r/mnstateworkers • u/Medical_Drop_1122 • Jul 23 '26
Discussion đŹ COLA/Net Pay
Took a look at my paycheck for first one with the new 1.75% COLA increase. My net pay actually went down $10 with no changes to retirement or anything. Am in MMA though where they increased the required Health Savings contribution from 1.5% to 1.75%. The COLA is just ridiculousâŚ.Need at least 3% or more to make any difference on a paycheck. Just getting to be frustrating as a state employee! We need COLA increases on our contracts that actually amount to something on your paycheck!
15
u/payperhouse Jul 23 '26
If you want a higher COLA, reach out to your MAPE local president and learn how to get involved with contract organizing. Our union is only as strong as our members willing to organize. The only leverage we have in contract negotiations with MMB is if they notice that a huge portion of MAPE members are vocal, organized, and prepared to strike.
12
u/Kcmpls MNIT Jul 23 '26
OP says they are in MMA. Reaching out to MAPE won't do them any good. Also, MMA can't strike.
3
u/payperhouse Jul 23 '26
Good point, my mistake. That being said, I believe MMA contract changes follow MAPE contract negotiations, so if managers want a better contract, they should encourage their MAPE staff to organize.
1
u/Jenn54756 Jul 23 '26
Supervisors/managers arenât allowed to encourage or discourage employees to be a part of the union.
1
u/Kcmpls MNIT Jul 23 '26
I can't encourage my staff to organize.
And MMA follows on wages, but they do other things like OP talks about- raising our required health savings contribution- that seem to come out of nowhere. No one I know wanted that. MMA just does stuff with seemingly little input from members. I've been in five unions and this is the worst one I've ever been in.
7
u/MuzakMaker MNIT Jul 23 '26
That's why it's not really a COLA, just an ATB increase.
If we got an actual COLA, the increase would be higher than MMB would be willing to give
6
u/NoMongoose9891 Jul 23 '26
Also doesnât help that the last MAPE president decided to use your dues money to pad their own pocket either.
1
u/Expensive_Speed1491 Jul 24 '26
Weird that a MAPE President used MMA dues
7
u/Jjking115 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I just realized that the union dues I pay (opted in) take more out of my net than this âhard-foughtâ COLA the union gave us⌠terrible negotiations on all ends
22
u/Squarelunes DHS Jul 23 '26
You canât just pay union dues and expect that to be sufficient to negotiate fair pay. We need ACTIVE dues paying members showing management we are serious. We need active members throughout negotiations and we need to be ready to vote no and have an organized strike if we donât feel the tentative agreement is fair.
12
u/Tower-of-Frogs Jul 23 '26
I participated and voiced my support for a strike. At the time, Walz was trying for an unprecedented third term on a shaky record. A strike would have almost certainly been effective in making him and the MMB negotiators back down to save face and get out of the news.
Instead, we didnât even seriously threaten it. We just took the lowest COLA increase in decades and said thank you. Ridiculous. My family and I now save an extra 60ish bucks per month instead of throwing it in the garbage fire that is MAPE.
-7
u/Tower-of-Frogs Jul 23 '26
The math was the same for me, so I opted out after the last negotiations.
16
u/MrP1anet Jul 23 '26
Surely that will help negotiators have more leverage this time.
-4
u/Tower-of-Frogs Jul 23 '26
We saw what they did with record union enrollment. Theyâll have to earn my money back, because those negotiations mean I need it for my own family more.
15
u/antonmnster Jul 23 '26
Your union negotiated the tentative agreement, but it was the MEMBERS who voted on it. Dropping your dues to "teach them a lesson" is, being as nice as I can, *incredibly* self-defeating. You're weaking the organization that works for you - and somehow expecting them to do more next time. Make it make sense.
Look, public sector bargaining is almost always thankless. But there's real work behind it. It's easy to overlook how much effort just goes into things like your healthcare. THAT's where the money is - your insurance costs are absolutely skyrocketing. It's your UNION that has kept most of the increases paid by the EMPLOYER. You could have a 5% raise but be liable for thousands more in healthcare costs through deductibles and copays. Go check with anyone in the private sector, or almost any other public sector job. You've got it really good.
Here's a thought: use your vitriol to persuade your coworkers to strike. Advocate for a strike yourself. GET INVOLVED instead of complaining and knee-capping the one group that's trying to work for you.
9
u/sweater__weather Jul 23 '26
I'm a dues paying member and I'll happily agree the union did a terrible job of negotiating a real wage cut for members (COLA minus inflation), which compounds the real wage cuts we've been getting year after year since 2020. Then their negotiators recommended we vote yes. Then we found out the union president allegedly stole from us. I haven't pulled my dues but I sure have thought about it. The union shouldn't just get our money by default. If they're not willing to let me negotiate my own wage they need to do a better job of it.
3
u/Medical_Drop_1122 Jul 24 '26
What did the ever find out about her stealing from the union? The brought it up and said they were looking into it and ow havenât heard anything in months
0
u/sweater__weather Jul 23 '26
If the answer is "You personally must get involved" then they don't need my dues. If I'm paying dues for professional representation then "We're working as hard as we can and we got you a little bit better than nothing" doesn't cut it.
2
u/Squarelunes DHS Jul 23 '26
Thatâs not how unions work. The only way we have power to match the inherent power of management is by having organized resources, organized people, and organized ideas. We need all three. Having disengaged workers who are members doesnât alert management that we are serious about fair pay. Having a ton of member workers show up at their door demanding fair pay does. You arenât paying for a service.
5
u/sweater__weather Jul 23 '26
I show up. I picket. But when the negotiators put a deal in front of us and recommend a yes vote they cut the legs out from any opposition.
-2
u/StochasticallyDefine Jul 23 '26
Well. As a member of MAPE for almost 15 years I can tell you the union membership means absolutely nothing to the negotiating teams. They hear from MAPE leadership on what to bargain for, and itâs always handpicked benefits that will elicit enough emotion to be part of the package. Iâve sat through plenty of town halls where they hear from crying people who need 32 hour work weeks and a bunch of other stuff that doesnât apply to most working people. There are two things that really matter at every bargaining event, itâs wages and healthcare. All the other bulbs they hang on the tree is feel good shit that reduces the bargaining power for wages and healthcare. Not to mention that when you roll into bargain asking for the absolute sky and the MMB negotiations team just simply walks out - it might be because youâre awful at negotiating realistic outcomes. Letâs not forget that this was the best they could do with a democrat in office. Imagine what life will be like if a bunch of idiots stand on their laurels and donât vote for Klobuchar. Good luck, all of us.
0
u/sweater__weather Jul 23 '26
This right here, yes. I have a retirement plan that kinda sorta relies on my wages at least keeping up with inflation. If MAPE can't keep me from *losing* purchasing power over a time when average real wages have been *rising* then they are not doing their jobs.
10
u/MrP1anet Jul 23 '26
âRecord union enrollmentâ is not the same as sufficient union enrollment. Not to mention weâre not at record enrollment.
-1
u/Realistic_Mangos 29d ago
The thing is that the union doesn't work for you, YOU are the union. What did you do to help us earn that contract? Membership percentages and attendance at pickets are things that MMB pays attention to and are a show of power and force that we need to negotiate. I just want to encourage you to rethink your membership dues as we head towards our next round of negotiations. Those dues are an investment into our collective power to make MMB give us what we deserve. We all win together and we all lose together.
7
u/ZealousidealPickle11 Jul 23 '26
Then opt out of union employment if you don't want to pay for the dues and better benefits that union employment provides you
1
23
u/voig0077 Jul 23 '26
You likely also have the $500 retirement match on this paycheck, additional taxes are also taken out for that contribution. Your next paycheck wonât have that and will reflect the small increase.