AFSCME Council 5 is very pleased that the Minnesota House just voted to pass a robust bonding and supplemental agency funding bill that will invest in making our workplaces safer, create tens of thousands of livable wage jobs and funding to save the Togo and Willow River CIP program that our members have fought so hard to save. This is one step toward this bill becoming law and we call on the Minnesota Senate to swiftly pass this legislation that will improve our communities and workplaces and invest in our public and private sector workforces.

Nearly 2,200 AFSCME Council 5 members and allies signed our petition calling on elected officials to put politics aside and invest in public services and our workforce and they listened! We have also shared many personal and emotional stories from the workers at the Togo and Willow River Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP) and from individuals who have successfully graduated from the CIP program. We will continue to work with legislative leaders and Governor Walz as this legislative package makes its way through the process.

While this is a good step forward, this legislation now heads to the Minnesota Senate. Please call your Senator and tell them to pass House File 1 as soon as possible. You can find who your Senator is here: https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/.

There will be tough days ahead of us with regard to our state’s budget and the impact it will have on our membership, but we are the AFSCME Green Machine that does the work for the people of Minnesota and that means we do not sit idly by when we encounter challenges or obstacles, we overcome them by working together! To those who signed our petition, shared our content on social media, reached out to us and shared your personal stories, or put one of our “Don’t Close Togo and Willow River” signs in your yard: We thank you and urge your continued activism. If we continue working together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish to improve the lives of working people.

Please call your Senator and tell them to pass House File 1 as soon as possible. Find your Senator here: https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/.