TSA officers’ commemoration comes with warning against privatization

September 25, 2026 by Leave a Comment

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum joins AFGE Local 899’s commemoration of the 9/11 attack.As Transportation Security Adminis-tration agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 last month, union leaders made a point of warning against new attempts by the Trump administration to privatize U.S. airport security.

American Federation of Government Employees Local 899 held its observance on the mezzanine level of Terminal 1, perched above the ticketing counters. Two members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, Reps. Betty McCollum and Kelly Morrison, joined the event, as did a representative of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

Speakers mourned the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, and they reflected on the role TSA workers have played in protecting the nation’s airways from other attacks since then.

Local 899 Secretary Emily Woods was a child when the attacks took place, but she now works as a transportation security officer at MSP, serving in the agency created by Congress after 9/11 to standardize passenger screenings in the nation’s commercial airports.

“I may have been too young to understand Sept. 11 as it happened, but I understand its significance today,” Woods said. “Every time I put on my TSA uniform, I carry forward the responsibility that came from that day.”

“Every day, transportation security officers carry out that important mission,” Local 899 President Sharif Mehanna said. “They identify prohibited items, they respond to evolving threats and they protect millions of passengers – often under difficult conditions and without receiving the recognition they deserve.”

Difficult conditions have been all too common for TSA workers during the second Trump administration. They were forced to work without pay during extended Department of Homeland Security shutdowns, and Trump’s DHS appointees have sought to strip TSA officers of their union contract – a move AFGE has challenged in federal court.

Now, the administration is acting on a secretly devised plan, TSA Gold+, to privatize passenger screening at some airports. The agency recently informed AFGE of its intention to launch the program, which puts private contractors in charge of passenger screening and the screening technology itself, at three airports next year: Tampa, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; and Des Moines, Iowa.

At MSP Airport, union leaders and federal lawmakers called the privatization scheme a dangerous departure from the system that has worked to protect travelers in the 25 years since 9/11.

Morrison said she opposes any effort to “change airport security that does not include input from the real experts, TSA employees.” McCollum agreed.

“I fly in and out of a lot of airports, and every airport is different,” McCollum said. “But the one thing I know is consistent is the professionalism and the training (of TSA officers). If this starts being privatized, it’s going to be scattered all over. You can come in with the lowest contract? That’s not who I want watching out for my constituents when they fly.”

Local 899 Treasurer Neal Gosman said privatization threatens to undermine TSA officers’ healthcare and pension benefits and their wage standards. But it would also come at a price to accountability, which officers take seriously.

“It takes years to get someone trained up fully; to replace us all with a privatized workforce would be a tremendous loss to federal security,” Gosman said. “The message that we learned after 9/11 is that we aren’t just here to do airport security, we’re here to do national security. That is the oath that we take as federal employees, and we do that work every day.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Heat’s On volunteers ready local homeowners in need for winter

September 25, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Olivia Braund and Jacob Michel, third-year apprentices with Local 455, inspect the furnace of a disabled homeowner in St. Paul.

Members of St. Paul Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455 teamed up with Minneapolis-based Local 539 and local union contractors Sept. 19 to provide no-cost heating repairs for low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners across the Twin Cities.

The annual day of service, known as Heat’s On, sent two-person crews to make minor furnace repairs, check for dangerous heat-related health conditions and replace smoke detectors for homeowners identified by two area nonprofit agencies, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington County and CAP of Hennepin County.

At a home in St. Paul’s Como Park neighborhood, third-year apprentices Olivia Braund of Stillwater and Jacob Michel of Carver, both members of Local 455, ran the furnace through a series of service tests. They checked the heat exchanger, tested the environment for natural gas leaks and ran a combustion analysis.

Michel also checked the gas pressure after hearing from the homeowner that a different technician had replaced a valve on the furnace earlier that week. Michel wasn’t surprised to discover the pressure was well below the recommended 3.5 inches of water column.

Volunteers gather for a recognition breakfast before making their service calls.

“They just slapped it in and called it good without adjusting the pressure,” Michel said of the other technicians. “That causes the flame to burn dirty, and it’s a really easy thing to do, too.”

Situations like that are what keep Braund, a Heat’s On volunteer for the last three years, coming back.

“It’s always interesting,” she laughed. “And it’s good just to know these homeowners are safe and ready for winter. They’re always super nice, too.”

Before union members picked up their call sheets for Heat’s On this year, they gathered for a 7 a.m. breakfast at St. Paul Local 455’s union hall, where several lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, thanked union members for volunteering their time and expertise.

Since its launch in 1986, Heat’s On volunteers have provided over $4 million in services and repairs to 8,606 households in the Twin Cities, logging nearly 40,000 hours of volunteer service.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Best of the Midwest: Local roofers sweep regional apprenticeship competition

September 25, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Apprentices compete in “Best of the Midwest” at Roofers Local 96’s training center.

Roofers Local 96 hosted the “Best of the Midwest” regional apprenticeship competition at its training center in Ham Lake this year, and the local union’s apprentices made good use of the home-site advantage.

Local 96 members placed first in all three divisions of the Aug. 22 competition, and seven Local 96 apprentices finished in the top four among competitors in their group.

First-place finishers in each division – Local 96’s Connor Engholm in Year 1, Ethan Block in Year 2 and Luke Selander in Year 3/4 – will advance to the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers’ national apprenticeship contest in Boston next May.

Other Local 96 award placewinners included:

  • Montana Scepaniak-Eisenschenk, third place in Year 1.
  • Jordan Angove, second place in Year 2.
  • Dawn Plaisted, second place in Year 3/4.
  • Evan Bloom, fourth place in Year 3/4.

For Local 96, it was the union’s first time hosting “Best of the Midwest,” although the Ham Lake facility did host the national apprenticeship competition last year.

The Midwest region includes 17 local unions, and 10 participated in this year’s competition. Local 96’s training facility, which opened in 2019, left an impression on staff from visiting unions.

“When I walked in, I was astonished,” Joshua Cavazos, business representative for Indiana-based Roofers Local 26, said. “It’s big, it’s immaculate. This is way more than any Roofers union could ask for.”

Third-year apprentice Dawn Plaisted of Roofers Local 96 is one of three women who competed in the Year 3/4 division of the regional competition.

Cavazos and other local leaders from the Midwest region gathered with competitors and their families for dinner in the training center the night before the competition. For many in the room, the camaraderie was what they looked forward to most about the annual event.

“The most important thing is the brotherhood – all the locals getting together for the greater good of the industry,” Local 20 organizer Pedro Parra, based in Kansas City, said. “It’s what sets us apart as a union – most roofers don’t get any of the training and support that we get as union members. That’s why it’s so important for these guys to come in and show off their skills.”

Parra might call it a brotherhood, but the number of female apprentices competing in “Best of the Midwest” has increased steadily in recent years.

Year 3/4 competitors included three women this year, with Local 96’s Plaisted among them. Plaisted took second in the region this year after advancing to the national competition last year – and winning it.

“Meeting all the new contestants, that’s really what I look forward to,” Plaisted said. “You always hope to win, but it’s just fun to see how you stack up.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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AFT calls on educators, families to avoid Target during back-to-school season

August 27, 2026 by

As back-to-school shopping season ramps up, the American Federation of Teachers is urging educators and families nationwide to stock up on supplies someplace other than Target.

The union’s “Shop Smart, Support Working Families” campaign is a response to Target’s refusal to condemn the unlawful Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that continues to roil communities around the country – a position the union called “starkly accommodationist.”

The nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, endorsed the boycott in June at its constitutional convention in Minneapolis.

AFT encourages supporters to find alternate retailers that respect labor rights at ShopSmart.AFT.org.

Additionally, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 maintains a list of union retailers in the East Metro at ufcw1189.org/shop-union.

The AFT, with 1.875 million members nationwide, rolled out its boycott this month after the union’s attempts at dialogue with Target leadership “did not receive a constructive response.”

Educators spend an average of $895 of their own money on school supplies each year, and union pension funds hold billions in Target stock.

In March, the union passed a resolution demanding the Minneapolis-based business speak up against the ICE atrocities in its own backyard. AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote to Target CEO Michael Fiddelke in January and again in March.

“We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors, but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening,” Weingarten said. “We wrote letters, passed resolutions and reached out to management in good faith but have yet to see any meaningful movement.”

Twin Cities union leaders praised AFT for holding Target accountable.

“We’re disappointed that Target has failed to live up to its promises to be a good neighbor to the families who have shopped there for years,” Natasha Dockter, a vice president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said. “In this scary time, we all need to come together, from the classrooms to the corner offices, to protect Americans’ right to free speech and to ensure our democracy endures.”

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Feds spied on local unions during Operation Metro Surge

August 27, 2026 by

Communications Workers (CWA) Local 7250 President Kieran Knutson speaks during a demonstration outside Target’s corporate offices in Minneapolis. Federal agents issued administrative summons to obtain information on the union’s recent political spending.

Minnesota’s largest labor federation accused the Trump administration of “bringing back McCarthyism” after court filings exposed wide-reaching federal surveillance of local unions during the deadly and chaotic immigration dragnet last winter.

While purportedly investigating a criminal conspiracy to impede Operation Metro Surge, Department of Homeland Security agents infiltrated a meeting at the United Labor Center in Minneapolis, demanded one local union’s transaction log from U.S. Bank and dug into the political spending of another.

DHS investigators dubbed the spying campaign “Operation Puppet Master.”

Undercover agents, posing as protesters, also surveilled meetings at churches, parks, libraries and schools, “at times working to entice people into discussing or committing crimes,” according to court documents filed Aug. 13 by an attorney for one of 15 Minnesota protesters facing federal charges stemming from Metro Surge protests.

The filings also unearthed a diagram produced by DHS to show 18 organizations allegedly leading “The Conspiracy.” They include the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Service Employees, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE).

Attorney Kevin Riach, who filed the motion, said DHS investigators “conjured up a vast and irrational conspiracy” without any criminal predicate.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham and other labor leaders called it an attempt to criminalize dissent.

“The Minnesota AFL-CIO and several of our affiliated unions are being targeted simply because our state’s labor movement stood in solidarity with our immigrant union members and neighbors when our state was under siege this past winter,” Burnham said.

“Minnesotans and most people across our country have rejected this administration’s attempts to demonize immigrants. They are now bringing back McCarthyism to paint unions and organizations that advocate for workers and families as threats to the nation.”

MAPE member Alec Stewart, one of 15 ICE protesters facing charges, says DHS surveilled unions “because our community connections and solidarity were so effective.”

The motion for discovery exposing the surveillance measures used here last winter seeks to compel DHS to provide a fuller picture of how its agents spied on Minnesota unions, nonprofits and activists.

Riach filed the motion earlier this month on behalf of Isaac Sant, one of 15 Minnesotans, including some union members, charged in June with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer as part of a coordinated Justice Department operation. Sant also faces interstate stalking charges for allegedly following an ICE vehicle to Hudson, Wis.

Unions and civil rights groups roundly condemned the charges.

In a public statement, 50 organizations accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Justice Department to punish a few activists for a historic campaign of popular resistance to Metro Surge.

The statement, signed by the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Education Minnesota, the Minnesota Nurses Association and 13 other union groups, decries that the charges come from “the very same (agency) that refuses to investigate or press charges in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”

The 15 protesters charged were among thousands of Minnesotans who rose up to defend their neighbors – tracking ICE agents, alerting communities to their presence, documenting their actions and demonstrating in the streets.

Organized labor lent critical support to those efforts – and federal agents clearly took notice, MAPE member Alec Stewart, one of the activists facing charges, said.

Stewart, a forestry worker for the State of Minnesota, joined a press conference last month outside Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, where labor, faith and immigrant organizations called on Minnesota’s large companies to publicly reject political surveillance and retaliation.

“The revelation of Operation Puppet Master exposes that while the government was targeting immigrant communities, tearing families apart, abducting children and murdering folks in the street, they were also attempting to disrupt and dismantle one of the facets of Minnesota that makes us so unique,” Stewart said. “That is our strong and unified labor movement.

“They were doing this simply because our connections and our community solidarity were so effective.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Workers lead push for community guarantees before potential Allina, North Memorial sales

July 14, 2026 by

Health care workers line the entrance to a public hearing in St. Paul on the proposed Sutter-Allina sale.

Unionized healthcare workers are leading a campaign to secure binding commitments from two large, out-of-state health care systems looking to expand their reach in Minnesota, seeking guarantees around patient access, workplace standards, use of artificial intelligence and other issues.

A coalition of labor, faith-based and community organizations want so-called “community benefits agreements,” or CBAs, in place before two proposed acquisitions that, if approved by the state, would reshape the local healthcare sector: Sutter Health’s takeover of Allina Health and Sanford’s acquisition of North Memorial.

Advocates made the case for CBAs at public hearings last month held by Attorney General Keith Ellison, after their efforts to engage directly with executives at Sutter and Sanford stalled.

Wanda Malden, a member of the faith group ISAIAH, said executives at California-based Sutter Health appeared not to take workers and patients’ request for a CBA seriously.

“We sent them a letter last week, and just this weekend they wrote back a letter that said, basically, that we should trust them,” Malden said outside Ellison’s July 13 hearing into the Sutter-Allina deal in St. Paul.

But several current Sutter workers, who traveled from northern California to Minnesota for the hearing, warned union and community members here to be cautious with their trust. Sarah Pineda, a surgery scheduler and member of the Service Employees (SEIU-UHW), said her union sees “daily violations” of their contract at Sutter’s eight unionized facilities.

“This is a giant that you are going to be battling,” Pineda told Minnesota workers. “It is very important that you guys get that community benefits agreement because you are going to need it.”

Sutter Health worker Sarah Pineda traveled from northern California to attend the hearing.

Legislation passed in 2023 gives the Attorney General’s Office authority to block large sales or mergers of healthcare systems if it determines the transaction is “contrary to the public interest.”

The easiest way Sutter and Sanford can allay doubts that their expansion plans are in the public interest, union members said, is by signing onto CBAs.

“Union workers know that words don’t mean anything until they are written down and agreed upon by both sides, which is all we are asking for,” SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa member Kia Pulle said.

Advocates said CBAs are rare in the healthcare sector but have been used in publicly funded developments like stadiums. With mergers and consolidation on the rise in the industry – and with data suggesting the result is often higher costs, lower quality of care and reductions in service – CBAs offer a voice in the process to those too often left out.

Dr. Matt Hoffman, a member of Doctors Council SEIU who practices at Allina’s clinic in Vadnais Heights, called on Sutter to negotiate a CBA that guarantees it won’t “jack up prices.” He said it should also protect quality patient care, safeguard union rights and benefits, and deliver meaningful investment in the community – instead of closing more birthing centers, clinics and hospital wards in the Allina system.

“If a California company is coming to our town to run our health care, at the very least we need a signed, guaranteed community benefits agreement that will make sure every Minnesotan has access to excellent, affordable health care,” Hoffman added.

South Dakota-based Sanford Health, meanwhile, has made some commitments in advance of its proposed acquisition of North Memorial, which employs over 6,500 people at two hospitals and several clinics in the Minneapolis suburbs.

Sanford signed a letter of understanding with the Minnesota Nurses Association covering members at North Memorial’s long-unionized Robbinsdale hospital to protect their contract and pension benefits. Sanford also agreed to honor a contract at the Maple Grove hospital, where nearly 600 nurses voted to unionize last year but are still bargaining a first contract.

Allina nurse Karen Norman urged Sutter to reach a similar agreement with MNA and other unions – but also to work toward a CBA that protects all workers and patients.

“Minnesotans deserve health systems that realize serving patients and communities is more important than serving corporate bottom lines and bloated bonuses,” Norman said.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

Filed Under: Community, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Union volunteers welcome America’s labor movement to Minnesota

June 8, 2026 by

Volunteers staffing the welcome booth on Day 1 of the convention include (L to R) Megan Lockhart (Painters Local 61), Mary Sansom, Hana Yoshida (SEIU Healthcare) and Miriam Wynn.

Local union volunteers are welcoming the nation’s labor movement to Minneapolis this week and helping the AFL-CIO ensure its biggest event runs smoothly.

About 40 retired and active union members answered the call for volunteers during the AFL-CIO’s 30th Constitutional Convention, which began yesterday and runs through June 10 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Volunteers are stationed throughout a bustling exhibition space, located just off the meeting floor. The space features vendor booths, informational displays, interactive training spaces, a live stage and more.

Barbara Andrew, a member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, traveled from Rochester yesterday to volunteer with her SEIU sister Leslie Kaup of Albert Lea. As delegates entered the convention space, Andrew and Kaup encouraged them to write their personal definitions of “solidarity” on a poster-filled wall.

Leslie Kaup and Barbara Andrew

For Andrew, talking solidarity with strangers was a welcome opportunity. She works in food service for a Mayo Clinic contractor, where workers organized a union nine years ago – after Mayo outsourced their department.

“I fell in love with unions,” she said. “I’ve seen how it helped me and my fellow co-workers.”

It’s a feeling Mary Sansom, a retired member of Machinists (IAM) Local 1833, has known for five decades.

Greeting delegates and answering questions at the welcome booth yesterday, Sansom said it was exciting to see the faces that make up the labor movement – from IAM’s elected leaders to members of the AFL-CIO’s 64 other affiliated unions – as they entered the convention space.

“I’m a 53-year union member, and this is our legacy coming in,” she said. “I’m feeling really proud right now.”

Staffing the swag table (L to R): Sara Miele, Larry Nelson (former CWA) and Bernadine Engeldorf (retired MNA).

Some local volunteers had already made new connections on Day 1 of the convention.

A United Steelworkers delegate asked Miriam Wynn, financial secretary of Minnesota-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, to record a message of support for workers in Mississippi who will vote soon in a union election.

“Just to know that they are organizing in Mississippi while our union is organizing here in Rochester, it was actually encouraging for me, and hopefully I was encouraging them,” Wynn said. “Labor everywhere, we need to come together, and that’s what’s happening here.”

For other union members, volunteering at the convention was an opportunity to put Minnesota’s best foot forward after Operation Metro Surge.

Volunteers at the entrance to the convention floor (L to R): Rachel Andersen, Richard Rosivach (Mounds View Education Association), Tess Darmer (Painters Local 61) and MN AFL-CIO organizing director Todd Dahlstrom.

Posted at the entrance to the convention floor, Southdale Hospital nurse Rachel Andersen, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said the convention buzzed with much-needed “good energy.”

“It fills my cup, after everything Minnesota’s been through, to see that we still care about each other,” Andersen said. “We’ve been saying ‘solidarity’ for years, but this winter really put the rubber to the road, and it was there when we needed it.”

Some delegates were eager to recognize the resilience Minnesota showed over the winter, retired Minneapolis educator Sara Miele said. And Miele, who lives downtown, said she is eager in turn to show them everything else that her city and state have to offer.

“I’m so excited about making sure people have a wonderful experience here – and come back and back and back,” she laughed.

 – Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

AFL-CIO convention spotlights strength, solidarity of Minnesota’s labor movement

June 7, 2026 by

Minnesotans who joined the solidarity efforts during Operation Metro Surge take the stage on Day 1 of the convention. (AFL-CIO photo)

Union leaders and activists from across the U.S. are gathering in the Twin Cities this week for the 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention, the American labor movement’s biggest event.

The national labor federation picked Minneapolis as the site of its four-day convention well before a violent surge of federal agents in Minnesota drew worldwide outrage over the winter. But among the first orders of business on Day 1 was a recognition of local unions’ role in organizing resistance to the occupation.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, reelected to a five-year term later in the day, turned the Convention Center stage over to three local leaders, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson and Minneapolis RLF President Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou.

The presidents offered visiting delegates an overview of unions’ response to Operation Metro Surge – and the work that prepared Minnesota’s labor movement to meet the moment with solidarity.

The federal occupation saw unions raise funds for mutual aid and legal defense of detained members. Unions tapped into local solidarity networks, hosting training sessions for constitutional observers and preparing members to respond if ICE showed up on their worksite. And union members not only showed up in the streets as observers and demonstrators, but dozens of activists trained to become “union peacekeepers,” who kept marches safe and orderly.

“They thought Minnesota nice meant we would stand by quietly while federal agents disappeared our friends, neighbors and co-workers,” Burnham said. “But they mistook kindness for weakness. They invaded a winter people in winter, and our solidarity froze them in their tracks.”

(AFL-CIO photo)

Delegates on the convention floor rose for a standing ovation as Burnham welcomed anyone in the room who joined the solidarity efforts in Minnesota onto the stage.

“Now they know Americans are not afraid,” Burnham said. “They know if they send ICE into any of your communities, you will fight just as hard.”

Shuler thanked Minnesotans for their “sacrifice and resilience” before returning to the business of the convention – committee reports, elections and a roll call of affiliated unions, which included the 2-million-member Service Employees (SEIU) for the first time in 21 years.

The AFL-CIO also recognized seven new affiliates representing professional athletes, including WNBA players, who this year won historic gains in a new union contract, and Major League Baseball players, who are in a bitter round of negotiations with owners intent on suppressing their pay with a salary cap.

The theme for the 2026 convention is “With You, It’s Better in a Union.” Organizers expected between 1,500 and 2,000 delegates and guests to attend the four-day affair.

Delegates from the AFL-CIO’s 65 affiliated unions and from state and local labor councils come together at conventions to conduct required business and chart the future of the labor movement.

The event will feature prominent guest speakers and expert panelists to discuss issues facing workers and their families, from artificial intelligence to the rising cost of living.

AFL-CIO Minneapolis convention, Sunday June 7, 2026. Afternoon plenary. Photo: Jay Mallin
AFL-CIO Minneapolis convention, Sunday, June 7, 2026. Photos: Jay Mallin

The convention put a spotlight on Minnesota again on Day 1 when the AFL-CIO recognized the state’s labor movement as one of two recipients of the 2025 Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award, celebrating the most powerful examples of solidarity in action from across the world.

Minnesota shares the award, presented during a dinner reception, with the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP).

The federation’s executive board announced winners of the award in March. Its announcement cited Minnesota union activists’ “courage and commitment to fighting for democratic rights” during the surge that began last December.

Peterson, president of the St. Paul RLF, said the convention was an “exciting opportunity for our nation’s union movement to find inspiration and advance the coalition work that will meet the challenges ahead for working people across the country.”

“The world watched as Minnesotans joined together last winter to protect our neighbors and defend our democracy, and local unions and federated labor bodies, through their organizing work, helped build power and solidarity to meet that moment,” she added.

Both Shuler and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond were re-elected on Day 1 after no other nominations emerged from the floor.

Watch video of the convention’s proceedings at aflcio.org.

— Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Target Field workers ready to strike in push for $20 minimum wage

May 20, 2026 by

Devante Boyd is a food runner and member of Local 17’s bargaining team.

Concessions and other hospitality workers at Target Field have voted to authorize their bargaining team to call a strike, a decision could come as early as this week, the union warned today, after the employer brought “union-busting proposals” to negotiations.

The workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 17, announced results of the vote May 4. Of members who participated, 81% voted to authorize the strike.

Local 17 represents about 500 workers at the Twins’ stadium who are employed by Delaware North Company. That’s nearly double the size of units that bargained previous contracts, as Local 17 succeeded last fall in organizing 200 new members who work in the facility’s premium restaurants.

With the stadium unionized “wall to wall,” Local 17 members are looking to make significant gains in their new contract. Their top demand is a $20 minimum wage this year, paired with significant annual raises in the future.

Devante Boyd, who runs food from concession stations to seats at Target Field, said he earns about $16 per hour now. He voted to strike to “prevent Delaware North from taking advantage of me and let them know that I am willing to advocate for my value.”

Workers also want job security, citing the stadium’s increased reliance on nonprofit volunteers to staff its concession stands. “We’re trying to keep people working and prevent those nonprofits from eroding more into our union spaces,” Local 17 organizer Theo Bilski said.

Members are fighting for a path to health care, too, with proposals that would create a partnership with other arenas in the Twin Cities to pool worker benefits.

Local 17’s previous contract with Delaware North expired in January, but it remains in place as negotiations continue.

Boyd, who serves on the bargaining team, said workers don’t want to strike, but they will if the employer fails to take them seriously at the table.

“We all have one thing in common, and that’s that if not for us, then Delaware North does not succeed,” Boyd said. “We’re making sure that the customers have a great experience.

“I like my job. I don’t want to have to leave because I can’t afford to work here.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community, Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Boycott of REI’s anniversary sale begins today

May 15, 2026 by

Over 70,000 REI Co-op members have pledged to boycott the outdoors retailer’s anniversary sale, which runs today through May 25, in a show of solidarity with workers at 11 unionized stores across the country, including one in Maple Grove.

REI Union members voted in March to authorize a boycott of the co-op’s largest event of the year and immediately began appealing to shoppers for support. (Take the boycott pledge.)

Workers say the boycott is a response to REI’s decision in February to declare bargaining at an impasse and implement the economic terms of its last, best and final offer, which over 98% of union members voted down in January.

The imposed terms cut benefits, starting wages and raises for many union members. The REI Union’s bargaining team, which brings together members of the Retail, Wholesale and Depart-ment Store Union (RWDSU) and six United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals, have called the move union-busting – and illegal.

Jacob Lish, a sales specialist at the Maple Grove store who represents UFCW Local 663 on the nationwide bargaining team, noted that REI implemented only the punitive economic terms of its final offer, not tentative agreements reached earlier in talks that introduced new rights for union workers.

“It’s really important for us that REI hears that its members don’t support the union-busting they’ve been trying to do this whole time,” Lish said.

Union members are hoping the anniversary-event boycott delivers just that message.

In addition to co-opmembers who have taken the boycott pledge, the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, has endorsed the boycott, adding REI to its “do-not-buy” list.

“Their bottom (line) is what they care about at the bargaining table,” Lish said “Even our most modest asks are too expensive; they tell us they can’t afford it.

“So by asking members to withhold their money for those 15 days, we think, is really going to impact REI – and hopefully drive them back to the table to reach an agreement with us.”

Union negotiators say they were “within inches” of a tentative agreement with REI before talks broke down. Management, they say, refused to guarantee union members wages on the same level as their non-union peers – a poison pill designed to thwart future organizing.

More recently, REI has demanded union members accept non-disparagement language in their contracts that would prohibit speaking out publicly against the company.

“REI has refused to offer us a fair contract, despite our willingness to compromise, and instead has insisted on provisions that would prevent more workers from joining the REI Union and that would ban us from speaking out,” Alex Pollitt, a worker at the REI in Bellingham, Wash., said in a statement. “Their anti-union stance is deeply incompatible with the values REI claims to profess.”

In June 2023, REI workers in Maple Grove voted 22-4 in favor of joining UFCW Local 663. After the vote, workers said they looked forward to winning a contract that addressed the rising cost of living, ensured consistent and adequate hours and improved staffing in their store.

Maple Grove was the seventh REI location to unionize. Organizing has continued, with workers at a twelfth store, in San Diego, scheduled to vote in a union election May 27-28.

Despite its reputation as a progressive-friendly retailer, REI has dug deep into the union-avoidance playbook since workers in New York unionized the first store in March 2022.

But the approach has not gone unnoticed by the co-op’s members.

When the REI union campaigned last year to elect two labor-friendly environmental leaders to the co-op’s board of directors, REI refused to put either on the ballot. The union then encouraged members to vote “no” on the co-op executives’ hand-picked candidates, who were running unopposed in the board election.

It worked, as over 115,000 members responded to the union’s appeal.

Two months later, REI agreed to establish a national bargaining structure with the union to settle contracts at its unionized stores – and to provide wage increases and bonuses that it had withheld from workers for the previous three years.

Now, REI members are being asked to deliver a similar message to executives by boycotting their co-op’s anniversary sale.

“We know REI really values themselves as a member co-op, or at least they say they do,” Lish said. “And we already know members support our goal of having some rights in the workplace and basic dignity as workers.

“With that really broad support from the membership, we think this boycott is going to be the most effective way to drive the response we are looking for.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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