3 days ago
Minnesota state workers say they're ready to strike over return-to-office — and other labor news
Members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees picket in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 4. (Photo by Izzy Wagener/Minnesota Reformer)
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: State workers say they're strike ready; Job Corps students face homelessness; Minnesota surpasses 3 million jobs in 2024; and doctors and nurses picket across the state.
State employees picketing outside negotiations between Minnesota budget officials and their union on Wednesday said they were absolutely willing to strike over Gov. Tim Walz's part-time return-to-office order that took effect this week.
'One-hundred percent I would. We can't just roll over here,' said Erin Malone, an auditor for the Department of Revenue, at a demonstration in St. Paul with more than 50 workers and supporters on Wednesday.
The two unions representing nearly 40,000 state workers — the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — are also fuming over the state's health care proposals they estimate will raise many workers' costs by thousands of dollars a year. The administration says rising health care costs leave them no choice.
The soonest state employees could strike is in late summer, once contracts expire on June 30, they complete 45 days of mediation and then provide 10 days notice. The union explained those details in a FAQ for their members posted late last month in another sign that negotiations are headed toward a volatile impasse.
State employees haven't gone on strike since walking off the job for two weeks 2001, but MAPE President Megan Dayton says she's never seen her members so fired up by Walz's unilateral decision to force workers back to the office. Hundreds of workers showed up to multiple demonstrations organized by the union over two days this week.
Under Walz's order, state employees must work in the office at least 50% of the time unless they live more than 50 miles away or receive an exemption. Walz argues the policy will improve collaboration, mentorship and workplace culture, with the added benefit of bringing bodies and dollars back to a forsaken downtown St. Paul.
The policy officially began June 1, but some agencies have delayed implementation as they make space for employees to return. After the COVID-19 shifted office jobs to workers' homes, state agencies began downsizing their office footprint in anticipation of permanent remote work. The Department of Revenue, for example, reduced its leased office space by 35% since 2021, saving $2.45 million annually.
Many workers argue they're more productive at home and complain that the order adds to their costs in parking and gas. Some also question the motive, suspecting Walz could be distancing himself from public unions ahead of another run for governor — or trying to nudge workers off the payroll as the state stares down fiscal uncertainty.
The state has also proposed changing contract language to make it easier to lay off workers in the event of 'fiscal exigencies' such as federal funding cuts, as well as epidemics, natural disasters and national security emergencies.
'I think it's political posturing,' said Christine Retkwa, a data analyst at the Department of Human Services. 'It can't be collaboration if we've been more productive… It's not to save costs.'
Walz's relationship with public sector unions, which have historically been an important political ally, have soured rapidly since he announced the policy in March without consulting the unions. The union compared Walz to Elon Musk, and Walz did not invite anyone from the union to attend his State of the State Address.
Tens of thousands of students at Job Corps centers across the country are facing homelessness after the Trump administration's Labor Department announced it will eliminate the vocational training program for low-income teenagers and young adults.
'You don't hit the ground running, you just hit the ground period. Straight homeless – nothing. Just straight into the ground,' Tyrone Bills, one of more than 150 students at the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center in St. Paul, told Fox 9.
Last Friday, the Labor Department gave students a week's notice to move out and abandon their free training to fill jobs in manufacturing, construction, law enforcement, health care and other high-growth industries.
The department later extended the deadline, and then a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from killing the program. By then, many students had already moved out.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, once an advocate for Job Corps, justified eliminating the $1.7 billion program because of 'serious incidents' as well as high costs and low student graduation rates.
Just 38% of students graduate, with an average cost of more than $80,000 a year, according to the agency. The National Job Corps Association disputed these figures, saying graduation rates before COVID-19 have historically been above 60% while the cost is less than $50,000 per enrollee.
Minnesota continued to have one of the country's strongest labor markets in 2024, adding 40,000 non-farm jobs to push the state above 3 million jobs for the first time, according to the second annual State of Working Minnesota report from the labor-backed think tank North Star Policy Action.
In the Midwest, Minnesota has the highest median wages, the highest share of workers in unions and the highest rate of health insurance coverage. The state also has the lowest unemployment rate for Black residents in the region and the lowest fatal injury rate on the job.
Wage inequality also declined, while union membership increased by nearly 7% (although this can fluctuate from year to year due to imprecise data, and the general trend has been down for unions.) Support for unions is near historic highs, and that's helped nearly triple the number of union elections over the past five years, according to the report.
It wasn't all good news: unemployment ticked up while the median wage moved down from $26.43 to $25.52 in an unusual break from a nearly exclusive upward trend.
There is also cause for concern, according to report author Aaron Rosenthal, given federal Republicans' drive to reduce spending on health insurance for the working poor to offset some of the costs of tax cuts largely benefitting the wealthy.
Working families are increasingly reliant on health insurance through Medical Assistance, the state's version of Medicaid. The number of people insured through Medical Assistance in families with at least one full-time worker increased 165% over the past 15 years.
In rural areas, roughly 18% of adults and 37% of children are insured through Medical Assistance, compared to 15% of adults and 30% of children in the Twin Cities metro area.
National jobs data released on Friday showed hiring has slowed as Trump's trade war and federal cuts have put employers on edge, with nearly all of the 139,000 job gains for the month being concentrated in health care and hospitality. The federal government lost 22,000 jobs.
In a first for Minnesota, newly unionized doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners picketed outside several Allina clinics on Tuesday as negotiations stalled over a first labor contract. (It was an informational picket and not a strike.)
Frustrated with what they describe as factory-style health care, the clinicians voted by a wide margin to unionize with Doctors Council SEIU in October 2023, forming the nation's largest private-sector doctors union with more than 600 members across 60 Allina clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
But since then, union leaders say they've made little progress toward finalizing a first labor contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions — despite meeting with hospital leaders nearly 40 times.
'We're not seeing Allina come to the table with meaningful proposals,' said Dr. Chris Antolak, a family physician, outside Allina's clinic in Coon Rapids.
Unionized nurses also took to the picket lines outside 11 hospitals in the Twin Cities and two in Duluth in their push for greater staffing levels to protect themselves from workplace violence and improve patient care. The Minnesota Nurses Association is negotiating contracts covering roughly 15,000 nurses at seven of the state's largest health systems.
Contracts expired on May 31 at St. Luke's and Essentia in Duluth and will expire at the end of this month at Twin Cities hospitals run by Allina, Children's, M Health Fairview, HealthPartners and North Memorial. Union president Chris Rubesch has said a strike is on the table.
