MAPE & AFSCME announced:
Minnesota’s two largest public employee unions have ratified an agreement with the state that will protect all the rights of laid-off workers while saving taxpayers millions in layoff costs if state government shuts down Friday.
“This agreement protects our health insurance and it ensures that we will be able to return to work with all our benefits intact,” explained Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5 and chief negotiator of the deal. “But, it also means laid-off state workers won’t get severance or vacation checks during the shutdown. Once again, state employees are doing their part to fix the budget.”
If Republicans refuse to meet Gov. Dayton halfway on a budget deal, up to 23,000 state workers will be laid off July 1. It will be the biggest layoff in Minnesota history – at a time when 196,000 Minnesotans already are unemployed. State employees will have the same opportunity as every other laid-off Minnesotan to file for unemployment.
“Minnesota is facing a state shutdown because the Republican Legislative leadership will not compromise with Gov. Dayton for the common good of this state. As a result of the GOP’s unwillingness to compromise, thousands of hard-working, dedicated public employees will be laid off and thousands of Minnesotans will lose the services they depend upon and deserve,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.
“Like most Minnesotans, public workers expect solutions, not a shutdown,” said Seide. “We can’t do our jobs if the Republican majorities refuse to do theirs. They’ll continue to pay themselves while everyone else pays the price for their failure.”
MAPE is a union of 13,000 state workers. MAPE makes Minnesota a state worth calling home. We provide vital services to Minnesotans. Always there working hard for you. We’re a Minnesota union making a great state even better.
AFSCME Council 5 is a union of 43,000 public and non-profit workers throughout Minnesota, including 18,000 state employees. We advocate for excellence in public services, dignity in the workplace, and opportunity and prosperity for all workers.
Good to see that not every employed person is anti-tax!
The poor and the infrastructure need progressive income taxation to make our government work. If the GOP won’t fund government and if after 60 years of continual tax cuts, they can’t compromise…vote them out!