SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives is expected to ratify state employee contracts. Approximately 50,000 state employees are covered under these contracts, and the contracts are currently in effect.
“Our state employees provide essential services for the people of Minnesota — including critical work on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman. “The Legislature should ratify these contracts, which were negotiated in good faith and that have been in place for months. The Legislature gets an up or down vote, and does not have a role in negotiating different terms. A no vote or a failure to act by the House and Senate means pay cuts and chaos for state employee health insurance benefits. There will be a time to deal with the state budget deficit in the future, and decisions may be made that impact future state employee contracts. State employees and the Administration have fairly negotiated these contracts, and they should be approved.”
“We owe it to those who keep our state running — including during a pandemic — to follow through on our promises to them and their families,” said House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. “During this economic crisis, we should protect these essential services and the basic economic security of the people we’re asking to step in to serve all of us.”
State employees include nurses on the front lines of COVID-19, corrections officers, cleaning and sanitation workers, public health workers doing the essential job of testing, monitoring, tracing, and mitigating COVID-19 in Minnesota; and staff that create and administer the conduits of federal and state resources to affected Minnesotans, including small businesses, hospitals, schools, and families.
The costs for the labor agreements were included in last year’s state budget. Failing to ratify these contracts will mean pay cuts for essential workers, putting their wages below employees in similar jobs in the private sector.
“In order for Minnesota to efficiently weather the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s crucial that we support the state employees that keep Minnesota operational – many of them dealing directly with our response to the virus,” said Rep. Michael Nelson (DFL – Brooklyn Park), chair of the House State Government Finance Division. “The contracts for these state employees were in place before COVID-19, they’ve already been accounted for in the state budget, and their ratification is what these hardworking Minnesotans deserve.”