Teamsters Local 320 Secretary-Treasurer Brian Aldes appeared on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the Local’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Aldes also talked about the Local Union and the wins it gained within its recently ratified contract.
Teamsters Local 320 represents over 11,000 public employees across all 87 Minnesota counties. These members comprise police officers, firefighters, utility workers and more within the Minnesota governmental support staff. Among their membership is the the State Board of Public Defenders, who accounts for approximately 620 members.
In 1999, the state’s public defenders initially voted to unionize. Aldes was the Organizer who brought them into the union. At the time, these employees were woefully underfunded and underpaid when compared to their private sector counterparts, he said. Almost 20 years later, conditions deteriorated to the point that members voted to strike in order to pressure their employer for better funding. Just this month, members of Local 320 ratified their second contact since the strike and gained some key wins.
After tough negotiations and some help from state officials, their employer secured a large enough source of funding to give the workers a much-needed raise. The budget for the State Board of Public Defenders was increased by nearly 50 percent, which brought the public defenders within a comparable salary to their private sector counterparts, Aldes said. Additionally, the funding increase was large enough to allow the Board to hire more defenders to help eliminate the high caseload for individual lawyers, he added.
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