The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
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 […]
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 […]
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is moving forward with plans to dissolve the bargaining unit of workers at its official newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, when their current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of this month. In an overhaul intended “to create a more integrated communications function,” the Archdiocesan Office of Communications […]
In his new book, “Playing Bigger Than You Are: A Life in Organizing,” Stewart Acuff looks back on his 35-year career as a community, political and union organizer, including a stint as organizing director of the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, from 2001 to 2008. Acuff is quick to point out, however, that the […]
Regional labor federations from both sides of the Mississippi River fêted their union volunteers yesterday, hosting a barbecue at the Operating Engineers Hall in Minneapolis to thank activists for helping stave off a flood of attacks on workers during the 2012 legislative session. The event also kicked off the Labor 2012 political campaign in the […]
The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s annual Labor Bowl event May 3 raised more than $14,000 raised for the St. Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center, making it the most successful Labor Bowl the Regional Labor Federation has ever hosted. The bowling fundraiser at Midway Pro Bowl in St. Paul drew 16 teams. Sponsors included […]
A group of Dakota County residents convened a community meeting in Burnsville May 12, hoping to give people an opportunity to ask their legislators questions about things like school funding and property taxes. Unfortunately, not one of the area’s legislators acted on the invitation to attend, leaving the roomful of concerned parents, school district employees […]
I breathed a sigh of relief when the Minnesota Legislature finally adjourned the 2012 session. It meant an end to the seemingly endless string of Republican attacks on Minnesota’s working families – attacks on our union rights, attacks on our wages and pensions, attacks on our voting rights and more. I’m writing today to say […]
Remember to place a bag of non-perishable food items near your mailbox Saturday, May 12, date of the 20th annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, organized nationwide by the National Association of Letter Carriers union. The food drive is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, and letter carriers throughout the metro area will be participating. […]
Union members swarmed the Minnesota Capitol today in a last-ditch effort to drum up support among lawmakers for two bills that, together, would create tens of thousands of jobs for union members in the struggling construction trades. The bills – one to build and repair the state’s infrastructure and another to finance construction of a new […]
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