State employees strike to start Sept. 17

Posted 9/5/01

State employees strike to start Sept. 17

Members of the largest union of Minnesota state employees have voted overwhelmingly to reject the State's last offer, and have authorized a strike that could begin September 17th.

Over 82 percent of eligible voters cast ballots last week in polling places across Minnesota. Over 90 percent voted to reject the state's last offer. AFSCME officials said the balloting was the heaviest in the Union's history, an increase of more than 50 percent over the vote on the last agreement in 1999, heavier even than it was in 1981, the last time AFSCME struck the state.

AFSCME Council 6 represents six state bargaining units, which include approximately 19,000 state employees. Of that number approximately 16,300 are card-carrying union members, and therefore eligible to vote. 12,249 voted to reject the stateís last offer and authorized a strike; 1,153 voted to accept the state's proposal.

It is important to note that included in those totals are more than 1,700 corrections officers, who are classified as essential employees, and are therefore prohibited by state law from striking. Those officers voted 1,234 to 8 to reject the state's last offer. They will proceed to binding arbitration, unless possible future negotiations succeed.
Council 6 Executive Director Peter Benner said, ìOur members have given a resounding ënoí to the state's offer. We will take that message back to the bargaining table. We hope that the state will look at this vote and recognize that a strike is a real possibility, and come back to negotiations and reach an agreement with us.î

Benner said AFSCME remains committed to the collective bargaining process, and will make every effort to reach an agreement and avert a strike. He said he expects the state mediator to call the two sides back to the bargaining table, possibly as early as September 13th. ìOnly if that effort fails will there be a strike,î Benner said. The final decision to call a strike will rest with the AFSCME Council 6 Executive Board, which will meet early on the afternoon of September 16th.

A notice of AFSCME's intent to strike was filed 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, Sept. 4, with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediations Services. At that time, the union also notified the state of its intent to terminate the current contract. A strike would begin at 6 a.m., Monday, Sept. 17.

The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) will count the mail-in ballots of their members Tuesday, Sept. 4. The 10,600 members of MAPE could join AFSCME Council 6 on the picket line Sept. 17. A combined strike of 30,000 state workers is unprecedented in Minnesota history.

AFSCME Council 6 represents workers from the people who plow the roads to those who stock the lakes with walleyes, from drivers license examiners to the clerical and maintenance workers who keep the state universities running.