MN Legislature Attacks Public School Employees

“Neither liberty nor property is safe when the legislature is in session” – Edmund Burke

These last couple weeks has seen a flurry of attacks on public school employees at the Minnesota Legislature. There are over 25 bills that weaken collective bargaining rights for public employees. The MN GOP is clearly feeling inspired by the work of Scott Walker and other union attacks across the nation; however, they are smarter than Scott Walker. Instead of a direct attack, they are hearing many bills that nibble around the edges of collective bargaining with a cumulative effect of massively weakening public sector unions. The right to collectively bargain is a basic civil right. Don’t let it be taken away!

Here is a highlight of some of the more important or pressing legislation. The attacks are really on two fronts: weakening collective bargaining and pensions.

 Collective Bargaining:

1.       The Senate passed a bill to freeze school employee wages for two years. Prohibiting any collective bargaining over compensation SF56/HF381 (Thompson/Drazkowski)

2.       Constitutional Amendment for Right To Work – HF65 (Drazkowski)

a.       Eliminates the strength of unions.

b.      Every state with Right to Work has lower school employee wages and benefits than Minnesota.

3.       HF269/SF250 (Downey/Rosen) – Qualified Economic Offer

a.       If the school board offers a biennial contract that includes a percentage increase equal to the percentage increase in general education formula, school employees may not strike

4.        HF698 (Drazkowski) – Removes Pay Equity, requiring men and women to be paid an equal amount for the same type of job.

Pensions:

On Pensions, they want to increase member contributions by 3% and reduce the employers’ contribution by 3%. This will result in a 3% decrease in wages every paycheck. For an employee making $30,000, they will now bring home $900 less a year.

School employees currently contribute 6.25% of their salary and the school district matches with 6.25%. This legislation would make employees pay 9.25% and school districts 3.25%. The average PERA member earns less than $1,000 a month in retirement. Our pension plan is strong and our benefits have been paid with our money.

To read more about the pension attacks click here.