Rally to save Saturday delivery this Sunday in Minneapolis

Supporters of protecting Saturday mail delivery will rally Sunday in Minneapolis, and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is among the speakers scheduled to participate in the event. The rally will take place outside the main Minneapolis Post Office, located at the intersection of 1st Street South and Marquette Avenue. It will begin at 1 p.m., and […]

Union members join push for immigration reform with path to citizenship

U.S. citizenship isn’t something Mitch Azarcon takes for granted – not after watching her Filipino-born mother wait 25 years to move her family to the U.S. Now Azarcon, a surgical core technician at Rochester Methodist Hospital, is exercising her rights as a citizen, taking action through her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to change federal law […]

Workers stand up to union busting at Lakeville rail company

Progressive Rail is harassing, intimidating and firing its workers in an attempt to supplant their union, leaders and members of the United Transportation Union said during informational picketing outside the company this morning. Eight workers at the Lakeville-based railway have been fired or harassed into resignation since February 2012, when a union contract covering 12 […]

Operation Christmas Solidarity lifts spirits of locked-out sugar workers

For the second consecutive Christmas, the families of workers locked out of their jobs by American Crystal Sugar received a holiday boost from their extended union family. Operation Christmas Solidarity, co-sponsored by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and American Income Life, drew $45,000 in donations from local unions and members, who gave toys, food, […]

Unions seek organizing rights for Minnesota’s home health care workers

Karen Urman of Mounds View works as a personal care attendant for her adult son, Ziggy Norberg, who has used a wheelchair since he was 3 years old. The work is a full-time job, one Urman gave up her career as a tax preparer and office supervisor to pursue. For Urman it is rewarding work, […]

City of Stillwater workers protest stalled contract negotiations

The City of Stillwater is stalling in contract negotiations with its workers, and members of AFSCME Local 517 are running out of patience. Before the Stillwater City Council convened its Truth in Taxation hearing last night, city employees and their supporters demonstrated outside City Hall, raising awareness that they have been working without a new […]

Renowned conductor, Minnesota Chorale join benefit for SPCO’s locked-out musicians

Locked out of their jobs, the Musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are looking to grow public support in their ongoing dispute with orchestra management by doing what they do best – performing world-class music for their fans. The Musicians of the SPCO will partner with the Minnesota Chorale, the region’s premier symphonic chorus, […]

Electrical Workers present ‘Holiday Lights in the Park’ in St. Paul

For the fifth consecutive year, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will raise funds for local charities with its annual holiday lights display. Presented in partnership with King of Kings Lutheran Church, “Holiday Lights in the Park” will run nightly Nov. 20 through New Year’s Day, from 5:30 to 10 p.m. in St. Paul’s Phalen […]

Minnesota Orchestra musicians, fans rally as lockout enters second month

Musicians locked out of their jobs by the Minnesota Orchestra rallied with patrons, union leaders and other supporters in Peavey Plaza downtown Minneapolis today, as the lockout of 95 members of Twin Cities Musicians Union Local 30-73 entered its second month. Although buoyed by strike benefits from their international union, the American Federation of Musicians, […]

For unions, opposition to marriage amendment swells from grassroots

Mary Larson Dennis, a social worker and member of AFSCME Local 151, remembers exactly the moment when she decided the freedom to marry wasn’t just a gay-rights issue, but a union issue as well. It was March 2011, and Dennis, then an officer in her union, was making the rounds on a lunch break, talking […]