Minnesota unions grew by 23,000 members last year

February 3, 2025 by

Minnesota unions made membership gains in 2024, according to an annual report released last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, union density remained about the same.

The agency’s survey results estimate that Minnesota’s labor movement welcomed about 23,000 union members last year, increasing the total number of union members to 379,000. Minnesota’s union density increased from 13.3% of the total workforce to 14.2%.

The results reflect increased organizing activity in recent years among local health care, retail, cultural and hospitality workers, as well as public-sector employees.

Minnesota-based AFSCME Council 5 recently announced that the public-service union welcomed over 5,000 new members in 2024, and the Minnesota Nurses Association said it has added 1,400 new members in the last year.

Notable organizing victories last year included workers at First Avenue’s clubs in the Twin Cities joining UNITE HERE Local 17. Front-of-house workers at two prominent Minneapolis theater companies voted to join IATSE Local 13. Grocery workers at Mississippi Market stores in St. Paul joined United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189. And over 4,000 graduate workers in the University of Minnesota system ratified their first union contract in December.

Those gains kept Minnesota on the opposite path of its neighbor to the east.

In Wisconsin, where lawmakers have passed a right-to-work law and severely curtailed public-sector bargaining rights over the last 15 years, union density slipped by a full percentage point, to 6.4% last year.

Minnesota also outperformed the national trend.

The nation’s union membership rate was 9.9% in 2024, little changed from the prior year, and the number of workers who belong to unions fell slightly to 14.3 million.

The BLS report notes that the number of union members when it first began collecting comparable data, in 1983, was 17.7 million, and 20.1% of American workers were union members then.

But union members continued to earn more than their non-union peers in 2024. Non-union workers’ median weekly earnings were 85% of earnings reported by union workers last year, a weekly union advantage of nearly $200.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said the BLS statistics “don’t begin to tell the real story of the desire workers have to join a union,” pointing to a surge in petitions for union elections filed with the National Labor Relations Board since 2021.

Successful organizing campaigns at Starbucks, Whole Foods and Amazon – and at foreign-owned automakers like Volkswagen in the South – show Americans have an appetite for collective bargaining. But too often, Shuler said, union-busting employers exploit toothless labor laws to stifle their workers’ voice.

“There are 60 million workers who would join a union today if given the opportunity, but between broken labor law and corporate bosses like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos engaging in often illegal union-busting every year with little consequence, far too few get that chance. It’s time for change,” Shuler said, citing an AFL-CIO survey taken last year.

Unions have called on federal lawmakers to pass measures like the PRO Act that would make it easier for workers to form unions and stiffen the penalties employers face for breaking labor law.

“We call on the Trump administration to live up to its campaign promises to support workers by prioritizing fixing America’s broken labor law through the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act,” Shuler said. “These bills would finally update our archaic, broken laws and give workers what we so desperately want: a free and fair shot at joining a union on the job.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Kera Peterson: Unions are having a resurgence, and every member can be part of it

May 1, 2023 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

At the AFL-CIO Convention last summer, the nation’s largest labor federation set an ambitious goal to bring 1 million new members into our unions over the next 10 years. Since then, the federation has made a strategic investment in creating the Center for Transformational Organizing (CTO), which will bring together a broad coalition of union members to work on movement-wide campaigns related to growing our movement.

The CTO is a key part of a renewed push by our labor federations – at both the national and the local level – to prioritize organizing in all our work. It’s never a bad time to organize in the workplace, but this is an opportunity unlike any we’ve seen in decades. Gallup polling last year found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest mark since 1965. A separate survey found 70% of “skilled and hourly workers” would join a union if given the opportunity. And broad majorities agree that the decline in union participation has been bad for working people. That’s a big reason why we recently saw Michigan become the first state ever to repeal its ‘right-to-work’ law.

Momentum is on our side. It’s critical that we, as a labor movement, take advantage of this moment and build worker power at scale. That means passing the PRO Act, which will restore workers’ right to join together and form a union – free from harassment and intimidation – and to bargain better wages, benefits and working conditions. The PRO Act would finally put teeth into our nation’s labor laws, stiffening penalties on bosses who threaten, retaliate against or fire workers who exercise their right to collective action. We’re taking action here in Minnesota, too, by lobbying in support of legislation that would ban captive audience meetings, in which bosses force their workers to listen to anti-union speech, intimidation and, too often, outright lies.

Even with the deck stacked against them, many Americans have succeeded in organizing their workplace in recent years, seizing this moment of labor resurgence to lock down a more powerful voice over their working conditions. Last month, baristas at a Starbucks in Sacramento became the 300th store to unionize with Workers United, and ice-cream scoopers at Ben & Jerry’s flagship store in Vermont announced their plans to form a union, “Scoopers United.” Bookstore clerks, craft beverage workers, and museum staff are also successfully organizing in sectors of the economy where unions have not traditionally had a presence.

Elsewhere, unions are organizing to increase workers’ representation and raise standards in industries like health care, construction and arts and entertainment. Over 2,000 Twin Cities health care workers have joined unions since 2001. Building Trades unions continue to shine a light on wage theft and other labor abuses that happen too frequently on local multifamily residential construction sites. And 45,000 workers at Delta Air Lines, which maintains a hub of operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, are engaged in the world’s largest private-sector union drive at any single company. That campaign held a rally here last month, which the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation was proud to host at our union hall.

Our union family is positioned well for historic growth, but it won’t happen without all of us pulling together in solidarity. It won’t happen unless those of us doing our movement’s work on the local level take on the AFL-CIO’s challenge to put organizing at the center of all our work. That could mean talking to friends and family about the union advantage – higher wages, job security and better health and retirement benefits – or talking to your elected officials about the importance of strengthening labor laws. It also could mean showing up in solidarity with workers in an organizing or contract campaign. We’re posting updates and opportunities regularly on the Regional Labor Federation’s Facebook page. We all can play a part in this historic union resurgence. Together, we can meet the moment and revitalize our movement.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Learn more about the SPRLF and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Labor 2022 volunteers say their freedoms, fundamental rights are on the ballot

October 18, 2022 by

Judy Seeberger, the endorsed candidate in Senate District 41, thanks volunteers at the United Steelworkers hall in Cottage Grove.

Energized to help re-elect Gov. Tim Walz and deliver majorities that will move labor’s agenda in the Minnesota Legislature, union volunteers are hitting the streets across the state and talking with fellow members about the stark choice voters face Nov. 8.

On one side are corporate-backed extremists who have aligned to strip working people of their basic freedoms and fundamental rights. On the other side, labor-endorsed candidates are fighting for dignity and respect for all workers, no matter their race, gender or zip code.

“It’s all about balance of power in the workplace and at the Capitol, and labor-endorsed candidates understand that,” said Eileen Weber, a registered nurse and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association from Denmark Township. “They’re the ones who support the kind of justice we need more of in this country.”

“I care about pensions, collective bargaining rights, health care, women’s rights, human dignity,” said Willie Snyder, an AFSCME Council 5 member who works in a residential facility for people with disabilities. “For me, it’s Walz-Flanagan. They get it. The other side only seems to be interested in looking out for millionaires.”

Snyder and Weber joined a Labor 2022 door knock in Cottage Grove last month, urging support for Walz and other endorsed candidates in hotly contested races in the southeast suburbs, including Rep. Angie Craig’s re-election bid in the 2nd Congressional District.

Craig has unabashedly supported pro-union measures like the PRO Act, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which ties tax credits to “buy-American” requirements, prevailing wage and apprenticeship training programs.

“Labor-endorsed candidates make sure people like me are going to stay in work,” said Craig Bell, a member of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82.

Volunteers also sought to give candidates for the state Legislature a boost, looking to preserve a pro-union majority in the House and deliver one in the Senate. The list of pro-union investments and policy measures blocked by Republicans who control the Senate is long: statewide paid family leave, unemployment benefits for hourly school employees and safety standards for refinery workers to name a few.

But what stung many union members most was Senate leaders’ decision – at the urging of GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen – to walk away from an agreement to invest much of the state’s $9 billion surplus in schools, public safety, tax relief and infrastructure jobs.

That’s not the kind of leadership working Minnesotans want, said Wally Borgen, a Labor 2022 volunteer and president of Bakery Workers (BCTGM) Local 22.

“We need elected officials who support working people,” Borgen said. “The future is at stake, and if we have the wrong candidates in here, it changes everything in this state. We need unions to get stronger, and we don’t need them attacking our solidarity or everything unions stand for.”

Labor 2022 organizers said volunteers will be needed through Election Day. To get involved, call your local union or email Colleen Nocerini, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation political organizer, at cnocerini [at] stpaulunions [dot] org.

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‘Sky’s the limit’ as women workers revive Minnesota’s CLUW chapter

August 25, 2022 by

Outrage over the Supreme Court decision rescinding women’s right to an abortion has sparked interest among a growing number of local union members in the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

CLUW is a constituency group affiliated with the AFL-CIO that offers space and support for women in the labor movement to advocate for shared issues. Minnesota’s CLUW chapter had been dormant for a decade.

That’s no longer the case. A first meeting earlier this summer drew 44 activists, who got to work drafting bylaws and applying for recognition of the re-emergent Minnesota CLUW chapter. After a second meeting in August, Co-chair LeiLani Hauge said they should have an officially recognized charter by Labor Day.

“We’re still in an infancy stage,” said Hauge, a representative with AFSCME Council 65 who lives in Fergus Falls. “But it’s beautiful to see as we move forward what our potential is.”

Minnesota CLUW intends to meet the first Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Meetings will be hybrid, with some joining virtually and others gathering in a union hall. So far, the Minnesota AFL-CIO in St. Paul has been the in-person gathering spot, but organizers hope to move meetings across the state.

Participation is open to all union members in good standing.

“We have public-sector workers, private-sector workers, women of color,” said Co-chair Leah Midgarden, a field organizer with the Southeast Area Labor Council. “We’ve got some younger folks in their late 20s or early 30s, and we are very blessed to have some retirees who were around during the previous iteration of Minnesota CLUW.”

Union members founded CLUW in 1974 – a year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision – around four core objectives, which “continue to be the cornerstone of CLUW’s activities,” according to the organization’s website. They are:

  • empowering women for greater participation at all levels in the labor movement.
  • organizing the unorganized.
  • promoting affirmative action, social and economic justice in the workplace.
  • increasing the participation of women in the political and legislative processes.

CLUW says its members “speak out for equal pay, child and elder care benefits, job security, safe workplaces, affordable health care, contraceptive equity, and protection from sexual harassment and violence at work.”

But the Supreme Court’s attack on reproductive freedom was the spark that led to CLUW’s awakening in Minnesota, and organizers said they hope to inform and advocate for abortion rights within the movement and beyond.

“Let’s be honest, there is still a sentiment in the public as well as organized labor broadly of not understanding why family planning is fundamentally a workers’ rights issue,” Midgarden, who lives in Red Wing, said. “There are social and economic impacts when childbearing people are not able to make the decision about when they will become parents.”

“Some of our folks are the ones who were actually picketing and marching when Roe v. Wade came onto the circuit in 1973,” Hauge said. “As a young union member and representative, I’m learning a lot from these folks.”

Hauge and Midgarden said union members or retirees who want to learn more about the Minnesota CLUW chapter should look for a table at upcoming union events, like the Minnesota AFL-CIO Convention this month. And they can also reach out by email at lmidgarden [at] semnalc [dot] org or lhauge [at] afscme65 [dot] org.

“I believe the sky’s the limit,” Hauge said. “We’ve got very passionate people, and because we all come from a labor-movement background, we know how to fight. We fight every day.”

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Unions decry Supreme Court ruling, urge action to protect abortion access

June 27, 2022 by

Minnesota’s highest-ranking union officer added to the chorus of labor voices decrying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the federal right to abortion.

“Reproductive rights are workers’ rights,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said in a public statement, calling the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years as the law of the land “a direct attack on working women and people who can get pregnant.”

Research shows people denied abortion care face increased health, wellness and financial risks as a result. Burnham noted that, in the post-Roe landscape, those risks will disproportionally impact “low-income women, black, brown, non-binary and trans workers seeking care.”

“Fortunately for working women and people who can get pregnant in Minnesota, our state Supreme Court has ruled our state constitution protects reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy,” Burnham added. “Minnesota’s unions are committed to protecting these freedoms and closing disparities through policies such as universal paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare, and creating more family-sustaining jobs.”

Leaders of several national unions, including the Service Employees (SEIU), Communications Workers of America, Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) and American Federation of Teachers, issued similar statements in the hours following the June 24 ruling.

National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the decision “a devastating blow to working women and families.”

“We strongly believe everyone should have control over their own bodies, including decisions over their personal reproductive health care,” Shuler added.

Some unions already have begun strategizing ways to use the collective bargaining process to ensure access to abortion care.

The Newsguild-CWA, which represents about 26,000 journalists and other workers in the U.S. and Canada, began holding meetings in May, after a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked to Politico, moving quickly to “develop bargaining approaches that provide coverage for abortion care in collective bargaining agreements and to equip our membership with the tools to organize their coworkers to take action on this core labor issue.”

“Working people need access to safe, affordable abortion care just as we need quality health care generally, parental leave, childcare, and all other policies that help us support our families,” NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss said. “This is an issue that spans class, race and gender. And we should fight for it as such.”

That fight will play out in the political arena, too, as several union leaders noted.

Education Minnesota, the statewide union of nearly 90,000 educators, issued a statement from its executive board calling on unions “to harness their collective power and fight for affordable health care for all, equal pay for equal work and paid family and medical leave so workers can care for themselves or loved ones without fear of losing a paycheck.”

“That’s why this fall’s election is so important,” the statement added. “Every Minnesotan needs to be a voter to elect candidates who will defend workers’ rights – including their right to health care and bodily autonomy. We can make it happen, but only if Minnesotans do it together.”

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Unions honor fallen tradespeople on Workers Memorial Day

April 28, 2022 by

Twin Cities Building Trades councils observed Workers Memorial Day with a ceremony on the Capitol grounds today, remembering union tradespeople who died from workplace injuries and illnesses over the past year and rededicating their organizations to the cause of safer worksites.

“Every worker, regardless of their language, their gender, their skin color, their age or their citizenship status, has the right to be safe and healthy on the job,” Minnesota Labor and Industry Commissioner Roslyn Robertson said in remarks during the ceremony, held in the Workers Memorial Garden.

Standing along a stone memorial wall, union leaders and family members held 12 white crosses with the names of fallen union members: Neil Boser of Laborers Local 563; Gerald Peterson, Eric Raddatz, Dean Sinwell and Robert Vogelsberg of Operating Engineers Local 49; Duane Peterson, Craig Hansen, Robert Winczewski and Eric Dennis of Glaziers and Glassworkers Local 1324; George Kisel and Gary Newman of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34; and Donald Hopper of Painters Local 1962.

Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council President Joe Fowler chimed a bell as each name was read over the loudspeaker, and a black sash was draped over each cross.

Another cross held the name of longtime Carpenters union member and volunteer Darrell Ray, who died April 19. Ray was a fixture of the trades’ Workers Memorial Day ceremonies, usually as the person ringing the memorial bell.

Ramsey County Commissioner Jim McDonough, a longtime member of Glaziers Local 1324, encouraged those gathered to imagine a Workers Memorial Day when that bell remains silent and “there are no more crosses” marking the deaths of construction workers.

“Memorials like this remind us of the work that’s yet to be done,” McDonough said. “And who’s going to do that work if it’s not you and me standing together in solidarity?”

Labor Commissioner Roslyn Robertson speaks during the Workers Memorial Day observance.

Robertson said upholding labor rights is an important part of making sure workplaces are safe.

“We must listen to the voice of the workers because it’s those workers who really know how to do their jobs safely,” she said. “We have to encourage those workers to be able to stand up when they see unsafe practices taking place.”

The annual day of reflection comes each year on April 28, the anniversary of the creation of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1971. Across the country and throughout the world, working people pause to remember workplace fatalities and commit to improving safety on the job.

An annual report from the AFL-CIO, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” found that U.S. workplaces have much room for improvement when it comes to safety. Using 2020 employment data, the report found that hazardous working conditions led to 340 deaths every day that year, a rate of 3.4 fatalities per 100,000 workers.

The fatality rate was three times higher in the construction industry in 2020, and nearly four times higher among transportation and warehouse workers. More than a third of fatalities occurred among workers ages 55 and over.

Cohlton Boser (L) and Talyre Boser hold a cross for their father, Neil Boser, a member of Laborers Local 563 who died in a workplace accident last August.

Minnesota saw 67 workplace fatalities in 2020, according to the AFL-CIO report; 28 came as a result of transportation incidents.

Overall, employers reported nearly 3.2 million work-related injuries and illnesses in 2020, according to the report, and musculoskeletal disorders continued to make up the largest portion injuries, at 21%.

Latino and Black workers remained at greater risk of dying on the job than other workers, the report found.

Researchers also said underreporting of workplace injuries and illnesses is widespread, estimating the true tally of work-related injuries and illnesses at between 5.4 million and 8.1 million each year.

The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, is calling on both OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to enact stronger job safety and health protections, for Congress to increase resources for job safety agencies and for workers to have a real voice on safety and health in our workplaces without the fear of retaliation or intimidation.

“That’s tens of thousands of families losing a parent, a child, a sibling, every single year,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. “Latino and Black workers specifically remain at greater risk of dying on the job than all workers. That is, frankly, unacceptable.”

Filed Under: Community, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

MN unions grew in 2021, bucking national trend

January 21, 2022 by

Minnesota bucked the national trend of declining union membership last year, as the state’s union rolls grew by 18,000 workers.

“Working people across Minnesota stood up in 2021 and demanded a voice on the job, better pay and benefits, and safer workplaces,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said in response to the annual U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on union membership, released yesterday.

Minnesota has seen a flurry of successful union drives over the last two years, bringing workers at hospitals and clinics, nonprofits, craft breweries and distilleries, bookstores and elsewhere into the labor movement.

The BLS data also underscores the union advantage, McCarthy said. A union contract raises wages by roughly 20% and overall compensation by about 28%, on average, making union jobs more attractive to workers at a time when many are reevaluating their career paths.

“Through a combination of workers organizing unions at their workplace and others flocking to union jobs, it’s clear that more Minnesotans understand that by speaking up together, they can truly earn a fair return on their work,” he said.

Union members made up 16% of Minnesota’s workforce in 2021, up from 15.8% in 2020. It was the second consecutive year in which Minnesota’s union density rose.

Nationally, union membership declined by 241,000 last year, to a total of about 14 million workers. Union density fell to 10.3% of the workforce.

The decline came despite a wave of collective action among workers, both union and non-union, for better wages and working conditions in 2021.

Public support for unions, too, is at its highest point in decades. A 2021 Gallup poll found 68% of Americans support organized labor, including 77% of young people. An MIT study found that 60 million Americans would join a labor union if they could.

Something doesn’t add up, union leaders said.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler pointed the finger at federal labor laws, written nearly a century ago, that do little to deter employers from illegally intimidating or retaliating against workers who try to form unions. In a statement reacting to the new data, Shuler said the laws “are designed to make joining a union as difficult as possible.”

“Across this country, workers are organizing for a voice on the job and millions of Americans are standing in solidarity with union members on strike,” Shuler added. “If everyone who wanted to join a union was able to do so, membership would skyrocket.”

“As we work to rebuild economy and seek justice for working people, the Biden administration and Congress must institute policies – such as the PRO Act, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act and other legislation to expand Americans’ freedom to join together in unions,” said McCarthy, Minnesota’s highest-ranking union officer.

Meanwhile, the BLS report showed promising data for communities of color. Black workers continued to have the highest unionization rate in 2021, with 12.9% membership. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, Black union workers are paid 13.7% more than their non-union peers.

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Kera Peterson: To build back better, pass the PRO Act

February 4, 2021 by

Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

Millions of working people and their families are hurting in America right now. We’ve seen it firsthand at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, as our nonprofit Labor Studies and Resource Center has begun coordinating free food-distribution events with local unions. At four events so far, union volunteers have distributed thousands of packages of fresh food to families in need. During events at the Labor Center, the line of vehicles often spilled out of our parking lot and into West 7th Street.

These were families bearing the brunt of multiple crises facing our country right now: the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic collapse, chronic income inequality and systemic racism. While working Americans worry about eviction notices, job losses and exhausting their paid time off, U.S. billionaires are amassing even more wealth – over $1 trillion, combined, during the pandemic so far.

From Day 1 our federal government’s pandemic response has been bungled. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned on a promise that we, as one nation, will build back even better than before.

At a time when working people are holding our country together, we have to do better than building back an economy where the rules are still rigged against us. The new administration understands that. The American people, who voted decisively and in record numbers to reject the politics of darkness and division, understand that too.

So what does building back better look like? It starts with direct and significant economic relief for workers and small businesses on Main Street, not Wall Street. Our local governments need aid too, as revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic could force many to make steep cuts to services more essential than ever right now, like public health and public safety. And job losses resulting from cuts to public services would only deepen our economic crisis.

Building back better also means restoring fairness to our economy. It means leveling the playing field and giving working people more power to join together and bargain better wages, benefits and working conditions. Congress can do that by sending the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to President-elect Biden’s desk in the coming months.

The most significant labor legislation in 80 years, the PRO Act would address several weaknesses in our federal labor laws, giving workers more bargaining power on the job. It would put teeth into rules prohibiting employers from retaliating against workers who try to form a union. It would require employers to disclose payments they make to union-busting law firms and consultants brought in to stifle workers’ voices. It would speed up the organizing-election process and establish a mechanism for workers and employers to arrive at a first contract quickly after an organizing drive.

House Democrats passed the PRO Act last February, but it never stood a chance in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. Today, members of Congress introduced the PRO Act again, and President Biden, who has said he wants his to be “the most significant pro-labor, pro-worker administration” ever, has pledged support for the measure. It’s encouraging to see that two congresswomen from our area, Reps. Betty McCollum and Angie Craig, are co-sponsors of the bill.

But the ideals behind the PRO Act – collective bargaining, a voice on the job, the belief that all work has dignity – are not Democratic or Republican. They are American ideals. It’s time for our leaders to put politics aside, to think big and to act boldly. Click here to tell your representatives to make the PRO Act a reality.

Our labor movement stands ready to build back better, together.

– Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

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Kera Peterson: A distant Labor Day this year, but our solidarity endures 

September 3, 2020 by

Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Her “Labor Voices” column appeared in the September 2020 issue of The Saint Paul Union Advocate.

*****

Kera Peterson

For many of us, Labor Day weekend marks the final days of summer, one last chance to throw a backyard barbecue or head up to the cabin before the school year begins. For the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, Labor Day has in recent years been an opportunity to bring hundreds of union members together for a parade through the State Fairgrounds. 

This year, of course, Labor Day looks a lot different. Get-togethers with loved ones are spaced six feet apart. And not only is our parade canceled, the whole State Fair has been called off. Despite the differences, Labor Day should always be about celebrating the contributions of America’s working people – especially the essential workers who have kept our country and our state going through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The list of heroes working on the front lines during this public health crisis is long and filled with union members. Millions of America’s working people have stepped up, risking our lives and livelihoods, to continuously go to work since the onset of COVID-19. U.S. Postal Service employees are working in challenging, sometimes chaotic conditions to make sure our mail is safely delivered. Grocery store clerks are working overtime to ensure we have food to put on the table. Tradespeople are building and maintaining our infrastructure. Health care workers are adjusting to new protocols and care models to keep our communities well. Educators and public employees are working hard in conditions that continue to shift. Transit workers are getting essential workers to and from their jobs. 

COVID-19 has highlighted the vast social, economic and racial inequalities in this country, challenges we must face head on moving forward. But the pandemic is also shedding light on another crucial difference in economic and health security: the benefits of belonging in a union. According to the Economic Policy Institute, just 67% of nonunion private-sector workers had access to health care benefits in 2019, compared to 94% of union members. The union difference is real. Collective bargaining leads to benefits like paid leave, job security and wages high enough to sustain a family. 

On a more typical Labor Day, the Saint Paul RLF would bring together over 200 union members to march in the Minnesota State Fair’s parade. But not this year.

There’s never been a year where the union advantage – the power of having a voice on the job, a seat at the table – has been more clear. From National Nurses United winning victories in its fight for adequate personal protective equipment to the United Food and Commercial Workers demanding (and winning) stricter safety guidelines for grocery stores, solidarity has been fundamental in protecting America’s workers in this crisis. When working people come together, we make things better for everyone, especially in a crisis. 

But as we celebrate the working people who got us here and will keep us going, we also must take Labor Day to honor our brothers, sisters and friends who have fallen to COVID-19, especially those who became infected while on the job. No one should have to choose between risking their life or losing a paycheck. In our moments of great darkness, we must continue the fight for safe working conditions, hazard pay and paid sick leave.  

As union members, we must never take for granted the rights that empower us to bargain for safe workplaces, quality health insurance, family-sustaining wages and protections on the job. And in the face of this unprecedented pandemic, it’s important now more than ever to take this year’s holiday to uplift political candidates who share our values and fight to protect our rights.  

We’ve seen firsthand the devastation caused by political pundits who choose to put profits over people. That’s why this November, it’s crucial we get to the ballot box to elect labor-endorsed candidates for the Minnesota Legislature, for Congress and Joe Biden as the next president of the U.S.  

The labor movement has responded to COVID-19 with passion and dedication, fighting nonstop for workers’ protections. On Labor Day, we’ll pause to celebrate our essential workers and pay tribute to those we’ve lost, to cherish the rights won by union members before us and imagine what we can accomplish with an ally in the White House. And then we’ll get back to work. 

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For 20 years, Lynne Larkin-Wright helped union members get through the ‘bumps on the road’

July 28, 2020 by

Lynne Larkin-Wright receives a letter of appreciation from U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum for her four decades of service to the community. McCollum’s district director, Josh Straka, presented the letter on her behalf.

Lynne Larkin-Wright had been in the workforce five years when her father, George, a member and officer of Laborers Local 132, confronted her with a question: “Why would you work anything other than union?”

Soon thereafter, Larkin-Wright never did. She took a job with the City of St. Paul, where she would remain for 20 years as a member of Local 2508 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Her father was onto something.

“Just knowing how much better your life can be and how much more stable your life can be, rather than being at the whim of someone else,” Larkin-Wright said. “It makes such a difference.”

But a union card isn’t a shield against economic hardship. Layoffs, downturns, work stoppages and unexpected medical expenses are just some of the life events that can throw union members’ lives into turmoil.

When union members in the East Metro have found themselves in economic crisis over the last 20 years, they’ve had a friend in Larkin-Wright, who retired July 2 from her position as an AFL-CIO Community Services liaison with the St. Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center. The LSRC is the nonprofit arm of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, and a longstanding partner organization of Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Larkin-Wright reflected on that partnership – and the 40 years she’s spent in the local labor movement – in this interview, published in the August 2020 issue of The Union Advocate.

UA: How did you go from payroll clerk at the city to AFL-CIO Community Services liaison?

LLW: At some point the city and my union loaned me to the United Way to help raise money at campaign time. I was also on the board of United Way of St. Paul as a labor representative, where I worked in fund-distribution with local nonprofits. I also got involved on the Community Services Committee as a delegate to the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly, and went through their union counselor training, learning about resources available in the community.

UA: Tell me about your dad’s influence on your career path.

LLW: When we were kids, we were the first on the block to buy a color TV. I have a friend who reminds me of it to this day! We had good health insurance and dental insurance. My mother, she lived 20 years longer than my dad, but she never had to worry about paying for surgery or medication or dialysis. All the work Dad did maintaining good contracts for members helped him as well.

UA: You remained a dues-paying member of AFSCME Local 2508 even after leaving the city. What has it meant to be part of that union?

LLW: Getting involved in my local was one of the best things I ever did. That and being loaned to the United Way, those are the two best things that ever happened to me. After getting up and public speaking at United Way meetings, when I went back to my local, I wouldn’t say no to getting up and saying something in front of the City Council. I’m sure for the city it was like, “Look what we’ve created!”

But for me it was a huge shift. I remember one of the first things (former RLF President) Shar Knutson had me do in this job was go in front of the City Council and request a Workers Memorial Day proclamation. I remember thinking, “I don’t know if I need to do that.” But I marched up there and did it. And it opened up a path to a lot of things I didn’t know I could do.

Lynne Larkin-Wright’s appointment to the United Way board made news in the the Feb. 21, 1994, issue of The Union Advocate.

UA: What else surprised you about the job?

LLW: I remember in my interview there were like 13 people at the table. Shar always wanted to have other people’s input, and I think because we were friends, she also wanted to make sure there wasn’t any bias, that I had all the tools.

But the work we were doing 20 years ago is different than the work we’re doing now. And it will change again. I think that’s the beauty of what the United Way does. They change based on the needs of the community. Every United Way is different because every community is different. That means LSRC’s program is going to change, and we have to.

UA: What’s changed in 20 years?

LLW: People used to come in with one thing that was going on. You helped them with that, and they were on their way. Now the issues are multiple. I think health care is a big piece of that. Retirement security is a big piece of that.

UA: What’s the one resource you wish more people knew about?

LLW: We’ve been talking about United Way 211 first call for help for 40 years! People still don’t know it’s out there. But also our program, for union members to know that it’s a resource that’s there, and that Community Services liaisons are there to help? You can only say those things so many times.

Union folks aren’t used to asking for help. They’re used to being the folks out there helping. I’ve seen that recently with unemployment. People are proud and want to take care of themselves, but we all experience bumps on the road of life. If there’s help out there to make that path a little less bumpy, why not take it?

UA: What’s kept you doing this work? What’s been frustrating?

LLW: I really liked reducing stress for folks, even if it’s temporary. That has been so rewarding. I’ve been very fortunate to do this work.

The frustrating part? You can encourage people to help themselves, but sometimes they don’t. All you can do is keep encouraging people in the right direction.

UA: You’ve built so many relationships in this movement. What are some that have meant the most?

LLW: I’ve been blessed to work with great people, and not everybody can say that. I’ve still got friends I worked with 40 years ago!

I had been mentored by several people and didn’t even realize it was happening. Wayne Wittman (former Community Services Committee chair and Machinists union delegate) was a big one, and so were Shar and Robin Madsen from AFSCME. We did a lot of fun things, and we got a lot of good stuff done. Getting up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday and pounding lawn signs with other unions, or having picnics together – knowing we were all in the same boat, working together.

Because if employers find out they can divide you? Well, good luck.

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