This January, the Inter Faculty Organization, the union representing nearly 3,300 faculty members at the seven Minnesota state universities, took the unusual step of making an offer that broke dramatically with past practice and with typical union negotiating. The Minnesota faculty offered to accept a pay freeze while holding current contract language unchanged, and they tentatively agreed to this contract months before any other state contracts were settled and even before formal negotiations began. The authors describe the ins and outs of the recent contract negotiations of the faculty of the Minnesota state universities. They discuss how the creative strategies of Minnesota's Inter Faculty Organization can be a big help in these troubled times.