Labor law attorney says Minneapolis Police Union contract negotiations could take months

Now that Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has pulled the city's bargaining offers off the negotiating table and essentially is starting contract talks over with the police union, there is a good chance an agreement will take many months to finish.

The union has been working under conditions of the last contract, which expired Jan. 1, and labor law attorney Mark Schneider, who has no affiliation with the Minneapolis police contract talks, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the negotiations are presumably starting from scratch.

"Under federal labor laws, the contract talks must still continue," said Schneider. "But, this will likely set back the negotiations somewhat and, if they've already been negotiating for more than six months, this is reason to assume this will stretch things out longer.

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Schneider told KSTP it's hard to predict how long talks like these will take because every union contract is different and a lot depends on how large the issues are and how far apart the parties are on their proposals.

"If it gets to a point where an agreement is not in sight, the parties will likely approach the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services, a state agency, to help them resolve their differences," said Schneider.

And, if that doesn't work, Schneider said the two parties would go to binding arbitration and then both sides have to accept the arbitrator's decisions and the final contract agreement has to be approved by a majority vote of the police union members before it takes effect.