Minnesota government workers push for higher pay in union negotiations

Meridith Richmond said she works with some of the most underpaid chemists in Minnesota. The Department of Agriculture employee, who tests water quality, has a second job playing the bagpipes to help cover her bills.

She makes about $32 an hour, but said many of her less-experienced coworkers have it worse, earning less than $25 an hour — the bottom 10% of pay for their fields. Richmond is among the many state employees making the case this week that their pay is insufficient, as two unions enter contract negotiation crunch time. The outcomes will affect roughly 34,500 government workers.

The talks with Gov. Tim Walz's administration come shortly after Minnesota's DFL-led government passed extensive new laws creating or expanding state programs that could require the addition of a couple thousand new employees.

"As a state worker, I am really encouraged by everything the state wants to do," Richmond said. "But I am concerned about the success of all the state efforts and offices the state is going to be opening when we can't hire and retain people right now."

Minnesota Management and Budget, the agency that handles labor relations for the state, declined to comment on ongoing negotiations. Commissioner Jim Schowalter had previously said that while the state cannot pay as much as the private sector, it draws people who want to serve their community.

"We're confident agencies will be able to hire the employees they need to provide current and expanded services for Minnesotans," management and budget spokesman Patrick Hogan said in a statement.

Union conversations have been productive, Walz's spokeswoman Claire Lancaster said Monday, adding: "The governor continues to urge everyone to negotiate in good faith and find common ground."

The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) is one of the two unions negotiating with the state. Their 16,500 members work everywhere from the Minnesota Zoo to prisons to state college and universities to residential programs serving people with mental illness.

The association's latest proposal included a 10% cost of living adjustment in 2023 and another 10% increase in 2024, down slightly from an initial proposal of 11% and 10% hikes. Union members said the state's initial offer was 2% and 1.5%.

The state needs to make up ground after failing to keep pace with inflation, MAPE President Megan Dayton said. Over the past two decades, MAPE data shows their members saw an average cost of living increase of less than 2% each year. There were a handful of years when they didn't get any increases.

Their current contract expires June 30, though Dayton said they could continue operating under their existing contract and keep negotiating after that point.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is also trying to wrap up negotiations that will impact 18,000 state employees from snowplow drivers to clerical staff, said AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Julie Bleyhl. She declined to comment on the size of the increases they want to see, but said members are looking for a much higher figure than the 2.5% annual cost of living adjustments they settled on in the last contract.

Marijke Decuir, an epidemiologist for the Minnesota Department of Health, was among a group of MAPE members picketing last week. She also helped write messages to management in chalk near state buildings. Decuir, president of her local union chapter, has worked for the state for a dozen years.

She said she is frustrated by the Walz administration's low initial offer and frustrated that the DFL governor hasn't taken a more collaborative approach to negotiations this year or in 2021.

"It's been the same as it is under any administration. Which is not what we were hoping or expecting under Walz, who touted himself as being such a pro-labor governor," she said.

While her union's primary focus this year is pay increases, they are pushing for numerous other changes, such as more warning when someone's job shifts from remote work to in-person. Decuir is interested in efforts to increase staff per diem pay to cover their meals while traveling for work.

She has to travel across the country, and sometimes internationally, to provide food safety training sessions. She gets $36 to $44 a day to spend on food, and when she is in places with a high cost of living, Decuir said she won't eat breakfast or will pay out-of-pocket.

"I just saw that the per diems that the legislators get are about double that. So that's disheartening to see," she said.

Legislators can get daily per diem payments of $86.

Richmond, the chemist who works on water quality, said state workers are not just paid less than people in the private sector, they often have lower salaries than those working similar jobs at other public entities, like local governments and the Metropolitan Council.

She works in a laboratory that she said is "stuck in a constant cycle of training" because they aren't able to retain workers. She noted that the pay of professionals she works with — environmental analysts, hydrologists, epidemiologists — lags industry standards in the state, according to Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development data.

While Richmond makes $32.13 an hour, entry-level chemists working for the state can make as little as $21.43. The median wage for that job across all sectors is $42.53, according to the statewide data.

And while the promise of a pension is part of what drew her to work for the state, she said that benefit, which is based on a workers' five highest-earning years, is undercut by the low wages.

"No one goes into a public service job expecting to get rich," Richmond said. "But Gov. Walz himself has said, 'We don't expect to take a vow of poverty.'"