State board says Minneapolis police union should remain as is, not be split up

The union that represents Minneapolis police officers won’t be broken up to better reflect the department’s management structure, as a state board has decided the union is fine as it is.

Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation Services ruled Thursday that sergeants and lieutenants should remain included in the union.

The city of Minneapolis petitioned the state last fall, asking if those higher positions should be covered by the same union as rank-and-file officers.

The city argued that the rank-and-file officers “do not have a community of interest with the Sergeants and Lieutenants who are part of the MPD management structure, work under different conditions and in different locations, have different expectations and different training, supervise Officers’ work, and evaluate Officers’ performance.”

But the state board noted that sergeants and lieutenants aren’t considered supervisors under law, and that they serve Minneapolis just like rank-and-file officers and can do their jobs on the streets sometimes even if they often are in an office. Additionally, all officers receive the same training under state law and have the same education requirements.

Those reasons, combined with the determination that the city didn’t meet the burden of proving a significant change in the community of interest factors to make any changes, and the board decided the union should remain as it is.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who supported splitting the union up into two seperate units, sent KSTP-TV the following statement in response to the ruling: “Our goal was to have separate bargaining units for supervisors and rank-in-file officers. This would ensure that each bargaining unit better reflected the rank and responsibility of its members, it would allow for the unique needs of each respective group to be met, and it would improve accountability. It’s human nature that supervisors are less likely to discipline someone that’s in the same union and on the same team as them. Not to mention it is commonplace in other cities to have separate unions for supervisors and officers. While this is disappointing, we’re going to find a way to make this work.”

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, which argued the union should remain as is, issued the following statement:

“The POFM is pleased with the outcome of the BMS ruling. When the City filed the petition, we were unable to begin negotiations for our expiring contract. Due to the time it took to resolve the issue, the MPD is once again working under an expired contract. Our hope is we can get to the negotiating table sooner than later.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who supported splitting the union up into two seperate units, sent KSTP-TV the following statement in response to the ruling:

“Our goal was to have separate bargaining units for supervisors and rank-in-file officers. This would ensure that each bargaining unit better reflected the rank and responsibility of its members, it would allow for the unique needs of each respective group to be met, and it would improve accountability. It’s human nature that supervisors are less likely to discipline someone that’s in the same union and on the same team as them. Not to mention it is commonplace in other cities to have separate unions for supervisors and officers. While this is disappointing, we’re going to find a way to make this work.”