UMN PELRA Reform Petition

To: UMN President Jeff Ettinger and members of the UMN Board of Regents,

As undergraduate and graduate students, contingent and tenure-stream faculty, graduate fellows and postdoctorates, professional students, medical residents, researchers, and other staff and members of the university community, we are joining together to urge your support for SF 4597 / HF 4508. This critical piece of legislation would reform the MN Public Employee Labor Relations Act (PELRA) and remove barriers that prevent over 23,000 university students, faculty and staff from forming and joining unions. Dozens of lawmakers as well as the Senate Higher Education Committee have demonstrated support for this bill. We urge you to join them in restoring fundamental labor rights to all UMN employees.

PELRA: Out of Step with the UMN Workforce

PELRA was conceived in the 1970s to expand collective bargaining rights and provide clear and sensible procedures for unionization among Minnesota’s public sector employees. However, as currently written the statute includes special rules and carve-outs that make it extraordinarily difficult for most UMN workers to unionize. As a result, Bargaining Units 11 and 12 now consist of hundreds of dissimilar job codes across the five campuses and have historically hindered unionization efforts. Furthermore, PELRA outright prohibits large categories of university workers from organizing by denying their status as public employees. This includes graduate students who win fellowships, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate workers on financial aid, and instructors and professional students whose hours are undercounted and misallocated. In practice, PELRA currently denies over ⅔ of UMN’s workforce the right to organize a union.

Common Sense Changes

The present legislative session is an opportunity to make common sense changes to PELRA that will rectify these problems and restore fundamental labor rights to thousands of university employees. SF 4597 / HF 4508 would:

1. Remove Units 11,12 and other archaic bargaining units from PELRA;

2. Affirm that UMN workers get to decide who belongs in their unions; and 

3. Restore collective bargaining rights and public employee status to all university workers who are formally barred from unionizing.

These are not radical reforms - they will bring UMN in line with the established norms and practices for unionization elsewhere in the country at little to no cost for the institution. They enjoy the deep support of a coalition of groups and individuals from across the campus and labor community, including existing campus unions, university student government, outside labor organizations, and three members of the Board of Regents.

UMN Labor Relations for a New Century

Supporting these simple and overdue policy changes will signal your support for the students, faculty and staff who have dedicated their lives and careers to the university’s teaching and research missions. We deserve the same labor rights and protections as any other group of public employees in our state. As leaders of a public land grant institution and one of the largest employers in the state, please join us in bringing the university’s labor relations into the twenty-first century by supporting this critical legislation.

The following individuals have signed in support of the petition: