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.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

‘Surge’ in union elections prompts call to bolster NLRB staffing

May 20, 2022 by

As the number of workers forming unions across the country surges, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig joined 148 other House members in calling for a significant boost in funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and reforms that would modernize the unionization process.

In an April 27 letter to ranking members of a House subcommittee that oversees funding for federal agencies, Craig and other representatives requested a $94 million increase in the next fiscal year to help the NLRB conduct most private-sector union elections and resolve unfair-labor disputes.

Members of Congress also asked that the increased funding be used to address a staffing shortage in NLRB regional offices, and that the legislation remove limits on the agency’s ability to conduct union elections electronically.

Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith signed onto a similar letter May 10.

The request comes at a time when American workers are joining together to form unions in numbers not seen for a decade – and in the wake of a public appeal from the agency’s general counsel for more resources to prevent a backlog of cases.

The NLRB received 1,174 petitions for election between Oct. 1, 2021, and March 31, 2002, up from 748 petitions during the same period a year earlier, a 57% increase. Unfair-labor-practice charges are up 14%.

But the increase in petitions comes amid staffing shortages at the NLRB, which has received the same congressional appropriation of $274.2 million for nine consecutive years. Agency staffing levels have dropped 39% since 2002, and field staffing has shrunk by 50%.

As a result, it’s not uncommon for workers to wait months for union elections after filing petitions with the NLRB – time employers often fill with captive-audience meetings and related union-busting tactics. Starbucks workers in St. Anthony, for example, a potential bargaining unit of 29 employees, filed their petition for a union election March 22, but won’t know the results until a June 6 vote count.

President Biden’s proposed 2023 budget seeks $319 million for the NLRB next fiscal year, but General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has said that level of funding will help the NLRB “start modernizing the agency’s technology infrastructure, but will not fully address staffing needs.”

“Right now, there is a surge in labor activity nationwide, with workers organizing and filing petitions for more union elections than they have in the last ten years. This has caused a significant increase in the NLRB’s caseload, and the Agency urgently needs more staff and resources to effectively comply with our Congressional mandate,” Abruzzo added.

That’s why Craig, who represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, and others who signed the letter want to see an appropriation of $368 million, with funding directed to field offices where personnel “efficiently and effectively process petitions and resolve disputes on the ground, while minimizing cost, maximizing public access and promoting favorable resolution of labor disputes.”

The letter also notes the surge of union petitions may be just the beginning of a larger, forthcoming wave.

“Additionally, with 60 million non-union workers saying they would join a union if given the chance (including nearly 75% of young workers age 18-24), we only expect union election petitions to further increase,” Craig and other members of Congress wrote. “With this skyrocketing workload, the NLRB is now responsible for far more workers than a decade ago yet has been denied the funding to meet these statutory requirements.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District also signed onto the House version of the letter.

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

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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In meeting with Smith, postal employees pledge to ‘go the extra mile’ to ensure mail-in ballots count

August 18, 2020 by

Tina Smith meets with postal employees outside the Eagan distribution center.

As U.S. Sen. Tina Smith met with postal workers, letter carriers and reporters outside the sprawling mail distribution center in Eagan today, a pickup truck exiting the facility slowed to a stop near the crowd. The driver lowered her window and barked out a brief message for Smith before speeding away.

“Thank you, senator!” she yelled. “Give him hell.”

That’s exactly the treatment new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has received from Smith and other Minnesota DFLers over the last month, as structural changes at the USPS have slowed down mail delivery in many parts of the country and, just 11 weeks from Election Day, cast doubt on the agency’s ability to accommodate a vote-by-mail surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been hearing from many, many of my constituents about mail that is late, that is unreliable,” Smith said after an inspection of changes at the Eagan facility. “And that’s not the fault of the people who work so hard inside that building. That is the fault of the chaotic approach and rapid-fire change we’ve been seeing at the federal level.”

In response to criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, DeJoy issued a statement shortly before Smith’s scheduled tour, announcing that the Postal Service would put further restructuring plans on hold through Election Day.

“That doesn’t give me any great confidence,” Smith said, adding that she worries DeJoy shares President Donald Trump’s “politicized” view of the Postal Service. “It makes me wonder what their true intentions are.”

The USPS Board of Governors, stacked with six Trump appointees, tapped DeJoy to serve as postmaster general May 6, and he took office in June.

For DeJoy, who has contributed millions to Republican candidates and over $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund, it was his first job with the public Postal Service after a 35-year career in the private shipping industry. He and his wife recently held investments of between $30 and $75 million in companies that compete directly with USPS – a blatant, but not illegal conflict of interest.

Union leaders warned DeJoy’s appointment was like putting a fox in charge of the hen house, and he has done little in the last two months to prove otherwise.

In July, DeJoy announced processing facilities like the one in Eagan would hold onto mail not sorted in time to meet strict distribution schedules, a move he described as necessary to curb overtime pay. Previously, drivers and postal workers would work in tandem to move as much of the day’s mail off the shop floor before closing the truck gate, ensuring timely, dependable delivery.

Todd Elkerton, president of the APWU’s St. Paul branch, speaks during a press conference outside the Eagan facility.

“We were taught if that mail doesn’t go out the next day, we were going to get in trouble,” said Todd Elkerton, president of the American Postal Workers Union in St. Paul. “Now we’re seeing it happen. It’s being directed from above. And we’re really having a hard time dealing with it.”

Meanwhile, the Postal Service has removed 671 sorting machines from stations across the country, leading to further delays. And photos of mailboxes ripped off the streets in several communities spread widely on social media last week, prompting more public outrage.

The Eagan facility has lost seven sorting machines since the restructuring began, Elkerton said. It’s not the first time he has seen machines “tarped” – or taken out of service – during periods of low mail flow, but it is more than Elkerton has ever seen at once.

So far, postal workers in Eagan have been able to keep disruptions in mail service to a minimum. But the facility was understaffed before the restructuring, and the sorting machines Eagan lost were capable of processing nearly 5 million pieces of mail per day. Elkerton and Joe Malkush, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers in St. Paul, said that doesn’t bode well for the inevitable increase in mail volume.

Smith and other federal lawmakers from Minnesota have demanded DeJoy reverse the changes, alarmed by reports from constituents whose medications have been slow to arrive by mail.

Rep. Angie Craig, a DFLer who represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, sent a letter to DeJoy and Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Jr., earlier this month, noting that the VA fills nearly 80% of veterans’ prescriptions by mail.

Joe Malkush, president of the St. Paul letter carriers union, say if his members can deliver the mail on time for the holidays, “we can do it during the election.”

“I will not stand by and watch these recent attempts to politicize, dismantle and delay postal services, which put the lives of more than 330,000 veterans every day at unnecessary risk,” Craig said. “The politicization of the Postal Service is a grave disservice to the hardworking employees of the Postal Service and puts American veterans in harm’s way.”

In May, Craig and 4th District Rep. Betty McCollum voted with other House Democrats to keep the agency afloat during the pandemic with $25 billion in emergency funding, part of the HEROES Act. Trump and Senate Republicans have balked at the amount.

The president has acknowledged the emergency funding would improve the agency’s ability to handle mail-in voting, which he opposes. “They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.

Further stoking election-related fears, the Postal Service sent letters to 46 states warning that mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted. But local postal employees said they remain confident every ballot cast through the mail here will be delivered to election officials on time – “even if we have to go the extra mile,” Elkerton said.

Delivering the mail, Smith quipped to reporters, is embedded in postal employees’ DNA.

“We do it during Christmas,” Malkush added. “We can do it during the election.”

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

House votes to restore worker voice on the job

February 6, 2020 by

Dee Ann Christensen and Mike Landers, both retired union members who attended the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s campaigns conference today, call their representatives in support of the PRO Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives tonight passed a bill to strengthen protections for workers trying to join together in a union.

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would create new penalties for employers who illegally intimidate or fire workers for organizing a union. It would repeal state right-to-work laws, protect the right to strike and give workers new tools for bargaining a first contract swiftly.

A top legislative priority for organized labor since Democrats took control of the House a year ago, the PRO Act would be the most consequential labor-law reform in 80 years – if it weren’t dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Still, the House vote affirms that labor-law reform remains a key piece of Democrats’ election-year agenda.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the PRO Act “the most significant piece of legislation that will come before Congress this year,” and said the nation’s largest labor federation would use today’s vote to draw a line in the sand.

“Those who would oppose, derail or delay this important legislation, do not ask us for a dollar or a door-knock. We won’t be coming,” Trumka said during a Capitol press conference. “But stand with us today, and we’ll stand with you tomorrow.”

Trumka’s message echoed loud and clear with federal lawmakers from Minnesota, who received calls from over 100 union members and retirees gathered for a conference in Minneapolis today.

“Our outdated labor laws are no longer effective to make sure working people have their voices heard,” the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Melissa Hysing told activists attending the federation’s two-day campaigns conference. “The PRO Act restores fairness to the economy and ensures working people share in the massive wealth we have helped create.”

Four DFLers co-sponsored the PRO Act: Reps. Angie Craig, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar and Collin Peterson. Rep. Dean Phillips also voted in favor of the bill.

McCollum, who represents Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District, said the PRO Act would restore fairness to the economy and help curb rising income inequality.

“The PRO Act strengthens workers’ power to stand together and negotiate for higher pay and better benefits,” she said. “For women who are part of a union, the gender pay gap is nearly eliminated, and union members of color have nearly five times the median wealth of their non-union counterparts.

“Anti-union and anti-worker attacks have led to the decline of the middle class. It’s time we pass the PRO Act and restore the constitutional right to organize, putting power back into the hands of American workers.”

Despite polls showing historically high public support for unions last year, the percentage of U.S. workers who belong to unions continued a four-decade decline. An MIT survey from 2018 found about half of private-sector workers, or 60 million people, wanted a union. Only 6.4% actually have one.

The disconnect, union organizers say, stems from bosses’ increasing disregard for laws meant to protect workers during union organizing drives. Employers broke the law in 41.5% of union elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board in 2016 and 2017.

“They just view it as a cost of doing business,” Jeff Lachler, a Minneapolis-based organizer with the Communications Workers of America, said. “There’s every incentive in the world to break the law, and there’s no real downside as long as you succeed in keeping the union out.”

While federal law prohibits employers from harassing, threatening or firing workers for supporting a union drive, the penalties for breaking those laws lack teeth.

In many cases, employers found guilty of breaking the law must post a notice acknowledging their misdeeds or making workers aware of their rights. In the case of workers fired for union activity, employers have to reinstate them with back pay, if they haven’t already moved on to another job.

But the process, which includes board filings, hearings and appeals, is lengthy, and that works to employers’ benefit, Lachler said.

“Even if they have to bring the worker back, there are no punitive damages,” he said. “In the meantime, they’ve succeeded in scaring everybody else from going through with an organizing drive.”

In addition to giving the NLRB authority to fine employers who break labor law, the PRO Act allows workers to seek justice in court. That would be key for workers who can’t afford to wait for the lengthy NLRB process to run its course.

Other provisions of the bill would prohibit employers from permanently replacing workers who strike, and make so-called “secondary strikes” legal, allowing workers to strike in solidarity with their co-workers.

The PRO Act would make mediation and arbitration mandatory to settle lengthy disputes over first contracts. Nearly half of newly formed unions fail to reach a contract with the employers.

The bill also includes provisions to stop employers from misclassifying workers as “independent contractors” in order to avoid workers comp and other liabilities. It would make fast-food companies and other franchising corporations more responsible for labor practices throughout their chain.

And it would require employers to disclose whether they are paying an outside firm to help defeat a union organizing campaign. A recent analysis found employers pay about $340 million annually to outside firms for “union avoidance.”

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

McCollum, Craig hear workers’ shutdown stories – and safety concerns

January 19, 2019 by

U.S. Reps. Angie Craig (L) and Betty McCollum meet with federal workers at the St. Paul Labor Center.

Eventually, the federal government shutdown will reach a tipping point, federal employees told U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Betty McCollum in a roundtable discussion arranged by their unions at the St. Paul Labor Center Friday.

What that tipping point ends up being is a question keeping many around the table awake at night.

“I’m very afraid,” Erin Phelps, an air traffic controller at Minneapolis St. Paul airport told the DFL congresswomen. “Our systems are being degraded by this shutdown, and it’s scary.”

Air traffic controllers, members of NATCA, are being forced to work without pay during the shutdown, as are TSA agents and officers at federal prisons in Minnesota, members of the American Federation of Government Employees. They missed their first paychecks last Friday, and it appears likely they will miss another next week.

That means workers like Phelps, whose husband is an air traffic controller too, are dipping into their savings to pay for day care, gas, housing, health care co-pays and other costs – or taking out short-term loans.

The mounting stress and plummeting morale are making their workplaces less safe, workers warned, both for themselves and the public they serve. “I’m becoming more convinced someone is going to die in our prisons,” said one corrections officer, who drove from Rochester to attend the meeting.

McCollum, a DFLer who represents Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District, blasted President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans for dragging out the shutdown to gain leverage in their efforts to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

“We all took the same oath of office to protect and defend the United States,” McCollum said. “This is not protecting and defending… This is putting politics over country.”

Craig, a DFLer newly elected to the state’s 2nd Congressional District, noted the twisted irony that Republicans’ crusade to make the nation more safe with a wall is, according to workers in our airports and prisons, having the opposite effect.

“It makes no sense to me,” Craig told workers in the meeting, hosted by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. “Every Democrat I talk to is up for a conversation about border security, but we cannot keep holding federal workers hostage.”

Craig and McCollum want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to call a vote on budget bills negotiated in December, when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. “It’s certainly not the budget I would have wanted, but I’m willing to support it” to end the shutdown, McCollum said.

A veto-proof majority of senators supported the budget, too – until McConnell pulled the bill in deference to Trump’s last-minute demand for $5 billion in wall funding.

Craig recalled her first vote as a member of Congress for “exactly the same bill the Senate passed three weeks before I got there.” She added: “The Senate needs to take up its bill again and end this.”

Furloughed workers from other government agencies, including the IRS, HUD and the FDA, also attended the meeting. They offered McCollum and Craig a litany of examples of how the shutdown is impacting Americans, from blocked access to tax forms needed to fill out financial aid documents to government-backed housing loans caught in limbo.

Workers also described mounting economic pressures as the shutdown drags on. “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place,” one HUD employee said. “My lease is coming due, and I can’t sign a new lease because I don’t have any income. It’s appalling. It feels like we’ve been made invisible.”

To make matters worse, federal employees are barred from accepting certain gifts, making it difficult for labor organizations and other agencies to funnel support directly to them during this time of hardship.

St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper said the federation’s nonprofit arm, which provides emergency assistance to union members during strikes, lockouts or other financial crises, is seeking legal advice about how to make sure the labor community can provide assistance in solidarity with federal workers for as long as the shutdown lasts.

“The people impacted most by this shutdown didn’t go into public service to get rich, and they don’t deserve to be treated like a political football,” Kasper said. “The labor community is going to stand with our brothers and sisters in AFGE and other federal unions, and it’s reassuring to know we have friends in Congress who will do the same.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Bobby Kasper: New year offers promise, but only if we stay engaged

January 7, 2019 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper fired up volunteers during a Labor 2018 door knock in October.

Results of the 2018 midterm election provided plenty of cause for celebration – unless, that is, you’re a CEO or Wall Street banker.

Loud and clear, voters across the country delivered a message that we are tired of corporate control over our government. We are fed up with politicians who hand tax cuts to their wealthy donors while attacking our health care. And we are ready for an agenda that puts working people first.

It’s the message we heard in Dakota, Washington and other counties in the 2nd Congressional District, where labor-endorsed Angie Craig unseated extreme GOP Rep. Jason Lewis. It’s the message we heard statewide, as Minnesota voters overwhelmingly backed Tina Smith and Tim Walz – rejecting divisive, anti-immigrant messages offered up by their opponents – and flipped the state House of Representatives into labor-friendly control.

And it’s the message we heard from our neighbors to the east, as Wisconsin voters finally kicked their union busting governor, Scott Walker, to the curb.

We saw a tidal wave of support last year for pro-worker candidates, many of them union members, women and people of color. But it didn’t happen by accident.

We know the political pendulum doesn’t swing our way unless working people get out there and push it. That’s why at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, we led an ambitious Labor 2018 campaign to win the political ground game one door at a time in Ramsey, Dakota, Washington and Chisago counties.

The results were historic. Our labor volunteers knocked on more doors and had more conversations than any other labor federation in the state – and nearly three times as many doors as we knocked two years ago, in a presidential cycle! By working together, with support from our affiliate unions, our volunteers helped ensure the labor movement made its presence felt on Election Day. As federation president and a proud LIUNA member, I am grateful to everyone who contributed his or her time to participate in a door knock, phone bank or any other Labor 2018 event.

But the work of building political power for working people did not end Nov. 6. We helped a lot of friends win new House seats in Washington and in St. Paul. Now it’s on us to make sure they remember who their friends are.

For politicians-turned-elected officials, it’s easier to forget than you might think.

Consider the orientation event for freshmen members of Congress hosted on Harvard’s campus last month. A tradition that dates back to the 1970s, it’s billed as an opportunity for newly elected lawmakers to build bipartisanship and ease into their work on Capitol Hill. But here’s the catch: Harvard’s panels and seminars were stacked with CEOs of corporations like General Motors, Boeing and Johnson & Johnson. And the former lawmakers on hand to provide advice? Most now work as lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies, Wall Street and other industry groups.

Several freshman Democrats took offense – and took to social media to pull back the curtain on their so-called orientation. “Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here,” Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted. “Where’s labor? Activists? Frontline community leaders?”

As a labor movement, we’re never going to outspend corporate America and the wealthy elites. They will always have more highly paid lobbyists, bigger political action funds and more campaign ads on TV. But here’s what they can’t buy: an engaged, active and powerful movement of people committed to building an economy that works for everyone.

CEOs can whisper into politicians’ ears all they want. It won’t matter if we build and maintain relationships with our allies in the Legislature and in Congress by calling and emailing about issues that matter. The AFL-CIO makes it easy to make our voices heard by signing up for legislative alerts by text message. Or visit our website, http://www.stpaulunions.org, to sign up to get e-activists alerts in your inbox.

Again, I want to thank all the union affiliates that helped us during Labor 2018. Here’s wishing all union members a happy and prosperous new year!

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, representing over 100 affiliate unions with members in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.

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Labor-endorsed Craig fighting to make sure everyone gets a ‘fair shot’

October 30, 2018 by

Angie Craig, the labor-endorsed candidate in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, speaks at a rally with labor volunteers in South St. Paul.

Angie Craig learned the value of a union early in life.

Craig was 9 years old when her mother became the sole provider for Angie and her two siblings. To help them make ends meet, Craig’s grandmother gave up retirement, moved into the mobile-home court where Craig’s family lived, and went back to work.

Angie’s grandmother was 50 at the time. The job she found was in a unionized shoe factory. She was able to keep that job as she grew older, Angie believes, because of the protections of her union contract.

“I can remember on two occasions that her union rep went in with her and talked to management, and it saved her job,” Craig said. “I grew up with a very distinct feeling that a union had helped my family survive.”

Now, as Craig makes her second bid for Congress in Minnesota’s 2nd District, unions have her back again. She has earned the endorsement of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, as someone who will stick up for working people and protect their freedom to join together.

UA: What can Congress do to get more people into union jobs?

AC: What businesses tell me they are lacking are people with career skills and technical skills. I want to see us rethink vocational-technical education in this country, and that would include these first-class apprenticeship programs that labor unions and their employers have developed. I’d like to make sure that young people understand these apprenticeship programs are available to everyone.

The other thing that I think the Congress should do – and this is what really differentiates me from my opponent massively – is I think we should amend Taft-Hartley to make right-to-work laws illegal in this country.

UA: Income inequality is already at historic levels, and it’s only rising, thanks to the $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, which your opponent, Jason Lewis, backed. If you could go back do things differently, what would you do?

AC: I want to go back and do what we should have done in the first place, and that is focus on giving the middle class and working Americans a tax break. We’ve given over a trillion dollars away to large corporations – and at the same time we didn’t close tax loopholes that allow them to send jobs overseas. And now they’re talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security to pay for it.

UA: When it comes to health care, President Trump and Congressional Republicans, including your opponent, seem interested only in creating chaos and uncertainty for families seeking coverage. What approach would you take to health care policy?

AC: The first thing we need to do is to take on big drug companies and take on these health insurance companies. If we really wanted to control costs, we would be negotiating drug prices with Medicare. We would offer more competition into the marketplace, and we’d give consumers another choice by allowing them to choose to buy into a program like Medicare and compete with the large health insurance companies. But instead of taking on any of these special interests, the Republican-controlled Congress and the President have continued to just chip away at the current health care law for political purposes…

UA: Women voters appear to be especially energized this year. How can Congress make sure women who speak up about harassment, including at work, are heard?

AC: As the head of human resources for a Minnesota manufacturer, my team and I carried out investigations of harassment in the work place. In order for this moment to last, it’s important to strike the right balance between due process – including full, fair, and thorough investigations for the accused – with equal protection for everyone. Labor has led the way forward on forging the workplace protections Americans enjoy today, and I will work with our union brothers and sisters to continue strengthening them for everyone.

UA: It’s your second run in a district that hasn’t elected a DFLer in nearly two decades. What gives you hope this year is different? What keeps you in this fight?

AC: At the end of the day, I grew up in a family that had to work our ass off to get ahead, and that’s what I want to go fight for – to make sure that if you’re willing to work hard in this country, this country is fair to you and you have a fair shot to get ahead. That’s going to be my focus as a member of Congress. I grew up in a mobile home court, worked two jobs to put myself through school. I’ve got four boys, three of them are out of the house, two in college, one in trade school. I’m going to be fighting so that no matter how much money you were born into, you get a fair shot.

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

Enthusiasm high among labor volunteers as Election Day nears

October 29, 2018 by

Labor 2018 volunteers pack UFCW Local 1189’s union hall in South St. Paul for a rally before knocking doors in the East Metro.

With the finish line in sight, national union leaders and labor-endorsed candidates fired up union volunteers Saturday in South St. Paul, urging them to keep working to turn out labor voters for the midterm election Nov. 6.

“We’ve got 10 days until the day that will determine the direction of our nation,” AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride told over 150 people ready to knock doors in St. Paul and nearby suburbs. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

McBride was one of two national labor leaders who traveled to Minnesota for the weekend campaign push. Political strategists are closely watching congressional races here that could be pivotal in determining control of Congress for the next two years.

“The reason we came in from Washington, D.C. is because all eyes are on Minnesota right now,” AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, the nation’s second highest ranking labor leader, said.

Keith Ellison, the labor-endorsed candidate for attorney general in Minnesota, gets backing from AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler.
St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper fired up volunteers during a Labor 2018 door knock in October.
A volunteer captures remarks by labor-endorsed lieutenant governor candidate Peggy Flanagan on video.
Angie Craig, the labor-endorsed candidate in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, speaks at a rally with labor volunteers in South St. Paul.
AFSCME volunteer Sheila Pokorny lets out a cheer.

 

Several candidates running with labor support in key races joined the rally.

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith is running to keep the seat she’s held since being appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to replace Al Franken. Smith thanked union volunteers for getting more voters to the polls.

“We have a job to do in this democracy, and that is to participate,” she said.

Angie Craig is running “to make Jason Lewis a one-term congressman,” she said, in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Craig lost the third-closest U.S. House race in the country two years ago. She scored a standing ovation from volunteers when she said Congress should amend federal labor law to make right to work illegal.

“If you want to make America great again, you make unions great again in this country,” she said.

Both Smith and Craig are getting a boost from the Labor 2018 campaign, which has union volunteers reaching out to working Minnesotans at their front doors, on their phones and on social media. Since August, volunteers with the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation – just one of six regional labor bodies in the state – have attempted over 80,000 direct contacts with union members, retirees or their family members.

Labor 2018 is the most ambitious political push the state’s unions have ever attempted, and it’s tapping into enthusiasm among union activists, women voters and others who have had Nov. 6, 2018, circled on their calendars since Trump took office.

The Labor 2018 campaign’s top priority is electing Tim Walz governor. Walz’s running mate, state Rep. Peggy Flanagan, attended the rally, hosted by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189.

“Let’s be the wave for Walz,” McBride urged volunteers. “Let’s be the workers’ wave, the women’s wave.”

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

Campaign schools to kick off labor’s 2016 election push

June 20, 2016 by

mnaflcioThe most recent state legislative session was a mess, with lawmakers failing to act to repair Minnesota’s crumbling transportation infrastructure or make jobs-creating investments in transit and public works.

Electing legislators who will put the state’s working families first is a top priority for labor this year, and the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation will kick of Labor 2016 by co-hosting a campaign school July 26 for union members, retirees and other labor supporters.

The free, daylong training, co-hosted by the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, will take place at the Minnesota Nurses Association headquarters, 345 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. Registration is required and open at www.mnaflcio.org.

A focus of the campaign schools this year, Minnesota AFL-CIO Member Development Director Bethany Winkels said, will be preparing labor volunteers for longer, more nuanced conversations with likely voters.

“That’s one thing really special about this year’s program,” Winkels said. “We know we’re really good at having a lot of conversations (with voters), but it’s about digging a little deeper. We’re going to try to have a more long-form conversation so people can have an opportunity to help individuals make up their minds.”

The campaign school also will cover the landscape of the 2016 elections, with a focus on winning back a working-family majority in the Minnesota House and maintaining a majority in the Senate. Trainers also will preview tightly contested congressional races in the 2nd District, where labor-endorsed Angela Craig is seeking an open seat, and in the 8th District, where Rep. Rick Nolan is labor endorsed for re-election.

“We’ll deconstruct how politics really affects people’s lives, how what happens at the Capitol impacts you in St. Paul or in Willmar or in Albert Lea,” Winkels said.

Campaign schools also will take place in Alexandria, Duluth and Rochester.

For more information, contact Winkels at bwinkels@mnaflcio.org or 320-296-5853.

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