At the beginning of the contract negotiations process, AFSCME Council 5 members submitted more than 700 contract proposals and were engaged every step of the way. After going through all of the proposals and through the State Employee Policy Committee process that is run by members, for members, proposals were presented to the State in the multi-unit negotiations and separate supplemental negotiations.

After a hard-fought contract campaign, the AFSCME Council 5 multi-unit negotiations team, which was elected by their respective memberships, reached a Tentative Agreement with the State of Minnesota. For the first time in more than 30 years, your bargaining team secured double-digit raises that will make a real improvement in our members' lives, in addition to historic insurance benefit increases, dozens of wage inequities for hard-to-fill or retain positions, doubling our shift differential pay, and so much more. And at the legislature, we secured a fully paid-for reduction of employee-side pension contributions of 0.5% (meaning more money in your pocket).

See the attachments below for additional information related to the contract TA summary, insurance TA, list of approved wage inequities, etc. 

We encourage all of our union members to analyze and assess the Tentative Agreement as a whole package, not segmenting pieces of the agreement alone. 

TA Highlights:

• Pay raises of 5.5% in the first year and 4.5% in the second year for all workers. This agreement secured the highest wage increases we have seen in more than 30 years. 
• Creates a minimum wage of $20/hour for all MN state employees, lifting up thousands of our members who currently earn less than $20/hour, when implemented. This is setting the standard for ALL employers in Minnesota and across the country. 
• Approves nearly 50 wage inequities proposals that our union submitted that will increase the wages of dozens of job classifications, as well as raises for the MnDOT TSS Series.
• On insurance: This agreement is unmatched by the private sector and many other public employers. We held the line on cost to only $1 per month (single) and $7 per month (families). Private insurance and many other employers are nowhere near this small of an increase in premiums. Our union team proudly fought and held the line on cost which means less money our members need to spend on insurance and more money in our pockets. For example, this also includes NO deductible and NO co-pays in order to access mental health services. This is a NEW benefit that almost no insurance provider offers to workers. This is historic for our members. 
• Our union members secured a massive increase in our shift differential pay from the current 65 cents per hour rate, to $2.25 per hour for hours worked from 6 pm-6 am, a nearly 4x increase, in this agreement!

And we secured so much more! Please check out the attached documents for further highlights and information.

Please note: Due to the legislative reforms our union helped pass this session, this agreement, when voted on and if approved by our members, will go into effect WITHOUT a political ratification process at the Capitol that our members have been unfairly subjected to for many decades. Now, under law, once an agreement is reached by both sides and our union approves the agreement then our contract would go into effect without politicians at the legislature potentially holding our union contract hostage.

Our union members should never be treated as pawns in a political chess match at the Capitol!

VOTING

Voting on the AFSCME Council 5 mutli-unit state negotiations Tentative Agreement will commence on August 7th and will be open through August 11th, upon which time the votes will be counted and annouced. 

There will be several options members can utilize when casting their vote on this Tentative Agreement. Voting on the Tentative Agreement is a MEMBERS-ONLY right. Therefore, we highly encourage non-members to sign up for membership by signing up online HERE or calling our Member Action Center at 651-450-4990 M-F 8 am-5 pm and then when you sign up, we want you to exercise your right to vote. 

Voting options include: Online voting through MemberLink, in-person voting locations, and mail ballot (requests for a mail ballot MUST be completed and returned to Council 5 by August 2, 2023 by the close of business to ensure this voting is as accessible and open for members to vote as possible. 

FOR MORE VOTING INFORMATION - 

Click here to access MemberLink for online voting information!