St. Paul unions weigh support for campaign to pass citywide $15 minimum wage

August 12, 2015 by
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler leads a discussion about the Raising Wages Agenda at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler leads a discussion about the Raising Wages Agenda at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

 

Backing the emergent campaign for a $15 minimum wage in St. Paul is the right thing to do, labor leaders said in a meeting with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler last night. But as unions look to reverse the trend of declining density, joining the fight to raise wages is also about remaining relevant.

“We want the union movement to be seen as out there fighting for working families beyond just our members,” Shuler said. “It’s our job to make the labor movement relevant to everyone who works for a living, and I think that’s what raising wages is all about.”

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler listens to St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper's remarks.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler listens to St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper’s remarks.

Shuler, the second-ranking officer in the nation’s largest labor federation, joined St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper at the East Side Freedom Library in leading a frank discussion about the AFL-CIO’s Raising Wages Agenda. St. Paul and Minneapolis are among the 13 cities targeted by the AFL-CIO’s campaign.

Shuler emphasized there’s no “cookie-cutter approach” cities must follow, but what most campaigns have in common is a focus on electing candidates who pledge to support working families – and holding them accountable.

Kasper said the St. Paul RLF, which unites more than 100 local unions in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties, aims to do more than increase the city’s minimum wage. The RLF and its community partners – including faith-based, progressive, minority and immigrant-rights groups – plan to form a St. Paul Works coalition to advocate for policies stepping up enforcement of wage theft, guaranteeing access to earned sick time and supporting fair schedules.

About 30 union activists and labor leaders join the Raising Wages discussion.

About 30 union activists and labor leaders join the Raising Wages discussion.

A similar coalition is gaining momentum in Minneapolis. And St. Paul community groups launched a 15Now campaign earlier this month.

15Now’s push to raise the minimum wage and improve working conditions in cities across the country, Kasper said, “is a golden opportunity to get together with community groups and work on common goals, common interests. But we need buy-in from the unions.”

That investment will pay off for unions in the long run, Kasper added. “We need to have the community working with us. We’re a small speck in the community. But if we can take the lead and not be ashamed of who we are … then when we run organizing or political campaigns in the future, we’ve got the community on our side.”

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In new report, St. Paul teachers give ‘cookie-cutter’ policies a failing grade

August 7, 2015 by
Panelists at the SPFT event yesterday included (L to R) Michael Diedrich, Caitlin Reid, Zuki Ellis, Steve Marchese. SPFT political organizer Patrick Burke moderated.

Panelists at the East Side Freedom Library yesterday included (L to R) Michael Diedrich, Caitlin Reid, Zuki Ellis, Steve Marchese. SPFT political organizer Patrick Burke moderated.

 

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for improving under-performing schools, according to a report issued yesterday by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers. To achieve lasting improvement, district leaders must engage a school’s surrounding community and address the unique, underlying challenges in students’ neighborhoods, homes and lives.

That’s the conclusion policy researcher Michael Diedrich, author of the SPFT report, reached after a deep analysis of efforts to turn around one under-performing school in the St. Paul district, Frogtown’s Maxfield Elementary.

Diedrich discussed his report, “Capacity, Context and Community: Learning from School Improvement Policy at Maxfield Elementary,” at the East Side Freedom Library yesterday with teachers, union activists and two labor-endorsed candidates for school board, Zuki Ellis and Steve Marchese.

The panel also included Maxfield Elementary teacher Caitlin Reid, who began teaching at the school shortly before it received a three-year federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) to address “widespread misbehavior” resulting from “layers of dysfunction” inside and outside the building, according to Diedrich’s report.

The additional funding from 2010 to 2013 allowed Maxfield to add teachers and support professionals, invest in technology and extend students’ learning time. “Incidents of misbehavior dropped, and the responses to the remaining incidents were more thorough and constructive,” Diedrich’s report said.

With more support staff, students received more individual or small-group attention for everything from reinforcing a lesson to addressing misbehavior. But when the three-year grant ran out, Reid said, many of those support professionals disappeared.

“We saw a lot of cuts early on after the SIG,” she said. “The biggest cuts that affected us were some of the staff who did math and reading support.”

Now behavior issues are on the rise at Maxfield again, and the school has been designated a “priority school” under the Minnesota Measurements Rating system. The SIG, Diedrich said, “didn’t work very well for producing long-term change” at Maxfield.

Report author Michael Diedrich, a former English teacher at Brooklyn Center High School, is an education policy researcher.

Report author Michael Diedrich, a former English teacher at Brooklyn Center High School, is an education policy researcher.

Why not? And what can the district learn from ongoing attempts to turn Maxfield around? Panelists laid out three key responses during their discussion yesterday.

• Underlying factors behind a school’s performance matter, and policymakers who ignore those unique factors will most likely fail.

“We don’t want another cookie-cutter solution because it’s not going to work,” Reid said. “We’re not the same as every other school” that is under-performing.

Ellis said she hopes to change the St. Paul Public Schools’ approach if elected to the board. Rather than handing down policy directives without seeking input from “any parent or any teacher in that building,” Ellis said she would engage teachers, parents and community stakeholders “more thoughtfully and effectively,” asking them, “What do you need and how can we support that?”

• Engaging parents and involving the school’s community are critical to improving student performance.

“Public schools are meant to serve their communities,” Diedrich said. “One of the best ways we do that is by involving the community in making our school better.”

Reid said several Maxfield teachers have visited students’ homes as part of the union’s Parent Teacher Home Visit Project, and it’s led to greater parental investment in Maxfield’s programming. “We’re building that community of parents and teachers working together to address issues,” she said. “For me, it’s been career changing.”

• There are no quick fixes for under-performing schools, and sweeping, new policy directives every three or four years make it hard to tell what’s working and what’s not.

“That shifting of gears every three years, it’s hard on the staff, it’s hard on the kids, it’s hard on the communities,” Marchese said, adding that the school board should be “setting standards for what is expected across the system,” but giving school stakeholders flexibility in crafting – and sticking with – a plan to meet those standards.

Diedrich added: “Being able to have investment at the district level that supports you in building what works for your community is very, very meaningful. Just saying, ‘Now everybody gets an iPad!’ – that is the kind of thing that ends up being ephemeral.”

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Dayton, Ellison celebrate Medicare’s 50th birthday with Minnesota Nurses

July 31, 2015 by
Nurses celebrated Medicare's 50th birthday with PIE, symbolic of the union's call to "protect, invest and expand" the popular health care program.

Nurses celebrated Medicare’s 50th birthday with PIE, symbolic of the union’s call to “protect, invest and expand” the popular health care program.

 

web.MNA-Medicare-nursesMedicare turned 50 years old yesterday, and Minnesota nurses celebrated by throwing President Lyndon B. Johnson’s landmark legislation a barbecue birthday bash in St. Paul.

More than 100 million people are enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans and also turned 50 yesterday. Together, the programs ensure seniors maintain health coverage after retiring and children receive the health care they need to avoid falling behind.

“Health care is a truly patriotic issue tied to our freedom,” Minnesota Nurses Association Executive Director Rose Roach said. “Are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness really possible when you don’t have your health?”

Doctors, patients and elected officials, including Gov. Mark Dayton and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, joined nurses in pledging to protect Medicare – and expand the popular health care program into a single-payer health plan covering all Americans.

“I don’t know if we’ll see single payer in my lifetime,” Dayton said. “But if we do, I hope it starts here in Minnesota.”

Rep. Ellison speaks at the nurses' celebration of Medicare's 50th anniversary.

Rep. Ellison speaks at the nurses’ celebration of Medicare’s 50th anniversary.

Ellison, a DFLer from Minneapolis, said he was proud to have supported the Affordable Care Act, passed during President Obama’s first term. “But deep down and in my heart of hearts,” Ellison added, “I have been and will always be a single payer person.”

The ACA increased access to the private health insurance market and allowed states, including Minnesota, to expand Medicaid eligibility for the working poor, extending coverage to an estimated 16.4 million Americans over the last 5 years.

But even in Minnesota, people are slipping through the cracks of the private insurance market. That’s why Ellison said he supports the American Health Security Act, introduce by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) in March. It would allow states to administer their own universal health insurance systems, subject to federal standards.

Ellison and Dayton agreed that the bill would empower Minnesota to set a course toward single payer, universal health care – one the rest of the nation could follow.

“That’s how Canada ended up with single payer,” Ellison said. “It wasn’t just one big national plan. It was Ottawa, then Saskatchewan, and it spread.”

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Workers to rally outside courthouse as AT&T sues to deny their sick pay

July 13, 2015 by
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CWA members walk a picket line outside AT&T offices downtown Minneapolis during a grievance strike in May 2015.

AT&T is challenging a new Minnesota law allowing workers to use paid sick time to care for family members.

But as the Fortune 500 telecommunications company appears before a federal judge in Minneapolis on Friday, members of the Communications Workers of America will rally outside the courthouse with a simple message: AT&T is not above the law.

The rally will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 17, outside the U.S. Courthouse, 300 4th St. S., Minneapolis. [Click here to view the Facebook event page.]

AT&T’s challenge involves only workers with more than 25 years of experience with the company, who have seen their requests for sick pay to cover time spent caring for family members denied. Similar requests from less-tenured workers have been approved by the company.

CWA, the union that represents AT&T workers in Minnesota and across the country, has filed grievances on behalf of employees, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry last year issued a direction to comply with Minnesota Statute 181.9413, which expands sick leave to cover family members.

But AT&T has delayed resolution on both fronts by challenging the law in federal court.

“AT&T is actually spending more money on lawyers to avoid following the law than it would cost them to comply with it,” CWA Local 7250 President Shari Wojtowicz said.

In May, AT&T workers staged a grievance strike in Minneapolis to show solidarity with co-workers who have been denied sick pay.

Debra Derke, an AT&T employee for nearly 30 years, estimated she’s lost eight months’ pay since her husband suffered a string of medical emergencies that began with a heart attack in August 2013.

“They’re basically discriminating against their most senior, most dedicated people, the people who have made this company what it is,” Local 7250 member Susan Anderson said. “It’s shameful, especially with the profits they have, the perks that their CEO gets. Yet they are basically trying to nickel and dime us to death.”

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In Minnesota, apprenticeship model expanding to other industries

June 26, 2015 by

Apprenticeship has long been the backbone of the Building Trades unions. Their on-the-job training programs put workers on a path to family-sustaining careers while ensuring union contractors have access to the highly skilled labor pool they need to remain competitive.

It’s a win-win model.

Now, with a push from the federal government, unions and employers in other industries are looking to emulate it.

Minnesota is one of three states where the AFL-CIO’s Working for America Institute, armed with a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, is promoting a registered apprenticeship program for industrial manufacturing workers. It’s an 18-month, 3,000-hour training course that employers can access at no cost to boost their workers’ skills.

Several Minnesota manufacturers are warming up to the idea of partnering with a union on an apprenticeship course, program coordinator Jerome Balsimo said.

“Employers have said to us, ‘This is a recruiting tool,’” Balsimo said. “‘There are four or five other manufacturers right next to us, but I’m the manufacturer that has the apprenticeship program, wage increase and industry-recognized certifications when you finish. Come work for us.’”

Among those employers is Baldinger Bakery in St. Paul. After being approached by its workers’ union, BCTGM Local 22, Baldinger agreed to install the Industrial Manufacturing Technician apprenticeship program, which will launch later this year.

The company, which manufactures buns for McDonald’s and other restaurants, recently relocated to a “rebuilt, high-tech facility” on Phalen Boulevard, Local 22 President Ron Mohrland said. Management viewed the apprenticeship program as an opportunity to ensure workers’ skills keep pace.

Much of the training curriculum is standardized, with MnSCU faculty facilitating. But Baldinger is able to customize many aspects to meet the plant’s needs.

“There’s a basic education that these guys are getting, but the plant is helping write the program to what needs to be taught specifically at our facility,” Mohrland said.

About one-third of the 60-plus union members working in the facility are expected to participate, from new hires to more experienced factory workers. Apprentices will get paid for the time they spend in classroom or on-the-job training, and when they complete the program, they will add seven industry-recognized credentials and certifications to their resumes – not to mention the $1.50 per hour raise.

“They’re going to go from walking in the door as a helper to the very top scale, something called a bakery processor,” Mohrland said. “That’s somebody who can pretty much walk in there can do anything – from minor maintenance to running the machines all around the facility.”

Industrial unions like the BCTGM aren’t the only ones eying apprenticeship opportunities as an added value to union membership. Todd Dahlstrom, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s organizing and growth director, said another federal grant is in the works to boost health care workers’ skills and wages via apprenticeship.

“The union does grievances, the union does arbitration, the union negotiates contracts – all fundamental things that are very, very important. But they’re not always tangible to a new employee,” Dahlstrom said.

“If workers understand that they get their training and certificate for that training through a program their union has helped develop and offer, you get workers on the front end and give them a stronger union identity.”

– Interested in the Industrial Manufacturing Technician apprenticeship? Contact program coordinator Jerome Balsimo at 651-335-2896 or Jbalsimo@mnaflcio.org.

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With boost from WESA, training program puts women on path to apprenticeship

June 24, 2015 by
Analise Adams is among the first 18 women to complete Women Building MN, a pre-apprenticeship program supported by grant funds included in the Women’s Economic Security Act.

Analise Adams is among the first 18 women to complete Women Building MN, a pre-apprenticeship program supported by grant funds included in the Women’s Economic Security Act.

 

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 enrolled in the two-week course.

The risk paid off. Within two weeks of completing the training May 22, Adams had a job as a pre-apprentice electrician with Egan Construction. Working on the contractor’s road crew, Adams helps take down streetlights and pull wire from beneath street level.

“They said my shovel would become my new best friend, and it has,” Adams said during a break from working on a road-construction project around Snelling and University Avenues in St. Paul. “We’re doing a lot of digging.”

Not that she would trade digging for diapers.

“Childcare wasn’t paying the bills. It wasn’t a career. It wasn’t where I wanted to go in life,” Adams said. “This is something I can work for years and years, for life.”

That’s the idea behind Women Building MN, the new pre-apprenticeship program getting women like Adams on track to a middle-class career by way of the Building Trades’ registered apprenticeship programs.

Breaking the mold

Men traditionally have dominated the ranks of apprenticeship programs in Minnesota, and it remains so today. Just 654 of the state’s 9,661 registered apprentices are females, or about 7 percent. But the number of women in apprenticeship programs has doubled over the last 10 years. It’s a trend policymakers, construction firms and Building Trades unions want to continue – at a faster pace.

“There’s a need to diversify the industry,” Building MN Coordinator Vicki Sandberg said. “A lot of women still don’t even think of construction as a career choice.”

The challenge of attracting more women to Building Trades apprenticeships is about more than achieving diversity, though. Industry experts anticipate a shortage of skilled workers in the coming years, according to Jessica Looman, deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

Apprenticeship programs took in fewer applicants after the economic downturn as work slowed and opportunities for paid, on-the-job training – the basis of apprenticeship – grew scarce. “Now that work is back, we’re realizing we didn’t bring in enough people to be ready to do the work on the journey level, and we need to make up for lost time,” Looman said.

A looming “retirement boom” makes the need to recruit new workers even more urgent. Most workers in the construction trades are between 48 and 58. “That means they’re going to be retiring anywhere between the next year and the next 20 years,” Looman said.

Making registered apprenticeship opportunities attractive to women, veterans and people of color is an essential step toward meeting contractors’ demand for skilled labor in the coming years. “The Trades are taking a huge leadership initiative, and they really should be applauded and congratulated for the hard work they’re doing in bringing apprenticeship to more people,” Looman said.

Adams says other members of her crew "do an amazing job of teaching as they go."

Adams says other members of her crew “do an amazing job of teaching as they go.”

Designed for women

Women Building MN is based on curriculum developed by Build MN, a two-week crash course and placement program developed by Twin Cities Building Trades unions and their contractors in 2004 to attract non-traditional applicants to their apprenticeship programs.

The Women’s Economic Security Act, passed by state lawmakers last year, provided grant funding for an offshoot focused on women. The training includes an introduction to several crafts, from pipefitting to electrical work. Participants visit training centers operated by local unions, where staff set up demonstrations and hands-on activities.

“With 18 women in the class, we would go into these training centers and overpower the whole thing,” Adams said. “It was just all women. They’re not used to that.”

The course also included seminars on working in male-dominated environments, the culture of the construction industry, the apprenticeship career model and so-called “soft skills” – what to wear, what tools to bring, how to stay safe and more.

Women Building MN will graduate three classes this summer, each with up to 24 women enrolled. And for the first time, Build MN will track graduates’ progress with a mentoring program coordinated by the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the U of M’s Labor Education Service, connecting apprentices with journey-level workers.

Jerome Balsimo, a program coordinator with the AFL-CIO, said having a mentor “helps you deal with some of the issues that come up on the job, things you can’t teach in those two weeks. You need someone who has been through those battles.”

The mentoring program is also supported with funds from the WESA grant, which put a premium on apprentice retention. “We know if we can get people to stay after their first year of registered apprenticeship, their success rate in completing is significantly higher,” Looman said. “People who stay for a second and third year are the people who are going to make a career of it, and we want to help them get through that second and third year.”

‘Who cares if it’s hard?’

Already, the program is paying dividends for Adams, who is soaking up as much knowledge as she can before, she hopes, becoming an IBEW apprentice in the fall.

“I can’t do everything that they’re doing, but the guys on my crew do an amazing job of teaching as they go,” she said. “You have to be willing to go and get it and do the work. Put your foot in it. Who cares if it’s hard work? The whole point of a job is to work hard.

“Yeah, I’m going to have to get down in the mud, and I’m going to have to shovel. I’m going to have to do all of the work the guys are doing. It’s not any different. It’s just I’m a chick, and I’m doing it.”

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Protesters to Best Buy: ‘Get out of the way so we can have justice’

June 9, 2015 by
Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy's annual shareholder meeting.

Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting.

 

RICHFIELD – Inside and outside of Best Buy’s annual shareholders meeting today, Minnesotans called on the corporation to stop using its political clout to block policies that improve working families’ lives.

That includes proposed legislation in Minnesota that would provide workers and their families with the stability and security they need to ensure a healthy work-life balance – policies opposed by lobbying groups Best Buy helps fund.

Best Buy plays “an important role in the Chamber of Commerce and other business associations that have been opposing legislation that supports workers’ rights to take care of their families,” Veronica Mendez Moore, an organizer with the Twin Cities worker Center CTUL, told about 100 demonstrators at a rally outside the shareholders meeting.

CTUL, which has been supporting janitors’ campaign to improve wages and working conditions maintained by cleaning contractors that service big-box retailers, organized the protest with faith groups, labor unions and progressive organizations working to build support at the Capitol for basic worker benefits and protections.

The Working Parents Act, introduced by House DFLers last session and backed by labor, stalled after drawing swift opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Retailer’s Association, another Best Buy-led lobbying outfit. The bill pulled together initiatives seeking to crack down on employers who commit wage theft, require fairness in employee scheduling and guarantee workers access to earned sick time and paid family leave.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Too many of the jobs created during the current economic recovery don’t provide those benefits, janitor Hilario DeLeon told the crowd through a translator.

“Where I work we have no benefits at all,” DeLeon said. “We want to be able to have vacation. We want to be able to have paid sick days.”

DeLeon has cleaned the Target in downtown Minneapolis for seven years, and he said conditions deteriorate as contractors, looking to offer big-box retailers the lowest bid, seek new ways to cut costs. If Best Buy won’t agree to hold contractors to higher standards, he said, the company should at least stop using its clout at the Capitol to oppose raising the floor for everyone.

“We know that Best Buy has been getting in the way of our efforts,” DeLeon said. “We want Best Buy to get out of the way so we … can have justice.”

As protesters rallied outside, a delegation of activists gained access to Best Buy’s shareholder meeting by holding stock in the company or acting as a supportive shareholder’s proxy. Leticia Zuniga, a janitor and CTUL member who cleans Herberger’s, said a three Best Buy executives met with the delegation privately as well.

“We talked a lot about the problems there are in this industry: the rampant wage theft, workers not getting paid on time or with pay stubs, not knowing what hours they’re getting paid for,” Zuniga said. “We asked Best Buy to sign a responsible contractor policy, and they said they’d get back to us in a month.”

Ironically, the janitors who will clean up after today’s shareholders meeting are union members who enjoy many of the benefits workers inside Best Buy’s stores are fighting to win.

Ricardo Chavez, a member of the Service Employees International Union who works inside the corporate headquarters, joined the protest. He earns a fair wage with good benefits, predictable scheduling and access to paid sick days.

“But I know my brothers and sisters that work cleaning Best Buy’s stores right next door don’t have access to any of these benefits,” Chavez said. “Thousands of workers all over the state do not have access to these benefits, and all of us deserve them.”

Indeed, about 1 million workers in Minnesota do not have access to paid sick and safe time to care for themselves or their family members, TakeAction Minnesota Director Dan McGrath said, yet policies requiring employers to provide sick days are generally popular among voters.

“These corporations are created for people to make money,” Pastor Doug Mork of Cross of Glory Lutheran Church said. “They shouldn’t be cutting back our democratic voice.”

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As lawmakers haggle, faces behind education budget speak out in St. Paul

June 2, 2015 by

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As Minnesota lawmakers announced a breakthrough in negotiations over the state’s E-12 education budget yesterday, the faces behind the financial figures – students, parents and teachers – rallied against staff and programming cuts in St. Paul.

“We cannot nickle and dime our kids’ future,” school board candidate Zuki Ellis, the parent of a first-grader in the St. Paul Public Schools, said. “There is no excuse for that when we’re talking about a $2 billion state budget surplus.”

St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28 organized the rally at St. Paul Central High School after the school district, like many across Minnesota, sent out pink slips to some teachers and paraprofessionals. Districts are stuck in the difficult position of planning for 2015-16 with limited information, as lawmakers continue to haggle over the education budget.

“Budget cuts mean less people to do the work, but it doesn’t reduce the work,” Obama Elementary Principal Adrain Pendleton said. “Already, budget cuts have resulted in difficult discussions with staff.”

Parents and students at the rally worried cuts would fall mostly on support staff who “help make learning easier and who love kids,” Central freshman Kadeane Smith said. “Teachers can’t be everywhere at once.”

Kirinda Anderson talked about the progress her child, a student at Wellstone Elementary, made after working with reading and math coaches – positions that are on potentially on the chopping block. “Why are programs being taken away that are proven to work for our children?” she asked.

Rep. John Lesch (speaking) was among the St. Paul DFLers who attended SPFT's rally. Seated are Reps. Carlos Mariani, Sheldon Johnson and Rena Moran.

Rep. John Lesch (speaking) was among the St. Paul DFLers who attended SPFT’s rally. Seated are Reps. Carlos Mariani, Sheldon Johnson and Rena Moran.

Anger-intervention counselors, English Language Learners teachers and other specialists also received pink slips, speakers at the rally said, and administrators warned that class sizes could go up without a meaningful increase in the school-funding formula. That news didn’t sit well with parents like Neha Lang.

“We wouldn’t ask a baker to make a cake without providing her with the necessary ingredients,” Lang said. “Yet every year public schools are asked to do more with less funding.”

With a $2 billion surplus, Lang added, “this is the moment we do not have to compromise on public school funding. We can invest in our kids.”

Several state lawmakers from St. Paul enjoyed a front-row seat at the rally inside Central’s auditorium. All pledged to sign onto a letter urging Gov. Mark Dayton to stand strong in his fight to fund universal pre-kindergarten programming and provide adequate funding for the state’s school districts.

“Not only do I stand with the governor,” Rep. Rena Moran told parents, teachers and students, “I stand with you.”

The tentative agreement reached by Gov. Dayton and legislative leaders – which likely will result in a special session in the coming days – will not fully fund statewide pre-K programming, Dayton’s top priority in 2015. The agreement does boost new E-12 spending by about $370 million, allowing for a 2 percent increase in the state’s per-pupil funding formula in each of the next two school years.

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It’s official: Dayton signs Minnesota home care workers’ contract into law

May 22, 2015 by
Pro-union home health care workers celebrated the results of their organizing election last August.

Pro-union home health care workers celebrated the results of their organizing election last August.

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 support, made the contract official. It’s the first new union contract with the State of Minnesota in decades, according to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, the union representing home care workers.

For workers, the contract means the wage floor in the industry will jump from $9 to $11 by 2016. The contract also includes paid time off – five days per year for full-time workers – plus increased training opportunities and grievance and arbitration procedures.

The contract represents a victory not only for workers, but for the seniors and people with disabilities they serve. Clients joined workers in supporting the union drive – a process that took several years and involved changing state law – and together, they cheered the governor’s final signature today.

“Invisible No More” was the slogan of home care workers’ organizing campaign. Nikki Villavicencio, a home care recipient from Maplewood, said the new contract provides more than just wages and benefits; it shows the state values the freedom home care workers provide thousands of Minnesotans who choose to stay in their homes.

Nicole Villavicencio (L) talked about why they support their home health care providers’ efforts to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota during the lobbying effort two years ago.

Nicole Villavicencio (L) offered her support to home care providers organizing s to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota as the campaign kicked off two years ago.

“This contract will mean a better life for workers, but also for families across the state like mine,” Villavicencio said. “My family will benefit from the increased stability that will come with a higher pay floor, paid time off, new training funds and the other benefits that this contract will provide the workers who care for us.”

The contract will also help reduce turnover among workers the industry by cutting down on wage theft. Sadie Hawkins, a home care worker from White Bear Lake, is in the middle of a fight to get the wages she’s owed – a fight the new contract will help her win.

“The grievance process will give those of us who have gone through wage theft a clear way to get the pay we are due for the work we have done – without going to smalls claims or another unpredictable process,” Hawkins said. “I worked for Forest Lake home care and my agency failed to pay me for a month of my work, but I couldn’t stop working because my client needed support. Two months later and I’m still waiting on my money.”

Although membership in the bargaining unit is voluntary, the contract will cover all home care workers serving clients in so-called “self-directed care” programs, which are supported with public funds. The new Health and Human Service bill appropriates $16.227 million toward the home care contract over two years, and its economic impact will be double that because of federal Medicaid matching, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota said.

The contract elevates standards in an industry marred by low wages, part-time schedules and few benefits, and it’s a welcome change, said home care worker Alberta McCurdy of Minneapolis.

“I currently make $9 an hour and this wage increase will help me pay my bills and pay my rent,” she said.

“I’m so excited to get paid time off after working for all these years without it,” Christine Hale, a home care worker and mother of three from Crosby, said. “The last time I had a surgery I had to go back to work right away because I was the only provider for my family – and it was really hard.”

Negotiations between SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the state began after workers voted decisively to form a union in August 2014. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in January, and over 95 percent of voting members ratified the agreement.

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

With Fast Track poised to pass Senate, Franken keeps up fight for better trade policy

May 20, 2015 by
Sen. Al Franken cracks up the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition leadership team while accepting his award. From L to R: coalition chair Kera Peterson, Franken, director Josh Wise and treasurer Russ Hess.

Sen. Al Franken accepted the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s leadership award in 2013.

A procedural vote last week greased the wheels for Fast Track in the U.S. Senate, but Sen. Al Franken is keeping up the fight for a trade bill that does the least harm to U.S. workers.

Yesterday Franken offered two amendments to the Fast Track bill. One would require tougher labor and environmental standards from foreign partners; the other would create more job-training opportunities for U.S. workers.

“As the debate continues to heat up this week in the Senate, I’m going to be pressing to make this trade package better for Minnesota,” Franken said.

Franken has been outspoken in his opposition to Fast Track, which would limit Congress’ influence over new trade agreements by forcing members to take up-or-down votes without offering amendments.

The DFL senator also has been skeptical of President Obama’s top trade priority, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. A sweeping, NAFTA-style free-trade agreement with 11 other countries, TPP has been negotiated in secret by trade ambassadors, with input only from “cleared advisers” who mostly represent multinational corporations.

But with Fast Track likely to pass the Senate as early as Thursday, Franken and other fair-trade Democrats are scrambling to make a bad bill better, introducing more than 150 amendments.

tpp-fast-track-1“When trade is done right, it can be beneficial, and it can help us remain competitive in an increasingly global economy,” Franken said. “But unfortunately, the trade package currently being debated in the Senate falls short of ensuring that trade agreements will genuinely benefit Minnesota workers, our communities and our businesses.”

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) co-sponsored Franken’s amendment to require stiffer labor and environmental standards from U.S. trade partners during trade negotiations.

Franken’s other amendment is based on a bill he previously introduced, the Community College to Career Fund Act. It would foster partnerships between community and technical colleges and businesses to train students interested in filling high-demand, open jobs in Minnesota and across the country. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is a co-sponsor.

“While I don’t believe that ‘fast track authority’ should be approved, I want to make sure that our trade negotiations aren’t toothless,” Franken said. “When it comes to ensuring strong labor and environmental standards worldwide, we need to make sure that our trade partners are playing by the rules. And I also want to protect our workers here at home by giving them the tools they need to get training for jobs in industries like manufacturing, healthcare, IT and energy.”

Franken’s advocacy on behalf of better trade policy earned him the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s Fair Trade Leadership award in 2013. In addition to calling for greater transparency in TPP negotiations, Franken took the lead on efforts to stop South Korea from unfairly dumping steel into the U.S. market and harming Iron Range producers.

Both Franken and Sen. Amy Klobuchar voted last week to oppose Fast Track.

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