The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
In his administration’s latest swipe at federal unions, President Trump last month gave Defense Secretary Mark Esper unprecedented authority to strip collective bargaining rights from nearly 750,000 civilian workers at the agency. Democratic senators, including Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, urged Esper in a letter last week “to exercise great restraint” with his new […]
Putting up Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s fair booth is an annual tradition for the St. Paul Building Trades.
Federal legislation introduced last month would lend cash to ailing pension funds so they can meet their obligations to current retirees and grow enough to serve people still working toward retirement. The Butch Lewis Act, authored by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, received a full-throated endorsement from retirees, union leaders and lawmakers at a rally […]
Two years ago, Congress opened the door for troubled pension funds to cut retirees’ benefits, after Rep. John Kline slipped the provision into a must-pass bill keeping the federal government open. Now, with Congress poised to pass a similar stopgap bill, Kline is back with another “pension reform” bill, and it’s just as bad […]
The St. Paul City Council took up the fight to stop fast track Wednesday, when members unanimously approved a resolution “opposing the extension of bad trade policies.” “The people of the City of Saint Paul have the best chance to benefit from pending trade and investment agreements only if the process by which they are […]
More than a year after sending proponents of fast track back to the drawing board, Congress is poised to consider a modified version of the trade measure this spring. But unions and their allies in the fair-trade movement say the “new” fast track bill amounts to little more than lipstick on a pig. Like previous […]
The two candidates atop the DFL ticket this election year know better than most the importance of getting out the vote, the theme of a rally staged by the party today outside the Minnesota Capitol. Four years ago Gov. Mark Dayton “won by a large, large margin as far as I’m concerned – 8,800 (votes),” […]
HealthWORKS, a new coalition of Taft-Hartley health and welfare funds, presented U.S. Sen. Al Franken with an award at the annual “Health and Benefit Fair” held April 26 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The HealthWORKS Hero Award recognizes Franken’s advocacy on behalf of Taft-Hartley plans, industry-based health insurance funds that cover workers at multiple employers […]
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