The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
It looked a lot like Christmas earlier this month at the Cement Masons Local 633 apprenticeship training center in New Brighton, where the local’s 20 first- and second-year apprentices constructed an enormous seasonal landscape out of concrete. The display, unveiled to members at the local’s holiday party last week, spreads across the floor of the […]
Minnesota’s economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, but an increasing number of workers are finding employment through temp agencies and subcontracting firms. That trend drew scrutiny from the Legislature’s Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs at a hearing Dec. 19 in St. Paul. Jobs in the economy’s “employment services” sector, which includes subcontractors […]
Workers at Northern Tier refinery in St. Paul Park voted Dec. 16 to authorize their leadership to call a strike if the company continues to demand cuts that, workers say, “could dramatically undermine the safety of operations” at the facility. Northern Tier is in contract negotiations with about 200 members of Teamsters Local 120 who […]
Nurses at Regina Medical Center in Hastings will hold a candlelight vigil tonight, keeping hope alive for a new contract with the hospital that retains the level of nursing care the Hastings community expects. The vigil will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot at the intersection of Highways 55 and 61. Nurses also […]
For the first time in the current round of contract talks with the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, negotiators for the St. Paul Public Schools last month agreed to put two key issues for teachers – class sizes and specialist staffing – on the table. Although the district’s proposal did not draw a favorable response […]
As the 2013 Legislative Session drew to a close in May, supporters of a bill to strengthen Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws made one last push, urging their state senators to vote on the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, which had already won approval in the House. The session gaveled to a close before senators could take […]
As fast-food workers in an estimated 100 U.S. cities walked off the job today to protest the industry’s poverty-level wages, union members and faith leaders in Minnesota showed their solidarity – and their support for raising the state’s minimum wage – outside a block of fast-food restaurants in Northeast Minneapolis. The demonstration took place over […]
Building on a string of public actions last week calling out poverty-wage employers across the state, Minnesota activists will stand in solidarity tomorrow with fast-food workers planning one-day strikes in more than 100 cities nationwide. Organizers today laid out plans for solidarity demonstrations tomorrow outside two McDonald’s restaurants around the metro area: • In Northeast […]
Three years before the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II, American union members declared economic war on Nazi Germany. Unions in St. Paul scrambled in December 1938 to coordinate a local boycott of German goods after American Federation of Labor President William Green, speaking to a nationwide audience on […]
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