Unions decry state lawmakers’ move to close Stillwater prison

May 23, 2025 by

Corrections officers and other Stillwater prison workers are demanding that state leaders reconsider their plan, announced as part of a bipartisan budget agreement earlier this month, to close the facility by 2029.

That is, if they have a plan.

Members of AFSCME Council 5 and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees say the state should have consulted them before making the announcement, which impacts about 560 workers and 1,200 offenders housed at the Washington County facility, which is actually located in Bayport.

Instead, union leaders said, they got a call about 15 minutes before the news became public May 15.

“I find it hard to believe that this chip that was put on the table at the 11th hour wasn’t discussed thoroughly before it got put on the table,” Council 5 Executive Director Bart Andersen said. “There had to have been various conversations about what could the implications of this be. Did anybody think about that? Because if they would have asked us, we would have had a laundry list of concerns.”

Those concerns include how the state’s other prisons will absorb inmates from Stillwater – and do it safely.

“If there are 1,200 beds within the Minnesota Department of Corrections, we would like to see where those are,” Dan Gorman, who has worked as an officer in Stillwater for 20 years, said during a Capitol press conference the day after state leaders’ announcement.

Gorman added that the roughly 450 AFSCME members who work at the facility had been told by management that the prison’s population would reduce by half over the next “two or three years” before closing in the fourth year. Stillwater’s level-four security designation means that it can house the state’s most serious offenders.

“Now you start sending those (offenders) to other facilities, overpopulating those facilities, and it makes it very dangerous for the inmate population and for the staff that work in those facilities,” Gorman said.

Jeff Larson, chair of Council 5’s corrections officer council, said workers across Minnesota’s prisons were bracing for the impact of closing the system’s second-largest facility.

“Moving hundreds of staff and offenders across the state with no clear-cut plan?” Larson said. “That’s dangerous.”

Prison workers also expressed concerns for their careers, their families and the local community.

“I’ve had co-workers in tears,” Gorman said. “I’ve had seasoned officers coming to me and telling me they don’t know how much more of this they can take. And I’ve had new officers questioning whether they made the right choice joining this department at all.”

MAPE President Megan Dayton, whose union represents caseworkers and other workers in the DOC, said the community members deserved transparency and a chance to offer feedback before lawmakers arrived at the decision. Instead, they got “another behind-closed-doors decision.”

“That is not planning; that is scrambling,” Dayton said.

State officials argued that the prison has become less safe as it has fallen into greater disrepair. Its backlog of deferred maintenance projects would cost an estimated $700 million to address, according to a state analysis issued five years ago.

But Gorman pointed to a list of low-cost security improvements rejected by the agency in recent years, and Andersen said the state could invest in keeping the 111-year-old prison, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“This Capitol is not brand new,” Andersen said. “The Governor’s Mansion is not brand new. There’s a brand new Senate building. There were capital investments to make sure all those facilities are up and running and renovated and maintained. Why can’t that happen with Stillwater?”

The news about Stillwater prison came as Walz’s administration was negotiating new union contracts with MAPE and Council 5’s state-employee locals, covering over 40,000 employees.

Those talks got off to a contentious start this spring after the governor unilaterally changed the state’s policy on remote work, giving thousands of workers mere months to plan for a partial return to the office.

Union leaders said they expect better from Walz and other elected officials who claim to support labor and law enforcement, but hope there’s still time to reverse course.

“You love to stand next to us when we have our uniforms on and take pictures with us and claim you support us,” Gorman said. “This is a moment to have your vote match your words or your social media posts.”

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State workers fired up over Walz’s telework order as contract negotiations begin

April 25, 2025 by

Members of AFSCME Council 5 lined the sidewalk outside the St. Paul office where their bargaining team held its first negotiations session with the State of Minnesota.

State employees say Gov. Tim Walz’s new return-to-work order, handed down abruptly in March and set to take effect June 1, has galvanized union members just in time for contract negotiations this spring.

Talks covering nearly 40,000 members of two unions, AFSCME Council 5 and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, got underway earlier this month. Both unions, which are bargaining at separate tables with Walz’s team at Minnesota Management and Budget for now, held early-morning actions on their first day of negotiations in St. Paul.

Workers lined the sidewalk outside the office building to welcome their bargaining teams – and put the state on notice that they are paying attention.

The state’s telework policy was top of mind for many workers at the events. Revenue examiner Nico Montas, 23, said Walz’s announcement, delivered without notice to or consultation with MAPE or AFSCME, was a “shocking” call to action.

Although he was covered by AFSCME Local 2829’s bargaining unit, Montas wasn’t even paying dues before the governor announced changes to the telework policy. Within a month, he had signed up to become a union steward, completed the training and organized more than a dozen of his colleagues to join Local 2829, too.

That’s momentum, Local 2829 Vice President Spencer Abbe said.

“We’ve got a bunch of people out here who have never been involved before,” Abbe said at the kickoff event, adding that many state employees consider the governor to be an ally at a time when public-sector workers are facing unprecedented attacks.

“It wasn’t a slap in the face, it was a stab in the back,” Abbe said. “We’re already feeling attacked on all sides, and to have that come from (Walz) felt like a sneak attack. It was really disappointing.”

Union negotiators pledged to hold the governor’s team accountable for its previous commitments to public services. That means respecting and compensating the workers who deliver them.

Members of AFSCME Council 5 formed a “gauntlet” to welcome their negotiators – and the employer’s – to the first day of contract talks covering about 18,000 workers.

“We are fighting for fair wages, fair benefits, fair insurance – and we will stand for nothing less,” Council 5 Executive Director Bart Anderson said.

But while unions came to the table with proposals to address workers’ concerns, MAPE President Megan Dayton said, MMB’s proposals sought to strip them of their union rights and protections.

“MMB’s proposals take aim at the foundations of workplace stability, weaken union representation, undermine due process and, most cruelly, strip away rights that protect employees during layoff,” Dayton said. “At a time when we are seeing hundreds of layoffs and we know more are coming, the employer chose to bring proposals that would accelerate harm.”

At the AFSCME rally, Montas said he is holding out hope that the state’s posture changes as bargaining plays out.

“If we can’t get any sort of wiggle room on being able to work from home, I’m hopeful that we can get better pay, some sort of reimbursement for travel time or parking,” Montas said. “You would expect that would be a minimum, but, unfortunately, it seems like that may be a reason they want people to go back – so they can extract as much money from us as possible.”

If that’s the case, Abbe, who works in public records, fears that many state workers – concerned about parking costs, accommodations for people with health conditions and losing the flexibility to care for their families – will abandon public service.

“We show up every day to serve people because we believe in what we do,” Abbe said. “We aren’t out here to get rich.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Minnesota unions praise historic legislative session

May 24, 2023 by

Gov. Tim Walz spoke to supporters before signing 12 budget bills into law.

In a historically productive legislative session that ended on time Monday, labor-endorsed lawmakers delivered on nearly all their campaign promises, from investments in public infrastructure and schools to expansion of family-supporting benefits, union rights and workplace protections.

Union activists and leaders were among hundreds who celebrated the session’s accomplishments today on the Capitol grounds, as Gov. Tim Walz held a signing ceremony for 12 budget bills that will fund state government for the next two years.

Walz likened the newly approved budget to the “Minnesota Miracle” of 1971, when the state drew nationwide acclaim for investing in public education.

“If this is ‘Minnesota Miracle 2.0,’ the difference between then and now is … we’re leaving no one behind,” Walz said.

Labor leaders praised Walz and DFL legislators for rising to the occasion created by a projected budget surplus that swelled to $17.5 billion – thanks, in part, to one-time federal stimulus dollars that Republicans blocked the state from allocating one year ago.

After winning all three levers of power – with support from union volunteers – during the 2022 election, DFLers invested the surplus in infrastructure projects and jobs, schools, nursing homes and targeted tax relief for working families, including an expanded child tax credit that will return up to $1,750 per child to lower-income families.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, former director of the Minnesota Children’s Defense Fund, said the budget is “deeply rooted in equity and decades in the making.” She credited organizers and activists who have devoted years to fighting for policies that will soon become law, like earned sick and safe time and paid family leave.

“We have played the long game,” Flanagan said. “And we won.”

Children and families will also benefit from $2.26 billion in new funding for Minnesota’s public schools over the next biennium. The 10.5% increase will help school districts cover rising costs – and recruit and retain educators and other employees. And the budget allocates $600 million to hire and retain child care teachers.

Walz and DFL lawmakers focused on issues that matter to workers and families, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said, noting that their work stands in contrast to Republican-controlled chambers in other states that have sought to ban abortion, weaken child-labor laws and meddle in school curriculum.

“While other states are putting 14- and 15-year-olds to work on assembly lines, Minnesota is making sure parents have the time and resources to care for and sustain their families; while other states ban books in our schools and libraries, Minnesota is making sure no student goes hungry at school; and while other states make it harder to vote, Minnesota is expanding our Democracy to make sure every eligible voter has the freedom to make their voice heard,” Burnham said.

Public works, transportation and other infrastructure will see historic investments as a result of the session, putting members of unions like the Laborers to work for years to come.
Education Minnesota members praised a 10.5% increase in school funding.
SEIU Local 284 celebrated extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees.

Walz is also expected to sign a $2.3 billion infrastructure deal that contains a mix of borrowing – a so-called “bonding” bill – and cash investments. It would be the first bonding bill the state has passed since 2020.

Sen. Sandy Pappas, the lead author, said the measure “will create thousands of well-paying union jobs and ensure businesses have the infrastructure they need to build in Minnesota for years to come.”

On the Capitol grounds today, Walz gave a shout to people in hard hats throughout the crowd. “All of these good union jobs have built the middle class and built Minnesota,” he said. “It is going to continue that way.”

In addition to historic investments approved this session, Minnesota lawmakers took up several policy changes long sought by union members, including an extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees, a ban on private prisons and a new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board with the authority to set standards like pay and benefits.

Lawmakers expanded and strengthened union rights, enshrining public-sector workers’ ability to bargain on non-economic issues like safe staffing and class sizes, giving workers in the newly legalized recreational cannabis industry a path to collective bargaining and banning “captive audience meetings,” in which workers are forced to listen to their bosses’ religious, political or anti-union views.

Funds allocated this session will also bolster the state’s film industry tax credit, raise pay for home care and nursing home workers and strengthen public pensions.

A measure to address hospital staffing shortfalls, however, fell short of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s expectations. The bill established new safety protections and recruitment bonuses for health care workers, but it left out language that would have would have required hospitals to create labor-management committees to determine appropriate staffing in their wards.

Support for a safe staffing law dwindled after Mayo Clinic threatened to withhold investments in its Rochester campus if it passed.

“I hope Minnesotans know how hard nurses fought for your care and safety,” MNA President Mary Turner said. “And I hope corporate executives and our public officials know that our fight is not over to put patients before profits in our health care system.”

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Unions say Minnesota’s new labor board is ‘superior in every way,’ but its future remains uncertain

June 9, 2021 by

As negotiations over a new, two-year budget come down to the wire, Minnesota lawmakers this month will determine the fate of a newly opened state agency dedicated to keeping public-sector labor disputes out of court.

Public-sector workers and their unions are pushing lawmakers to fully fund the Public Employment Relations Board, which began accepting unfair-labor-practice complaints from employers, unions and employees in July 2020.

Previously, those complaints would land in district court, where they might languish for a year or longer as parties on both sides racked up legal fees.

In a press conference today, union leaders and DFL legislators called the PERB a faster, more cost effective and accessible way to settle charges of unfair labor practices in the public sector.

“It is superior in every way to having to litigate a dispute about whether the district violated (labor law) in court,” St. Paul Federation of Educators President Nick Faber said, noting that the district’s legal fees take “resources out of the classroom.”

When they established the PERB in 2014, state lawmakers modeled it after the National Labor Relations Board, charged with upholding federal labor law in the private sector. Rather than going to court, private-sector workers and employers file any charges of unfair labor practices with the NLRB.

Delores Flynn, a home care worker from Roseville, said members of her union filed a complaint with the PERB last year, after growing frustrated with a lack of clarity from state agencies over how a temporary pay increase related to the pandemic would be administered. Workers’ complaint received a hearing last month.

“Whatever the ruling is, there was a fair process for both sides – the union and the state agencies – to make our legal arguments and be heard,” said Flynn, a member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “That is how it should be – not just for us in home care but for all public-sector workers.”

But like most issues that unions pushed lawmakers to prioritize this year, funding for the PERB is caught in a standoff between the DFL-controlled House and the Republican Senate.

In their omnibus jobs bill, House DFLers signed off on the agency’s funding request of roughly $1 million over the next two years. But Republicans’ version of the bill would defund the PERB and explicitly direct public-sector complaints back into district court until July 1, 2023.

In today’s press conference, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler Winkler slammed Republicans for “being held hostage to an ideological agenda that opposes organized labor.”

Rep. Mohamud Noor, lead author of the House bill, said Republicans refuse to acknowledge the efficiencies the PERB offers both for public-sector workers and for the cities, counties, school districts and state agencies that employ them.

“This is truly a more innovative process,” Noor said.

Lawmakers are set to return for a special session next week. They must pass 14 budget bills into law by June 30 to avoid risking a state government shutdown.

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In contract talks, state workers beat back health care concessions, win raises

July 7, 2015 by

Project1_Layout 1After reaching a tentative agreement with the state July 1, members of two public-employee unions are set to vote this month on a two-year contract that includes annual raises of 2.5 percent.

Bargaining teams from both Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees recommended members vote “yes” to ratify the 2015-17 contract, according to articles published on the unions’ websites.

Wage increases included in the tentative agreement would offset an increase in employees’ share of health care costs – though not nearly as steep as the increase sought by state negotiators.

AFSCME and MAPE said their bargaining teams beat back $74 million in proposed takebacks, including a proposal to increase employees’ health insurance premiums. Instead, state workers would see a modest increase in out-of-pocket costs like co-pays and deductibles under the proposed contract.

“Even though the tentative agreement does increase health care costs in a few areas, the contract’s pay increases more than offset those costs,” AFSCME Council 5’s statement said. “Even members who pay the maximum out-of-pocket insurance costs will come out ahead by the end of the proposed contract.”

MAPE said state negotiators’ opening offer included raises of just 1 percent annually. “MAPE negotiators battled back, unwilling to accept any pay increase that would not more than offset the increases being proposed to the health care plan,” the union said.

“The governor’s team dropped their most onerous health care proposals after hearing from seven MAPE and AFSCME members who shared their personal stories with Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans… Each member spoke of how detrimental any serious increases to out-of-pockets or premiums would be for them and their families.”

The tentative agreement also includes a compromise regarding the unions’ proposal to expand paid family leave. If approved, the state would “establish a task force to assess opportunities for paid parental leave for all employees of the State of Minnesota,” according to MAPE.

In addition to wages and benefits, the tentative agreement includes several language changes suggested by union members, AFSCME said.

The contract covers nearly 17,500 AFSCME members and 13,000 MAPE members employed by the State of Minnesota.

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Unions: Surplus more proof Minnesota is on right track

February 27, 2015 by

mnaflcioMinnesota’s projected $1.9 billion state budget surplus, announced today by Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans, is proof that progressive policies pushed by DFL lawmakers over the last two years have helped foster economic growth, the state’s unions said.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor federation, representing more than 300,000 union members, said the surplus is the result of reforms made by DFLers in 2013 and 2014.

“Nearly two years ago, Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislators passed a budget that erased a long-term deficit while investing in jobs and education by asking the richest Minnesotans to pay their fair share in taxes,” Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter said. “Today, Minnesota’s state budget has a nearly $2 billion surplus and our economy is leading the nation.”

AFSCMECouncil5Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, the state’s largest union of public employees, said the surplus “comes from more Minnesotans working than ever before and from more of them earning higher incomes than ever before.”

“It proves that fair taxes, decent wages, and wise investments in jobs and education have helped Minnesota create the 5th fastest growing economy in the nation,” he added.

But labor leaders warned against calls from some lawmakers to “blow the surplus on tax breaks for billionaires and big businesses,” Seide said.

Instead, lawmakers should pass a budget bill that makes needed investments in transportation, Seide said.

“We need a 10-year plan with new revenue to repair our crumbling roads and bridges and improve our transit system,” he said. “Using the budget surplus and other short-term solutions is a band-aid on a problem that gets more expensive with each year of delay.”

Dayton will present his budget proposal to the Legislature on March 9.

The budget forecast issued today increased the projected state surplus by $832 million. Dayton said he would propose dedicating about half of those funds – $444 million – on universal pre-kindergarten and a higher-education tuition freeze.

“I propose that we invest our collective good fortune in our collective better future, in education and transportation,” he said. “For ourselves, for our children, and for our grandchildren. And for the generations that will follow. Since we may not have the same opportunities in the years ahead, it’s even more important that we do it now.”

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Unions: Dayton’s State of the State provides roadmap to a better Minnesota

February 7, 2013 by

capitolMinnesota Gov. Mark Dayton’s State of the State address last night drew glowing praise from the state’s union leaders, who applauded the DFL governor for his honesty, vision and commitment to middle class families.

“In his address, Gov. Dayton rolled out a strong, reasonable path to a better Minnesota, a brighter future for our state,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, which represents more than 12,000 state workers. “Minnesotans finally have a governor who is willing to take the bold steps needed to achieve tax fairness, invest in education and strengthen the middle class in this state.”

Addressing a joint session of the House and Senate, Dayton reiterated his support for a balanced budget that mixes spending cuts with strategic investments in education, infrastructure and vital services to bridge a projected $1.1 billion shortfall over the next biennium – and pay back the $1.1 billion borrowed from public school districts to balance the current budget.

Dayton also called on legislators to pass a tax reform bill that restores fairness and balance to the system, while protecting the middle class. He pointed to a recent analysis by the think tank Minnesota 2020 showing “middle-class Minnesotans pay 26 percent more state and local taxes per dollar of income than do the top one percent of our state’s income earners.”

“Making taxes fairer requires asking more of those citizens and corporations who now pay less than their proportionate share,” Dayton said. “Today, more and more hard-working, middle-class Minnesotans believe that the state’s tax structure is unfair to them. And they’re right.”

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, called Dayton’s honest approach to solving the projected budget shortfall refreshing, particularly after “a decade of billions in cuts to education, health care and vital state services, tax giveaways to big corporations and the rich, and budget gimmicks” at the Capitol.

Eliot Seide, executive director of the 43,000-member AFSCME Council 5, said Dayton is “honest about what he wants to buy with his budget, and he’s courageous about how he wants to pay for it.

“No more kicking the deficit down the road,” Seide added. “No more gimmicks and games that pass the buck to future generations.”

The question now is whether legislators will follow the governor’s lead. The answer likely won’t come until after the state releases its next economic forecast Feb. 28.

“Legislators have important choices to make that will impact all Minnesotans,” Knutson said. “Gov. Dayton has provided them a roadmap that leads to a better Minnesota.”

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Union agenda includes minimum-wage hike, privacy protections for Minnesota workers

January 29, 2013 by
Meslissa Tesora, a physical therapist and member of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, supports raising the state minimum wage to $10.55 to make the middle class more accessible to people in low-skilled jobs. “People want to work, but the current minimum wage makes it prohibitive for less-skilled workers to support their families and attend school – and ultimately attain higher-skilled jobs," the St. Paul resident said.

Meslissa Tesoro, a physical therapist and member of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, supports raising the state minimum wage to $10.55. “People want to work, but the current minimum wage makes it prohibitive for less-skilled workers to support their families and attend school,” the St. Paul resident said.

Emboldened by victories won at the polls in November, the state’s largest labor federation will push an ambitious legislative agenda that calls for hiking the state’s minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits for locked-out workers and expanding the freedoms and protections Minnesotans enjoy in the workplace.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents more than 1,000 affiliate unions and more than 300,000 members statewide, unveiled its “Agenda for Middle Class Dignity and Fairness” at a Capitol press conference today.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said the agenda’s “common-sense proposals” – along with the proposed state budget outlined by Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this month – represent a positive alternative to the attacks on workers that marked the previous 2011-12 legislative sessions.

Dayton’s budget “puts middle class families first by recognizing the need for new investments, but also raising revenue fairly to pay for those investments,” Knutson said. But, she added, there are other steps lawmakers should take to “level the playing field” for middle class workers. Those steps include:

• Raising the minimum wage to $10.55 per hour and “indexing” it, so that the rate is adjusted for inflation in the future.

Minnesota has the “unfortunate distinction,” Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Steve Hunter said, of being one of four states with minimum wage rates lower than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. (Five southern states have no minimum wage laws at all.)

Workers in Minnesota can be paid as little as $5.25 per hour, according to the Department of Labor.

Raising minimum wage to $10.55 per hour would restore the buying power it had in 1968.

“Hard work should be supported with a wage that can support a family, and it’s ridiculous to think that someone can support a family at $7.25 an hour,” Hunter said.

• Extending workers’ unemployment benefits for the duration of a lockout – and adding a penalty to the unemployment tax paid by employers who lock out their workers.

“As long as the clock ticks, an employer has an incentive to lock workers out, while also putting a strain on the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund,” Knutson said. “This is what’s happened to the 1,300 employees of American Crystal Sugar.”

Becki Jacobson, who has been locked out of her job by the Moorhead-based sugar beet cooperative since Aug. 1, 2011, said many of her fellow union members opted to leave the region or take early retirement after their unemployment benefits ran out last year.

Knutson said the Minnesota AFL-CIO is working with lawmakers on a bill to hold accountable employers, like Crystal Sugar, that choose to force workers onto unemployment rather than engage in contract negotiations – and also “give employers pause” before they engage in such a war of attrition.

• Protecting Minnesota workers’ credit privacy and workplace freedoms.

Knutson and Hunter said they hope to see two bills introduced in the coming weeks: the Worker Freedom Act, which would give employees the right to walk out of workplace meetings aimed at changing their vote, religion or union affiliation; and the Credit Privacy in Employment Act, which would ban the use of credit checks in employment-related decisions.

“This is really a fundamental workplace protection that all Minnesotans should have,” Knutson said.

Several examples of bosses telling their employees how to vote emerged during the 2012 presidential campaign, most notably the case of a Florida timeshare company CEO, who warned his 7,000 workers via e-mail that layoffs would be the result of a victory for President Obama.

The use of credit checks in employment decisions – from hirings and firings to promotions – is also on the rise. A July 2012 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 47 percent of U.S. employers run credit checks on their job candidates.

The practice creates a catch 22 for job seekers who have faced financial crisis.

“This recession forced many people into financial situations that have impacted their credit scores,” Hunter said. “That credit score can sometimes be the only reason somebody is not a hired for a job that would return him or her back to the middle class.”

Click here to read the full Agenda for Middle Class Dignity and Fairness.

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