Greetings 2822 workers-
Tuesday night around 9:30 pm, your bargaining team came to a tentative agreement (TA) with Hennepin County over the terms of our new contract. As the bargaining team, we put everything we had into our work both at the table and in the worksite and we’re proud to recommend that membership vote to ratify this agreement.
More information will be provided in the coming weeks about when, where, and how to vote along with informational townhalls. In the meantime, please review the summary of the agreement and new wage scales on our website. Please note that we will receive retroactive pay back to 12/29 for our raises.
This tentative agreement is similar to the contract recently ratified by the other AFSCME locals in Hennepin County, but also includes substantial increases to the wage scales for the majority of 2822’s job classes. Here are the basics of our agreement:
PAY
- 3 year contract (2025-2027)
- 4% general salary adjustment (GSA) each year of the contract
- 3% increase for performance evaluation
- Raise to top pay for 18 of 27 job classes, check out the new wage scales
- Retroactive pay to 12/29 (this means that although the contract will not be voted on until mid-January, we will not miss out on wage increases that start in the new year)
- Increases to shift differentials including:
- Evening differential from $1.00 to $1.10 per hour
- Evening differential for Sheriffs Records Coordinator and Public Safety Records Clerk from $1.25 to $1.50 per hour
- Weekend differential from $1.00 to $1.40 per hour
- Increase to multilingual/ sign language stipends
- Increase to Retention Pay
- Increase to County Contribution to Healthcare Savings Plan
- Labor Management meeting to discuss disparities reduction
Equally as important is what was not included in this agreement—on Tuesday we were able to beat back two “poison pill” proposals regarding our grievance procedure. Grievances are appeals to the county for violating the contract or improperly disciplining workers. The county’s proposals would have:
- Limited our ability to bring grievances to arbitration
- Limited back pay to workers who are unfairly fired
- Imposed a 3 month time limit on the hearing of grievances
These proposals were intentionally targeted at our union, due to our effectiveness at defending workers. Getting the county to drop them ensures that our stewards can continue to fight for information and properly argue our grievances.
We fought hard for this agreement: organizing our December 3rd action, sending letters to commissioners, soliciting signatures for our community support letter, and getting out a strike pledge.
Thank you to everyone who was willing to make a huge sacrifice to fight for $30 or more an hour. Special shout out to the Sheriff’s office and service center workers, moms and workers running from one job to the next, and all our workplace leaders who organized their co-workers to stand up for themselves and for a better life.
Ultimately we did not have enough petition signatures to feel confident recommending striking, but we now have the foundation to build a mighty fighting union.
We are confident that this is the best possible contract we could get without going on strike. We didn’t win a new minimum wage, but most workers at or near top pay will be making more than $30 an hour by the end of the contract.
We have withstood many attacks this past year, most recently the attempted firing of our president, and we didn’t back down. The county’s union busting tactics throughout bargaining showed that they had every intention of using this contract cycle to try to break our union. They failed. And we are coming out the other end, with gains for our members to boot.
To our Sheriff’s workers at the jail and 911- we are very sorry that we were not able to win you back your “straight eight” shifts. We are committed to continuing to fight for you. We held onto our Sheriff’s office proposals until the bitter end. For people unfamiliar, workers in this department experience some of the worst working conditions, including forced overtime that keeps them away from their friends and family.
To the workers at starting pay, we have work to do to.
In the coming three years, we will build our network of stewards, educate our members, and develop more workplace leaders through our member action team. We will be a force to be reckoned with in three years, when we go back into bargaining.
If you were someone who signed the strike pledge and were ready to go, if you are someone working multiple jobs and sick of being disrespected, or maybe you are someone who believes in fighting for a better world: Join us. Become a steward; join the MAT and learn how to talk with your co-workers about the union; help us with data entry, newsletter writing, and event organizing. There are a million ways to get involved in your union. Reach out to info@local2822.org to get plugged in.
A new contract is not the end of the fight, just the beginning.
In Solidarity,
Local 2822 Bargaining Team
Ali Fuhrman, President, Eden Prairie Library
Simone Boissiere, Vice President, Midtown Service Center
Sam Greenstein, Membership Secretary, Excelsior Library
Omari Hoover, Executive Board Member at Large, Government Center Service Center
Maddy Osmon, Executive Board Member at Large, Land Information and Tax Services
Summer Spence-Decker, Steward,Central Records, Sheriff’s Office
Carrie Monroe, Member Action Team, Government Center Service Center
Kymberlay Hafner, Lead Organizer 2822 and Chief Steward