Allina stonewalls Hastings nurses as contract talks continue

Negotiations on a new contract are dragging into the new year, but nurses at Regina Medical Center in Hastings, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, continue to resist Allina Health’s effort to treat them differently than nurses in every other Allina hospital in the Twin Cities Metro Area. The two sides returned to the bargaining […]

Steel mill’s expansion leaves St. Paul Pipefitters out in the cold

State and local taxpayers are backing a $50 million expansion project underway at Gerdau’s St. Paul steel mill with a package of incentives, grants and forgivable loans. But members of St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455 say the project has left local workers out in the cold. The dispute stems from Gerdau’s decision to accept a […]

Hastings nurses plan vigil as talks with Allina stall

Nurses at Regina Medical Center in Hastings will hold a candlelight vigil tonight, keeping hope alive for a new contract with the hospital that retains the level of nursing care the Hastings community expects. The vigil will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot at the intersection of Highways 55 and 61. Nurses also […]

Teachers will make anti-bullying law a priority at Capitol next year

As the 2013 Legislative Session drew to a close in May, supporters of a bill to strengthen Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws made one last push, urging their state senators to vote on the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, which had already won approval in the House. The session gaveled to a close before senators could take […]

Strike supporters say fast food’s poverty wages bad for workers, communities

As fast-food workers in an estimated 100 U.S. cities walked off the job today to protest the industry’s poverty-level wages, union members and faith leaders in Minnesota showed their solidarity – and their support for raising the state’s minimum wage – outside a block of fast-food restaurants in Northeast Minneapolis. The demonstration took place over […]

Minnesotans to support fast-food workers’ strike for better wages

Building on a string of public actions last week calling out poverty-wage employers across the state, Minnesota activists will stand in solidarity tomorrow with fast-food workers planning one-day strikes in more than 100 cities nationwide. Organizers today laid out plans for solidarity demonstrations tomorrow outside two McDonald’s restaurants around the metro area: • In Northeast […]

Call to end poverty wages rings out from Black Friday protests in Twin Cities

Hundreds of people flocked to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul today, but it wasn’t deep discounts or door-buster deals they wanted. It was justice for workers who make the holiday season happen. Black Friday protests in the Twin Cities took on a renewed vigor this year, as activists from labor, faith and community groups […]

Retail workers’ Black Friday wish list includes higher wages, a voice on the job

On Black Friday, will you shop for doorbusters? Or protest union-busters? Twin Cities labor activists have announced their plans for the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season, which in recent years also has become a day of action for unions and worker-advocacy groups fighting back against big-box retailers’ crazy hours, frenzied working conditions and […]

Report shows passenger service workers earn poverty-level wages at MSP Airport

As a military veteran with a college education, Darcy Landau is overqualified for his job as a wheelchair agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Earning wages of $7.25 per hour, Landau struggles to make monthly car payments, pay back his student loans and meet his basic needs. “If it weren’t for the VA,” Landau said, […]

Crystal Care workers: ‘We’re not going to stop fighting until we get our money’

The union working to organize home-care workers statewide is lending its support to employees who accuse Richfield-based Crystal Care Home Health of failing to pay their wages. Some claim they worked up to three months for the company without pay. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota helped organize a picket Wednesday morning outside Crystal Care, and more than […]