The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
The Supreme Court today announced it would hear arguments in a case challenging unions’ ability to collect fees from public-sector workers who choose not to join a union but, as members of the bargaining unit, enjoy equal access to benefits provided by the union contract. Eliminating so-called “fair share fees,” ruled constitutional by the Supreme […]
WAYZATA – Backed by a delegation of supporters, three janitors fired after going on strike confronted the car dealerships they used to clean yesterday, asking managers to use their influence with cleaning contractor ROC to help them get their jobs back. “I am angry because they’re not listening to us,” fired worker Julio Romero […]
Analise Adams, a 22-year-old from Minneapolis, was working in a Linden Hills childcare center two months ago. When her aunt, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told her about a free training opportunity for women considering careers in construction, Adams decided to take a chance. She quit her childcare job and […]
One week after voting 468-0 to authorize their leadership to call a strike if necessary, warehouse workers at Supervalu’s Hopkins distribution center ratified a new three-year contract June 4 that will raise wages and improve working conditions. The contract covers 723 members of Teamsters Local 120, who voted by an 8-1 margin in favor of […]
In a victory for 27,000 home health care workers across Minnesota, Gov. Mark Dayton today gave final approval to a historic first union contract that will dramatically improve working conditions in the industry when it takes effect July 1. Dayton’s signature on the Omnibus Health and Human Services bill, passed by the Legislature with bipartisan […]
Executives at Kohl’s had no interest today in hearing concerns about working conditions maintained by cleaning subcontractors inside their department stores – not in Roseville, and not at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Milwaukee. That’s disappointing, workers said, given the pattern of OSHA violations recently exposed at one of Kohl’s cleaning contractors in […]
Workers in AT&T’s credit collections department walked off the job in Minneapolis this afternoon, joining a “grievance strike” to demand AT&T stop denying sick pay to its longest-serving employees. About 200 of the department’s 243 workers, members of Local 7250 of the Communications Workers of America, joined picketing outside AT&T’s offices at 9th Street and […]
Sun Country pilots aren’t budging from the stance that they deserve better pay, not even after threats from their boss that the airline could be downsizing. Pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, have been in negotiations with Sun Country since their contract became amendable in April 2010. The two sides have been in […]
When Fresh Seasons Markets in Victoria and Glen Lake closed a year ago, owner Tom Wartman failed to pay his employees the vacation and personal-holiday pay they had earned, their union alleges. Local 653 of the United Food and Commercial Workers has taken legal action to recoup workers’ pay, and the union’s Health, Welfare and […]
Capping a week that saw fast food workers, bank tellers, students and other workers across the Twin Cities mobilize for higher wages, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota announced today that members have ratified a new contract with Allina that establishes a $15 minimum wage at seven Twin Cities hospitals. Allina backed out of metro-wide negotiations between the […]
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