Low-wage workers announce Black Friday Week of Action

As the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, workers who stock Walmart’s shelves, serve McDonald’s hamburgers and clean big-box stores are planning a week of action in the Twin Cities to draw attention to the low wages and poor conditions plaguing their industries. The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the highest-profile shopping day […]

Parental leave policy a ‘giant leap forward’ for City of St. Paul employees

April VanMassenhove gave birth to her second child, Miles, last Tuesday. A clerical worker in the City of St. Paul’s Public Works department, VanMassenhove will exhaust her paid-sick days, then her vacation time and, finally, land on short-term disability in order to maintain an income while she cares for her newborn son. Fortunately for parents-to-be […]

A governor who will ‘go all Scott Walker’ on Minnesota? No thanks, unions say

Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, doesn’t have much executive experience, but the former state legislator provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected. “I don’t know exactly what that means,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson responded, “but […]

NLRB: North Memorial responded to staffing campaign with harassment, retaliation

North Memorial Hospital illegally retaliated against union nurses and health care workers who participated in a campaign to fight staffing cuts and protect patient safety at the Robbinsdale hospital, according to a complaint issued this week by the Minneapolis-based Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint finds merit to charges of unfair […]

Income on the rise in Dayton’s Minnesota, falling in Walker’s Wisconsin

Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected Nov. 4. So what is it about Walker’s Wisconsin that Johnson believes is worth replicating? To answer that question – and to get a […]

As Election Day nears, unions join rally to get Minnesotans to the polls

The two candidates atop the DFL ticket this election year know better than most the importance of getting out the vote, the theme of a rally staged by the party today outside the Minnesota Capitol. Four years ago Gov. Mark Dayton “won by a large, large margin as far as I’m concerned – 8,800 (votes),” […]

Dayton, DFL legislators reversed trend of dwindling support for schools

Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected Nov. 4. So what is it about Walker’s Wisconsin that Johnson believes is worth replicating? To answer that question – and to get a […]

Collective Bargaining: Under attack in Wisconsin, on the rise in Minnesota

Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected Nov. 4. But what is it about Walker’s Wisconsin that Johnson believes is worth replicating? To answer that question – and to get a […]

East Side Freedom Library announces film series, major grant funding

Saint Paul’s East Side Freedom Library has received a $25,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support a founding, large-scale arts project in the Phalen neighborhood’s Beaux Arts Carnegie Library. The grant, library co-directors Peter Rachleff and Beth Cleary said, will contribute to the re-purposing of the library building as […]

Richard Trumka: The choice we face Nov. 4

Almost no one in America is satisfied with the imbalance of our economy. We’re working harder and harder for less and less. This isn’t a partisan opinion. All across this country, in poll after poll after poll, we hear self-described Democrats, independents and Republicans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just […]