The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
April Williams knew the risk she ran last November, when she joined two co-workers in a one-day strike for higher wages, full-time scheduling and a voice on the job. But Williams, a single mother who lives with her sister and relies on public assistance to make ends meet, said she’d rather face those risks than […]
One day after a rally in support of raising Minnesota’s minimum wage rocked the Capitol rotunda, nearly 100 activists took their message to the skyways of Minneapolis, calling on Target and other corporations to join the fight against poverty wages. The lunch-hour march yesterday snaked through the skyways and into Target’s flagship store. Inside, demonstrators […]
Legislation has been introduced that would provide a much needed increase in the minimum wage after many years of no action. The principal parties and the arguments have remained essentially the same since the inception of minimum-wage laws many decades ago. As we have learned over time, there are many myths that surround the debate, […]
Registered nurses at WestHealth Emergency Department and Urgent Care voted Feb. 13 in favor of joining the Minnesota Nurses Association, a health care facility based in Plymouth and operated by Abbott Northwestern. In the unit of 32 nurses, 92 percent voted in favor of joining MNA in balloting conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. […]
Union members did more than just build The Penfield, the comprehensive, mixed-use development downtown St. Paul that celebrated its grand opening Feb. 6. They financed the project as well. The Penfield is the latest local investment by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), which backs union-build construction jobs across the country with capital from union […]
Workshops scheduled March 22 and 29 will offer hands-on training in how to shoot and edit short videos with easy-to-use cameras and editing software. The workshops, led by Labor Education Service videographer John See, are open to active and retired union members with an interest in creating short (2-3 minute) videos for YouTube, Facebook, Workday […]
Three days before members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers were scheduled to take a strike-authorization vote, negotiators for the school district and the teachers’ union reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that will run through the 2014-15 school year. Teachers planned a ratification vote for March 4, and the union’s executive […]
“It’s an accident waiting to happen.” That’s rail worker Corey Plath’s assessment of Canadian Pacific Railway under the direction of CEO Hunter Harrison, who has made a career of cutting costs and, union members say, cutting corners when it comes to the safety of workers and the public. Plath and fellow Minnesota-based members of the […]
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and King of Kings Lutheran Church of Woodbury today announced record fundraising totals from the organizations’ Holiday Lights in the Park display in 2013. Proceeds from the nightly holiday-light display in St. Paul’s Phalen Park, as well as a related holiday concert and CD sales, totaled $86,000 last year, […]
Wearing red scarves, hats and shirts to show their solidarity with union teachers, families packed the parking lot outside St. Paul Public Schools headquarters yesterday during a rally in support of smaller class sizes, expanded pre-kindergarten and other community-driven priorities teachers have brought to the table in contract negotiations with the district. “Parents are standing […]
Union Advocate 