Believe it or not, after months of negotiations, and after both AFSCME 3800 and AFSCME 3937 have filed for mediation, the University of Minnesota is still offering its unionized staff cost of living raises of less than 1%! The petition delivery 2 weeks ago has had no discernible impact yet. So yesterday we held a larger rally, scheduled just before AFSCME 3800's negotiating team met with management.
Council 5's photo :
The chant I used for the title is not just talk. Many of us are struggling with basic expenses. I may not be average, as a 14 year employee in the technical unit (AFSCME 3937), I may be making more than a newish Teamster. However, we long term employees are still not able to catch up from the years of wage freezes, either. I considered posting a snapshot of my entire budget, but it should be enough to know that one biweekly paycheck amounts to slightly less than the combination of my mortgage payment + HOA fee. The people making decisions about what to offer us don't seem to understand that we aren't getting a living wage. So we are trying harder to make ourselves heard.
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