The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Unions are joining a national day of action to stop fast track March 4, and two members of Congress from Minnesota got an earful as to why last week at a field hearing in Richfield. DFL Reps. Keith Ellison and Rick Nolan heard testimony from trade experts, union leaders, business owners and advocates for family […]
After another third-grade teacher at the Community School of Excellence in St. Paul “got fed up with some of the disrespect” and resigned last October, Eric Johnson saw the number of students in his classroom swell from 22 to 31. “The third-grade teachers, we agreed we’d absorb the kids,” Johnson said. “It’s better than the […]
Lynn Barten stood up in a conference room Sunday morning in St. Paul and gave a stump speech for a campaign she isn’t running – not yet, anyway – before a roomful of people who couldn’t vote for her anyway. Barten, an AFSCME member from Alexandria, was one of more than 70 people who enrolled […]
For many of the 1,800 Delta flight attendants based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the upcoming vote to form a union is about more than wages, benefits and work rules. It’s about getting back what they lost after Delta’s merger with MSP-based Northwest Airlines four years ago. “I’ve lived with a contract and without a […]
A series of five public hearings on a proposed oil pipeline through Minnesota opened in St. Paul yesterday, and members of several Building Trades unions stepped forward to support the $2.5 billion venture, projected to create 1,500 construction jobs. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is collecting public testimony at sites across the state this week […]
Fast-food workers in 160 cities nationwide went on strike today, including 50 workers from 14 restaurants in the Twin Cities. The strikers are demanding $15 per hour and union rights. The strike comes on the two-year anniversary of the initial “Fight for $15” action in New York City, which sparked a movement that has since […]
On the biggest shopping day of the year, nearly 500 people in St. Paul demonstrated outside the Midway Walmart, demanding that the retailer pay its associates living wages and stop retaliating against workers organizing for change. Four striking Walmart workers from Apple Valley led a march from Walmart to a nearby McDonald’s, where activists called […]
CAMBRIDGE – Nurses at Cambridge Medical Center picketed the hospital today, warning the public that looming staff cuts pose a threat to patient safety. Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association called on Allina Health, which operates the Cambridge facility, to put patients over profits in contract negotiations that began Sept. 30, when management opened the […]
As the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, workers who stock Walmart’s shelves, serve McDonald’s hamburgers and clean big-box stores are planning a week of action in the Twin Cities to draw attention to the low wages and poor conditions plaguing their industries. The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the highest-profile shopping day […]
The two candidates atop the DFL ticket this election year know better than most the importance of getting out the vote, the theme of a rally staged by the party today outside the Minnesota Capitol. Four years ago Gov. Mark Dayton “won by a large, large margin as far as I’m concerned – 8,800 (votes),” […]
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