I need you to support public employees who are working every day to serve all Minnesotans and often putting their lives at risk, yet face being laid off right when we need them the most. We need you to have their back! State and local governments are laying off public servants and we must do all we can to preserve the public services that all Minnesotans deserve. Please support funding for state and local governments, including supplemental funding.

Recently, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) announced their plans to close the Willow River and Togo correctional facilities which serves as the department's Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP), potentially laying off more than 100 public employees. CIP is a critical program to protect public safety and effectively aids in the rehabilitation of inmates to successfully reintegrate back into society. This program needs to stay in Moose Lake and Togo, Minnesota and we implore you to begin legislative deliberations with us as soon as possible to make this a reality.

As a union, we are working diligently to protect all workers and the communities they serve. As AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Julie Bleyhl said, "These workers are on our front lines and deserve our thanks and admiration for their work, not layoff notices." Facility closures and layoffs do not just negatively affect the workers themselves, but it harms local communities, local government budgets, and more. This is their very livelihood and their sense of purpose and belonging that is threatened.

​As leaders, we need you to support and pass critical investments ​to help state and local governments protect front line workers, public services, maintain public safety, prevent the delay of services that all Minnesotans rely on and save the Togo and Willow River correctional facilities.

​Thank you.