St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.
Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in almost 60 years, and we’re seeing exciting labor organizing across Minnesota and the United States. Workers in both the public and private sector are coming together in union to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. Union organizing has swept across the U.S. in recent years, as workers in every sector of our economy continue to exercise their freedom to join together in unions – at auto manufacturing plants, health care facilities, bars and restaurants, white-collar offices and beyond. Here in Minnesota, we are 356,000 union members strong and growing!
This momentum is the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by unsafe workplaces and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. It’s also driven by wages that are outpaced by the increased costs of food and housing, child care and health care. Union members know that collective action can improve things for ourselves and our families, and that our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers. More than half a million U.S. workers went on strike last year, and recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements have secured large wage increases for workers in industries including construction, education, health care, manufacturing, and transit and transportation, as well as meaningful breakthroughs on non-wage issues.
Working people are actively trying to unrig the economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy. Meanwhile, corporate special interests are lobbying for massive tax breaks and deregulation, financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections, and financing candidates who will help them maintain the status quo by restricting our freedoms.
We’ve seen Project 2025, what these lobbyists are referring to as their 180-day playbook. Project 2025 includes proposals to make it easier for employers to get rid of workers’ unions mid-contract and to ban all public employee unions. It would allow states to ban labor unions, eliminate overtime protections and choose not to follow the national minimum wage. And it calls for the elimination of child labor rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants and other dangerous worksites.
They’ve shown us what they want to do to workers, and we should believe them. As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our general election on or before Nov. 5. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall, and we should get out and vote for our labor-endorsed candidates up and down the ticket. The power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests, the billionaire CEOs and anti-worker politicians who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.
We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.
Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful both at work and at the ballot box through our free and fair elections. This Labor Day, I hope you’ll re-commit yourself to showing up for our freedoms and democracy, and that you’ll join me in this work.
– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which publishes The Union Advocate newspaper. The SPRLF brings together nearly 150 local unions representing over 50,000 union members who live or work in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.
Union Advocate 