LIUNA summit digs into Minnesota’s infrastructure outlook

October 16, 2025 by

State Sen. Erin Murphy accepts an Infrastructure Champion award from LIUNA Local 563 Business Manager Joe Fowler (L) and LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota President Joel Smith.

Advocates for public infrastructure gathered Oct. 10 at the Minnesota Laborers’ Training Center in Lino Lakes to take stock of the state’s investment needs and celebrate recent legislative gains.

The 2025 LIUNA Infrastructure Summit and Open House, sponsored by LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, brought together over 100 representatives of unions, contractors, state agencies and other infrastructure-minded groups.

The half-day event covered topics like water and energy infrastructure, incentives for high-road housing development, workforce development and initiatives within the industry to increase workers’ access to mental-health resources.

Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan addressed the summit, and LIUNA officers presented awards recognizing lawmakers and the union’s lobbying partners for their work to strengthen and expand prevailing wage and secure new investments in transportation, water, energy and other infrastructure needs statewide.

Walz noted that the awards recognized both Democrats and Republicans. He called it a testament to LIUNA’s ability to work “bipartisanly” in support of public investments and standards like prevailing wage, ensuring infrastructure jobs go to safe, highly trained and fairly compensated tradespeople.

“It’s a really difficult job right now to try to find common lines, and LIUNA and the Building Trades have been doing it year after year,” Walz said.

Earlier this year, Walz signed a $700 million infrastructure jobs bill into law. It will chip away at a backlog of requests from communities and agencies across the state that has surpassed $7 billion.

The governor struck a hopeful note that lawmakers will continue to invest.

“I think we have set a precedence with this leadership that’s here at the Legislature that it just makes good sense to continue to pass robust bonding bills every year to make sure that we’re staying ahead of what needs to be done,” he said.

In anticipation of that work, LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, which represents about 14,000 workers, will expand its apprenticeship and training programs to include a second campus in North Branch, where the union recently acquired 96 acres.

The Lino Lakes facility already operates Minnesota’s largest registered apprenticeship program. The site delivers about 150,000 training hours each year, LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota President Joel Smith said, at no cost to taxpayers.

“This campus represents our commitment to connecting Minnesotans, including more women, people of color and veterans, to lifelong careers with family-sustaining wages, excellent benefits and dignified retirement,” Smith said.

Recipients of LIUNA’s 2025 Infrastructure Champion awards included two state lawmakers, Sen. Judy Seeberger (D-Afton) and Rep. Nathan Nelson (R-Hinckley), who authored legislation that appropriates $1 million to promote mental-health initiatives in the construction industry, where suicide rates are over three times higher than the U.S. average.

State Reps. Kaela Berg (D-Burnsville) and Mary Franson (R-Alexandria), Sens. Jen McEwan (D-Duluth), Rob Kupec (D-Moorhead), Grant Hauschild (D-Hermantown) and Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul), and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith also received awards.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Senate Republicans block $1.9 billion infrastructure jobs proposal

March 16, 2023 by

IUPAT members (L to R) Tadd Tratar, David Kroger, Jordan Fry and Zach Thoemke rallied for the bonding will with Tim Stender (R) from the Carpenters union.

Before the Minnesota Senate voted today on infrastructure jobs bills worth $1.9 billion, union tradespeople pleaded with Republican members not to hold up the package of local public-works projects as leverage in a political fight with the DFL majority.

“Quit playing little games with my livelihood,” Carpenters Local 1382 member Mandy Reese, from Zumbrota, told lawmakers. “Do your jobs, get back to work and get this bonding bill passed today.”

Unfortunately for Reese and nearly 100 other union members who gathered outside the Senate chambers, most Republicans chose politics over jobs. The bonding proposal, which would see the state borrow $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects, fell shy of the three-fifths majority needed to pass the Senate, despite gaining bipartisan support in the House earlier this month.

The result prompted DFL leaders to scrap plans for a vote on a separate package of infrastructure projects that would be paid for with nearly $400 million from the state’s projected budget surplus.

Sen. Sandy Pappas (D-St. Paul), chair of the Senate Capital Investment Committee, said during a press conference before the vote that if the borrowing bill failed, DFLers in both chambers would begin crafting a new all-cash package, which they could pass with simple majorities.

But that bill is unlikely to be as robust as the two bills they had hoped to approve today, Pappas warned. And because it won’t need a three-fifths margin, the cash bill may also not be as inclusive of Republican spending proposals.

LIUNA Local 563 member Carolyn Wood of Rosemount spoke in support of the $1.9 billion local jobs and projects bills. “By creating good construction jobs, thousands of Minnesotans will gain access to the Trades and a better future like I did, including our young people, more women, people of color and veterans,” she said.

Pappas called the proposal rejected by Republicans today “the fairest and the largest” bonding bill in state history. She touted a 50-50 split between projects funded in metro and rural areas, and singled out proposed transportation, water-treatment and public-safety projects in GOP-represented districts.

“Frankly, it’s embarrassing for me to go back to these communities time after time, year after year, and they’re still waiting” for lawmakers to fund local capital projects, Pappas said.

As for an all-cash bill, she added, “I don’t know if it can be as balanced” as the borrowing proposal.

On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) recognized the strong support from organized labor for the infrastructure jobs bill, calling out several unions by name. But he said support from Republican leaders hinged on inclusion of tax relief.

“We wanted to help you,” Johnson said. “We Republicans wanted to get these projects done in the state of Minnesota. We have one simple request. Let’s get this done, but let’s ensure Minnesotans are taken care of as well, make sure that they have tax relief, make sure that we know what’s happening in our fiscal policy.”

The construction season is approaching quickly, and Minnesota’s asset upkeep falls further behind schedule – and costs continue to increase – each time lawmakers fail to act on a bonding bill, as they have since October 2020.

“We shouldn’t be talking about these projects,” said Bradley Peterson, director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. “We should be talking about the next round of projects.”

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As session begins, Minnesota unions see opportunity for investments in infrastructure, frontline workers

January 31, 2022 by

Essential workers marched outside the Capitol during a union rally last summer.

With a projected $7.7 billion budget surplus, state lawmakers have an historic opportunity, union leaders said, to fully invest in public services, infrastructure and frontline workers during the 2022 legislative session, which began today.

Lawmakers traditionally take up capital investments – the so-called “bonding bill” – in even-numbered years, but the record surplus, coupled with unspent federal pandemic relief funds, could allow for more broad spending measures this year, including long-delayed compensation for frontline workers.

Unions also plan to lobby for pro-worker policy changes like paid family leave, and to remain vigilant in preventing attacks on existing worker rights and protections from gaining traction.

While Gov. Tim Walz and a labor friendly DFL majority in the House have expressed an appetite for robust investments and pro-worker policies, the outlook is less rosy in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

“The Senate has proven to be an obstacle – if not a roadblock – for years to paid family and medical leave, as well as more recently frontline worker pay,” said Melissa Hysing, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s legislative and strategic research director. “The challenge is always going to be the Senate.”

Minnesota unions are sure to advance their own priorities to the Capitol with solidarity from the labor community. But here’s a look at the agenda unions crafted together as part of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which unites over 1,000 affiliate unions and 300,000 working people.

Union tradespeople called on lawmakers to pass a bonding bill outside the Capitol in 2020.

• Infrastructure jobs

Not only is it a bonding year, but the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden last November, gives Minnesota an opportunity to leverage additional funds for capital investment and create tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs.

The Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, the voice of the state’s construction unions, praised Walz’s Local Jobs and Projects Plan, unveiled earlier this month. In a statement, Executive Director Tom Dicklich said the $2.7 billion infrastructure bill would leverage funding to support “statewide projects for years to come.”

“The passage of the Local Jobs and Projects act will provide an opportunity to create a solid pipeline of projects that can sustain the construction industry and the jobs it provides,” Dicklich said. “We thank Governor Walz and his team for putting forward this plan and urge all lawmakers to work together to make these needed investments in the jobs and infrastructure that Minnesota deserves.”

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis in December 2021, advocates called on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

• Frontline worker pay

Last July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. But workers never received a penny, as lawmakers on a bipartisan working failed to agree on who should be eligible.

Republicans on the working group blocked any plan that did not direct the payments to a narrow pool of health care workers, first responders and long-term-care workers. But unions, including the Minnesota Nurses Association, argued against excluding any frontline worker.

Hysing said the Minnesota AFL-CIOwill support Walz’s proposal to give each of the state’s estimated 667,000 frontline workers a $1,500 bonus, calling it “unfinished business.”

Julie Bleyhl, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 5, called Senate Republicans “disrespectful” for seeking to exclude retail workers, bus drivers, janitors and others from the payments. Many Minnesotans have churned through their paid time off – or gone without pay – to quarantine or provide care for themselves and their families.

“While the need for public services has increased dramatically for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on our workforce, through forced overtime and COVID-19 exposure,” Bleyhl said. “That is why our union remains steadfast in our commitment to fighting for frontline worker bonus pay for all frontline worker heroes.”

• Paid family leave

In more unfinished business, the Minnesota AFL-CIO will continue to co-chair a statewide coalition of labor, faith and community organizations lobbying to extend paid family and medical leave benefits to all workers in the state.

The coalition supports creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

The program is included in Walz’s proposed spending package, and House DFL leaders have proposed using part of the budget surplus to pre-fund benefits for two years.

“Working people should never be forced to choose between a paycheck and taking care of themselves and the people they love, and lawmakers can take action so we never have to make that choice again,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said.

• Workers’ Compensation eligibility

Unions will encourage lawmakers to extend the law, passed in 2020, creating a presumption that first responders and health care workers who contract COVID-19 did so on the job, making them eligible for Workers Compensation benefits.

• Wage theft

Despite passing with bipartisan support in 2019, Minnesota’s new wage theft law – the strongest in the nation – has been a target of attempts to weaken its protections and soften penalties on offending employers. Hysing pointed to Republican proposals last year that would have stripped language requiring employers to notify new workers of their wages before their first shift.

“So workers wouldn’t know until after they’ve received their first paycheck what they’re supposed to receive,” she said. “One of the first defenses against wage theft is workers knowing what they’re supposed to be paid – that shared understanding between the worker and employer about what the wage is for work performed.

“We will continue to work to maintain these hard-won protections and make sure workers get paid for the work they’ve done.”

For updates on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s work at the Capitol and alerts about how to take action, follow the federation on Facebook and Twitter, sign up for text and e-mail alerts.

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Walz signs historic infrastructure bill from Ironworkers’ training floor

October 21, 2020 by

Gov. Walz signs a $1.88 package of infrastructure investments into law.

In a ceremony held on the floor of Ironworkers Local 512’s apprenticeship training center today, Gov. Tim Walz signed into law a $1.88 billion package of infrastructure investments that will create thousands of jobs for union tradespeople across Minnesota.

The bill also keeps open the Willow River and Togo correctional facilities, a top priority of the state’s largest public service union, AFSCME Council 5. And it provides a long-sought emergency rate increase for the state’s home care workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

The measure passed both chambers of the Legislature during a special session last week, drawing bipartisan support.

The largest bonding bill in state history will fund local projects in both the metro and greater Minnesota, including transportation infrastructure, affordable housing and water-treatment and higher-education facilities.

Walz likened the projects to the property improvements homeowners might make, but on a much larger scale. “It’s the most important investment you make,” he said. “You don’t let it run down.”

The governor also thanked the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and its member unions for convincing enough legislators to support such a robust bonding package.

“They did the hard work of getting this thing across the finish line,” Walz said. “And now they’ll do the actual work” of building and repairing the state’s buildings, roads, bridges, water systems and more.

Local 512 apprentice Travis Strugis gives Gov. Tim Walz a demonstration on the union’s training floor.
Walz and Local 512 Apprenticeship Coordinator Josh Kalina celebrate the largest bonding bill in state history.
“Today, when Gov. Walz signs this bill, we really, truly are one Minnesota,” Ironworkers Local 512 Business Manager Barry Davies says.

Bonding is traditionally a legislative priority in even-numbered years, and lawmakers were progressing steadily toward a bill during the regular session – until the COVID-19 pandemic derailed their progress.

Since the regular session adjourned in May, Walz has called lawmakers into special session each month. But until last week members of the House Republican caucus withheld their support for the jobs-creating infrastructure bill, hoping to pressure Walz into giving up his emergency powers during the pandemic.

Barry Davies, Local 512’s business manager, noted that tradespeople would still be waiting for an infrastructure investment had 25 House Republicans not broke with their caucus’ leadership to support the bill last week.

“Today, when Gov. Walz signs this bill, we really, truly are one Minnesota,” Davies said.

Bonding bills sustain jobs in the construction industry, added Operating Engineers Local 49 Business Manager Jason George.

“We needed this bill,” George said. “The global pandemic has created economic uncertainty for next year, and this bill eliminates a lot of that uncertainty for our work in Minnesota.”

“This bonding investment is necessary for our communities, workers and our economy,” said Jessica Looman, executive director of the Minnesota Building Trades Council. “Construction workers across the state are breathing a little easier today, knowing that there will be jobs coming so they can keep working to provide for themselves and their families.”

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The emergency rate increase for home care, meanwhile, came after home care clients and workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, staged rallies in the streets outside the Capitol in the days leading up to the special session.

The rate increase rewards workers on the front lines of the pandemic response, providing care that helps tens of thousands of Minnesota seniors and people with disabilities live safely in their homes.

The home health industry suffers from a critical shortage of workers, and SEIU members and their clients have been campaigning for years to improve pay and benefits to make the job more attractive.

Robin Pikala, a home care worker and SEIU member from Fridley, called the bipartisan vote “an important step,” toward the respect workers and clients deserve.

“But this temporary support during the peacetime emergency is just a stopgap,” Pikala added. “We have so much work left to do.”

The special session wrapped up Oct. 15, less than a month before Election Day. Every seat in the Legislature is up for election in 2020.

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As GOP plays politics with infrastructure bill, tradespeople warn their jobs hang in balance

July 21, 2020 by

Fred Livingston, a member of LIUNA Local 563, speaks at a Capitol press conference on the bonding bill.

If Minnesota lawmakers treated their jobs as seriously as the state’s union tradespeople treat theirs, Gov. Tim Walz would be signing a bonding bill this week.

That’s the message Minnesota’s Building and Construction Trades unions brought to the Capitol in St. Paul today, hours after legislators adjourned a second special session without investing in infrastructure and local jobs.

“Construction workers put in long, hard, exhausting hours, and we get the job done well,” said Fred Livingston, a former Marine who joined Laborers Local 563 after reentering civilian life. “We take our jobs very seriously.

“My brothers and sisters and their families hope lawmakers come back to the table, sit down, roll their sleeves up and do whatever is required to get this bonding bill passed … so we don’t have to tell our families we lost our jobs.”

Infrastructure bonding bills authorize the state to borrow money for investments in local water-and-sewer systems, roads, bridges and public buildings. It is traditionally a priority for lawmakers during even-numbered years like 2020, when they are not working on the biennial state budget.

Bonding, however, requires support from two-thirds of the House and Senate, and this year Republican lawmakers have used the measure as a bargaining chip in efforts to force Walz to call off the state of emergency he’s declared to respond quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Led by Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, House Republicans held firm to that stance early this morning. They voted in lockstep to block a package of more than $1 billion in local projects that would have created an estimated 12,000 jobs and generated $3 billion in economic impact, according to an analysis by the Building Trades.

Jason George, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 49, said Daudt and his caucus “chose to fight with the governor instead of creating good jobs in Minnesota. That’s just something I don’t understand.”

The political standoff comes at a delicate time for both the construction industry and the state’s economy, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause uncertainty.

Employment in Minnesota’s construction industry has remained steady so far during the pandemic, union leaders at the Capitol said, but there are signs of trouble ahead.

Minnesota Pipe Trades President David Ybarra said several significant projects have been delayed or canceled since the economic downturn, while design and engineering firms warn of a slowdown in demand for their services.

“It goes without saying that if architects and engineers are not seeing projects, our members will be without work eventually,” Ybarra said.

State lawmakers may get yet another crack at the infrastructure bill in August, when Walz would need to call the Legislature back into session to extend his emergency powers.

That gives union tradespeople a glimmer of hope their representatives may finally do the job right – even if it’s not done on time.

Keoudon Yang, an apprentice with the Electrical Workers union, said it’s “unfortunate that state leadership, in these challenging times, will not do their part.”

“This has been one of the most uncertain years and our future feels unpredictable at best,” Carpenters Local 930 apprentice Benjamin Statz added. “We need the Legislature to do their part and chart a strong path forward for young trades workers.”

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With pension and bonding bills, Dayton saves best for last

May 31, 2018 by

Gov. Dayton signs a bill to stabilize pensions covering more than 500,000 Minnesotans during a ceremony at the Capitol.

Common ground between Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature was in short supply at the Capitol this year, but lawmakers were able to compromise on two bills that union members lobbied hard for during the recently ended session.

Dayton gave final approval yesterday to a bill authorizing more than $1.4 billion in jobs-creating infrastructure investments across the state. The bonding bill will create thousands of construction jobs, Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council President Harry Melander said.

Today, Dayton signed a bipartisan bill to stabilize pension funds covering more than 500,000 public-sector workers, the last item of unfinished business from the 2018 session.

“This may be Gov. Dayton’s last signing of a legislative bill, but he saved the best for last,” AFSCME Council 5 Legislative Director Julie Bleyhl said.

Missed opportunities

Still, the DFL governor expressed regret that his last session before leaving office failed to make progress on issues like tax relief for working families, emergency funding for local school districts and needed investments in public transit.

Last week Dayton vetoed a tax bill and massive “omnibus” budget bill. The governor, who made his opposition to both bills known throughout the legislative process, chided Republican leaders for forging ahead on their own rather than engaging in negotiations.

“Never have I seen a legislative session so badly mismanaged, less transparent, and more beholden to monied special interests,” Dayton wrote in a letter accompanying the budget bill’s veto.

Bunny Engeldorf, a registered nurse at United Hospital in St. Paul, speaks at a rally for “Minnesota values” sponsored by a coalition of progressive groups, including the Minnesota Nurses Association and SEIU Healthcare MN, during the final week of the 2018 session.

Union leaders shared Dayton’s disappointment.

Bill McCarthy, president of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, said the tax bill was stuffed with perks for corporations and would have needlessly risked Minnesota’s fiscal stability.

“The Republican tax bill would have handed big corporations a permanent tax giveaway of at least $200 million dollars and created future budget deficits, while only paying lip service to working people and K-12 students,” McCarthy said. “Instead of directly investing in priorities that all Minnesotans agree on, Republicans in the Legislature tied these measures to special interest-backed policies and let big pharma off the hook for their role in the opioid crisis.”

Education issues weren’t prominent when the session began, but a string of deadly school shootings in other parts of the country thrust campus safety onto lawmakers’ agenda. And when districts across the state began announcing layoffs, Dayton responded with a proposal to put part of the state’s budget surplus into a one-time aid package.

Republicans wrapped both school security and their own, watered-down aid package into the budget and tax bills, which Dayton vetoed. But Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, refused to let legislative leaders off the hook for packing “important and popular priorities, like school safety, into a sludge of bad ideas that will create problems for schools and communities for many years.”

Some pressing issues, like home health care, never even made it into the final budget bill, despite mounting evidence that low wages and lack of benefits are contributing to a shortage of care workers in the state.

“Home care workers and our clients came to the Capitol throughout the session to make sure our elected officials understood the crisis facing families in every corner of the state,” said Dawn Burnfin of Chisolm, a member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “Make no mistake, inaction means more pain, frustration and heartache for families across Minnesota.”

Finishing on a positive note

Gov. Dayton mugs with AFSCME members after signing the pension bill.

Although gridlock hampered progress on most issues, Dayton “firmly cemented his legacy as a champion for working people” with the pension and infrastructure-jobs bills he signed this week, McCarthy said.

Dayton signed the pension bill, which passed both the House and Senate without dissent, during a public ceremony at the Capitol today.

The measure requires current workers, employers and retirees to share in the sacrifice of fully funding public pensions in Minnesota over the next 30 years. It increases employee and employer contributions, reduces cost-of-living adjustments and draws some state funding, and it will immediately clear $3.4 billion in unfunded liabilities off the state’s books.

A coalition of public-sector unions, including AFSCME and Education Minnesota, supported the bill. Council 5’s Bleyhl called it a “towering achievement” that will keep the state’s pension system solvent for decades to come.

“With the signing of this bill, public workers are now assured of a secure and dignified retirement, which they’ve earned through their dedicated years of work serving the public,” she said.

The $1.4 billion bonding bill invests in college and university facilities, roads, bridges and other public projects. Dayton signed the bill despite criticizing it for being too modest.

“I am signing this bill, despite my objections, because areas throughout Minnesota need the projects and the jobs, which it will provide,” he said.

Melander said the Building Trades supported the governor’s more robust bonding proposal – “the bigger the bill, the more opportunities people have to feed their families” – but remain appreciative of the compromise measure.

“Minnesota’s Building Trades members are grateful for all of the good work that Gov. Dayton has done for the last eight years,” Melander added. “He will always be remembered as a great governor for Building Trades members.”

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Construction jobs get bipartisan support at Capitol rally

April 10, 2018 by

State lawmakers from both parties touted their proposals to put union tradespeople to work during a rally today on the Capitol steps, organized by the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council.

The rally capped the council’s annual lobbying day, which saw Carpenters, Laborers, Operating Engineers and other union tradespeople meeting with their elected officials and urging support for jobs-creating investments, including Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposed $1.5 billion public works bill.

The governor’s bonding proposal would put an estimated 22,950 people to work on more than 200 projects statewide, investing in public colleges and universities, housing, water-treatment facilities and more.

But Dayton warned tradespeople that opponents will try to scale back his jobs bill.

“They’re going to try to pare it back,” he said. “They’re going to pick a number … and say we can’t go above that. They’re going to leave jobs on the table. So ask them to justify why a number is more important than putting people to work.”

Building Trades unions rally on the Capitol steps, with semi trailers from Laborers Local 563 and Operating Engineers Local 49 serving as a backdrop.

 

While Dayton and other DFLers called for investments in infrastructure and transportation, Republican leaders remained mostly silent on those issues. Instead, they offered support for legislation that would shift jobs-creating projects in the private sector, stalled over environmental concerns, out of neutral.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka pledged to send the governor a bill approving Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline and another that would ease environmental hurdles faced by mining companies on the state’s Iron Range.

“My hope is that this is bipartisan,” Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, a Republican from Nisswa, said. “At the end of the day, frankly, for Minnesota to be successful, Republicans and Democrats have got to figure out a way to work together, focus on the things that everybody benefits from. If we do that, we all win.”

Although most lawmakers talked jobs, Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, a carpenter from Cook, held up his union card and urged tradespeople to stay vigilant against attacks on their wages and collective bargaining rights.

“You don’t have to look too far … to see what happened in Wisconsin when labor got a little complacent,” Bakk said, pointing to Republican-backed legislation that eliminated prevailing wage and project labor agreements in the state, as well as a “right-to-work” law that weakened unions’ bargaining power. “We’ve got to keep the heat on, keep building relationships with those people who represent us.”

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Workers to legislators: Finish the job on transportation, bonding

May 26, 2016 by
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Lori O’Malley, president of a small construction business in Le Center, speaks to the importance of stable transportation funding, especially in rural economies.

 

Construction workers and contractors formed a united front at the Capitol today in support of a special session allowing state legislators to compromise on two shared priorities – transportation and infrastructure – left unaddressed when session adjourned Sunday night.

Lawmakers “still have time to finish,” Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council President Harry Melander said at a press conference this morning, flanked by dozens of tradespeople in hard hats.

“We’re requesting that, with the leadership of the governor, legislators find a long-term solution to the state’s transportation crisis and pass a strong bonding bill that will provide not only needed infrastructure repairs in the Metro Area, but in greater Minnesota,” Melander said.

Such a compromise already is “on the table,” according to Dave Semerad, head of the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota. It likely would involve some general fund money from a sales tax on auto parts, dedicated license tab fees, a local option to pay for transit projects and Met Council reform.

Harry Melander, a former industrial tech teacher, said there's still time for lawmakers to earn "a passing grade, not an (incomplete) on our state’s report card.”

Harry Melander (R), a former industrial tech teacher, said there’s still time for lawmakers to put “a passing grade, not an (incomplete) on our state’s report card.”

“All that’s lacking is political courage,” Semerad said. “Now’s the time for leadership, not partisan bickering and political games.”

Much is at stake in finding a compromise. The AGC’s 350 employers statewide rely on public investments to create jobs for 50,000 union tradespeople.

Lori O’Malley, president of a small construction business in Le Center, warned that without stable and continuous funding for transportation and infrastructure, “the industry will react, and those reactions will take a long time to recover from.”

With each year lawmakers wait to pass a long-term transportation plan, more of the state’s roads and bridges fall into disrepair. Already, more than half of Minnesota’s roads are more than 50 years old, and 40 percent of the state’s bridges are more than 40 years old.

“Our mission is to build a better Minnesota, but without long-term and sustained funding, it cannot be accomplished,” Semerad said.

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Unions praise Dayton’s approach to building a ‘state that works for everyone’

March 10, 2016 by

MNSTOSIn his State of the State Address last night, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton called on legislators to join him in addressing the state’s racial and geographic disparities, and in making needed investments in public education, transportation and infrastructure.

Afterward, union leaders from across the state praised Dayton’s speech.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht called Dayton the “Education Governor.” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said he “demonstrated his commitment to ensuring that Minnesota is a state that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”

“Hardworking Minnesotans have always formed the backbone of our economy,” AFSCME Council 5 Director Eliot Seide added. “We applaud Gov. Dayton’s focus on infrastructure, transportation, and expanding economic opportunity for all Minnesotans. Those smart investments will help build a better Minnesota that works for all of us.”

Supporting workers left behind

Early in the address, Dayton reiterated his support for extending aid to Iron Range workers suffering from a slowdown in the mining industry and to minority communities that have yet to reap the benefits of Minnesota’s economic recovery.

Illegally dumped foreign steel has flooded the U.S. market, leading Iron Range mining companies to lay off an estimated 2,000 workers in the last year. The slowdown has impacted an additional 4,700 workers in mining-related jobs.

A relief package would extend unemployment benefits for about 2,750 workers, but Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, insist on pairing the relief package with tax breaks for businesses.

“To hold $29 million of desperately needed unemployment benefits hostage to $272 million in fund cuts is unnecessary,” Dayton told Republicans. “And it’s cruel.”

Dayton also cited several sobering statistics regarding racial and ethnic disparities in the state. Compared with Minnesota’s white families, he said, U.S.-born African American families’ annual income is 55 percent less, and their poverty rate is more than 4 times greater. Mexican-American, Ojibwe and Somali families also have fallen behind.

“We cannot resolve these disparities in one legislative session, but we must begin now,” Dayton said, pledging a “significant initiative” to increase economic opportunities for Minnesotans of color.

He also called on the state’s businesses to increase its outreach into minority communities and set a goal of doubling the percentage of minorities working in state government by the time he leaves office.

Modest investments, targeted tax cuts

As for how to approach Minnesota’s $900 million budget surplus for the next two years, Dayton said he would support pairing “modest spending increases” with tax cuts targeted for middle-class families, like an increase in the child-care tax credit.

But the governor, who faced a $6 billion budget shortfall when he took office in 2011, emphasized the importance of keeping the state on firm financial footing.

“Some people are proposing permanent tax cuts, which would put our state’s budget, once again, on a fiscal precipice,” he said.

“What we have been doing is working,” Dayton added. “Minnesotans are working. Minnesota is working. How could we stop now, when there is more work left to do?”

Investments in statewide broadband access, clean energy, rural water-treatment facilities, infrastructure, roads and bridges would create jobs and expand economic opportunities statewide, Dayton said. And he renewed his call for greater investment in early education to “prevent achievement gaps before they appear.”

Specht, president of the statewide educators’ union, praised Dayton’s support for learners at all levels.

“Gov. Dayton understands the foundation of our state is a great system of public education that prepares all students for successful lives,” she said. “His commitment to expand access to high-quality preschool and to support public colleges and universities will reduce the opportunity gaps which hold back too many of our students.”

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

At convention, Trades build momentum for 2014 election push

August 1, 2014 by
Jessica Looman, an assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, addresses Building Trades delegates.

Jessica Looman, an assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, addresses Building Trades delegates.

ROCHESTER – With two new stadiums in the works and $1 billion in new state infrastructure investments – as well as jobs-creating regional improvements like the Destination Medical Center here – the Building Trades unions in Minnesota are riding a wave of momentum.

That momentum is at stake in elections up and down the Nov. 4 ballot, speakers warned delegates to the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council’s annual convention at the Kahler Hotel this week.

“With less than 100 days before the election, it becomes an anxious time,” Council President Harry Melander said. “We have made great progress, and to go backwards would be a shame.”

At the top of Building Trades unions’ agenda this year, Melander said, is re-electing Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. In an address to delegates yesterday, the labor-endorsed DFLer listed his credentials for re-election, including new investments in education and infrastructure, 159,000 new jobs statewide and the first increase in Minnesota’s minimum wage in a decade.

But those accomplishments, the governor acknowledged, would not have been possible without DFL majorities in the Legislature. He noted the change in atmosphere at the Capitol since voters ousted Republican majorities in the House and Senate two years into his first term as governor.

“I hope to come back, obviously, but I don’t want to come back with a Republican House of Representatives,” Dayton said, adding that it would mean “gridlock, deadlock and other budget showdown.”

“We need to keep moving ahead, and that’s going to mean a DFL house and a DFL governor because everything we’ve accomplished can be reversed.”

Gov. Mark Dayton greets Building Trades delegates at their annual convention.

Gov. Mark Dayton greets Building Trades delegates at their annual convention.

Challenges remain

As successful as Dayton and DFL lawmakers have been in bringing Minnesota’s economy back, Dayton noted that only half of the construction-industry jobs lost during the Great Recession have been recovered. Making needed investments in transportation and transit, he said, will keep the industry on the right path.

“There’s no avoiding the responsibility we have for deciding whether we want a better transportation system, the same one or something that’s going to continue to get worse,” Dayton said. “It’s going to take $6 billion just to keep things where they are now.”

The governor also reminded delegates that he was the last line of defense against efforts to undermine prevailing wage, which ensures fair pay for workers on public construction projects. That effort died in the Legislature, as did efforts to undermine collective bargaining via a Right to Work constitutional amendment. But both remain alive among Dayton’s challengers, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson warned.

Knutson gave a glimpse of Republican candidates vying to take Dayton’s place. All four major candidates said in a radio debate yesterday that they support “unsafe, unfair and unnecessary” Right to Work legislation, she noted.

“Jeff Johnson goes even farther,” Knutson added. “In a debate a couple days ago he said he wants to change prevailing wage laws. And a few months ago he told a group of activists he wants to ‘go all Scott Walker’ on Minnesota. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know it’s not good.”

Hearing from both sides

Although the lineup of speakers was heavy on DFLers, two Republican state senators, Dave Senjem and Carla Nelson, whose district includes Rochester, made a pitch to Building Trades delegates as well.

“Your jobs cannot be – they should not be – a partisan issue,” Nelson said. “Construction jobs lead our economic recovery. Your industry is one of the largest growth segments in the Minnesota workforce, and we anticipate that will continue.”

In a show of bipartisan support for the Trades, the Senate voted 59-0 last spring to pass a new law that ensures firms working on public construction projects have a track record of obeying prevailing-wage, overtime and other labor laws.

“Minnesota is the only place in America where a responsible contracting law exists statewide,” Melander said.

Senjem also noted bipartisan support for bonding bills, the Minnesota Vikings stadium and the Destination Medical Center, a $6 billion investment, backed by public and private funds, that will transform the Mayo Clinic and downtown Rochester – and create thousands of construction jobs.

Senjem also recalled that as a majority leader in the Senate two years ago, he “took that Right To Work bill, and we put it in the drawer.”

“We didn’t need that kind of Minnesota,” he said. “We can work together. We don’t need that kind of conflict. It doesn’t get you anywhere.”

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