The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
I believe our unions can survive and thrive in a right-to-work nation. America isn’t powered by quitters and neither is our labor movement. We’re committed to our members, to each other, and to our communities. With President Trump and Justice Gorsuch, we know right-to-work will happen. The only question is how soon. Survival won’t be […]
Labor History Month kicked off in St. Paul last night with a discussion of history in the making, as panelists offered insight into public-sector workers’ recent push to breath new life into their unions and defend their right to a voice on the job. The public forum, titled “The Friedrichs Case and the Future […]
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday rejected an attempt by corporate interests to weaken public-sector workers’ unions and, in the process, undermine the public services they provide. The court’s decision in Friedrichs v. CTA is a victory for “teachers, nurses, firefighters and public-service workers nationwide,” said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, which represents 43,000 […]
They may no longer be on the brink of a Supreme Court-imposed Right-to-Work rule, but Minnesota’s public-sector union members aren’t celebrating. They’re organizing. “What we got was a reprieve, not clemency – and surely not a pardon,” Education Minnesota attorney Meg Luger-Nikolai warned a standing-room-only audience of activists last night at the East Side Freedom […]
Union members made up 14.2 percent of Minnesota’s wage-earning and salaried workforce last year, a membership rate unchanged from 2014, according to an annual report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A similar trend played out nationwide, as the union membership rate held steady at 11.1 percent of the U.S. workforce. But […]
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a case with big implications for Minnesota firefighters, teachers and other public-sector workers who benefit from the collective bargaining process. At a press conference inside the Firefighters Hall and Museum in Minneapolis today, public workers warned that the case, Friedrichs v. CTA, is an attempt by corporate […]
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