Unions back Little in Dakota County Attorney race

October 21, 2022 by

Matt Little

Matt Little supported the state’s groundbreaking wage theft legislation while serving in the Minnesota Senate in 2019. Now, he’s running for Dakota County Attorney to put the new law to work stopping exploitation in the workplace and on the job site.

Prosecuting wage theft cases is “totally within your purview” as county attorney, Little said. “There’s functionally no difference if you walk into someone’s house and steal money off their countertop or if you steal it off their paycheck. It’s the same thing.”

But Little said wage theft hasn’t been a top concern in the County Attorney’s Office. Pointing to allegations of worker exploitation on the Viking Lakes development in Eagan, Little said “the threat of prosecution alone would be helpful.”

Little’s interest in cracking down on labor abuses is among the reasons unions are backing the former state senator and mayor of Lakeville in the first contested election for the Dakota County post in over a decade.

“I’m the only one talking about wage theft as an issue that the Dakota County Attorney’s Office should and could enforce,” Little said. “My opponent has never even mentioned it as a priority.”

Little, whose mother was a steward in the Service Employees (SEIU) union, said he has always sought – and earned – support from organized labor in his campaigns.

“I believe it’s incredibly important to have the support of working people,” Little said. “When I was running for city office, it was true then, and it’s true for this race too. Those are the people doing the work.”

Another reason unions are backing Little is his pledge to fight for more resources and support for the people doing the work in the County Attorney’s Office.

Members of the County Attorney’s staff were among workers who joined an informational picket in September to protest the slow pace of contract negotiations between Dakota County and their unions, AFSCME locals 306, 450 and 693.

“You don’t have to look too deeply to see that there isn’t anybody fighting for staff,” he said. “We’re seeing retention problems as people leave the office for higher paying work. It doesn’t seem like anybody’s sticking up for them at all, and I want to be that voice.

“We need someone who will fight for staff and fight for union members to make sure they’re being paid competitive wages, to make sure they feel like they’re valued and they want to stay and continue putting in high quality work for the people of Dakota County.”

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AFSCME members restock Neighbors Inc. food shelf

September 18, 2014 by
Jen Guertin of AFSCME St. Paul Clerical Local 2508 loads food donations bound for Neighbors Inc. (AFSCME Council 5 photo)

Jen Guertin of AFSCME St. Paul Clerical Local 2508 loads food donations bound for Neighbors Inc. (AFSCME Council 5 photo)

AFSCME members helped restock a Dakota County food shelf during Council 5’s annual convention in Bloomington Sept. 11-13, raising $11,271 and collecting 539 pounds of groceries for Neighbors Inc.

The food shelf assists more than 600 families each month in Inver Grove Heights, South St. Paul and West St. Paul.

Food shelf director John Kemp said AFSCME members’ donations are timely, as they will help union members who are out of work after the Rainbow Foods sell-off and the Dakota Premium meatpacking plant closure. Kemp said the food shelf is serving 25 percent more people than it did a year ago.

The collection surpassed the amount donated to a local food shelf in Duluth – two tons of food and $2,000 – during Council 5’s convention last year, organizers said.

AFSCME Council 5 is a union of 43,000 workers who advocate for excellence in public services, dignity in the workplace, and opportunity and prosperity for all working families.

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Dakota County legislators dodge community meeting on school funding

May 16, 2012 by

Working America member Mike Adair addresses a community meeting on school funding in Burnsville.

A group of Dakota County residents convened a community meeting in Burnsville May 12, hoping to give people an opportunity to ask their legislators questions about things like school funding and property taxes.

Unfortunately, not one of the area’s legislators acted on the invitation to attend, leaving the roomful of concerned parents, school district employees and other community members with more questions than answers.

“Why are our schools suffering? Why are property taxes on the middle class skyrocketing while our schools are giving kids less and less each year?” asked Mike Adair, an Eagan resident and father of four students in the Eagan school district.

“It’s not the district’s fault that they are squeezed dry every year. This mess comes directly from the state, and our representatives need to be held accountable for making choices that hurt our kids and their schools.”

The meeting underscores the task at hand for Minnesota’s union members and their community allies in this election year. The 2011-12 legislative sessions produced unprecedented attacks on workers from newly elected Republican majorities in the House and Senate, including a so-called “Right to Work” constitutional amendment.

Electing pro-worker majorities to the Legislature this November will require unions, through their Labor 2012 campaign, to make gains in places like Burnsville and Eagan, communities that have suffered from the state’s failure to fund local schools and public services adequately.

Residents like Adair, a member of the AFL-CIO community group Working America, are ready to work for candidates committed to raising revenue fairly to balance the budget in 2013.

“This is not the Minnesota I envisioned my kids growing up in,” said Adair. “Simply putting band-aids on the wounds every school year is not going to help. We need to think long-term.”

Metro-area unions will kick off in the Labor 2012 campaign with a rally May 17 in Minneapolis, where union leaders and volunteers plan to “celebrate our victories – and talk about what’s next, so these attacks don’t come back in 2013.”

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