The Trump administration has refused to release more than $5 billion in SNAP contingency funds, a move unions say is an attempt to leverage hunger for political gain.
Families, educators, food shelves brace for SNAP cutoff: ‘This is a policy choice’
October 31, 2025 by
Senators push back against Trump’s union-busting
March 11, 2020 by
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 […]
Tina Smith: Fighting for working families in the U.S. Senate
November 4, 2019 by
Tina Smith isn’t on the ballot this November, but for Minnesota’s junior U.S. senator, the reprieve from campaigning will be brief. The seat Smith won in 2018 goes back on the ballot in November 2020, and the race already has attracted a well-funded opponent in former 2nd District Rep. Jason Lewis. For working families, the […]
On right to work and prevailing wage, it’s Walz … or Wisconsin
October 24, 2018 by
“People will tell you, ‘I’m not into politics,’” Walz told tradespeople. “You tell them too damn bad because politics is into you.”
Kera Peterson: Political action critical to defending our basic freedoms
April 27, 2018 by
We are strongest when we come together in union. This November, voters will be asked to choose between candidates who support this basic freedom and those who don’t.
Friedrichs is history (maybe), but Minnesota workers aren’t letting their guard down
May 3, 2016 by
Labor History Month kicked off in St. Paul last night with a discussion of history in the making, as panelists offered insight into public-sector workers’ recent push to breath new life into their unions and defend their right to a voice on the job. The public forum, titled “The Friedrichs Case and the Future […]
Supreme Court ruling a fragile victory for public workers, unions say
March 30, 2016 by
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday rejected an attempt by corporate interests to weaken public-sector workers’ unions and, in the process, undermine the public services they provide. The court’s decision in Friedrichs v. CTA is a victory for “teachers, nurses, firefighters and public-service workers nationwide,” said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, which represents 43,000 […]
In Minnesota, public-sector workers building power from the inside out
February 19, 2016 by
They may no longer be on the brink of a Supreme Court-imposed Right-to-Work rule, but Minnesota’s public-sector union members aren’t celebrating. They’re organizing. “What we got was a reprieve, not clemency – and surely not a pardon,” Education Minnesota attorney Meg Luger-Nikolai warned a standing-room-only audience of activists last night at the East Side Freedom […]
Workers see corporate power grab behind court case challenging their union rights
January 8, 2016 by
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a case with big implications for Minnesota firefighters, teachers and other public-sector workers who benefit from the collective bargaining process. At a press conference inside the Firefighters Hall and Museum in Minneapolis today, public workers warned that the case, Friedrichs v. CTA, is an attempt by corporate […]
Home care workers, clients not backing down from anti-union group’s legal challenge
October 21, 2015 by
A week ago, Francis Hall made history as the first known home care worker in Minnesota to take a paid vacation day. Today, Hall stood outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul and condemned the well funded, extremist groups suing to deny her that benefit – and take away her newly formed union. “We’ve come too […]
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