The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Jim Hendricks clapped his hand five times, and the room bustling with more than 30 busy children Saturday morning fell silent. Everyone turned to face Hendricks, a business representative for the Carpenters union, awaiting his instructions. Holding up two pre-cut pieces of wood, Hendricks demonstrated the method for fashioning them into the sides of a […]
Decking the apprenticeship hall with festive concrete has become an annual tradition at Cement Masons Local 633. The local hosted a holiday party at its training center in New Brighton last night, and members strolled through a “Peanuts”-themed winter wonderland fashioned by first- and second-year apprentices. All of the work to create the concrete […]
Naomi Holmes will run out of deferments on $57,000 in student debt this winter. Howard Terry took out a $30,000 loan to finish his graduate degree at the University of Phoenix. Tom Laabs’ wife, Liz, will graduate next year from the University of Minnesota with six figures’ worth of debt. “When that school loan comes […]
Minnesota plummeted in a nationwide ranking of hospital safety released yesterday, but that came as no surprise to nurses, whose reports of unsafe staffing incidents in hospitals statewide have doubled over the last 12 months. Minnesota fell from 15th to 32nd in the Hospital Safety Score rankings, based on the percentage of hospitals that receive […]
The trophy on display in Local 1’s New Hope training center may be small, but the accomplishment behind it – Brandon Peterson’s first-place finish in the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers’ International Apprentice Contest – is as grand as they come. Peterson, a 33-year-old apprentice tile setter from Ham Lake, advanced from local and regional tiling competitions […]
A tenant for 111 years, St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455 finally has a home of its own. The union held an open house at its new facility at 1301 L’Orient Street in St. Paul yesterday, celebrating with apprentices, members, retirees, public officials and union leaders. Local 455 acquired the property – a former fabricating […]
The Union Advocate, official publication of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, received five awards in the International Labor Communications Association’s 2015 awards contest. Competing among print and online publications produced by statewide and other labor organizations in the U.S. and Canada, The Advocate won the following awards: First Place, Visual Communication Awards: Best Informational […]
Union electricians are making sure a spotlight continues to shine on the All American Veterans Memorial in Shieldsville. Active and retired IBEW Local 110 members volunteered their time and skills this morning in Shieldsville, about an hour south of the Twin Cities. The crew installed new light posts, donated by union contractor Muska Electric, and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Union Advocate 