The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
As negotiations on the latest U.S.-backed free-trade agreement resumed in Australia this week, U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota led a bipartisan appeal to President Obama, urging his administration to craft an deal that protects American jobs and workers’ rights worldwide. Franken, a DFLer, joined Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine in authoring a letter […]
The City of Stillwater is stalling in contract negotiations with its workers, and members of AFSCME Local 517 are running out of patience. Before the Stillwater City Council convened its Truth in Taxation hearing last night, city employees and their supporters demonstrated outside City Hall, raising awareness that they have been working without a new […]
More than 30 workers in St. Paul threw a monkey wrench into Montgomery Ward’s holiday-shopping rush Dec. 6, 1937, walking off the job after management at the mail-order company’s University Avenue plant refused to negotiate with their elected union representative, Warehouse Employees Local 20,297. The picket line drew 300 supporters on the strike’s first day, […]
Election night was a great night for Democrats across Minnesota, with the exception of three congressional races. Three Republican incumbents won re-election to the U.S. House, including Michele Bachmann in the 6th District. To say that Congresswoman Bachmann is a polarizing figure in American politics is an understatement. Bachmann is so extreme that the GOP leadership […]
[Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, wrote this Labor Voices column with Kera Peterson and Peter Polga-Hecimovich, political organizers for the Federation.] The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has a lot to be proud of from the November elections. With our union brothers and sisters from across the state […]
The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and American Income Life will sponsor a second Operation Christmas Solidarity this year, with proceeds of the gift, toy and household-goods drive benefiting families of workers who have been locked out of their jobs by American Crystal Sugar. Over 1,300 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain […]
Locked out of their jobs, the Musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are looking to grow public support in their ongoing dispute with orchestra management by doing what they do best – performing world-class music for their fans. The Musicians of the SPCO will partner with the Minnesota Chorale, the region’s premier symphonic chorus, […]
This holiday season, your Christmas cookies will taste better knowing union-busting Crystal Sugar isn’t among the ingredients. The Moorhead-based company has locked 1,300 union workers out of their jobs for 16 months, prompting the AFL-CIO to call a nationwide boycott. The easiest way to avoid buying Crystal Sugar is to buy cane sugar, like the C&H brand, […]
IBEW Holiday Lights in the Park has come a long way since its inception in 2008. What began as a family-friendly way to raise funds for worthy Twin Cities charities has since spawned a concert series and four albums of holiday music, raising $170,000 for its non-profit partners along the way. But in spite of […]
Big-box retailers like Walmart pushed their Black Friday sales to new extremes this year, but retail workers and their supporters are pushing back. More than 200 protesters lined the sidewalk outside Walmart’s University Avenue location in St. Paul today. They pledged to stand with Walmart associates like Gabriel Teneyuque, who protested the company’s low wages […]
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