In Minnesota, AFSCME forced Gov. Pawlenty to drop his proposal to furlough state employees for up to 48 days. Workers in other states weren’t so lucky. More than 728,500 state employees in at least 21 states have already or will be furloughed, and several other states are also considering furloughs for their workers, according to a nationwide tally of state furloughs by Stateline. While Gov. Pawlenty says he has the right to impose furloughs in the future, his failure to negotiate them with AFSCME would make it a violation of our contract. If he tries to impose furloughs on AFSCME members, our union will take it to court.