Labor 2012: Minnesota unions celebrate clean sweep of top priorities

November 7, 2012 by

Volunteers take turf assignments during Midnight Madness, a get-out-the-vote event on the eve of Election Day.

Minnesota unions achieved a clean sweep of their top priorities for the Nov. 6 election, as voters elected pro-labor majorities to the Legislature, tossed a Tea Party incumbent out of office in the 8th Congressional District and rejected a pair of constitutional amendments opposed by labor.

It was a resounding victory for the Labor 2012 political campaign, coordinated by the state’s unions and labor federations.

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, said the state’s voters “firmly rejected the politics of division, restriction and corporate greed,” and she applauded the work thousands of union volunteers did to educate voters on the issues – and get them to the polls.

The Labor 2012 campaign set five priorities heading into the election cycle. Here’s a breakdown of how the campaign fared on each of them, with a focus on the East Metro:

• Priority No. 1: Winning legislative majorities

After Republicans took control of the House in Senate two years ago, they pushed several attacks on workers, including Right to Work. Unions sought to rebuild pro-labor majorities in the Legislature, targeting endorsed candidates in competitive districts across the state, particularly in suburban areas.

The strategy worked. DFL Party candidates won a 39-28 majority in the Senate and a 73-61 majority in the House. Knutson called it a “pro-middle class majority,” adding that voters “rejected the extremism and gridlock that plagued the 2011-12 session.”

Several labor-endorsed candidates in East Metro suburbs were among the wave of DFLers elected Nov. 6, including seven of eight candidates in districts where the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation targeted its efforts.

The campaign was particularly successful in Eagan, where Jim Carlson, Sandra Masin and Laurie Halverson swept all three legislative seats in Senate District 51. Halverson’s victory was particularly sweet for union members, as her incumbent opponent, Doug Wardlow, had been a leading proponent of Right to Work in the House.

Greg Clausen (right), the labor-endorsed winner in Senate District 57, talks with Rep. John Lesch at Midnight Madness.

Other winners in the East Metro included Greg Clausen in Senate District 57, Susan Kent in Senate District 53, Barb Yarusso in House District 42A and Will Morgan, who won by 170 votes in House District 56B.

• Priority No. 2: Defeating Chip Cravaack

Rick Nolan, the labor-endorsed candidate, won a decisive victory in the 8th District, which stretches from the Iron Range south into Chisago County. Cravaack shocked longtime Rep. Jim Oberstar two years ago, but he fell out of favor with his DFL-leaning district after aligning himself with the Tea Party in Congress.

• Priority No. 3: Defeating the constitutional amendments

With money and manpower, Minnesota unions supported successful efforts to defeat two amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot: one that would have limited the definition of marriage to one man and one woman, and another that would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Jamie Gulley, an officer of the 30,000-member SEIU Minnesota State Council, said unions opposed the amendments out of “the basic principles of fairness.”

“We believe that both of these amendments would strike a blow to justice and humanity for a significant number of Minnesotans,” Gulley said. “Because of this, we made a decision stand with a broad coalition of organizations insisting that Minnesotans ‘Vote No.’”

Voters rejected two constitutional amendments opposed by the state’s unions.

• Priority No. 4: Win local elections

In St. Paul, voters overwhelmingly passed a labor-backed school levy referendum. And candidates for county commissioner endorsed by the St. Paul RLF swept races in Chisago and Ramsey counties.

• Priority No. 5: Re-elect Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar and DFL members of Congress

Obama and Klobuchar won by large margins, as did U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum in a redrawn 4th Congressional District. Voters also returned Rep. Tim Walz in the 1st District and Rep. Keith Ellison in the 5th District.

Unions’ political work isn’t over, however.

“It is now time to begin the work of completing Minnesota’s economic recovery and help build a state that can be a national leader for decades to come,” Knutson said.

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Farm Bill stalls, McCollum and Ellison join call for Crystal Sugar to end lockout

September 26, 2012 by

American Crystal Sugar appears to be losing favor in Congress at a time when the company needs it most.

With the federal Farm Bill stalled in the House of Representatives, 37 members of Congress, including Minnesota Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison, advised Crystal Sugar CEO Dave Berg to get serious about finding “common ground” with the 1,300 union workers locked out of their jobs for nearly 14 months.

In a letter addressed to Berg and union negotiator Steve Bertelli (download as PDF), federal lawmakers noted the union’s “willingness to meet and discuss the issues,” and called Crystal Sugar’s take-it-or-leave-it approach to negotiations “troubling.”

“A final agreement requires negotiation,” the letter says. “It is incumbent upon the parties to bargain in good faith and genuinely seek to find common ground so that a final agreement can be reached.”

Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Reps. Collin Peterson and Tim Walz sent a similar letter to Berg and Bertelli last month.

Moorhead-based Crystal Sugar locked out its workers Aug. 1, 2011, after members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union voted overwhelmingly to reject the company’s final contract offer.

The two sides have met occasionally since then, and union negotiators have agreed to meet most of the company’s demands for economic concessions, including higher health care premiums.

Rather than meet workers in the middle, Crystal Sugar countered with no notable changes to its offer, and workers have voted twice to reject it since the lockout began. They say Crystal Sugar insists on contract language that will give management the authority to contract out union members’ jobs, ignore seniority in personnel decisions and bypass hard-fought grievance procedures.

Although Crystal Sugar is seeking to strip its workers of their safety net, the farmer-owned cooperative is lobbying fiercely in Washington D.C. to protect a safety net of its own.

Provisions in the federal Farm Bill known as the Sugar Program keep sugar prices artificially high by limiting domestic producers’ exposure to foreign competition. Many in Congress view the Sugar Program as an unnecessary intervention in the free market, but supporters call it a necessary boost for rural economies.

Those supporters include many urban, pro-labor lawmakers like Ellison and McCollum. But with the current Farm Bill likely to expire at the end of the month, Crystal Sugar’s lockout isn’t helping efforts to get a new Farm Bill passed into law.

Locked-out Crystal Sugar workers picket outside a Crystal Sugar shareholder’s home in Crookston.

The lockout “isn’t in the best interests of working people, and it’s not in the best interests of the Sugar Program,” said Bill Harper, McCollum’s chief of staff.

Ellison said the labor dispute is “pulling apart the building blocks of a good relationship” that has served workers and farmers well in the past.

“The company and the workers have always been supportive of the Sugar Program because it’s made the company profitable and, historically, has allowed the company to pay the workers in a way that’s fair,” Ellison said. “If they want to break that arrangement, it’s not going to help anyone.”

Perhaps with an eye toward going it alone on Capitol Hill, Crystal Sugar has spent more than $1.8 million on federal campaign contributions this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In a letter sent Aug. 21, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called on labor-endorsed members of Congress who received Crystal Sugar cash to use their “influence and stature to insist that the company resolve this dispute immediately and end the lockout” – and to return the donation if Crystal Sugar refuses.

McCollum is among a handful of lawmakers who have returned the cash, Harper said.

Ellison, meanwhile, holds out hope that continued pressure from members of Congress who have worked with the company in the past will prod Berg and Crystal Sugar’s farmer-shareholders toward the middle ground in negotiations.

“Why would they not want to do the right thing by the union?” Ellison said, recalling two speeches he made on the House floor about the lockout. “This is a question I’ve raised and I’m going to continue to raise.”

Take Action:

For more information on the lockout and how to support locked-out workers and their families, go to www.CrystalGreed.com.

For more information on the toll Crystal Sugar’s lockout is taking on the company’s productivity and efforts to pass the Farm Bill, go to www.CrystalSugarFacts.com.

Click here to thank Rep. Betty McColllum for her continued support of Crystal Sugar’s locked-out union workers.

Click here to thank Rep. Keith Ellison for his continued support of Crystal sugar’s locked-out union workers.

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