The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Seeking to hasten an organizing process ripe for obstruction and fraught with delays, the National Labor Relations Board today proposed changes to the rules governing elections that determine union representation in most U.S. workplaces. The NLRB, the federal agency that oversees union-organizing elections, voted 3-2 in favor of pursuing the rule change. In a press […]
This headline from The Union Advocate’s Feb. 16, 1939 edition immediately caught our eye: “Assembly Opposed To Defining Beer As Intoxicating.” Turns out, the headline was a bit misleading. The article reported that St. Paul’s central labor body, the Trades and Labor Assembly, passed a resolution opposing a bill before the Minnesota Legislature to define […]
UPDATED 02/20/14 – AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s lecture scheduled for tonight at the University of Minnesota has been canceled as a result of the weather. “President Trumka’s flight into Minneapolis has been canceled due to the bad weather systems across the country,” said Kent Love-Ramirez, director of communications for the U’s Humphrey School of Public […]
Union volunteers gave labor-endorsed candidates and school levy campaigns a boost during the 2013 election cycle, aiding victories in the City of St. Paul and several East Metro suburbs. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the AFL-CIO’s central labor council in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties, recruited 125 volunteers for phone banks, door knocks […]
The Nov. 28, 1963 edition of The Union Advocate ran three front-page tributes to the nation’s fallen president, remembered as a great friend of organized labor. St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly President Charles Rafferty said John F. Kennedy’s assassination Nov. 22, 1963 was a great loss for workers, but he added the president would […]
Fifty years after the March on Washington, the march toward justice continues. That was the tone struck by union members, elected officials and civil rights advocates who gathered on the Capitol grounds in St. Paul today to honor the 50th anniversary of the watershed event in the civil rights movement. Nearly 200 people participated in […]
North Star Steel approached “a new level of absurdity” in an attempt to avoid negotiating a first contract with 30 clerical and sales employees at its Newport facility, The Advocate reported in August 1988. The workers had voted a year earlier to join the United Steelworkers, but management refused to bargain with the union. After […]
It only takes 15 minutes to make a difference at United Way Action Day! Union members can get involved in the second metro-wide volunteer event Aug. 14 by joining the St. Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center’s Community Services team. Union volunteers are needed at two events: • “Speed volunteering” downtown at Ecolab Plaza, 370 […]
Immigration reform is on the front burner in Congress this summer, but 10 years ago immigrant “freedom riders,” including some from Minnesota, traveled to Washington to raise awareness of the need for reform, including a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride kicked off its Minnesota leg with an event at […]
The state legislator spending a week on minimum wage met today with three Minnesotans for whom the minimum-wage challenge is an everyday reality. Four days into his five-day walk in the shoes of the state’s lowest-paid workers, Rep. Jason Metsa listened as three minimum-wage earners related the experiences Metsa wouldn’t have during his five-day experiment. […]
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