The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Anticipating attempts to sidestep Congressional oversight of the latest free-trade agreement, activists will rally downtown Minneapolis Aug. 20 against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive, NAFTA-style trade pact being negotiated in secret by representatives of 12 countries with Pacific shorelines. The noon rally will take place at the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Avenue. Click […]
The union representing 38 workers on strike at the Cretex concrete plant in Shakopee will stage a public rally Aug. 6 at 10 a.m. on the picket line. Elected officials from the state and local levels will join supporters from the labor community, putting pressure on the company to reach a settlement that would end […]
Workers who clean linens for hospitals across the metro picketed outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries on St. Paul’s East Side today, giving their employer a taste of what to expect if management continues to drag its feet in negotiations. About 240 Health Systems Cooperative employees, members of Workers United Local 150, have been working without […]
A crew of 12 UnderConstruction interns arrived at a vacant lot in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood before 9 a.m. today. Their task was to build a garage from the ground up, and within two hours the structure had begun taking shape. The concrete foundation had settled. The framework was up. Interns were taking turns shingling […]
Union workers at a concrete products manufacturing facility in Shakopee went on strike yesterday, pledging to walk the picket line until Cretex Companies abandons its attempt to strip workers of their pension benefits. Since negotiations on a new contract for 38 members of Laborers Local 563 began in January, Cretex has refused to budge from […]
An associate from Apple Valley is among more than 100 striking Walmart workers nationwide who are protesting outside the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Bentonville, Ark., this week. Gabriel Teneyuque, a member of the grassroots campaign OUR Walmart, joined the “Ride for Respect” to company headquarters last week. The caravan traveled through about 30 cities, […]
Child-care providers and in-home health care workers celebrated a hard-fought victory for their professions yesterday, after the Minnesota House joined the Senate in passing a bill that would allow them to vote on whether to form a union. The celebration spilled from the House gallery into the Capitol hallways, as pro-union child-care and home-care workers […]
Chants of “si se puede!” rang out from the Minnesota Capitol lawn yesterday, as hundreds of people rallied for federal and state action to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. The May Day demonstration in St. Paul was one of dozens held across the U.S., organized by a broad coalition of groups – including labor […]
Support for transportation and transit investments among state lawmakers this session appears lukewarm at best, and that baffles Rep. Alice Hausman. “With all the grumbling and complaining about roads and potholes, you wouldn’t think funding transportation would be this hard,” the DFLer from St. Paul said. Hausman, who chairs the House Capital Investment Committee, joined […]
The time for bipartisan action to fix the country’s broken immigration system is now, according to a diverse group of more than 100 activists who rallied downtown Minneapolis yesterday for “commonsense” immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship. The event, one of several immigration rallies held across the country yesterday, drew support from unions, […]
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