Cigars, baseball, competitive cocktail mixing and more

May 1, 2013 by
Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

The St. Paul Cigarmakers struck a deal with the St. Paul Saints in May 1913, granting the union the exclusive privilege of selling cigars during baseball games at Lexington Park all season long.

The Minnesota Union Advocate, in its May 23 edition, celebrated the deal as “an advanced step” in efforts to promote “home industry by patronizing local manufactories.”

“In consequence of this step there will not be sold on the base ball grounds a single non-union cigar during the rest of the season,” The Advocate reported. “Union men who patronize the games can get such cigars as they want, made by union labor in clean and sanitary shops and of good and wholesome material.”

Under the terms of the deal, the cigar makers’ union operated vending stands throughout Lexington Park, located at the corner of Lexington Parkway and University Avenue.

The ballpark burned to the ground a year later – no word on whether cigar ash was to blame – but was quickly rebuilt. It housed the Saints, charter members of the minor league American Association, from 1897 through 1956, when the team moved to Midway Stadium.

75 Years Ago: Builders halted housing construction

In a first for the city of St. Paul, an association of 127 homebuilders shut down construction of more than 100 new homes in May 1938, locking out union carpenters and building laborers in an attempt to drive down wages.

The lockout, which began May 16, failed. The reason, according to analysis in The Advocate, was lack of public support.

“From its inception it was obvious that the strike was not popular with the general public,” The Advocate reported June 2.

In order to return to work, homebuilders demanded carpenters accept a cut in hourly wages from $1.25 to $1, and laborers accept a wage cut from 75 cents to 60 cents. Both wage scales had been established in union contracts settled a year earlier.

More, the homebuilders had no interest in negotiating a solution, according to The Advocate.

“On several occasions when the St. Paul Building Trades Council undertook to arrange meetings with the representatives of the Home Builders for the purpose of ironing out any misunderstandings … the association refused.”

Union members returned to work – without a pay cut – May 31.

60 Years Ago: Union bartenders held cocktail contest

Billed by The Advocate as “one of the most unique events in the history of St. Paul trade unionism,” the first citywide Cocktail Mixing Championship drew 18 union bartenders – and hundreds of thirsty spectators – to the Blue Ox Room of the Hotel St. Francis on May 19, 1953.

Co-sponsored by the ice industry, the Libbey Glass Company and Local 287 of the Bartenders Union, the competition awarded gold plaques to the “most original” entries in three categories: gin cocktail, whiskey cocktail and tall drink.

The Advocate reported the results in its May 21 edition:

“When the judges had turned in their score cards it was found that Vincent Gustafson, of Gannon’s, had won with his ‘Apple-blossom Cocktail,’ Reuben Katz, of the Hotel Lowry took a plaque for his ‘Sky Ride,’ a tall drink, and Nick Manson, of the Lexington bar, won the third plaque with his ‘Party Sipper.’”

(Sadly, The Advocate didn’t print recipes.)

The three winning drink formulas were entered in a nationwide contest.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

25 Years Ago: Teachers ‘adopted’ by local unions

The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly rolled out an “Adopt-a-Teacher” initiative in May 1988, lining up unions to sponsor St. Paul teachers to promote labor studies in their classroom.

Remedial reading teacher Mike LaBerge was adopted by Local 7201 of the Communications Workers of America – an experience that gave him a “fresh outlook” on the a labor movement, The Advocate reported June 6, 1988.

“LaBerge has attended one meeting of Local 7201 and plans to continue meeting with the local during the summer to develop lesson plans for the fall,” The Advocate reported.

The Trades and Labor Assembly spearheaded several initiatives to make labor studies a bigger part of public education, including a draft “labor curriculum” for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

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Workers’ compensation passed in Minnesota 100 years ago

April 1, 2013 by
Minnesota lawmakers voted to create the workers’ compensation system 100 years ago, and 25 years ago union members waged a bitter campaign at the Capitol to prevent lawmakers from gutting workers’ comp. A bill that would have cut $160 million cut in benefit payments, knocking many disabled workers off the program, passed the Senate in April 1988 over loud objections from the Minnesota AFL-CIO. Gov. Rudy Perpich vetoed the bill, heeding the advice of members of Minnesota Frontlash, an organization for young unionists statewide, who demonstrated on the Dale Avenue bridge over Interstate 94.

Minnesota lawmakers voted to create the workers’ compensation system 100 years ago; 25 years ago union members waged a bitter campaign at the Capitol to prevent lawmakers from gutting workers’ comp by $160 million. Gov. Rudy Perpich vetoed the bill, heeding the advice of members of Minnesota Frontlash, an organization for young unionists statewide, who demonstrated on the Dale Avenue bridge over I-94.

The Minnesota Legislature adjourned in April 1913 after nearly three months in session, but not before passing several bills benefiting the state’s workers.

The Union Advocate provided a list the Legislature’s accomplishments in it April 25 edition – from establishing a new worker’s compensation system to requiring employers to install safety devices where heavy machinery is operated.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

A new law also penalized employers who engaged in “misrepresentation” designed to “induce workingmen to go to another part of the state” to replace striking or locked-out workers. Another law created a commission tasked with establishing a living wage for women and minors.

Lawmakers failed to pass labor-backed bills requiring one day’s rest in seven and a semi-monthly payday, but they were able to kill off legislative attempts to dismantle the Board of Examiniers of Horseshoers, much to the relief of union observers.

The Advocate’s conclusion: “There are many results well enough known to be stated with positiveness, and which stand out clearly to the credit of the lawmaking body of the state.”

75 Years Ago: Mechanics vote to strike

Union mechanics staffing “practically every garage” in St. Paul were poised to strike in April 1938 after unanimously voting to reject their employers’ demand for hourly wage reductions of 15 to 19 cents.

Taking a page out of the playbook still used by employers today, members of the St. Paul Automobile Dealers Association sought to use a nationwide recession 75 years ago as an excuse to squeeze concessions from their workers, according to James Ashe, organizer for Machinists and Garage Mechanics Local 459.

“The automotive employers have taken full advantage of the recession in an effort to hammer down the established wage scales of auto mechanics and body and fender workers,” Ashe told The Union Advocate. “We are in no mood to consider reducing these standards.”

The automobile dealers quickly realized their workers meant business. Negotiations picked up, the union postponed its strike 24 hours and the two sides reached a tentative agreement the day after the strike was set to begin.

50 Years Ago: Sales tax a ‘family budget wrecker’

Tax reform is afoot at the Capitol in 2013, but it was a big issue in the Legislature 50 years ago as well. A front-page editorial in the April 18, 1963, edition of The Union Advocate railed against legislative calls for a statewide sales tax, “that hardy biennial perennial” that had been rearing its ugly head at the Capitol during the last several sessions.

“This 1963 version of the state sales tax is designed to do exactly the same thing it was always designed to do – shift the tax burden of the big corporations onto the shoulders of those least able to pay,” the editorial read.

Exemptions for food and clothing were not included in the bill as introduced because, in The Advocate’s estimation, “the aim is to raise approximately $157 million a year – most of it from people who simply can’t afford to pay more for the things they need in order to live.”

Economists estimated the sales tax’s cost to a typical family of four in Minnesota would be between $126 and $132 annually.

Though it failed to pass in 1963, four years later lawmakers overrode two vetoes from Republican Gov. Harold LeVander, to pass the sales tax.

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‘Home Hankies’ fueled seniors’ rally for tax justice

March 4, 2013 by
Minnesota’s seniors waved World Series-inspired “Home” Hankies at a Capitol rally focused on making the state’s tax system fairer for people living on fixed incomes.

Minnesota’s seniors waved World Series-inspired “Home” Hankies at a Capitol rally focused on making the state’s tax system fairer for people living on fixed incomes.

In October 1987, “homer hankies” provided the magic the Minnesota Twins needed to win their first World Series championship. Five months later, Minnesota’s seniors attempted to recapture the magic during a rally for tax fairness at the Capitol.

Seniors waved “home hankies,” during an event March 2, 1988, co-sponsored by the Minnesota Senior Federation and the labor-backed Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice. The hankies – printed with the message, “Don’t tax us out of our homes!” – were delivered to Gov. Rudy Perpich after the rally, along with personal messages about tax issues, The Union Advocate reported.

Speakers at the rally focused on making the state’s tax system fairer for people living on fixed incomes. They advocated restoring cuts to the renters’ tax credit and removing sales taxes on non-prescription drugs like aspirin.

When lawmakers addressed the rally, retirees weren’t shy about making their feelings known.

“Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, DFL- Erskine, was greeted with loud boos as he addressed the group,” The Advocate reported. “He said legislators planned to discuss all of the issues mentioned, but added, ‘More than likely you won’t get everything you want.’”

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

• 75 Years Ago: Fighting communism

There was no room for communists in the labor movement or the Farmer-Labor Party, the March 24, 1938, edition of The Union Advocate proclaimed on its front page.

After three communists were expelled from the central committee of the Ramsey County Farmer-Labor Party, The Advocate weighed in with an editorial endorsing the purge – and warning union leaders that compromise with communists “would be suicidal.”

With an eye on the upcoming Farmer Labor Party state convention, where delegates would endorse a candidate for governor, The Advocate warned union delegates to prepare to hear “all the usual pleas and arguments used by the communists.” That included “pleas for tolerance, unity and harmony,” as well as “eloquent appeals to leave red-baiting to the Republicans, to the reactionary, time-serving daily press and to the hirelings of big business.”

The Advocate editorial brushed off these arguments, taking a pragmatic approach instead.

“Labor is well aware of the fact that the common weapon of reaction is to attempt to discredit the Labor movement with unfounded charges that it is communistic, that it is financed from Moscow, that it is un-American and antisocial,” the editorial said.

For this reason, the American Federation of Labor had barred communists from membership.

“Let Labor remember that it cannot break political bread with those it refuses to accept into its own household,” the editorial added. “Let Labor remember that communists are no more desirable in a political organization in which Labor has a vital interest than they are in the trade union movement from which they are specifically excluded.”

• 50 Years Ago: Unions rally against legislative attacks

In response to “the most vicious anti-union attacks in many years,” more than 450 labor activists from across Minnesota rallied March 12, 1938, at the St. Paul Labor Temple, approving by acclamation a course of action containing “various counter-measures.”

The most pressing concern, The Advocate reported, was legislation being pushed by the Minnesota Employers Association to disqualify thousands of workers from eligibility for unemployment insurance – and to “to reduce sharply the duration of payments for countless of thousands of others.”

Union leaders urged bargaining units across the state to put their employers on notice that they intended to negotiate supplementary unemployment benefits into their next contract – a way of “winning back at the bargaining table what is lost by legislation.”

Additionally, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Robert Olson warned of legislative efforts to make it illegal for unions to contribute to political causes or campaigns. He said the rally sent a strong message that unions would stand together against attempts to erode their political power.

“We have been slowed down before,” Olson said, “but they have never stopped us and they never will.”

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Republican governor blasted ‘right to work’ legislation 50 years ago

February 1, 2013 by

Fifty years ago, to the surprise of Minnesota’s labor community, Republican Gov. Elmer Anderson offered his opposition to a lethal brand of anti-union legislation unions are still fighting today.

The Feb. 14, 1963, issue of The Union Advocate reported Anderson had issued a statement saying he would veto any “compulsory open shop legislation, which usually masquerades as a ‘right-to-work’ bill.”

Although the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate in Minnesota, RTW had not emerged as part of the party’s agenda, and Anderson issued the statement – reported by mainstream media as well as the labor press – in response to a written inquiry from the business manager of Office and Professional Employees Local 12.

“Clearly and unequivocally I oppose ‘right-to-work’ legislation … I do not know any plainer or clearer way to say it,” Anderson said. “My reason is that I do not believe it would aid labor relations in our state but would weaken the Labor Movement and cause friction between Management and Labor and cause difficulties within Organized Labor where there would be some workers wanting a free ride.”

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

100 Years Ago: A better Legislature, better results

OK, so it only feels like it’s been 100 years since state lawmakers took up an agenda on behalf of Minnesota’s working families. But that was, in fact, the case during the 1913 legislative session, according to the Feb. 14 Union Advocate:

“It is particularly pleasing to note that bills in the interest of labor are given close and careful attention with a view to securing the best results,” The Advocate reported.

Bills the labor press monitored closely that year included legislation to require one day of rest per week for workers in factories, workshops or mercantile establishments (workers caring for live animals or maintaining fires were exempted).

Several bills concerning workplace safety progressed through the Legislature: one requiring employers to report accidents to the state, one requiring physicians to report cases of lead poisoning, and another requiring railroads to equip locomotives with “suitable and proper” headlights.

75 Years Ago: Two-day streetcar and bus strike ended

Thirty-five motormen and conductors refused to take their streetcars out of the barn Feb. 14, 1938, after management abruptly announced it was eliminating one of two paid positions aboard the Fort Snelling-Plymouth-Minnehaha streetcar line.

The Monday-morning strike spread quickly among transit workers throughout the Twin Cities, grinding bus and streetcar service to a halt.

The strike lasted until the following evening, when members of Local 1005 of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America – today’s Amalgamated Transit Workers union – voted 754 to 167 to end the work stoppage.

The Union Advocate called the strike a win for transit workers in its Feb. 17 edition, noting that the company agreed to restore two-man service to streetcars – and provide 30-days notice “in the event the company decides to change any two-man car operation to one-man operation.”

Wednesday morning’s commute, meanwhile, was smooth sailing.

“At 11 p.m. Tuesday the strike was off,” The Advocate reported. “Motormen, conductors and bus drivers were at their stations waiting word of the settlement and the service was resumed immediately.”

AFSCME Local 3800 staged a demonstration during the installation of new U of M President Robert Bruininks in February 2003.

AFSCME Local 3800 staged a demonstration during the installation of new U of M President Robert Bruininks in February 2003.

10 Years Ago: AFSCME members spotted trend in U funding

Clerical workers at the University of Minnesota spotted a disturbing trend ten years ago: public disinvestment in the state’s land-grant university. And the workers, members of AFSCME Local 3800, put the blame squarely on Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

In an action organized by the local, 100 demonstrators greeted faculty and administrators as they processed in ceremonial garb to view the installation of new president Robert Bruininks Feb. 28, 2003, The Advocate reported.

The demonstrators “mostly stood quietly, carrying signs saying ‘Save Public Education’ and ‘Support Public Service.’ They distributed fliers protesting Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget policies, which include slashing $185 million in funding to the university.”

The cuts, of course, have only grown worse. The U’s $1.18 billion budget request for 2014-15, presented to lawmakers last month, represents about the same level of state funding the U received in 2001.

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The economic debate hasn’t changed much in 25 years

January 14, 2013 by
A cartoon from the Jan. 27, 1938, Union Advocate presents a familiar problem.

A cartoon from the Jan. 27, 1938, Union Advocate presents a familiar problem.

Business owners say Minnesota’s economic climate is poor, urging lower tax rates and steep cuts to government spending. Union leaders say Minnesota owes its high quality of life to public investments in education and infrastructure that are a catalyst for economic growth.

That’s the debate likely to take place when state lawmakers return to the Capitol next month, and it sounds an awful lot like the “Great Debate” that took place between business leaders and labor leaders in a public forum 25 years ago in St. Paul.

As it turns out, the arguments weren’t all that fresh 25 years ago either, according to the Feb. 1 edition of The Union Advocate: “For the most part the comments were familiar, as both business and labor summarized their positions. The clearest conflict emerged over the questions of workers’ compensation and whether the state has a poor business climate.”

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

Sponsored by the St. Paul Labor Speakers Club, the Jan. 25, 1987, debate drew four participants, two from labor and two from business, including Minnesota Chamber of Commerce President Win Borden.

Businesses will flee Minnesota as the national economy recovers, Borden said, unless the state cuts spending for government services, reduces corporate property taxes and cuts the cost for unemployment and workers’ compensation.

“The tragic fact is some states will be left behind because some states are not as creative as they should be in creating new jobs,” Borden said. “Unfortunately Minnesota is one of those states.”

Eliot Seide, then the area director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wasn’t buying what Borden was selling. He “chided the business lobbyists for failing to acknowledge what Minnesota gets for its tax dollars – excellent education, a good transportation system and a great quality of life – all factors that attract business,” The Advocate reported.

Seide even seemed a little disappointed to be repeating the same old, tired debate still echoing in the House and Senate chambers today.

“I came here hoping to hear something different,” he acknowledged.

Tom Majeski (left), a reporter for the Pioneer Press, distributed fliers outside the Xcel Energy Center Jan. 14, 2003. About 50 members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, took part in the action to protest cuts sought by management during bargaining.

Tom Majeski (left), a reporter for the Pioneer Press, distributed fliers outside the Xcel Energy Center Jan. 14, 2003. About 50 members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, took part in the action to protest cuts sought by management during bargaining.

10 Years Ago: Proposed wage freeze drew cold reception from PiPress workers

More than 50 Pioneer Press employees, members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, froze their tails off outside a Minnesota Wild game to protest management’s attempt to freeze workers’ wages for three years, The Advocate reported in its Jan. 23, 2003, edition.

Union members at the Pioneer Press, who had been working without a contract since July 2002, distributed handbills to Wild fans heading into the arena. The sheets featured team rosters on one side and bargaining information on the other.

In addition to the wage freeze, Knight-Ridder, which owned the newspaper at the time, sought to “raise the employees’ share of family health-care costs by 50 percent, freeze pension contributions, and extract other concessions, even though the paper is profitable,” The Advocate reported.

75 Years Ago: Minnesota Box Company landed on do-not-patronize list

The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly put Minnesota Box Company on its do-not-patronize list, prompting the city’s unions begin pressuring area brewing companies and bottlers to make sure the union label appears on their crates and boxes carrying its products.

Trades and Labor President Ray Wentz put Minnesota Box on the list after management refused to include employees laid off during a “seasonal slump” in a union election.

Minnesota Box President N.J. Lennartson “has frequently stated that he did not believe any of his employees wished to join a union, and his attitude has been one of antagonism against unionization,” Wentz told The Advocate.

Landing on the list meant Minnesota Box would have trouble competing with manufacturers entitled to use the union label on their boxes and crates, Box Makers business representative Charles LaVaque said.

“The St. Paul Bottling company and the Superior Bottling company use nothing but union-made boxes for their soft drinks,” LaVaque said. “The Hamm Brewing company also uses union-made cases, and we urge our friends to insist on union-made boxes, shipping cases and wooden cartons.”

100 Years Ago: Democrats in St. Paul Fire Department fired

St. Paul Mayor Herbert Keller drew sharp criticism in a front-page story in The Union Advocate’s Jan. 31, 1913, edition, after the city’s Fire Commissioners fired nine St. Paul firefighters for being “too old to be efficient” any longer.

The Advocate suspected there was an additional reason for the firefighters’ dismissal: “the fact that they are all Democrats.”

Keller, who held office from 1910 to 1914, claimed to be running a non-partisan administration. The city’s union leaders weren’t buying it.

“None of (the fired firefighters) is really too old to be efficient, but the mayor wanted their places for some of his political friends,” The Advocate claimed.

The firings added insult to injury for city firemen, who had been granted only a “small increase in pay” by Keller’s administration months earlier.

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Strike threw a monkey wrench into Montgomery Ward’s holiday plans 75 years ago

December 1, 2012 by

Kris Kringle has graced The Union Advocate’s pages in several forms over the years. In 1962 his beard was used as a symbol of the union advantage.

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, according to The Union Advocate.

A week later police conducted a “mass arrest” of picketers, who were charged with disorderly conduct. Police levied the same charge against a Montgomery Ward detective accused of entering Local 20,297’s strike headquarters and “using abusive language.”

Despite the bluster, the strike fizzled out after its second week as a result of lukewarm support from the labor community. The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly voted against placing Montgomery Ward on its “do not patronize list,” noting that several craft unions, including the Electrical Workers and Operating Engineers, had members working inside the University Avenue plant.

While some of the workers were reinstated after the strike ended, those who were unwilling to “repudiate their union membership” were not, according to National Labor Relations Board charges filed the following July. The NLRB charges also alleged Montgomery Ward “maintained an espionage system among its employees to not only discourage unionization but to virtually prohibit it,” the Advocate reported.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

In 1997 Santa joined volunteers in the Minneapolis skyway to call attention to sweatshop labor.

100 Years Ago: Shoe Cutters staged organizing drive

St. Paul-based Shoe Cutters Union No. 281 scored a major organizing victory in December 1912, expanding its membership rolls to include roughly 85 percent of all shoe cutters in St. Paul.

The union, which represented workers at only one local shoe manufacturer prior to the organizing drive, successfully appealed to non-union workers, according to the Dec. 27 edition of The Union Advocate, with a mix of economic and social incentives.

A circular letter sent to all shoe cutters “contrasted the conditions in the factories where … a minimum wage for cutting prevailed with those in the unorganized factories where cutters were paid a sliding scale based upon the necessities of the employer.”

Later, Local 281 hosted a “stag party” for the city’s union and non-union shoe cutters. The party netted “a large number of applications for membership,” giving the local enough clout to present a price list – with a minimum wage scale – to several manufacturers in St. Paul.

All but one of those manufacturers agreed to the union’s terms, The Advocate reported. “A strike was called against the factory which held out, and in less than a day afterward this factory also conceded the demands of the union.”

The new price lists resulted in wage increases for the city’s shoe cutters of between $1.50 and $3 per week.

In 1987 Santa urged shoppers to buy union.

25 Years Ago: Carpenters targeted chain restaurant builders

A non-union construction firm building Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants across the Twin Cities suburbs found itself the target of an aggressive campaign of leafletting, picketing and consumer boycotts, staged by Carpenters Local 87 in the fall of 1987.

The campaign eventually led to victory for all Building Trades unions, the Dec. 14 Union Advocate reported, as Alexandria-based Don Getz Construction agreed to use union labor on all future construction jobs. Getz signed the agreement in a donut shop with Local 87 business representative Jerry Beedle, after approaching him during an action outside the Bonanza in Stillwater.

Beedle said the agreement marked a big victory in the trades’ battle to keep fast food and retail chains from building non-union. “If you allow one fast food operation to go non-union, then the danger is another and another and another will take the same route,” Beedle said.

Discount retailers don’t often care about the value in hiring construction workers who are better trained and more productive, he added, making public pressure necessary. “We use every negotiable way to try to get employers to the bargaining table, and when we have to, we use consumer pressure,” Beedle said. “We’ve found that’s been very effective.”

10 Years Ago: Bush, Pawlenty eyed privatization

Minnesota’s public employees were bracing themselves for privatization battles at the federal and state levels in December 2002, as Union Advocate Editor Michael Kuchta reported.

Republican executives in the White House (George W. Bush) and in St. Paul (Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty) were touting alleged cost savings taxpayers would realize by outsourcing public employees’ jobs to the private sector.

But public sector union leaders called the privatization push crony capitalism at its worst. “The Republican Party at the state level is doing the same thing the Republican Party is doing on the federal level – paying back their contributors,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.

As for the cost savings of privatization? U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum wasn’t buying what Bush was selling.

“While the stated goal of this move is cost savings, the administration has been unwilling to back up this claim with facts,” she said. Because private companies need to make a profit, she pointed out, they often achieve low bids only by undercutting wage, benefit and safety standards.

McCollum also raised fears of increased fraud and other bad behavior.

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Fifty years ago, another Romney was bad news for union members

November 1, 2012 by

A name certain to be in the headlines this November – for better or for worse – was also in The Union Advocate’s front-page headlines 50 years ago.

The top story in the Nov. 16, 1962, edition analyzed the results of gubernatorial races across the country: “Rocky, Romney, Scranton Win Big For GOP; Nixon, Others Defeated.”

George Romney, father of the Republican nominee for president in 2012, was elected governor of Michigan, defeating the labor-endorsed Democratic incumbent John Swainson by 78,000 votes. The Advocate considered Romney’s win something of a fluke, noting the narrow margin of victory and “great hoopla” surrounding the prominent automobile executive’s campaign.

“Upsetting as the Romney victory was to the Democrats, it was the only statewide one scored by the Republicans, indicating that Romney won more on his glamour than on the Republican program,” The Advocate reported.

Of course, readers can expect a more dire tone in these pages next month if George Romney’s son upsets another labor-endorsed Democratic incumbent on Nov. 6, 2012.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

• 100 Years Ago: Gompers re-elected

In its Nov. 29, 1912, edition, The Minnesota Union Advocate celebrated the re-election of Samuel Gompers, the first president of the American Federation of Labor, to another term in office during the AFL’s national convention in Rochester, N.Y.

Gompers defeated Max Hayes of Cleveland “by an overwhelming majority and amid scenes of enthusiasm,” The Advocate reported. “In fact, the demonstration in his favor was never before equaled at any of his numerous elections.”

Gompers, who helped found the AFL in 1886, served as its president from 1886 to 1894, and again from 1895 until he died in 1924.

By 1912 labor newspapers like The Advocate were referring to Gompers as the “grand old man.” The Advocate described his opposition as stemming from “the radical wing of the convention.”

Gompers had this to say to delegates after his re-election: “If this American Federation of Labor makes changes that are fundamentally in conflict with the views for which I have contended all my life, I shall go along as a union man, but you will have to choose another president.”

• 75 Years Ago: St. Paul Teachers hold City Council accountable

After accepting wage cuts to help the City of St. Paul ride out dwindling tax revenues during the Great Depression, union teachers put the city on notice in November 1937 that they would sue, if necessary, for full payment of the salaries adopted in an ordinance passed by the City Council two years earlier.

“The teachers declare their intentions of fulfilling their responsibilities by teaching the entire month of December, but insist that the city will be held to strict accountability to live up to its contract,” The Advocate reported in its Nov. 25 edition.

In a resolution passed at a joint meeting of the American Federation of Women Teachers and Men Teachers, St. Paul educators pointed out that their average salary, $1,521, was almost $600 less than their peers in cities with populations above 100,000.

The resolution called on the City Council to use its full taxing power – the city’s levy had been below the $30 per-capita limit for several years – to fulfill the promises made to St. Paul’s teachers.

“We believe the people of St. Paul want the city to honor its just obligations,” the teachers’ resolution said. “We do not believe they want the teachers to teach for nothing.”

• 25 Years Ago: Homeless Union organizes in St. Paul

The National Union of the Homeless founded a St. Paul chapter Nov. 21, 1987, in a convention held at the Labor Centre, The Union Advocate reported in its Nov. 30 edition.

“About 200 homeless and low-income people turned out to hear speakers, elect officers and pass resolutions on homelessness and other issues,” Editor Barb Kucera wrote.

The homeless union got its start two years earlier in Philadelphia, advocating for job training and affordable housing for its members. “When homeless people were barred from the polls for having no permanent address, the union won lawsuits that reaffirmed their right to vote,” The Advocate reported.

St. Paul Trades and Labor Secretary-Treasurer David Foster gave the convention’s keynote speech. Organized labor, he said, is starting to recognize “we share a lot more with people at the bottom of American society than the people at the top.”

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October 2012: Remember when farmers and union members worked together?

September 27, 2012 by

With families across the Midwest struggling to keep their farms out of bank foreclosure, union members rallied with farmers Oct. 10, 1987, at the Heartland Jobs with Justice rally on the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

About 40 Minnesotans were among the estimated 1,500 to 1,700 union members at the rally, Union Advocate Editor Barb Kucera reported from Des Moines, Iowa. And with 1988 caucuses just around the corner, presidential candidates Bruce Babbitt, Richard Gephardt and Paul Simon made the rounds.

Helen Waller, president of the National Save the Family Farm Coalition, thanked union members for working “shoulder to shoulder” in Washington to advance farm credit reform to help family farmers avoid foreclosure – a partnership sugar-beet farmers in Minnesota and North Dakota appear to have since forgotten.

“We appreciate so much having labor help us in our way toward just farm credit reform,” Waller said. “This underscores my belief that farmers and laborers are critically dependent on each other… Neither of us can prosper unless we prosper together.”

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

• 50 Years Ago: Support for Hastings strikers. In October 1962 Twin Cities-area members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union rallied around their sisters and brothers – but mostly sisters – of OCAW Local 6-717, on strike at Smead Manufacturing in Hastings since Aug. 27.

Supporters packed hundreds of cases of canned food and shipped them to striking workers and their families – so much food that it overflowed the double garage of Local 6-717 Secretary Helen Herrmann.

Between 450 and 500 workers at the office-products manufacturer went on strike after Smead refused to bargain in good faith on a first contract with their newly elected union representatives, according to the Oct. 11 Union Advocate.

More than a month after the strike began, Smead employees were still “standing fast, adhering to their principles, despite the threats of discharge for continuing a lawful strike, despite the economic pressures, despite the company’s efforts to resume operations with scabs who sulk through the picket lines,” The Advocate reported.

“Most of the strikers are women, but they don’t act like members of any so-called ‘weaker sex’ when it comes to standing up for their rights pertaining to job security and other issues which the company had declined to negotiate.”

The strike dragged on into December 1962, when union members narrowly voted to accept a two-year contract ending the strike. The contract called for a 13-cent wage increase retroactive to March 28.

• 75 Years Ago: St. Paul Airport expansion. The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly rolled out a special committee in October 1937 to direct a “vigorous campaign of education” against a proposed bond issue to improve and expand the city’s airport. Notably, the opposition included the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council.

A front-page editorial in the Nov. 4 Advocate opposed the airport development as “a private utility at public expense for the benefit of wealthy, gouging air transportation lines.”

Labor opponents pointed out that St. Paul – already “rated as one of the most over-bonded cities” in the nation – had more pressing priorities than airport expansion, a project many considered a real estate boondoggle.

“Labor is suspicious of this whole proposition,” The Advocate reported. “The property adjacent to the present airport is largely delinquent and this bond issue is being used to bolster the owners’ hope of selling lands to the city which otherwise will be taken over by the state.”

The bond issue passed in a special election Nov. 16. The Assembly later censured two labor-endorsed elected officials for championing the airport proposal, and appointed a committee to monitor the airport project and publish its findings in The Advocate.

• 100 Years Ago: ALEC didn’t invent ‘model legislation.’ A committee of state senators, appointed to “carefully examine the subject of compensation for workers injured in the line of their employment,” held its first meeting in October 1912. Interested parties in attendance included representatives of the Minnesota Employers’ Association and liability insurance companies – but not organized labor.

The idea that union leaders would be left out of drafting Minnesota’s first workers’ compensation law didn’t sit well with The Advocate, which ran an indignant, front-page report in its Oct. 25 edition.

“So far as we have been able to learn, no notification was sent to any of the labor unions of the state or any of their representatives but E. G. Hall, president, and W. E. McEwen, secretary, of the State Federation of Labor,” The Advocate reported. “These gentlemen will, in all probability, attend the next meeting of the committee.”

With labor absent, George M. Gillette of the Employers’ Association “occupied the greater part of the time of the meeting,” The Advocate noted. The Employers’ Association presented committee members with a model bill they might use as a template in crafting the state’s workers’ compensation law. (Sound familiar?)

The Advocate picked through Gillette’s model bill, pointed out several concerns and offered this warning to union leaders:

“It is of the greatest importance that the labor unions of the state have persons present at [the next committee] meeting to present their views. Otherwise, they are likely to have to put up with a law not at all agreeable or helpful to them in any large measure. And they ought to get to work at once in the matter, in order that their views may be fully and clearly presented to the committee and pressed on its attention in the most forcible and emphatic way.”

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September 2012: CIO sympathizers routed at statewide AFL convention in ‘37

September 12, 2012 by

Delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 51st Constitutional Convention will gather in Rochester Sept. 16-18. It is certain to be a much more harmonious affair than the statewide labor convention held in Hibbing 75 years ago, when AFL delegates snuffed out an attempt by “CIO sympathizers” to gain a foothold in the organization.

“Minnesota Labor took a definite stand on the side of the American Federation of Labor” at the statewide convention in September 1937, the Minnesota Union Advocate reported in its Sept. 30 edition.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

Over accusations of “steamroller tactics,” four delegations “known to be either affiliated or openly partisan to the CIO” were denied credentials via a voice vote from the convention floor. Delegates proceeded to elect an executive council “that is 100 percent loyal to the A. F. of L.,” and they voted to prevent U.S. Rep. John Bernard, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party representing the Iron Range, from addressing the convention because of his work as an organizer for the CIO.

The upstart Committee for Industrial Organization had been founded from within the AFL two years earlier by unionists who favored increased organizing among industrial workers. At the 1937 state convention, CIO supporters called themselves “progressives,” but the AFL establishment branded them “sympathizers.”

“Every effort of those sympathetic to the CIO to get at least a luke-warm reception for their proposals was met by a united front that left no question as to the temper of the majority,” The Advocate reported.

Gov. Elmer Benson “made an eloquent plea for harmony” in his address to the convention, broadcast over several radio stations statewide.

“Divide and rule was the slogan of the Roman emperors. A division within the ranks of labor is the hope of those who seek the destruction of labor,” Benson said.

“The dark cloud on labor’s horizon today is the division which has developed within the ranks of the American labor movement. It is a division which comes from the top and not from the bottom – not from the rank and file. The rank and file will never permit a permanently divided labor movement.”

The CIO formalized its break with the AFL in 1938, holding its first convention and renaming itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The two bodies merged as the AFL-CIO in 1955.

• 100 Years Ago. A union member looking to wet his whistle probably avoided the Schwabel Bros. saloons downtown St. Paul. According to the report of a delegate to the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly during the body’s September 1912 meeting, Schwabel Bros had employed non-union bartenders.

That wasn’t the only tavern-related issue to come before the Assembly during the meeting. The Cabinet Makers’ delegate “reported three saloons in the city which were fitted up with non-union fixtures.” The matter was referred to the executive board for consideration.

• 50 Years Ago. Martin J. O’Donnell, president of St. Paul-based Building Laborers Local 132, urged the city’s unions to send a representative to the St. Paul Housing Clinic at St. Thomas College in September 1962. The clinic tackled the issue of affordable and safe housing for residents of St. Paul.

The interest of Building Trades unions in such a project “can be taken for granted,” O’Donnell said. “But it would be short-sighted indeed for officers and members of unions engaged in other lines of business or industry to take the position that they don’t have an equally important stake in this matter.”

Working families, he said, should be concerned about the quality of housing facilities a community offers its citizens, particularly for young families and the elderly.

• 25 Years Ago. With President Ronald Reagan seeking approval from Congress to funnel more aid to rebels in war-torn Nicaragua, delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention in September 1987 approved a resolution urging peace in Central America – and calling on the national AFL-CIO to lobby Congress to reject Reagan’s request.

The resolution passed after delegates challenged the ruling of the convention chair, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Dan Gustafson, that the resolution ran contrary to national AFL-CIO policy, Union Advocate Editor Barb Kucera reported.

“The AFL-CIO does not support an end to U.S. aid to the Contras unless the Soviet Union and Cuba end their aid to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Gustafson said.

“After the ruling of the chair was challenged, Secretary-Treasurer Bernard Brommer took the gavel. The challenge to the chair was upheld on a voice vote of the delegates, and the resolution was passed on a voice vote.”

• 10 Years Ago. Two years after workers at Dakota Premium Foods voted to form a union, the workers’ bargaining committee finally reached a tentative agreement with the South St. Paul meatpacking plant Sept. 30, 2002.

The contract included pay raises ranging from $2 to $4.50 an hour, raising hourly wages at the plant to between $10 and $13.50. It also included a $1,000 signing bonus, a grievance and arbitration process and seniority rights.

But the difficult process Dakota Premium workers endured to get their first contract provided an “example of what is wrong with U.S. labor law,” Advocate Editor Michael Kuchta wrote.

“The company tried to overturn election results, then continually delayed bargaining by filing multiple legal appeals of rulings that went against the company. Company negotiators finally began bargaining with workers on Aug. 15.”

St. Paul’s newest union went into action at “A Fair of the Heart” Sept. 13, 1987. Members of International Cornhuskers of America Local 1987 shucked thousands of ears of corn for the crowd of 45,000 at the annual United Way event. Pictured above are Steelworker Nyals Kittel (left) and Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Bernard Brommer. At right, AFSCME member Lucille Robinson and Minnesota AFL-CIO Community Service and Education Director Christine Matuzek.

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August 2012: Electrical Workers Local 110 formed a century ago

August 1, 2012 by

It’s not a “golden anniversary” – that would be 110 years – but Local 110 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will turn 100 years old this month, and members planned to celebrate July 28 with a picnic on Harriet Island.

The St. Paul-based union traces its roots to a division that took place in July 1912, when members of Electrical Workers Union No. 23 (now IBEW Local 23) voted to allow inside electrical workers to form their own local if they wished to do so.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

The split was amicable, as the Minnesota Union Advocate reported in its July 26, 1912, edition. “The membership of this union has increased so rapidly and so extensively during the last few months that the advisability of dividing it into two unions, a linemen’s and an inside wiremen’s union, has been seriously considered,” Editor Cornelius Guiney wrote.

Inside Electrical Workers’ Union No. 110 held its first membership meeting Aug. 16 at the St. Paul Trades & Labor Federation Hall. The new union, according to Guiney’s report in The Advocate’s Aug. 16 edition, boasted “seventy-five members and an all-conquering spirit of determination to get every inside electrical worker in the city on its roster.”

Local 110 Press Secreatry A.J. Velat told The Advocate the wiremen “intend to make their union one of the best of their craft in the history of St. Paul,” adding that they already have “struck a winning pace” with a “spirit of enthusiasm that stops at no obstacle.”

“If all the members stick and work, as they seem determined to do, there can be no doubt of early and great success,” Velat said.

One hundred years later, Local 110 members are still sticking, still working and, without a doubt, still succeeding. Congratulations!

• 75 Years Ago. In August 1937, beauty salons were a hotbed for organizing drives in St. Paul.

Ellen’s Beauty Shop, located on Cedar Street downtown, was the target of an ongoing action staged by members of the Beauty Workers Unit, a newly formed arm of Journeymen Barbers Local 31. The Advocate reported Aug. 12 that Ellen’s initially refused to recognize the local, prompting six beauty workers to picket outside the shop and the Journeymen Barbers to pull their working member from the salon.

Perhaps after watching what happened at his neighbor’s salon, Allan Goldman, owner of the Sha-Ri beauty salon at 6th and Cedar, “intimidated his employees and compelled them to sign individual contracts with him in addition to signing a statement … in which the employees declared they were satisfied with their employer,” Local 31 reported in the The Advocate’s Aug. 26 edition.

Goldman went so far as to seek an injunction to stop picketing outside Sha-Ri. “It was set up in the complaint that pickets were intimidating prospective customers, using abusive language, blocking the entrance to the shop and in other ways interfering with the conduct of the business,” The Advocate reported.

Goldman withdrew his complaint after a judge ruled picketing could continue – provided the wording on picketers’ signs was truthful. Court battles between Sha-Ri and the union would continue, however, for the next two years.

• 50 Years Ago. The nation was mired in an “economic lag” in August 1962. Unemployment had been stuck above 5 percent for 57 consecutive months. The Union Advocate’s Aug. 23 edition trumpeted the AFL-CIO’s plan to achieve full employment: a 35-hour workweek.

The nation’s largest labor federation urged its affiliate unions to push a 35-hour workweek at the bargaining table, and called on Congress and President Kennedy to pass an “amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that all time worked in excess of 35 hours a week, in operations in interstate commerce, be paid double time.”

• 25 Years Ago. Unions representing workers at Continental Baking Co., maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies and other products, rallied inside Minneapolis City Hall in August 1987, protesting the city’s role in the company’s decision to cease operations in the Twin Cities.

The city purchased Continental’s plant at 1200 Third Ave. South to make room for construction of the Convention Center. The company announced it would not relocate in the Twin Cities, displacing more than 100 workers, members of five local unions.

In the Aug. 24 Union Advocate, union leaders warned the decision would impact the freshness of Continental’s products.

“We want people to realize this is a fresh product made here in Minnesota,” said Bakery Local 22 steward Dave Bentley, who handed out Twinkies to the large group at the rally. “If they close the plant down it won’t be made fresh here. It will be made in another state.”

• 10 Years Ago. The Minneapolis Convention Center hosted 3,500 delegates to the American Postal Workers Union’s biennial convention in August 2002. When Vice President Dick Cheney dropped into town to help Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Pawlenty raise money at the Hilton Hotel, most of those delegates were waiting to greet him.

“Postal workers engulfed the sidewalks around the block and across the street from the Hilton, chanting ‘Cheney No! Union Yes!’ and ‘Cheney is a crook!’” Union Advocate intern Hannah Clark reported. “In a point missed by most media reports, the protesters outside clearly outnumbered the guests inside.”

• 5 Years Ago. Among the 13 people killed when the Interstate 35-W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed Aug 1, 2007, was Greg Jolstad, a member of Operating Engineers Local 49 working to resurface the bridge at the time it collapsed. Members of AFSCME and the Laborers also were working on the bridge that day.

In the days that followed the disaster, union leaders joined the chorus of voices calling on policy makers to reevaluate the public’s level of investment in infrastructure.

“It’s been talked about for years – something’s going to happen like a bridge falls down,” said Jim Brady, president of the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota. “It’s not popular to spend money on this stuff. It tends to get ignored. Then something like this happens and you can’t ignore it.”

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