President’s Corner May 2022

May 13, 2022 - The legislature will be in session for only another ten days, and the final push has begun to ensure our labor contracts are approved this year. Yesterday we worked with other unions to organize a press conference to raise the voices of state workers at the Capitol to call on the Senate to pass our contracts. Inter Faculty Organization of Minnesota State, Minnesota Nurses Association, and Teamsters represented the other workers. Check out the resulting stories in the Duluth News Tribune, MN News Connection and Star Tribune.

Last year, we negotiated the contracts within the biennial budget appropriations made in 2021 and therefore already funded.

In an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in March, the House approved HF 3346, the  2021-2023 contracts for government employees. The Senate has yet even to schedule a hearing on the contracts. It is essential to contact your senator. Contact your Legislators to ask them to support our agreement.  

MAPE members have worked tirelessly to keep Minnesotans safe and the State government running over the past two years.  

Thousands of our members served on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, often at significant risk to themselves and their families. Governor Walz recently signed the Frontline Workers Bonus Pay legislation. MAPE formed our own taskforce of Frontline workers and, in coalition with other unions, secured $500 million for nearly 670,000 frontline workers. We fought for almost a year to get this agreement.

The bonus checks are estimated to be $750 each. You’ll have to apply for this bonus – the Department of Labor and Industry is developing an application form expected to be online in early June. We’ve got more information on our website so check it out at www.mape.org.

This response is what the power of a union can do for its members, just like when we fought a few years ago for paid parental leave and won six weeks of paid time off for employees, both women and men, upon the birth or adoption of a child.

We can accomplish amazing things when we work together. I’m proud to be part of your team.

When Memorial Day comes, I think of another MAPE team member, Brian MacNeill. Brian is a behavior analyst with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA) and works at Minneapolis’s state veterans’ home. 

I met Brian through his work with the frontline workers’ pay task force. Like so many other agencies, it has been all-hands-on-deck at MDVA during the pandemic. 

When their facility was in quarantine and family and friends could not visit Minnesota’s heroes, MAPE members were there to hold veterans’ hands and reassure them they would get through this pandemic together. When asked why he and his colleagues were so dedicated, Brian said it was simple: “These men and women risked their lives to make the world safer. We put their health above our own because it is our turn to keep them safe.”  

As you remember those veterans who fought bravely for our freedoms this Memorial Day, don’t forget to thank those who care for our present-day heroes.

Be safe.

Solidarity,