In fight with Allina over health insurance, nurses not backing down

  In contract negotiations with Allina, union nurses are standing together to defend their health insurance. And outside the health care provider’s Minneapolis headquarters today, the community showed it’s standing with nurses. Informational picketing of Allina Commons drew hundreds of nurses, who arrived in busloads from five metro-area Allina facilities. Supporters from the community, including […]

Union volunteers give $15 petition drive a boost in Minneapolis

Katie Quarles, a nurse at United Hospital in St. Paul, was among 40 union members who answered the call for volunteers to take action Saturday in support of a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis. “Fighting for higher wages for working people is what the labor movement does,” Quarles said before knocking on doors in Minneapolis’ […]

Solidarity actions with Verizon strikers to continue in Twin Cities

Union members in the Twin Cities plan to keep the heat on Verizon this week with two more actions in support of the company’s 39,000 striking workers in the Northeast U.S. Solidarity actions are planned from noon to 2 p.m. May 11 outside Verizon’s store at 474 Hamline Ave. N. in St. Paul, and from […]

Minnesotans plan show of solidarity with striking Verizon workers

Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers in the Northeast have been on strike for more than three weeks now. Their supporters in Minnesota will stand in solidarity tomorrow, a national day of action, outside the telecommunications giant’s Roseville location. The rush-hour action, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2325 Fairview Ave. N, will call out Verizon for […]

Hospital workers take a stand for paid sick time

Nurses and hospital workers today added their voices to the call for guaranteed access to earned sick and safe time for all workers, urging members of the Minneapolis City Council to take up a robust citywide ordinance when they meet Thursday. It’s estimated 42 percent of Twin Cities workers don’t receive earned sick and safe […]

Building Trades remember the fallen on Workers Memorial Day

Members of the Building Trades paused yesterday in St. Paul to honor members of their unions who died as a result of work-related injuries or illnesses in the previous year. The annual Workers Memorial Day ceremony was to take place at the Workers Memorial Garden on the Capitol grounds, but organizers moved the event indoors, […]

Ken Peterson: Fight for safer workplaces continues in Minnesota, worldwide

Workers Memorial Day is observed each April 28 because President Richard Nixon signed the OSHA law on that date in 1970. He called it the most significant legislation for working people enacted in American history. The new workplace-safety law was the culmination of decades of work by unions and safety advocates to reduce on-the-job deaths […]

Unions, employers reach out to St. Paul’s East Side at job fair

Union employers, apprenticeship programs and community service agencies set up shop on St. Paul’s East Side last night, recruiting talent from the distinctly working-class neighborhood and beyond at the Union Jobs and Resource Fair. Many Latino, Hmong, Karen and East African families call the East Side home, and the job fair, organized by the St. […]

AFSCME members defend public services during annual lobbying day

  No one knows more about public services in Minnesota than the workers who deliver them, and state lawmakers had access to an abundance of wisdom today during AFSCME Council 5’s annual lobbying blitz. “The experts in public service are coming to the Capitol,” Council 5 Director Eliot Seide said at the close of a […]

Education secretary’s ‘Tea for Teachers’ taps St. Paul educator

  Erica Schatzlein was checking her email over lunch Feb. 23 when she found an invite to have tea with the U.S. secretary of education. The teacher of English language learners at Nokomis Montessori North was skeptical. “At first I was thinking, ‘Is this real? It looks real,’” she said. “I decided to respond and […]