Dear Members:
As 2011 comes to a close, we wanted to share with you some of our perspectives on the past year and the year ahead.
It is no secret that 2011 was difficult as the struggling economy continued to impact the state and local government budgets while a host of anti-union and anti-public employee legislative measures surfaced in several states including Minnesota. Despite these challenges, our efforts at the Legislature were rewarded in several areas including:
· defeating legislation that would have; mandated wage and step freezes; mandated a reduction of public sector jobs by 5%; eliminated our right to bargain over changes to health insurance; eliminated the requirement that employees can collect union dues through payroll withholding; and other measures that would have given employers an insurmountable advantage in negotiations and arbitration;
· maintaining Local Government Aid;
· obtaining funding for the Fire Safety Account (FSA) which provided grants to ALL MPFF Fire Locals; and
· preventing reduction of our pension benefits.
In addition to our work at the Capitol, we provided assistance to several locals in the form of research, legal advice and representation for procedural issues, grievances, negotiations, mediation and arbitration, guidance on local political issues and financial assistance to attend IAFF conferences. We also successfully lobbied the IAFF to contribute $25,000.00 to our media campaign to force an end to the state government shutdown. We solicited donations of nearly $20,000 to assist our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin fight the anti-union and anti-employee actions by Governor Walker and his cronies. We continued to provide our chosen charitable organizations with generous donations of time and money.
Despite the difficult economic times, we have maintained the financial strength of the MPFF. Our assets continue to be close to $1 Million. We signed a new contract with our fundraising firm to ensure a continued source of income as a supplement to dues. We were successful in getting the Burnsville Supervisors to join the MPFF thereby achieving a long-standing goal to have ALL Minnesota IAFF Locals belong to the MPFF. After nearly 20 years of talking about it, in just six months we accomplished the goal of raising $600,000 to build the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol.
Looking toward 2012, we supported and helped elect two candidates who support firefighters and public employees in special elections for open seats in the Minnesota Senate. We also took the lead in meeting with PERA officials to review the status of our pension funds and to develop a plan to maintain financial viability and a legislative strategy to defeat anticipated efforts to destroy or cripple our pension.
During the coming year we will be vigilant in protecting against attacks on our collective bargaining and union rights. We will also be active in helping to elect candidates who are labor-friendly and defeating those who are not. There are many challenges ahead, but we are well-prepared to meet them. The future for the MPFF and its members is indeed bright.
Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Fraternally,
Your MPFF Executive Board,
Tom Thornberg Ted Vanderbeek Elie Deeb
President Secretary/ Treasurer Vice President
Brian Sjodin Jim Eppen Rick Loveland
Vice President Vice President Vice President
Matt Ashmore Mike Smith Jay Kopischke
At Large Member At Large Member At Large Member
MSFS 2012-2013 Scholarship App.pdf
2012 Leg_conf_Registration_Form_final.doc
Home_town_Heros1.docx
