With support from bonding bill, MN Workers Memorial Garden nears completion

June 17, 2014 by

web.WorkerMemGarden-tallThe $1 billion package of public infrastructure investments approved by state lawmakers earlier this year includes $250,000 for a mural and other improvements that will complete the Minnesota Workers Memorial Garden in St. Paul.

Construction of the memorial, located near the intersection of 12th and Cedar in the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds, wrapped up more than four years ago, and the structure was officially dedicated in August 2010.

But earlier appropriations from the Legislature, combined with more than $130,000 in contributions from individuals and unions, were not enough to adorn the flowing, wall-like structure with more than a pair of inscriptions.

Fortunately, supporters never stopped lobbying lawmakers to finish the job, most notably former Minnesota AFL-CIO President David Roe, who will turn 90 this fall.

“This wouldn’t have happened if David didn’t have the drive and tenacity to keep this in front of decision makers,” Minnesota Building & Construction Trades Council President Harry Melander said. “It’s been 15 years of dedication to the cause.”

Roe, who served as a statewide labor leader until retiring in 1985, conceived the idea to build a workers memorial 15 years ago, along with the late Russ Fridley, former director of the Minnesota Historical Society.

The two men spearheaded private fundraising and lobbying efforts, and their work will be acknowledged with a plaque in front of the memorial. The plaque includes a favorite quote shared by Roe and Fridley: “They are not gone, we just do not see them.”

Melander will co-chair a committee charged with overseeing work on the mural with Roe’s daughter Judy Grudem and Louise Sundin, former president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

The guiding principle for the muralists will be simple. “This memorial remembers those people who went to work, but, unfortunately, didn’t make it home,” Melander said.

Since its dedication four years ago, the Workers Memorial Garden has served as the site of Building Trades unions’ ceremonies on Workers Memorial Day, and the memorial adds to an impressive array of previously dedicated memorials on the Capitol grounds.

“There’s no other state that has allocated as many areas as Minnesota has to memorials. It’s fantastic,” Roe said. “There isn’t anything like it in the United States, and, for goodness sake, there ought to be a memorial for those who have died building Minnesota.”

The memorial is not limited in scope to any trade or profession, but dedicated to any worker killed in the course of doing his or her job, Roe said. Donations poured in from unions and crafts of all kinds, including public employee units, teachers’ unions, industrial unions and labor councils.

Several other individuals, Roe said, had a hand in realizing the vision for a workers memorial, including former House Speaker Harry Sieben, lobbyist Harry Fleming and Dick Anfang, the former president of the state Building Trades Council.

Judy Grudem served as treasurer for fundraising around the Workers Memorial Garden. She and Harry Melander (R) will serve on a committee to guide artists who will complete the memorial wall with a ceramic mural. Grudem's father, David Roe, conceived the idea for a memorial 15 years ago.

Judy Grudem served as treasurer for fundraising around the Workers Memorial Garden. She and Harry Melander (R) will serve on a committee to guide artists who will complete the memorial wall with a ceramic mural. Grudem’s father, David Roe, conceived the idea for a memorial 15 years ago.

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For Building Trades, state’s infrastructure investments mean ‘millions of work hours’

May 22, 2014 by

buildingtrades-logoUtilizing the first state budget surplus in seven years, state legislators pushed the value of a package of public infrastructure investments passed during the 2014 Legislative Session to over $1 billion.

Gov. Mark Dayton signed off on the construction bill May 20, green-lighting projects across the state that will create “millions of work hours” for union members in the coming years, according to Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council.

“Minnesota taxpayers are very well served by these investments, which provide needed asset preservation and create opportunities for the Building Trades community,” Melander said. “By funding major civic centers in Greater Minnesota and the Lewis and Clark water pipeline in the southwest part of the state, present leadership is doing what’s right not only for the Metro but for Greater Minnesota.”

For the East Metro, the infrastructure bill provides funding to renovate the Palace Theater downtown St. Paul and for improvements to the Children’s Museum.

Catholic Charities received $6 million to expand and renovate the Dorothy Day Center, a homeless shelter downtown St. Paul. The development may result in demolition of the St. Paul Labor & Professional Centre, the longtime “house of labor” located across the street from Dorothy Day and the home of several union offices, including the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.

Policy victories

In addition to the infrastructure bill, the Trades successfully pushed a pair of policy measures signed into law this year.

One establishes minimum requirements contractors must meet in order to bid for work on publicly funded projects. Criteria include compliance with the state’s prevailing-wage laws and its requirements regarding workers compensation and unemployment insurance.

“It will make sure contractors that have cheated won’t be able to participate in publicly funded jobs for a three-year period,” Melander said. “It will be another vehicle to ensure compliance when workers are entitled to prevailing wages.”

Lawmakers also made permanent a pilot program begun two years ago, requiring contractors to register with the Department of Labor and Industry.

The initiative has been successful in preventing the misclassification of workers, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Political Director Kyle Makarios said.

“This legislation aims to crack down on the shadowy part of the construction industry, where workers are paid cash or paid off the books or misclassified as ‘independent contractors’ so the employer can avoid paying taxes, Social Security, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance,” Makarios said.

“If someone is working for you, you have to pay them as an employee unless, in fact, they own their own business or act like a business.”

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Trades back measure putting teeth into bidding requirements

March 17, 2014 by
Minnesota Building and Construction Trades President Harry Melander addressed union members during a rally at the Capitol March 6.

Minnesota Building Trades President Harry Melander addressed members during a rally at the Capitol March 6.

Public construction projects in Minnesota are awarded to the “lowest responsible bidder,” according to state law. But how do public agencies distinguish which bidders are responsible?

It’s a question the state’s Building Trades unions want answered during the 2014 legislative session.

With lawmakers likely to pass a bonding bill containing roughly $1 billion in infrastructure investments, they also could act on a measure that would establish criteria for determining which contractors are “responsible” enough to bid on those projects.

The “Responsible Contractor Bill” (House File 1984/Senate File 1919) would require any vendor awarded a public construction contract valued at more than $50,000 meet certain criteria – including, most notably, a track record of obeying the law.

During a rally staged by Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council at the Capitol on March 5, Speaker of the House Paul Thissen called the measure, which has bipartisan backing, a matter of common sense.

“If you’re going to work for the State of Minnesota, you ought to obey the law,” he said.

Too often, though, that isn’t the case.

Case study on campus

In 2012 state taxpayers backed a major construction project on the North Hennepin Community College campus in Brooklyn Park. The project was rife with wage-and-hour violations, according to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

The agency collected $6,847 in back wages for five employees of B & D Plumbing and Heating after the contractor violated apprenticeship rules. Marbella, another contractor on the project, paid the DLI $54,000 after misclassifying its workers and underreporting their hours. And Beck Drywall paid $14,731 in back wages owed to eight employees not paid for their overtime hours.

In all DLI retrieved $77,000 in back wages and lost labor costs from five firms awarded work on the NHCC campus. While that’s a shocking amount of wage theft on a single construction project, it’s not surprising to observers familiar with the track record of firms like Beck Drywall.

Before the ink had dried on its contract to work on the NHCC campus, Beck already was the prime focus of a federal investigation into wage theft on taxpayer-funded projects in Woodbury and St. Michael. The investigation found Beck owed $430,000 in back wages for 59 employees.

But the federal investigation did not prohibit Beck from bidding for work on the NHCC campus. In fact, the contractor remains “responsible” enough under current law to bid for the next taxpayer-funded construction job, on equal footing with contractors that pay their workers in full and play by the rules.

Protecting taxpayers

That’s why the Trades are pushing the Responsible Contractor Bill – “to protect the taxpayers from hiring contractors who violate the state laws, particularly laws that govern the way they pay their employees,” said Kyle Makarios, political director for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The bill would require any outfit awarded a construction contract by a public agency valued at more than $50,000 meet certain criteria, including:

  • Compliance with the state’s workers compensation and unemployment insurance requirements.
  • Proof the contractor has not violated state or federal employment laws – including minimum wage, prevailing wage, overtime and employee classification – over the previous three years.
  • No existing tax liens or delinquencies.

The bill also would put general contractors on the hook for ensuring any subcontractor they retain meets the same criteria.

“Too often we have found contractors who commit significant prevailing wage violations or other violations of state law continue to be awarded projects that are paid for by the taxpayers,” Makarios said. “The Responsible Contractor Bill would say we are only going to award taxpayer funded contracts to contractors who follow the law and have not had serious violations in recent history.”

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Letters to the Editor: Kudos to Metsa for walking in low-wage workers’ skin

May 31, 2013 by
Jason Metsa shops for groceries on a minimum-wage budget.

Jason Metsa shops for groceries on a minimum-wage budget.

A story in the May Union Advocate (“A constant juggling act”) about state Rep. Jason Metsa of Virginia trying to live for a week on a minimun-wage budget brings to mind a quote from the famous novel “To Kill a Mocking-bird,” in which lawyer Atticus Finch tells his young daughter, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Well, I think a lot more politicans and business leaders need to walk around in the skin of workers and experience the hardships and frustrations of raising families and trying to make ends meet on low wages.

– Louis DiSanto, St. Paul, Former member of AFSCME Council 5

*****

Session was pro-jobs

The 2013 session was a pro-jobs session. The cuts in property taxes for homeowners and renters will put more money in the pockets of the middle class. That will mean higher receipts for Minnesota’s small businesses. Freezing tuition also helps family budgets.

The one huge negative was the House Republicans’ voting down the bonding bill. The House GOP’s action costs the state several thousands of desperately needed construction jobs. The Republicans claimed they opposed bonding because it was the “off-year.” Wrong. House Republicans have objected to bonding three of the last four years. During Gov. Pawlenty’s last year, a “bonding year,” the GOP House caucus urged Pawlenty to veto three-fourths of the bonding proposals. In 2011 the GOP majority passed no bonding bill, but agreed to accept a modest amount after the government shutdown. Last year, they passed a modest amount – in an election year.

Shifting taxes from the middle class to those with highest incomes will help the economy. Gov. Mark Dayton and the DFL Legislature are on the side of the economic angels. Restoration of aids to schools and local governments will also slow down rises in property taxes. The improvements in education are designed to increase business productivity.

– Wayne Cox, executive director of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice

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Unions see plenty to like in results of 2013 legislative session

May 30, 2013 by
Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Legislative leaders called 2013 the “education session” for the new investments in E-12 students, and a bill to extend union rights to 21,000 child-care providers and home health care workers grabbed headlines as Republicans tried to filibuster it to death.

But the 2013 legislative session yielded many other victories for union members and middle class families. Here’s a look at some of the less-publicized measures passed by labor-endorsed majorities in the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

• Protections for locked-out workers. Included in the jobs bill is a 26-week extension of unemployment-insurance benefits for any worker whose employer locks them out.

Lockouts have gained popularity among Minnesota employers looking to flex their muscles in contract negotiations with union workers. Minnesota Orchestra musicians remain locked out of their jobs, while St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians and workers at American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley recently struck deals to return to work.

Lawmakers viewed the extension of unemployment benefits as a way to mitigate the negative impact lockouts have had on families, communities and businesses.

• Marriage equality. Thousands gathered outside the Minnesota State Capitol on May 14 to watch Dayton sign legislation granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Several Minnesota unions supported the legislation as an issue important to their members and as an advance in equal rights for all.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, explained the union’s decision to endorse marriage equality: “Same-sex couples pay taxes in Minnesota. They vote here, run businesses here, and serve in our military. They work hard and contribute to our communities, and they have children who deserve to grow up in stable families with married parents.

“Everyone should be able to marry the person they love. No one should be singled out and denied the economic protections and cultural privileges associated with matrimony.”

• Fair trade advisory council. The jobs bill also included reauthorization of the Trade Policy Advisory Council, which saw its authority “sunset” in 2012, but in a new form – one more inclusive of the groups with a stake in international trade policy. The TPAC is required to meet at least once a year and report back to the governor and Legislature about potential U.S. trade agreements and their impact on the state’s economy. The council also may offer draft legislation to implement the recommendations.

Click here to read more about the reauthorized Trade Policy Advisory Council.

• Construction jobs. The Legislature did not pass a large bonding bill, but it did approve much-needed repairs to the Capitol building. Lawmakers also made investments in job creation tools and key construction projects like the Mall of America expansion.

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Politics take center stage at state Building Trades convention

July 20, 2012 by

Minnesota Building Trades Council President Harry Melander watches as Gov. Mark Dayton addresses the convention.

One by one, DFL state lawmakers took the podium on the opening day of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council’s annual convention July 19-20 in St. Cloud. Invariably, each offered his own variation on three common themes:

• DFLers salvaged the 2012 legislative session by providing the votes – or the veto power – necessary to create construction jobs and fend off attacks on union members’ wages, work conditions and collective-bargaining rights.

• None of the victories achieved in 2012 would have been possible without the support, leadership and activism of Building Trades members.

• Little of it will matter if DFLers do not reclaim in November the Legislative majorities they lost two years ago.

“Please recognize the importance of this election,” Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said. “Help your members to recognize the importance of this election, and let’s win this election.”

Delegates to the Building Trades Council, which represents 50,000 union members in construction trades statewide, greeted Dayton with their warmest reception of the convention. Council President Harry Melander praised the governor’s leading role in efforts to pass a bonding bill and finance construction of a new Vikings stadium – initiatives that will create thousands of jobs for union members.

Dayton deflected the praise back to his audience. “You really were stupendous on turning out, standing up, letting (lawmakers) know where you were at,” Dayton told delegates, pointing to rallies staged at the Capitol by unions in favor of bonding and stadium bills.

Dayton also praised delegates for stepping up in one battle the governor was powerless to fight: Republican efforts to put a constitutional amendment regarding Right to Work on the November ballot.

“That was absolutely your victory, achieved by strong leadership, by standing strong together and by putting the pressure on (Republicans) – and they backed off,” Dayton said.

Bipartisan spirit?

Melander warned that Right to Work “will continue to rear its ugly head” until voters install pro-labor majorities in the Minnesota House or Senate. For now, he added, the council must continue to count on relationships with members of both political parties.

But Rep. Tim Mahoney, a DFLer and a member of St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455, said it is becoming increasingly difficult to work across party lines at the Capitol. “This crew that came in last election, they had all the answers,” he said. “They didn’t really bother to talk to anybody. I’ve been there 14 years, and I’ve never seen that kind of behavior before.”

Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, a former member of the Carpenters Union, cautioned delegates about the risks of backing Republican candidates on the ballot this fall. Operating Engineers Local 49, one of the state’s largest Building Trades unions, announced July 12 it will support Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack in the 8th Congressional District, a seat targeted by Democrats this election cycle.

“I’m concerned about some of the endorsements I see coming down… It confuses our membership,” Bakk said. “(Republicans) don’t share the same values about improving the standard of living of working class people.”

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, a Minneapolis DFLer, said keeping their majorities in the Legislature will embolden Republicans to wage more attacks on unions and their members next session.

“After the Wisconsin recall election, the very next day, House Speaker (Kurt) Zellers was on the radio saying (the results) are a signal to us of what we can accomplish if we’re in the majority next year,” Thissen said. “If they hold on to their majority, we are going to see a Right to Work constitutional amendment coming – undoubtedly.”

Jobs on the horizon

Although election-year rhetoric dominated much of the convention’s first day, some speakers looked forward to the jobs soon to be created on major construction projects throughout the state.

Lester Bagley, the Minnesota Vikings’ vice president for public affairs, said the process of building a new stadium in Minneapolis is entering the design phase, with groundbreaking following as early as April 2013. The team plans to begin play in the new stadium during the 2016 season.

“We look forward to building an iconic facility, and we look forward to building it with union labor,” Bagley said.

Noting that the stadium bill passed both the House and Senate with a majority of DFL votes, Bagley also made a point of thanking Building Trades delegates. “A lot of that was due to (DFLers’) vision of doing the right thing and creating thousands of jobs, but it was also because of their relationships with you,” he said.

The $475 million infrastructure jobs bill – also known as the bonding bill – will create about 14,000 jobs for Building Trades members. Dayton said he takes pride in seeing Building Trades members working on public-works jobsites as he travels the state.

But the governor couldn’t resist pointing out that the bonding bill could have created more jobs, had Republicans in the Legislature accepted his proposal for a $786 million package.

“They cut a third of it out,” Dayton said. “They left 7,000 jobs sitting on the table at the Capitol (because) it doesn’t fit their ideology.

“They don’t get that the public sector, we the people, have a role to play in creating jobs. The role of government is to make things happen… It’s we the people, pooling our resources together to accomplish things we can’t accomplish by ourselves.”

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With time running out at the Capitol, unions plan rally for jobs

May 2, 2012 by

Before adjourning the 2012 legislative session, Minnesota lawmakers could act on a pair of bills that, if passed, would create nearly 50,000 family-sustaining jobs. But on Tuesday it appeared Republican majorities in the House and Senate were more preoccupied with saving their own.

By law, the session must adjourn by May 21. That means the clock is ticking on an infrastructure-jobs bill and a $1 billion financing package for construction of a new Vikings stadium. Together, the measures could create more than 40,000 jobs in the sluggish construction industry.

Unions are lobbying hard for both measures. The state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, announced plans to stage a rally on the Capitol steps Thursday at 11 a.m.

“Workers in the construction trades were hit hardest when the great recession began and the sector still has yet to recover,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said. “Stadium construction and a large infrastructure bill will put tens of thousands of Minnesota construction workers back on the job in every corner of the state.

“If the Legislature adjourns and leaves nearly 40,000 family sustaining jobs on the table; it will be a great disservice to Minnesotans who want and need to work. Middle class Minnesotans are waiting for real results on job creation from this Legislature.”

Gov. Mark Dayton, waiting for the Legislature to resume its work tomorrow, held a press conference at the Capitol today, responding with visible disappointment to Republican leaders for calling a last-minute stadium audible yesterday. They attempted to alter the existing stadium package after “thousands of hours of negotiations and seven committee hearings,” according to the governor.

The Republican proposal for a “roof-ready” stadium on the current Metrodome site is a non-starter for the Vikings’ local partner, the City of Minneapolis. Dayton said Republicans know their proposal will not pass, but are seeking to give themselves political cover with voters hungry for the jobs a new stadium would create.

Dayton characterized it as “one of the most cynical attempts at political gamesmanship” he has ever seen.

“It’s extremely, extremely disappointing and profoundly disturbing that all these months of working together, working it out together … have come to this kind of disaster,” Dayton added. “I hold the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate responsible for it.”

Unions are encouraging members to tell their legislators that Minnesota needs middle class jobs, not tax cuts for corporations.

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