The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Legislative leaders called 2013 the “education session” for the new investments in E-12 students, and a bill to extend union rights to 21,000 child-care providers and home health care workers grabbed headlines as Republicans tried to filibuster it to death. But the 2013 legislative session yielded many other victories for union members and middle class […]
We here at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation entered this session with high hopes. Having claimed the state-government trifecta – pro-worker majorities the House and Senate, as well as a pro-labor governor – for the first time in more than two decades, we believed that with some hard work lobbying and some help from […]
The Minnesota Trade Policy Advisory Council is back and, fair-trade advocates believe, better than ever. The Jobs and Economic Development bill signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton this week included reauthorization of the Trade Policy Advisory Council, which saw its authority “sunset” in 2012, but in a new form – one more inclusive of […]
Minnesota’s working families will see the most obvious fruits of the 2013 legislative session in their public schools and property-tax bills, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of investments, reforms and initiatives passed by labor-endorsed majorities in the Legislature this year, union leaders said. The Minnesota AFL-CIO called the session, which adjourned May […]
Child-care providers and in-home health care workers celebrated a hard-fought victory for their professions yesterday, after the Minnesota House joined the Senate in passing a bill that would allow them to vote on whether to form a union. The celebration spilled from the House gallery into the Capitol hallways, as pro-union child-care and home-care workers […]
Minnesota unions are keeping the pressure on state lawmakers to pass a meaningful minimum-wage hike before the Legislature adjourns next week, despite increasing signals from Senate leaders the issue – a top priority for the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, heading into the 2013 session – may be a lost cause. “Hard work […]
Chants of “si se puede!” rang out from the Minnesota Capitol lawn yesterday, as hundreds of people rallied for federal and state action to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. The May Day demonstration in St. Paul was one of dozens held across the U.S., organized by a broad coalition of groups – including labor […]
Plans to furlough 800,000 civilian employees in the Department of Defense will put the nation’s economic recovery – and its military readiness – at risk, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said yesterday during a fiery speech to more than 100 members of the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE’s Defense Conference, which represents more than 270,000 civilian […]
[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.] The St. Paul Cigarmakers struck a deal with the St. Paul Saints in May 1913, granting […]
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