Keillor to host free concert with Musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

The union musicians of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), currently engaged in a contentious round of negotiations with their employer, will present a free concert for the public at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 on the Macalester College campus, with St. Paul-based author and radio personality Garrison Keillor serving as host. The musician-led program will […]

Sun Country pilots protest low wages, pace of negotiations

Sun Country pilots recognize the importance of staying on schedule. They want management to bring that same sense of urgency to negotiations on a new contract with their union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Pilots picketed today outside Terminal 2 at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, raising awareness about the slow pace of negotiations […]

Metro Transit workers say contract talks are running behind schedule

Fed up with Metro Transit’s casual approach to negotiating a new contract, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 shared their frustration yesterday with Metro Transit’s governing body, the Met Council. Carrying homemade signs and wearing their Metro Transit uniforms, about 30 members of ATU Local 1005 packed the gallery during the Met Council’s meeting […]

Outside John Kline’s office, minimum-wage workers rally for a raise

Could John Kline live on $290 per week? That’s the question several constituents from the 2nd Congressional District asked their Republican representative in the weeks leading up to today’s three-year anniversary of the last federal minimum-wage increase. When Kline failed to provide his constituents with an answer, they decided to deliver a letter to his […]

In Minneapolis, a picket line for striking Houston janitors

The union representing more than 400 striking janitors in Houston is fanning out across the country this week, setting up solidarity picket lines outside buildings cleaned by contractors involved in their dispute back home. In Minneapolis yesterday, about 40 union members and supporters picketed outside U.S. Bancorp Center, which secures its cleaning services through ABM, […]

Singing for a settlement: Labor Chorus plans benefit for Crystal Sugar workers

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of American Crystal Sugar’s decision to lock out its 1,300 union workers at facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa, the Twin Cities Labor Chorus and the Lex-Ham Community Theater will present an evening of songs and words of action in support of the locked-out workers – and, […]

Fair Trade Coalition plans rally against corporate control of trade pact

Negotiations are underway on what experts say will become the largest free-trade agreement in the world, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But as important as this deal will be for workers worldwide, it has been negotiated behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny. On July 9 the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition will stage a rally to protest […]

Video: Catholic Spirit workers, supporters protest outside cathedral

UPDATE (June 25): The Minnesota Newspaper Guild reports five members in The Catholic Spirit bargaining unit have been laid off. The remaining eight have until the end of the week to decide whether or not to accept non-union positions in the archdiocese’s Office of Communications starting July 2. The Guild contends the archdiocese violated a […]

Workers will protest archdiocese for dissolving Catholic Spirit union

The Twin Cities labor community will rally behind workers at The Catholic Spirit newspaper Sunday, protesting Archbishop John Nienstedt’s decision to strip 13 workers at the archdiocesan publication of their union rights. The protest will begin at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, June 24, at the Cathedral of St. Paul. It is being organized by the St. […]

Nurses call for ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on Wall Street transactions

Dressed as modern-day members of the band of Merry Men, union nurses fanned out across downtown Minneapolis today, doling out bottles of water and a prescription for healing what ails the American economy. The nurses’ solution? A “Robin Hood Tax” on Wall Street transactions. The plan would place a small sales tax – less than […]