University of Minnesota workers push for higher wages

Emily Erpelding has worked as an assistant teacher at the University of Minnesota’s Child Development Laboratory School for about two decades. She said her salary hasn’t kept pace with the cost of living, forcing her husband to take on two full-time jobs to make ends meet for them and their two children. 

“I know it's really hard on my husband, he's not getting enough sleep, and we miss him. I'm worried about his health too,” Erpelding said. “It really, really hurts. Because I know what I do is really important. And the university should know it’s really important…I just wish they paid us like they should.”  

More than 2,000 university employees across the state represented by AFSCME have been negotiating with the school for about five months.

AFSCME UMN President Max Vast said employees are being offered annual raises that barely keep pace with inflation. They said this is especially inequitable considering the 4 percent raise to university President Rebecca Cunningham’s salary approved by the Board of Regents in June, putting her annual earnings at over $1 million plus retirement benefits. 

“We love working here. We care about public education,” Vast said. “We care about the students and research and outreach that happens at this place, and we want to work here. But if we can’t afford to, then they’re going to lose good workers.”

The union and university are scheduled to attend mediation sessions on Sept. 16 and 23 with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services.

A spokesperson for the university said they hope to reach a “fair and equitable agreement” during those sessions: “The University’s commitment is to balance its obligation to be fiscally responsible stewards of public dollars, while offering some level of certainty to AFSCME-represented employees.”  

In the face of federal funding cuts and an uncertain political climate, the Board of Regents in June slashed funding for academic programs by 7 percent and approved a 6.5 percent tuition increase for in-state students at the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses. 

The university is also facing pressure from more than 1,400 employees represented by the Teamsters who cook, clean and provide other services at the university. A strike approved by those union members earlier this month was at least temporarily averted when union negotiators agreed to allow a vote on a “last, best and final offer” from the university. The Teamsters negotiating committee has urged members to vote against that settlement.