The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Supporters of raising the state’s minimum wage – and indexing it to keep up with the cost of living – kept the pressure on state senators today, delivering more than 7,000 postcards from constituents demanding action. The postcards are the product of conversations with Minnesotans that began, Raise the Wage Coalition spokesperson Jennifer Munt said, […]
Since being sworn in as mayor in 2006, Chris Coleman has been standing up for St. Paul’s working families. On Nov. 5, working families have an opportunity to stand up for Coleman by reelecting the DFL mayor to a third term in office. Coleman earned labor’s endorsement, union leaders and activists said, by bringing structural […]
Gloria Jones and May Sy Lawrence won’t get paid for doing their jobs until Tea Party Republicans in Congress get serious about doing theirs. Jones and Lawrence are essential federal employees – officially classified as “accepted employees.” As they have throughout the 15-day shutdown, they showed up for work today at the Social Security Administration […]
Although a federal appeals court last month temporarily blocked a Minnesota law allowing in-home child-care providers to vote on whether they want a union, AFSCME Council 5, the union seeking the election, dismissed the injunction as temporary. “This one-sentence ruling has nothing to do with the merits of the case,” said union spokesperson Jennifer Munt. […]
Folk-rocker Billy Bragg gave a union rally on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus a kick in the pants today, performing an impromptu, two-song set on the steps of Morrill Hall – and throwing his support behind the U’s frontline workers as they bargain for affordable health care coverage. [Click here to sign a […]
Unions representing state employees announced today that their members have voted to ratify new, two-year contracts with the state. The contracts call for across-the-board raises of 3-percent in each of the next two years, but require state workers to pay more for their health insurance. The contracts cover 19,000 members of Council 5 of the […]
A story in the May Union Advocate (“A constant juggling act”) about state Rep. Jason Metsa of Virginia trying to live for a week on a minimun-wage budget brings to mind a quote from the famous novel “To Kill a Mocking-bird,” in which lawyer Atticus Finch tells his young daughter, “You never really understand a […]
Legislative leaders called 2013 the “education session” for the new investments in E-12 students, and a bill to extend union rights to 21,000 child-care providers and home health care workers grabbed headlines as Republicans tried to filibuster it to death. But the 2013 legislative session yielded many other victories for union members and middle class […]
Child-care providers and in-home health care workers celebrated a hard-fought victory for their professions yesterday, after the Minnesota House joined the Senate in passing a bill that would allow them to vote on whether to form a union. The celebration spilled from the House gallery into the Capitol hallways, as pro-union child-care and home-care workers […]
Surrounded by more than a dozen family child-care providers clad in pro-union T-shirts, two state lawmakers unveiled legislation Feb. 25 that would grant collective-bargaining rights to providers who receive subsidies from the State of Minnesota. The Child Care Collective Bargaining Act, introduced by Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. Mike Nelson (DFL-Brooklyn Park), could […]
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