Around midnight last night, the Senate GOP passed an amended version of the contract ratification bill 34-33. The Senate GOP brought the bill to vote only because of the consistent pressure that all of you and our union colleagues applied on Senators by reaching out, emailing, calling, and demanding action supporting your contract. While we can be thankful the Senate GOP brought a bill to the floor in what I believe was an earnest attempt to find a compromise, I also believe that the amendments they added to the contract bill will be voided due to the Legislature’s inability to amend negotiated contracts. We are proud of the support of the Senate DFL who unanimously voted no to the amended contracts because they recognize that amending negotiated contracts would weaken the bargaining process in the future. I also want to take a moment to thank Sen. Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) who spent a lot of time and energy trying to find a resolution to this very important issue.

We will wait for the careful legal review of the MN Attorney General and the Governor’s staff. The final determination of this process should be completed over the next few weeks.

We envision two possible outcomes:

The language added in the Senate is found to be notwithstanding and the contracts are considered fully ratified due to the affirmative vote of the contract ratification language; or
With the addition of the language by the Senate GOP, the ratification of the contracts is found to be void and the contracts are NOT ratified. If this is the outcome, we would revert back to the 2017-2019 IFO contract. The State would not claw-back any of your hard-earned pay raise for this fiscal year, but the 1.9% or 2% raise you received this year would go away.

In the days leading up to this vote, our members poured in emails and phone calls by the hundreds. We participated in a joint press conference calling on the Senate GOP to take action. It was all of you sharing your stories and advocating for yourselves that made the difference. Thank you!

We will keep our members updated as more information develops in the coming weeks.