Bobby Kasper: The strength of our union family is solidarity

December 19, 2019 by

At his retirement party, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper (L) received a U.S. flag flown over the nation’s capitol from Rep. Betty McCollum, presented by her district director, Josh Straka.

It’s the time of year when families gather together to celebrate the holidays. Those gatherings take many different forms. Sometimes we gather as a nuclear family, just parents and their children. Other times we gather with our extended family, bringing together the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or in-laws.

The ties that bind us together as family are many, and in that sense, our union movement is like family. Our local unions and bargaining units bring together working people who have the most in common, like a nuclear family. And our international unions and regional councils are like extended family, gathering union members of different stripes under one big umbrella.

In my career in the labor movement, I’ve been fortunate to serve at almost every level of the labor family, from business agent with my LIUNA local and member of Laborers Local 563 to, most recently, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. I’ve seen how important every branch of the labor family tree is.

Our local unions give us power on the job and a voice at work. The old saying is true: If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu. By joining together and supporting each other, union members negotiate higher wages and better benefits, and we have a say in our conditions of employment.

But everything that we need to thrive can’t be gained at the bargaining table with our employers. That’s where our extended labor family comes into the picture. Labor councils and federations organize on behalf of all union members – all working people, really – for public goods like quality schools, accessible child care, a robust safety net and fair trade.

Like a family, unity is our labor movement’s strength. The stronger our solidarity, the better the contracts we negotiate. The same goes for our work in the community. When we focus on what we have in common as union members, when we focus on improving people’s lives and when we commit to doing the work it takes to make change, that’s when we win.

St. Paul RLF Sargent at Arms Jen Guertin and Executive Vice President Perry Schmidt present Kasper with a resolution recognizing his service to the city, signed by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and members of the City Council.

As union members, we stand on the shoulders of those who made great sacrifices – sometimes with their lives – to secure the rights and advantages we take for granted today. And we risk losing those rights if we do not stay in the fight. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re in Wisconsin, ask a union member there how Scott Walker’s two terms as governor turned out.

It falls on us, as union members, to take on the work of protecting our union heritage. That means committing to volunteer with your union, particularly during election season, when organizations like the Regional Labor Federation lead the push to elect leaders who share our values.

I pledge to continue giving my time even as I make the transition into retirement this winter. My last day as president of the St. Paul RLF will be Dec. 31, but I promise I’ll be back to help out when the time comes.

I may be leaving my union job, but I am definitely not leaving my union family. I moved to Minnesota to make a positive life change in 1992, but I had no idea just how much it would improve my life – and that’s because I was a union member. The relationships I have developed in the local labor movement mean everything to me.

I want to thank everyone who has befriended and supported me over the years, and all the unions that have contributed to our work at the Regional Labor Federation. I want to especially thank Laborers Local 563 Business Manager Joe Fowler and IBEW Local 110 Business Manager Jamie McNamara for putting together my retirement party.

I’m lucky to have moved here and lucky to have found a home in this union family, and I will never forget it.

Happy holidays!

– Bobby Kasper was elected president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, in October 2009 and will retire at the end of December 2019. The St. Paul RLF unites over 100 affiliate unions representing nearly 60,000 people who live or work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties.

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

Kasper to retire, Peterson elected to lead St. Paul labor federation

December 12, 2019 by

Kera Peterson (L), pictured at a rally to raise the minimum wage, will be sworn in as president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation in January 2020.

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation will have new leadership in the coming new year.

After a decade in office, RLF President Bobby Kasper will retire at the end of December, a decision he made official at the federation’s delegate meeting Dec. 11. Kasper, a “proud” member of LIUNA Laborers Local 563, has served as RLF president since October 2009.

Delegates unanimously elected RLF Political Director Kera Peterson to succeed Kasper as president. She will be sworn into a four-year term in January.

“I want to thank our federation’s delegates for their trust and confidence in electing me to represent them and their powerful unions,” Peterson said. “We’ve accomplished a lot together over the years, but there’s still much to do. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves with all of you.”

Kasper began his union career in New York, where he was a member of Laborers Local 66, Service Employees International Union Local 1199 and UNITE HERE’s New York affiliate. After moving to Minnesota, he joined St. Paul-based Laborers Local 132.

Kasper worked as the local’s business agent before running for president of the St. Paul RLF. Previously, he served as secretary-treasurer of the RLF’s forerunner, the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly, and he has been secretary-treasurer of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council for 15 years.

“In the last 11 years, we’ve grown the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation by building new relationships with unions in our area, and our local labor movement is stronger and more unified as a result,” Kasper said. “We’ve set a high bar for ourselves when it comes building power for working people, whether it’s at the Capitol or at the bargaining table.

“Kera’s leadership has been a big part of that success, and I know she will only set the bar higher in the future.”

Peterson is a member of Machinists Local Lodge 459, and she has been on the RLF political staff since 2008. Previously, she served as an AFL-CIO Community Services liaison with the St. Paul RLF’s nonprofit organization, the St. Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center, and with the St. Croix Valley Central Labor Council.

Peterson signed her first union card in 1997, when she took a job as a living-skills instructor at a mental-health facility at a Minneapolis, joining SEIU Local 113 (now SEIU Healthcare Minnesota).

She currently serves as vice president of her local lodge, vice president of Machinists District Council 77 and second vice president of the State Council of Machinists.

During her time on staff with the St. Paul RLF, Peterson has worked closely with labor assemblies in Chisago, Ramsey and Washington counties, helping establish local support for labor campaigns in those areas. She has directed efforts to elect more labor-endorsed candidates in the east metro’s swing legislative districts. And she has represented the federation in coalitions working to raise the statewide minimum wage and establish new local labor standards in St. Paul.

The St. Paul RLF unites over 100 affiliate unions. Together, they represent more than 50,000 people who live or work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. The federation is part of the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events 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.

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

Wage hike shows what’s possible when workers join together, think big

December 19, 2018 by

Working people celebrated at City Hall as Mayor Melvin Carter signed St. Paul’s new $15 minimum wage ordinance Nov. 14.

Six years ago, when fast food workers in New York and, later, cities across the country began striking and rallying in the streets for a $15 minimum wage, the idea was dismissed as too radical.

Today, it’s written into the City of St. Paul’s legislative code.

Members of the City Council voted unanimously Nov. 14 to phase in $15 for all workers – indexed to inflation – over the next nine years. Within minutes of the vote, Mayor Melvin Carter, who made $15 a rallying cry in his bid for office one year ago, had put his signature on the ordinance.

That set off a celebration like few others at City Hall, where many of the working people who led the fight for $15 had gathered to witness the historic moment.

Shalantra Taylor, who works at a McDonald’s in St. Paul and is looking for a second job to make ends meet, was among them. She thanked Carter and council members for “listening to workers, for standing with us.”

“I am homeless, and I’m not the only one,” Taylor said. “Many working people have to work multiple jobs and are still living paycheck to paycheck… This minimum wage law is going to lift up working people and address racial inequalities in our city.”

During a signing ceremony at City Hall, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter showed off the city’s new $15 minimum wage ordinance, which drew unanimous backing from members of the City Council.

Making history

Taylor and other workers never wavered in their demands, and they resisted efforts to divide them along the lines of age, experience or industry.

When the restaurant lobby pushed a subminimum wage for tipped workers, a coalition of worker, faith and community organizations pushed back – both in the streets and in formal meetings with elected officials. As a result, the so-called “tip adjustment” never even came up for a vote before the council, and it is not included in the new ordinance.

By the time the ordinance was introduced this fall, the 15 Now Coalition had gained the influence necessary to go toe-to-toe with powerful lobbying interests like the Minnesota Restaurant Association and big-box retailers. And it did so by fusing the energy of community members fighting entrenched poverty and racial disparities with the power of organized labor.

When those groups share a bold, progressive policy vision, labor historian Peter Rachleff said, it’s a recipe for making history.

“I think the fight for $15 nationally looks more like the fight for the eight-hour day and the fight against child labor than it looks like anything else in American history,” Rachleff, co-director of the East Side Freedom Library, said.

All three movements were initially derided as too ambitious.

“People said it’s too much too fast, but it’s that kind of evocative vision” that inspired the fight for child labor laws and the eight-hour day, Rachleff said. And it’s a similarly bold vision inspiring workers to fight for $15 today.

“We’re not talking about 2 percent a year or a $2 raise,” Rachleff said. “By putting $15 up the flagpole, people felt it was worth fighting for. People could imagine their lives being changed by making that kind of money.”

In 2017, fast food workers went on a Labor Day strike to launch the campaign for $15 in St. Paul.

Labor support ‘essential’

From the earliest stages of the Fight for $15, unions in the Twin Cities have recognized the importance of fighting alongside workers, whether union or non-union, pushing for a higher minimum wage.

Union members marched alongside striking fast food workers in the early days of the campaign, and many labor organizations, including the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, helped make $15 a litmus test for candidates running for mayor in 2017.

“Raising the minimum wage, without a tip adjustment, was a fight our affiliate unions and delegates realized was essential to who we are,” St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper said. “The labor movement won’t remain relevant unless we’re fighting for all working people.”

After Carter announced plans to take on the issue in his first year in office, the St. Paul RLF began hosting weekly meetings with activists and organizers from the 15 Now coalition. Several union members sat on the study group whose recommendations formed the basis of the minimum wage ordinance.

Now that the ordinance has passed, the 15 Now coalition will focus on education and enforcement in St. Paul, with an eye on taking the movement statewide.

“It’s a really ambitious idea,” Rachleff said. “But the beauty of it is it will force people to do the kind of metro-outstate organizing we need so desperately, not just in Minnesota but also in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.

“Those conversations don’t happen if there isn’t a focal point.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bobby Kasper: Our movement is on the rise, but we can’t stop now

August 31, 2018 by

Bobby Kasper

(Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which represents more than 100 affiliate unions with over 50,000 members living or working in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.)

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in Minnesota. But at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, it’s the beginning of an all-out push to elect candidates who share our vision for a fair and just economy.

It’s important work – this year more than ever before – and we can’t do it alone. We need union members and retirees like you to get involved as Labor 2018 volunteers.

How will our volunteers make a difference? By doing what organizers do best: talking to each other. Our volunteers reach out to fellow working people by phone and at the door, and remind them how much is at stake this year, from our paychecks and benefits to our basic dignity on the job.

Working people have the power to create the fair economy we deserve, and right now is the perfect opportunity to put our power to work. Why now? Because something is happening in America.

Our movement is on the rise.

As a wave of collective action sweeps the country, working people are standing together to demand what we deserve. We are marching and striking and organizing. We are refusing to accept business as usual.

For too long now, corporations have tried to keep us weak and divided. They have rigged the economy to work for the few at the expense of the many. They have tried to destroy our unions and pit us against each other. And too many of America’s leaders have done their bidding, waging an assault on our most fundamental freedoms.

As a result, the wealth of a few corporate elites continues to reach unprecedented heights, while working people are left out of the immense prosperity we create every day. CEOs now earn 361 times the average worker, and we still are denied the wages, health care retirement security and quality of life that we have earned.

Rather than taking action to unrig our economy, too many politicians in Washington are only interested in making it worse. Look no further than the tax scam passed this year by President Trump and congressional Republicans, including our own Jason Lewis. They promised these cuts, targeted overwhelmingly toward corporations and the rich, would lead to raises for workers like us. Instead, we’re seeing corporations reward their executives and buy back their own stock.

Of course, as union members we have never looked to corporations or politicians to validate our movement. The rights of working people have always been won and sustained by our own desire and passion for change.

Our power lies in the hundreds of thousands of workers carrying new union cards – three-quarters of them younger than 35. It lies in the tens of millions more who would vote today to join a union if given the chance. Our movement’s capacity for change lies in the workers across the country who are standing together, marching together and fighting together, arms locked in unflinching solidarity.

The midterm elections present the next critical opportunity to secure a brighter future. We can reverse course and start building an America that works for all of us by winning on Nov. 6.

We have the power to create the fair economy and just society that we deserve. And that means making our voices heard loud and clear on the campaign trail – and, in the process, electing labor-endorsed candidates like Tim Walz for governor. We are mobilizing locally to defeat corporate-backed politicians and fill the halls of power with genuine allies of working families. Victory in November will be delivered by conversations between friends, family and co-workers. More than anyone, you have the ability to win hearts and minds and ensure that working people have a say in the future of our country.

Are you ready to make history? Find a volunteer shift that works for you, or call us at 651-222-3787. Let’s put the power of working people on full display this election season.

Have a great Labor Day!

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

With support from more unions, St. Paul labor federation gains strength

July 31, 2018 by

Working people gain a stronger, more powerful voice when they join together in unions. That’s the basis of collective bargaining and a core principle of the labor movement.

But solidarity works for unions, too. By joining together in coalitions and federations, unions build important bonds that amplify the voice of all working people and advocate for our common interests.

Faced with a relentless wave of corporate attacks on unions and collective bargaining, unions won’t survive unless they stick together.

Three local unions – Bakery Workers Local 22, Teamsters Local 320, and Office and Professional Employees Local 12 – pledged to do just that last month, affiliating with the east metro’s largest labor organization, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

“We’re excited and honored to welcome these three local unions into our labor family,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “There is strength in numbers, and we need to be as strong as possible heading into election season.”

The St. Paul RLF works year round to support its affiliates’ contract, organizing and issue-based campaigns. The federation also recruits, trains and deploys volunteers for Labor 2018, the campaign to elect union-endorsed candidates, in four east-metro counties: Ramsey, Dakota, Washington and Chisago.

OPEIU Local 12

Local 12 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union represents more than 2,500 people working in health care operations, credit unions, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, local union offices and other workplaces in Minnesota.

The local’s largest bargaining unit is at HealthPartners, and women make up roughly 80 percent of the union’s total membership.

Ryan Mortensen, Local 12’s business manager, said the political atmosphere for organized labor drove his union’s decision to affiliate with the RLF.

“We alone cannot take this on,” he said. “By affiliating with the St. Paul labor federation, we gain more voice, more power to get our message out across the state and, hopefully, the nation.”

BCTGM Local 22

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 22’s history in St. Paul dates back to 1886, when it was just the Bakers and Confectioners Union. The founding charter still hangs in Local 22’s offices in Minneapolis.

Today, Local 22 represents about 1,800 workers in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, including people working at Pearson’s Candy and Baldinger Bakery in St. Paul.

Union President Bruce Peglow noted the St. Paul RLF provided assistance to Local 22 even before the union affiliated. The RLF stepped up in support of workers at Franklin Street Bakery, whose attempt to form a union has been met with harsh – and sometimes illegal – pushback from management.

“We appreciated that help, and we wanted to help out others in the labor movement as we are able to,” Peglow said. “We’re all stronger when we’re all together. None of us can afford to be an island unto ourselves.”

Teamsters Local 320

Teamsters Local 320 represents 11,500 public employees in all 87 Minnesota counties. They serve cities, townships, counties, school boards and other municipalities in a wide variety of jobs: maintenance workers, lawyers, food service aides, doctors, police and corrections officers, airport workers and more.

Brian Aldes, secretary-treasurer and principal officer, considers Local 320’s diversity to be among its greatest strengths.

“No matter what the member’s craft is, we all have something in common, and that’s being public employees who serve the taxpayers,” Aldes said. “We all understand how important what all of us do is for the public and for our communities.”

Local 320 members also know the importance of electing people to local, state and national office who value the work public employees do. That was among the reasons, Aldes said, the union’s political board voted to affiliate with the RLF.

“We live and die by who we elect to serve in public office,” Aldes said. “We saw what can happen when we don’t have a positive outcome in our presidential elections when the most recent Supreme Court nominee tipped the scales in the Janus case. Now we have nationwide right to work in the public sector.”

Closer to home, Local 320 saw the power of building relationships with elected officials during a difficult round of negotiations with the St. Paul Public Schools over cafeteria workers’ contract.

“We reached out to the St. Paul labor federation and Bobby Kasper, and I’ll tell you, it was an incredible resource to have,” Aldes said. “Whether it’s connections in community-based organizations, school boards, city councils or county boards, the work the labor federation does – and its ability to reach so many households with our message – we just knew we had to be a part of this.

“We’re stronger together.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Restaurant industry pushes tip penalty; unions and tipped workers push back

April 25, 2018 by

You might not have noticed the sky falling in Minnesota’s restaurant industry – unless, that is, you’ve been hanging out in meetings of the House Committee on Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance.

The Republican-controlled committee has tucked a measure into its Omnibus Jobs and Energy Bill that would allow restaurants to pay servers and bartenders less than minimum wage. In hearings last month, industry lobbyists claimed the concession is necessary to shield establishments from annual, inflationary increases to the state’s minimum wage.

Minnesota is one of just seven states where employers may not pay a lower, sub-minimum wage to workers on the basis that their income includes tips. Lawmakers removed the “tipped tier” from Minnesota’s minimum-wage rules three decades ago.

But time hasn’t exactly softened the restaurant industry’s opposition.

The state’s minimum wage has increased from $7.25 to $9.65 for large employers over the last four years, and restaurant owners – and some workers – claim the increased labor costs have upended their industry, forcing layoffs, increasing automation and threatening the vibrancy of the local dining scene.

“The goal of this is to keep jobs intact and to keep our businesses open,” Minneapolis bartender Adam Borgen told committee members April 16.

But employment data collected by the state doesn’t back up the industry’s claims. An analysis by the JOBS NOW Coalition found that job openings in Minnesota’s restaurant industry have increased by 200 percent since 2014, when the minimum wage began to climb.

“Restaurants literally can’t get anyone to fill these jobs in the first place,” JOBS NOW’s Kevin Ristau said. “But they say that by raising the minimum wage, you’re going to hurt the very people you’re trying to help, that those opportunities for workers will no longer exist. Well, we raised the minimum wage, and there are more ‘opportunities’ than ever.”

Minnesota’s restaurant scene, meanwhile, remains hot. Ten local chefs and two restaurants were named semifinalists for the prestigious James Beard Foundation awards earlier this year.

So if a political push to make it legal for restaurants to pay workers less than minimum wage sounds like a solution in search of a problem, that’s because it is, UNITE HERE Local 17 Political Director Wade Luneberg said.

“My industry’s obsession with removing income from employees’ pockets has always stumped me,” Luneberg, a former server and longtime officer in the Twin Cities hospitality union, told committee members.

“This is not an industry in crisis,” he added. “Instead, it keeps expanding and diversifying to find more ways of doing business.”

Although most people who testified for or against the measure last month were from the Twin Cities, the bill’s chief author, Rep. Joe McDonald (R-Delano), stressed it was not his intention to preempt local minimum-wage rules.

Minneapolis did not carve out a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers in its $15 ordinance last year, meaning even if McDonald’s bill were to become law, Minneapolis restaurants would have to raise servers’ wages annually in accordance with the ordinance.

Still, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper warned the tip penalty is just one piece of a broader corporate agenda Republicans are pushing at the Capitol. Another piece of the agenda: preempting local control.

“We’re going to fight any effort to put a tip penalty into St. Paul’s minimum wage ordinance because workers in the hospitality industry deserve one fair wage,” Kasper said. “But we can’t ignore what’s happening at the Capitol. These politicians are only listening to their corporate donors, and they could wipe out everything we’ve been working for.”

That’s exactly the feeling Desiree King had when she heard tip penalty legislation was alive in the House. A longtime server who now waits tables in St. Paul, King testified in favor of scrapping the lower minimum wage for tipped workers 30 years ago, and she never imagined she’d have to come back, King told lawmakers last month.

“To say that we, as a group of people because we earn tips, are not valuable enough to make the minimum wage is insulting,” King said. “We are worth more than that.”

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

Labor-endorsed Karla Bigham fights ‘for an economy that works for everyone’

February 7, 2018 by

Karla Bigham

Working people have stood with Karla Bigham since her first campaign for the Legislature more than a decade ago. Bigham never took that support for granted, and she isn’t about to start now.

Bigham, a DFLer and longtime resident of Cottage Grove, is the labor-endorsed candidate in a Feb. 12 special election in Senate District 54, which includes Afton, Cottage Grove, Hastings, Newport, South St. Paul, St. Paul Park and surrounding townships.

“We’re excited to support Karla Bigham’s campaign for Senate,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “She will be a strong advocate for working families in the southeast metro.”

As a two-term former legislator and current Washington County commissioner, Bigham has taken a hands-on approach to understanding the issues working people face. She’s gone on “ride-alongs” with local cops and probation officers, and observed public health nurses and teachers at work.

“I want to understand how the job actually gets done,” Bigham said. “That’s where we get good feedback so we can make the right policy decisions.”

Listening to workers is what collective bargaining is all about, and Bigham is a staunch supporter of unions and collective bargaining rights. She is a former member of two unions, the Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers.

Working people across the Mississippi River from District 54 have seen their bargaining rights stripped away by Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans. Bigham pledged to fight any attempt to put our state on the same path.

“As close as the Senate is, we have to defend against Right to Work laws, to make sure folks have the right to collectively bargain, to protect prevailing wage and stand up for economic equality,” Bigham said. “I’m fighting for a Minnesota economy that works for everyone. That’s what’s at stake.”

If elected to the Senate, Bigham said she will immediately focus on passing a robust infrastructure jobs bill, and she will support efforts already underway to address sexual harassment in the workplace, including state agencies. She also backs finalizing state employees’ union contracts, currently being held up by a legislative subcommittee.

Whether she’s elected to the Senate or not, though, working people can continue to count on Bigham being in their corner. “Any time you can stand with workers to lend your voice to their voice, it’s louder,” she said. “We have strength in numbers.”

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

Bobby Kasper: Raising wages starts at home

February 5, 2018 by

Bobby Kasper

Unemployment is down. Corporate earnings are up. But for most hardworking Americans, wages aren’t going anywhere.

Congress and President Trump say their $1.5 trillion tax plan will shift wage growth out of neutral. Working people see the tax scam for what it is: a massive and deeply corrupt giveaway to millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations. With the gap between rich and poor as large as it’s been since the Great Depression, politicians in Washington are only rigging the game even more.

Here in St. Paul, we can cross our fingers and wait for corporate tax cuts to trickle down into our paychecks, or we can take matters into our own hands. We can cut through federal inaction by passing a $15 minimum wage that ensures no one working in our city lives in poverty.

The labor movement has a long history of backing legislation that improves working people’s lives, from the eight-hour day to child labor laws. Today, unions carry on the work of raising standards for all workers, whether they hold a union card or not. That’s why unions in St. Paul are leading the campaign for one fair minimum wage in our city, with no penalty for tipped workers.

Poverty wages are the biggest barrier to realizing our self-styled billing as the most livable city in America. St. Paul boasts an unemployment rate well below the national average, but an estimated 40 percent of the city’s residents live in poverty.

Too many jobs in our community aren’t paying wages that reflect the cost of living here. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates people working full-time, year-round jobs must earn $15.31 per hour to meet their basic needs in Ramsey County. Anyone earning less is forced to make impossible choices. Do I pay the rent or buy groceries? Fill my prescription or my gas tank?

Too often, those choices fall on women and people of color. Poverty wages exacerbate our region’s yawning economic disparities along gender and racial lines. Poverty rates among workers of color are nearly four times higher than white workers in the metro area. Raising the wage to $15 is the single most effective way our elected officials can narrow the gap.

Working people in St. Paul deserve to see their wages keep pace with those in Minneapolis, where all workers are on track to make $15 by 2024. Expect low-wage employers and their front groups to trot out the same tired arguments and doomsday scenarios here as they did in Minneapolis. By now, you’ve heard them all – businesses will pick up and leave, employers will cut hours, the restaurant scene will wither.

Don’t buy it. Minnesota’s economy has thrived since Gov. Mark Dayton signed the statewide minimum-wage hike in 2014. Back then, the restaurant industry warned of layoffs and closings if the legislation passed. Today, business is booming in the restaurant industry, with job openings up 75 percent over the past year in the metro area. Cities and states across the country are raising the minimum wage gradually and prudently, without any signs of economic contraction. There’s no reason we can’t do the same in St. Paul.

Poverty wages are a real crisis in St. Paul, one that should be at the top of our city’s agenda in 2018. Mayor-elect Melvin Carter’s support for $15, both during the campaign and since his election, is encouraging. But working people have waited too long already for the gains of this economic recovery to trickle down into our paychecks. It’s time to turn promises into a concrete timeline for action. St. Paul needs a $15 minimum wage ordinance by next summer.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, representing more than 100 affiliate unions with over 50,000 members in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Next Page»