employer contribution toward health care premiums like members in other unions. This could mean up to $60,000 in health care retirement savings for some employees.  

“This is a significant step in recognizing their lifetime of service and ensuring their post-retirement benefits reflect the value we place on their dedication and commitment,” MAPE President Megan Dayton said.   

“I didn’t know of the CERP discrepancies until a year ago. I was absolutely appalled. We’re working as part of a larger team, some of whom had better coverage under CERP, and we’re doing equitable jobs. We’re in this together, we’re covering for each other but we’re not getting the same benefits,” Jennifer Johnson, clinical therapist with the Minnesota Sex Offenders Program (MSOP) at Moose Lake said.  

Johnson admitted there have been times at work when she feared for her safety or her co-workers’ safety. She said one of the greatest problems at MSOP is the serious understaffing at the facility. In May, an employee was seriously injured when an MSOP client used a heavy object to hit the employee in the head and continued attacking him after he went down. The employee was airlifted to a hospital. A week later, four more staff members were injured in another assault at the facility.  

She said at a recent MAPE Meet and Confer meeting most of the impact statements were about safety. “Members talked about their families wanting them to quit, others said their doctors wanted them to quit for their health. We’ve talked about coming into work and kind of stalling out in our cars in the parking lot, knowing we have to go in despite the anxiety. At home, anxiety is still high, heart rates are still high, we wake up not refreshed. We have earned this full health care benefit through CERP,” Johnson said.  

MAPE members across the state like Jessica Sundberg, a clinical therapist at Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing, advocated for better CERP coverage. Sundberg said she and fellow Local 2001 Steward Kristen Gallo contacted colleagues at the Red Wing facility to make sure they’d gotten the emails, made calls and asked them to contact the commissioner to support CERP and MAPE’s contract.  

“I think it really does go back to the difficulty of the job – the mental strain and the exposure to all of the things we read, we see, it’s almost like there is secondary trauma. It is hard to stick around this career,” Sundberg added.    

“Fixing CERP’s inequity is a huge win. It meant a lot to those of us working in the correctional facilities that MAPE stood up for us,” said Dori Maddox, a case manager at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee. “I want members to know if they have a similar disparity, it is important they bring it to the union so MAPE can help. I don’t want members to be afraid to ask for help if they are in an unsafe situation.”