The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
As negotiations on the latest U.S.-backed free-trade agreement resumed in Australia this week, U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota led a bipartisan appeal to President Obama, urging his administration to craft an deal that protects American jobs and workers’ rights worldwide. Franken, a DFLer, joined Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine in authoring a letter […]
Big-box retailers like Walmart pushed their Black Friday sales to new extremes this year, but retail workers and their supporters are pushing back. More than 200 protesters lined the sidewalk outside Walmart’s University Avenue location in St. Paul today. They pledged to stand with Walmart associates like Gabriel Teneyuque, who protested the company’s low wages […]
Minnesota unions achieved a clean sweep of their top priorities for the Nov. 6 election, as voters elected pro-labor majorities to the Legislature, tossed a Tea Party incumbent out of office in the 8th Congressional District and rejected a pair of constitutional amendments opposed by labor. It was a resounding victory for the Labor 2012 […]
Tom DeGree, the labor-endorsed candidate for House District 39B (map), is a small business owner, and his first campaign for public office has a distinctly entrepreneurial feel. DeGree knows the numbers, from his campaign budget to the number of successful voter contacts volunteers have made during phone banks and door-knocks. The campaign has a dynamic […]
“An engineer’s bread and butter is problem solving,” said Barb Yarusso, the labor-endorsed candidate for Minnesota House in House District 42A (map). “You have to figure out the questions that have to be answered, and have an ability to stay focused on the outcome you’re looking for.” Such focus has been lacking at the Legislature […]
Laurie Halverson is seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Doug Wardlow in House District 51B (map). For union members in the district, the two candidates should need no further introduction. In his first term at the Capitol, Wardlow took up anti-worker Right to Work legislation as his personal pet cause, pushing a constitutional amendment on the […]
Greg Clausen’s calling in life is to be a public servant, and when the Legislature convenes next year, Clausen hopes to be serving the voting public of Senate District 57 (map) at the State Capitol. “Running for Senate is a continuation of my life’s work,” said Clausen, an Apple Valley resident who has been a fixture […]
Jim Carlson, Sandy Masin and Will Morgan are hoping voters who bounced them from office two years ago will show buyer’s remorse in 2012. All three DFLers represented suburban areas south of St. Paul, including Burnsville, Eagan and Lakeville, from 2007 to 2010, but they were swept out of office by a wave of support […]
On a sunny Saturday morning Oct. 20, dozens of union volunteers trickled into a coffee shop downtown Burnsville. They paired up, gathered routes and handbills, and fanned out across the suburb, knocking on fellow union members’ doors and talking about their labor-endorsed candidate for Minnesota House, Will Morgan. Similar campaign activities have been taking place […]
American Crystal Sugar appears to be losing favor in Congress at a time when the company needs it most. With the federal Farm Bill stalled in the House of Representatives, 37 members of Congress, including Minnesota Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison, advised Crystal Sugar CEO Dave Berg to get serious about finding “common ground” […]
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