The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
As Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and other presidential hopefuls wooed party leaders in Minneapolis during the Democratic National Committee meetings last weekend, local worker and retiree groups mobilized inside and outside the event, looking to push their concerns to the forefront of the 2016 campaign. On Friday, activists with 15Now Minnesota rallied for a […]
Volunteer fairgoers helped repurpose about 85 t-shirts into reusable tote bags for a Minneapolis food shelf yesterday during United Way Day at the Minnesota AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion. “Most food shelves have a lack of bags to send food out,” Greater Twin Cities United Way volunteer coordinator Mary Smith said. “They never seem to have enough […]
Clara Nakumbe is fighting for $15 an hour, but the Minneapolis resident doesn’t work in a fast-food restaurant or behind the scenes at the airport. She works in her own home, providing round-the-clock care for her son Siran, who lives with a severe form of multiple sclerosis. It’s work that earns Nakumbe $11 per hour, […]
State employees voted to ratify new two-year contracts in balloting earlier this month, unions representing the workers have announced. Members of both the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) supported the contracts by wide margins. The 2015-17 contracts won’t go into effect until they […]
Calling it an investment critical to the union’s survival, Ironworkers Local 512 Business Manager Charlie Roberts cut the ribbon on a new $3.1 million apprenticeship training center in St. Paul yesterday. A large crowd of journey-level, apprentice and retired Ironworkers attended the ceremony, which marked the completion of Local 512’s 18,000-square-foot facility on Pierce […]
Make sure your visit to the Minnesota State Fair this year includes a stop at the Minnesota AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion, where programming includes live music and entertainment, interactive demonstrations and opportunities to learn about what unions do. The State Fair runs Aug. 27 through Labor Day, Sept. 7. The Labor Pavilion, located at Dan […]
The East Side Freedom Library, a new non-profit cultural institution on St. Paul’s East Side, will celebrate Labor Day weekend with a “celebration of the arts in labor” Saturday, Sept. 5, the library announced this week. Highlights of the program include live music, a puppet show, storytelling, an artist-guided tour of the St. Paul Labor […]
Scott Walker’s knack for bringing people together was on full display in St. Paul last night. As the Wisconsin governor wooed local Republican lawmakers and raised funds for his presidential campaign inside O’Gara’s Bar & Grill, about 20 Building Trades union members and other protesters marched outside in a steady rain. Tempers flared briefly […]
[This report by Larry Sillanpa is adapted from his column, “A View from the Ditch,” in the July 22 edition of the Labor World, a Duluth-based publication Sillanpa edits.] DULUTH – It seemed like a stretch – a St. Paul City Council candidate was coming to Duluth to talk about how corporate “school reformers” are […]
Union retirees and other seniors plan to show up in force at an Aug. 29 meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Minneapolis and demand that party leaders do more to address older adults’ concerns. The Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, is urging seniors from across the region to attend the DNC Seniors Coordinating Council […]
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