Construction union celebrates new laws to keep ‘bad actors’ from cashing in on public subsidies

July 19, 2024 by

Eduardo Canales brought his daughter, Dariana, to the rally at Callisto Commons in Fridley. The development used Environmental StoneWorks, a contractor that Canales said misclassified him as an independent contractor when he installed stone veneers like the one visible at the Fridley site.

Members of the Laborers union (LIUNA) staged a demonstration June 24 outside a subsidized housing development in Fridley, publicly shaming a construction-supply company they allege has cheated both workers and taxpayers.

Environmental StoneWorks’ veneer product was on full display at the future site of Callisto Commons, a development along University Avenue Northeast where LIUNA members rallied with lawmakers and community supporters.

The action kept the heat on StoneWorks, which faces allegations of discrimination and worker misclassification. But the event also raised awareness of new laws passed this year by the labor-endorsed “trifecta” of state lawmakers, including new labor standards on subsidized housing projects and stiffer penalties for worker misclassification.

“This isn’t about a few bad actors,” Rep. Emma Greenman (D-Minneapolis) said. “This is about a business model that is about extracting from workers, extracting from taxpayers. The business model is what has to change.”

And it likely will, thanks to new laws requiring contractors on developments that access funds through the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit – like Callisto Commons in Fridley – to pay prevailing wages. Minnesota is the first state to tie prevailing wage to the tax credit.

Other measures now on the books will make it harder for contractors with a history of labor violations to bid on publicly subsidized projects, give state regulators new tools to shut down job sites where labor violations are occurring and create new penalties of up to $10,000 for employers that misclassify their workers as independent contractors.

LIUNA members from across the country, in the area for an organizing conference, joined the rally.

That’s what Eduardo Canales alleges happened on job sites where he installed Environmental StoneWorks’ product over a period of four years.

Although he worked exclusively as an installer for the firm, Canales said he was never classified as an employee by the firm. As an independent contractor, he was ineligible for workers’ compensation, collective bargaining rights and overtime pay – even in weeks when he worked 70 or more hours installing the stone veneer.

“It means if there is an accident and someone gets hurt on an Environmental StoneWorks project, it is my problem, not theirs,” Canales said through a Spanish language interpreter at the rally. “There was a guy who broke his foot working for Environmental StoneWorks, and instead of providing medical treatment, he said his boss terminated him.”

StoneWorks’ manufacturing facility, meanwhile, is the subject of a discrimination complaint filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Angel Torres, who worked at the North Branch facility from 2009 until he was fired in December 2023, said the company offered two wage scales, one for immigrant workers and another, higher scale for those born in the U.S.

Torres, also using a language interpreter, told rally-goers that he complained to management that newly hired “American” workers were making $2 more per hour than immigrants who had been working at the plant for several years. “I believe that’s the reason I was fired from this company, for speaking up for the workers,” he said.

Angel Torres (L) said StoneWorks discriminated against immigrant workers at its North Branch manufacturing facility.

“The reason we came to this country is to better our lives for our families, but we should be treated with dignity like any other employees,” Torres added. “That’s why I came here to speak today, to ask the community to not be quiet. We need to speak up in order for things to change.”

On the construction worksite, at least, change appears to be coming.

Lucas Franco, a LIUNA researcher, said Minnesota’s new laws “will, we are confident, break the cycle of unscrupulous contractors and worker mistreatment on publicly funded projects.”

That’s no small slice of the construction industry, either.

An analysis published by NorthStar Policy Action in November 2023 found that $84 million of taxpayer subsidies went to affordable housing developments in Minnesota that used contractors tied to proven or alleged exploitation of workers. And that’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” author Jake Schwitzer said, noting that the Callisto Commons project was not named in the report.

“We’re here today because we know Minnesota can meet its affordable housing needs and development goals without sacrificing worker dignity and safety,” Franco said.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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

Alleged rape on Wilfs’ Viking Lakes development sparks outrage, calls for change

October 14, 2022 by

Barb Pecks (R), chair of the Carpenters union’s Sisters in the Brotherhood group, embraces Norma Izaguirre during a press conference on the Capitol steps.

A worker on the Viking Lakes project in Eagan came forward last week with allegations that she was raped and harassed while working for a drywall subcontractor on the troubled job site, developed by NFL owners Zygmunt, Mark and Leonard Wilf’s MV Ventures firm.

Unions and worker advocacy groups decried the alleged assault and, in a press conference on the Capitol steps Tuesday, issued an impassioned call for elected officials, developers, contractors and all workers to do more to stop exploitation of workers in the construction industry.

For developers like the Wilfs, that means cutting business ties with contractors that have public records of wage theft, worker misclassification and other labor abuses.

Absolute Drywall, which employed Norma Izaguirre and her alleged rapist, Diego Medina, has been cited for child labor, misclassification of workers and failure to pay overtime. The state Labor Department also found that the firm submitted false and misleading claims in response to an investigation.

Yet when representatives of the Carpenters union and the local worker center CTUL tried to warn MV Ventures about Absolute Drywall’s track record of exploitation, they were instructed to leave the property, CTUL Co-Director Veronica Mendez Moore said.

“They kicked us off the site and wouldn’t even let us go in and talk with workers, to see what the conditions were like,” she said. “They said to us that they could handle this themselves.”

By last spring, more than 40 workers employed on the Viking Lakes project had come forward to report wage theft, alleging Absolute and other subcontractors had cheated them out of over $100,000 in combined wages. Several workers reported their claims to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

Madeline Lohman, a senior researcher for The Advocates for Human Rights, said developers that turn a blind eye to subcontractors’ potential violations of wage rules, safety standards and other worker protections too often foster an “environment of impunity,” ripe for more serious abuses.

“Many of the labor trafficking victims that we have served at The Advocates first came forward because of stolen wages, untreated workplace injuries or child labor that had been overlooked, and only afterwards was the trafficking uncovered,” she said. “If developers and large employers … allow smaller abuses to go unchecked, greater ones will flourish in those gaps.”

In fact, Izaguirre told the Minnesota Reformer website that she is among the workers on the Viking Lakes development who have filed complaints of unpaid wages.

She said Medina lured her to work for Absolute Drywall as a cleaner at Viking Lakes and other developments. After several months, he began making sexual advances and touching her inappropriately, eventually raping her in one of the apartments’ showers, according to her report.

Medina threatened violence against Izaguirre and her family if she reported the abuse. But on the Capitol steps, she stood up to the podium and explained what prompted her to come forward.

“I want everyone in the state of Minnesota to make sure no other woman is treated like I was on a construction project,” she said through an interpreter. “My question for Minnesota developers and construction companies is this: what are you going to do to prevent this from happening to another woman?”

One option for developers is to hire union contractors, whose employees can report abuses to their representatives and whose wages and benefits are spelled out in a collective bargaining agreement.

Or, Mendez Moore said, developers should sign a pledge with the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council, requiring all contractors on their developments to uphold basic labor standards and agreeing to allow independent monitoring – with legally binding enforcement mechanisms – on their work sites. CTUL is ramping up public pressure on several prominent non-union developers to join the council.

Local elected officials, meanwhile, should require accountability measures on all approved projects to ensure workers are not being exploited in their cities, union officials said.

“If one of the most powerful families in Minnesota is not stepping up to prevent horrific worker abuse, it’s time for local governments and the state Legislature to step in,” said Adam Duininck, director of government affairs with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC).

Construction workers – union and non-union – have an important role to play, too, said Barb Pecks, a business representative with the NCSRCC and chair of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters’ Sisters in the Brotherhood committee. She said the union would soon begin working with its contractors to train all members in identifying and reporting labor abuses.

“I can’t say enough about your bravery and courage,” Pecks told Izaguirre on the Capitol steps.

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Trades push Royal Credit Union to ditch contractor accused of underpaying immigrant workers

June 1, 2022 by

Building Trades representatives join a protest outside Royal Credit Union in Inver Grove Heights.

Efforts to stop worker exploitation in the Twin Cities construction industry continued to gain momentum today, as construction unions called out Royal Credit Union for using an out-of-state masonry contractor accused by watchdog groups of underpaying immigrant laborers.

As the credit union cut the ribbon inside a newly acquired and refurbished branch in Inver Grove Heights, worker advocates set up a protest outside with signs, banners and an inflatable fat cat clutching a construction worker with one claw.

Unions accuse Eau Claire, Wis., contractor Stone Pro Concrete and Masonry of putting the squeeze on immigrants hired through the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to seek seasonal help when they are unable to hire enough U.S. workers.

The federal program requires employers to pay minimum wage rates based on the location and type of work performed. But after interviewing over a dozen H-2B visa holders on multiple Stone Pro job sites, representatives of the Laborers union (LIUNA) determined the contractor was underpaying workers by as much as $8 per hour.

“They bring on these workers as carpenter’s helpers, but they actually do concrete and masonry work, which is a totally different pay scale,” said Octavio Chung Bustamante, a marketing representative with LIUNA who has been investigating Stone Pro since 2019.

When Bustamante and other union representatives learned Stone Pro would be working on Royal’s new retail office in Little Canada, they took their findings to the credit union.

“We did reach out to Royal Credit Union on May 5,” Bustamante said. “We went to the branch manager in the St. Paul location, but we didn’t hear back.”

As a result, LIUNA and other unions active in the #NotOnMyWatch campaign decided to drop in on the ribbon cutting in Inver Grove Heights – and bring along their inflatable fat cat.

Organizers also circulated copies of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic Facebook content attributed to Stone Pro’s owner. Bustamante called it “hypocritical” for a company turning profits off immigrant labor – and contrary to Royal Credit Union’s stated values.

“It’s not about union or non-union,” Bustamante said. “It’s about making sure the industry is fair for everyone.”

The #NotOnMyWatch campaign brings together unions and community groups like Twin Cities worker center CTUL to identify cases of abuse and assist exploited workers in Minnesota’s construction industry.

“We’ve seen horrific abuse in this industry, from wage theft to dangerous working conditions,” CTUL Co-Director Merle Payne said. “So we’re calling on large developers and users like Royal Credit Union to take steps to use responsible contractors, to step up and make a difference.”

CTUL members who work in the multifamily residential construction industry launched a campaign last month to pressure large developers in the Twin Cities to partner with them in keeping wage theft, labor trafficking and other abuses off their job sites. They call it the Building Dignity and Respect program.

Organizers will announce the next steps in that campaign – including which contractors they will push to sign onto the new program – at a march and rally June 16, beginning at noon at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Labor trafficker’s victims speak out, pointing to need for reform

January 17, 2020 by

Ricardo Batres (Hennepin County photo)

Notorious wage broker Ricardo Batres, who pleaded guilty to felony charges of labor trafficking and insurance fraud in November, received a nine-month sentence in Hennepin County district court Wednesday.

The sentencing brought to a close the first labor trafficking case to emerge from Minnesota’s construction industry. But worker advocates, armed with the findings of an alarming new report, warn that unless the industry makes some fundamental changes, it’s unlikely to be the last.

Judge Lois Conroy did not stray from the terms of a plea agreement Batres reached with prosecutors last year, but the proceeding did give his victims an opportunity to put their stories on record.

“I fear those connected with Mr. Batres,” one of his former workers, identified by the initials “YIB,” said in a statement read by a victim’s advocate. “I am always fearful. I feel like everyone is my enemy. I did not anticipate this experience in Minnesota.”

“YIB” was one of four former employees who provided the court with statements. They said Batres made them work long hours to keep their housing, which the trafficker arranged, or to pay off debts, which the trafficker held.

Some said they were not paid in full for hours they worked. Others described working through the pain of jobsite injuries, often in unsafe conditions.

“Death was very close to us,” one victim said.

When a spinal injury sustained by victim “JZL” became too serious to work through, Batres instructed the worker to give false information to medical providers, so Batres could avoid liability. In his statement, “JZL” said his family “lived in constant fear” because Batres “threatened to kill us if I reported him to authorities.”

“He treats people worse than animals,” another victim said. “He does not have a conscience.”

Twin Cities construction workers joined the “March for Dignity and Respect,” sponsored by CTUL, in Minneapolis just over a year ago.

An industry in crisis

The testimony of Batres’ victims echoed findings of a new report by the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) Network, which warns of a “human rights crisis” on local non-union construction sites.

Released last month, “Building Dignity and Respect: The Case for Worker-driven Social Responsibility in the Twin Cities Construction Industry” draws from surveys of 76 metro-area residents who have worked a wide range of construction jobs.

CTUL, a Twin Cities worker center and human rights organization, conducted the surveys last winter, gathering information about wages, benefits, training, workplace safety and more.

Nearly half of workers reported being cheated out of wages they were owed. Many said their employers failed to tack overtime premiums onto their wage rates. Others said they were paid less than minimum wage, were forced to work through legally required breaks or had hours shaved off their time cards.

The report also calls into question safety protocols on local non-union sites. Nearly half of those surveyed said they had not received safety training before beginning work, and 44% reported not getting proper safety equipment from an employer.

Three in 10 workers surveyed said they had been hurt on the job at some point, and most workers who reported getting hurt said their employer failed to cover medical expenses or compensate them for lost wages.

Meanwhile, a third of workers surveyed said they wouldn’t voice their concerns about safety, wage theft or other abuses to supervisors for fear of retaliation, whether it be losing their job or being blacklisted, deported or kicked out of employer-provided housing.

Tip of the iceberg

While Batres’ conviction breaks new ground, advocacy groups like CTUL and local construction unions warn Batres is not the only bad actor in town. CTUL is currently investigating four other labor trafficking cases, with dozens of Twin Cities workers involved, according to the WSR Network report.

At Batres’ sentencing, the worker center submitted a community impact statement into the record, warning the non-union construction industry creates incentives for contractors like Batres to “cut costs on the backs of workers.”

“Large developers and finance behind those developers have learned that they can put downward pressure on contractors on their projects to build the projects as quickly and cheaply as possible,” the statement reads. “This has led to extreme fragmentation in the industry, with multiple layers of sub-contractors competing to offer the cheapest rates possible.

“The effect is that the one who gets the contract is the one who has figured out the most creative ways to skirt labor laws in order to put in a competitive bid.”

Moving forward

Fragmentation and transience may be facts of life for people working at the bottom of construction labor chain, but unsafe conditions, wage theft and abuse don’t have to be.

The report calls for a new, worker-driven model to hold Twin Cities developers and contractors accountable – and to stop traffickers like Batres before they get a toehold in the market.

The approach involves getting decision-makers at the top of the labor-contracting chain to enter a legally binding, standard-setting agreement with a human rights organization.

Similar structures have improved conditions for workers in other highly fractured contracting chains worldwide, CTUL Co-Director Merle Payne said. After years of organizing by tomato workers, corporate buyers and growers entered into a WSR structure – the Fair Food Standards Council – that monitors compliance with a set of unique standards in the Florida fields.

“This model will work effectively in a sector where the real power is so many tiers away from you as a worker,” Payne said. “It creates accountability through the entire structure by ensuring the people at the top are taking responsibility to ensure their profits are not made off of severe exploitation.”

Building dignity and respect

Workers organizing with CTUL already have launched a campaign to make the WSR model a reality.

They want large developers and general contractors in the Twin Cities to participate in the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council. The council, Payne said, would establish and monitor a code of conduct that participants would require their subcontractors to uphold at every strata of the labor chain.

Additionally, the council would educate workers about their rights and make it easy for workers to report any violations without fear of retaliation. Any employer found to have violated the code of conduct would face swift, meaningful consequences.

While Batres’ victims waited months for their day in court, in the Florida tomato fields, where workers now have access to a complaint hotline, most disputes are resolved in less than two weeks, according to the Fair Foods Standards Council.

“It really demonstrates the power of what this model can be,” Payne said. “When you have workers themselves empowered to enforce their standards, suddenly you have thousands of monitoring agents on the ground … making sure there are no violations in the first place.

“That’s deep enforcement, and that’s what this model builds. When that happens, in something like this case, Ricardo Batres does not exist.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Twin Cities workers launch campaign to stop construction industry abuses

December 18, 2018 by

Supporters of the “March for Dignity and Respect” make their way down Lake Street in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood.

With a dramatic rally in the streets of south Minneapolis today, Twin Cities construction workers launched a new movement to improve labor standards in their industry and guarantee dignity for all workers.

“I don’t want to see any more injustice in construction,” Yimer Iriarte said at the start of a rush-hour march along Lake Street in Uptown. “We’re tired of seeing our brothers and sisters tired or hurt because of the way these contractors act.”

Iriarte is part of a group of local construction workers – mostly from residential projects – who began organizing with the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL two years ago.

CTUL’s efforts to document abuses in the industry led to the arrest of a local construction contractor in September on criminal charges. The case exposed serious problems – wage theft, dangerous working conditions, labor trafficking – that are rampant in the industry’s web of contractors and subcontractors, workers allege.

Yimer Iriarte speaks at a rally before the march, alongside CTUL’s Veronica Mendez Moore.

Iriarte said he experienced wage theft and trafficking firsthand when a contractor refused to pay him and other immigrant workers for their labor.

“We were promised so many things that didn’t happen, and in the end we were threatened with immigration,” Iriarte said. “And I know it’s not just me.”

To raise industry standards, CTUL’s construction members are taking cues from local janitors, who recently won major improvements in the retail cleaning industry after a 6-year-long fight.

Janitors won by pressuring big-box chains like Target and Best Buy to sign Responsible Contractor Agreements, guaranteeing janitors employed by the store’s cleaning contractors have safe working conditions and a voice on the job.

Construction workers want large developers in the Twin Cities area to meet a similar demand: participation in the “Dignity and Respect Standards Council.” The council establish higher standards in the industry, and it would  create a process for monitoring construction sites to ensure all subcontractors are in compliance.

Workers first target is a big one: Lennar Homes. A nationwide firm, Lennar is the Twin Cities’ largest home-builder, and it stands to gain even more work under the City of Minneapolis’ ambitious new rezoning initiative, Minneapolis 2040.

According to CTUL, Lennar has seen a litany of reported abuses on its projects locally and across the country, including the labor trafficking charges filed in Hennepin County earlier this year and a jobsite fatality in Lakeville in 2016.

During the march along Lake Street, CTUL members stopped at a Wells Fargo branch to point out the bank’s history of lending to Lennar despite the allegations stemming from its projects.

And the march involved a bit of street theater. Actors performed an updated take on a centuries-old tradition throughout Spanish Central America, “Las Posadas.” The story alludes to Mary and Joseph’s difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a warm place to stay the night, with an emphasis on its moral and political message.

The march drew over 100 people, including representatives of the Carpenters, Laborers and other Building Trades unions, who stood in solidarity with CTUL members.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

New worker center reaches out to poultry, packinghouse workers in Minnesota

June 12, 2017 by

Three state lawmakers – Reps. Rick Hansen (L), Tim Mahoney and Fue Lee (R) – open the new Hardman Avenue Workers Center at UFCW Local 1189’s hall.

The Hardman Avenue Workers Center, located at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 hall in South St. Paul, opened with a celebration and free citizenship workshops for immigrant workers last week.

The goal of the initiative, Local 1189 organizing director Abraham Wangnoo said, is to “start teaching people what their rights are,” particularly people working in the state’s poultry and packinghouse industries, where employers are “constantly finding new immigrant worker groups to exploit.”

Far too often for people in the U.S. on temporary work visas, Wangnoo added, the only source of information about their rights on the job is their boss.

“If we don’t educate them, if we don’t bring them in and try to help them understand their rights and what working union means, then we won’t be able to organize – and the quality of these jobs will be forever poor,” he said.

While poultry and packinghouse workers are a focus of the Hardman Avenue Workers Center, its services – including pre-screening of immigration applications and documents, legal assistance and citizenship test flashcards – are available to workers in any industry.

“This is only the beginning,” Local 1189 President Jennifer Christensen said. “We have great things to come for the worker center. We have great hope for helping our immigrant community obtain citizenship, stopping wage theft, helping poultry workers get justice throughout Minnesota and helping retail workers rise to the wages they deserve.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Twin Cities workers plan May Day actions for better working conditions, immigrant rights

April 26, 2017 by

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Workers have unveiled plans to strike, rally and march May 1 for better wages, safe working conditions and respect on the job.

At a press conference last week outside a Minneapolis Home Depot, local organizers said International Workers’ Day takes on added urgency this year, given the “current political climate and mass mobilization of communities all across the state and country.”

As they did on Inauguration Day, janitors who clean Home Depot stores, organizing with the Twin Cities worker center CTUL, will stage a one-day strike May 1, kicking off a series of related actions:

  • Picketing outside Home Depot, 1520 New Brighton Blvd. NE, Minneapolis, 9:30 a.m.
  • University of Minnesota AFSCME members’ contract campaign kickoff, Morrill Hall, 100 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, noon.
  • Mesa Latina rally, Minnesota Capitol, St. Paul, 1:30 p.m.
  • Resist from Day One March, East Phillips Park, 2399 17th Ave. S, Minneapolis, 4:30 p.m.

Home Depot uses subcontractors that hire janitors at low wages with no benefits. Some subcontractors have faced lawsuits alleging wage theft. It’s an approach CTUL members like Luciano Balbuena, who cleans a Home Depot store as an employee of the contractor Kimco, consider the “Trump model” of business.

“We have been fighting for fair wages, benefits and the right to organize for several years now and are still forced to survive with poverty wages,” Balbuena said. “Other retail janitorial companies have improved wages and other standards, but our companies refuse to meet those basic standards.

“We are not afraid of our bosses, nor are we afraid of Trump. When we unite and come together to make changes, we can win. That is what we will do on May 1st, because it is time for our hard work to be recognized.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Minnesota union members marched against Trump in droves. Here’s why

January 27, 2017 by
web-womensmarch-trades1

D Rojas, a member of Carpenters Local 322, attended the Women’s March in Minnesota a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration with several other Minnesota union tradeswomen.

 

Dressed in hard hats and union colors, union members were among the estimated 100,000 people who joined the Women’s March in Minnesota one day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, capping three days of protests – locally and nationally – that put the new administration on notice of popular opposition to his policy objectives and governing approach.

Stretched from the cathedral to the Capitol in St. Paul, the historic crowd represented, for union members who participated, a stirring display of the solidarity it will take to fend off attacks on working people’s rights, women’s rights, immigrant families and others feeling vulnerable as the former reality-TV boss – with a track record of not paying his employees and joking about sexual assault – assumes the highest office in the land.

“We’re in the majority,” Sprinklerfitters Local 417 member Kimberly Brinkman said from the steps of the Capitol, overlooking a sea of anti-Trump demonstrators. “We want common decency to prevail.”

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Trump’s inauguration inspired a flurry of events locally planned by unions and progressive groups, who offered hopeful counterprogramming to offset the president’s message of “American carnage.” Union teachers in St. Paul rallied around the district’s immigrant students. Janitors from 12 area Home Depot stores went on strike. And U of M students and workers led a massive march into downtown Minneapolis.

Working people who joined the protests spoke of a need to find strength in numbers at the dawn of uncertain times.

“There’s an immediate need to be together with people, to link arms and to have it be about love and inclusiveness,” Mona Meyer, president of the Communications Workers of America’s statewide council, said. “Right now all of that feels like it’s being threatened.”

For Samantha Kaneaukua, a member of Carpenters Local 322, the threat posed by Trump and congressional Republicans feels uniquely personal. “As a union carpenter, as a person of color and as a lesbian, it’s pretty much everything I stand for, everything I am, that he is opposed to,” she said. “There’s no reason not to be here fighting.”

Why don’t working people get over it and give Trump a chance? After all, he did win fair and square (albeit with an assist from some Russian friends).

“I respect the office,” Meyer said. “I don’t respect the policies and ideas of division and hatred. I don’t like personal attacks on union leaders, civil rights leaders – all of this childish, outlandish behavior. It isn’t becoming of a president.”

If there were any doubts about Trump’s anti-labor intentions, other union members said, his cabinet picks removed them.

Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has donated millions to political campaigns aimed at defunding public schools. His nominee for Labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, is a fast-food executive who opposes raising the minimum wage.

“This is going to be an all-out assault on working families,” St. Paul Federation of Teachers Vice President Nick Faber said.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, called it a “cruel” bait and switch: “A campaign that promised to lift up working people is transitioning into an administration designed to tear all of us down.”

Marching against Trump’s agenda were (L to R) Debra DeBruzzi, Operating Engineers 49; Casey Hudek and Karlan Bean, Teamsters 120; Megan Bean, Christina Nelson and Kiya Caturia of Gustavus Adolphus College; and Rod Olson of Local 120.

Marching against Trump’s agenda were (L to R) Debra DeBruzzi, Operating Engineers 49; Casey Hudek and Karlan Bean, Teamsters 120; Megan Bean, Christina Nelson and Kiya Caturia of Gustavus Adolphus College; and Rod Olson of Local 120.

It’s true that many working people supported Trump, and he did better among union members than recent Republican presidential nominees. Karlan Bean, who drove Teamsters Local 120’s semi-truck to the Jan. 21 march, said he knows “too many union members” who backed Trump.

“I’m hopeful that it doesn’t turn out as bad as in the back of my head I fear it will, especially for unions,” Bean added.

“We already know he’s been sued so many times for not paying his labor, and we know he supports Right to Work,” Brinkman said. “A lot of union guys were talking about Trump. It’s going to be one eye-opener for them to see what he does to working families.”

Maybe it was the intoxicating hopefulness of a mass march. Or maybe living in hope is an easier choice than wallowing in despair. But many union members insisted that, by standing together and remaining vigilant, they could fight Trump’s agenda and hold onto their rights.

“The union is kind of reflective of how we need to be,” Carpenters Local 322 apprentice Michelle Rousseau said. “If we stand together and stay united, we’ll be OK.”

Faber said his union would increase its efforts to connect “with other groups and other causes in town” that share teachers’ values. Hager and Brinkman said women in the Trades plan to push locally and nationally to increase hiring goals within the industry for women. Meyer said CWA members have been “thinking not just defensively, but how to move forward based on what workers need, what people need, what families, women, immigrants and LGBT people need.”

Union tradeswomen stood together at the Women’s March, saying they will push for increased hiring goals to bring women into the industry both locally and nationally.

Union tradeswomen stood together at the Women’s March, saying they will push for increased hiring goals to bring women into the industry both locally and nationally.

Kaneaukua, meanwhile, plans to fight for her rights one person at a time by engaging people with different perspectives than her own. And opportunities abound on the job site.

“We need to speak up against discrimination in all of its forms,” she said. “We don’t know each other well enough. I feel like being able to have those conversations and talk about things that maybe my co-workers aren’t used to, that makes a big difference.

“That’s going to be my day-to-day approach.”

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dreading Trump? Turn your anger into action at four Twin Cities inauguration protests

January 13, 2017 by

occupybanks-cwaWe’re a week away from seeing former reality-TV boss Donald Trump – a megalomaniac with a track record of not paying his employees, fanning the flames of bigotry and making “locker-room talk” about sexual assault – assume the highest office in the land.

Whether the impending Trump presidency scares the hell out of you or makes your blood boil, one thing is certain. You are not alone.

Trump’s approval ratings are historically low for an incoming president, and his inauguration will spark protests, marches and collective action from coast to coast.

In the Twin Cities, labor unions have endorsed several planned events, including a show of solidarity with students at an all-immigrant school in St. Paul and a one-day strike by Minneapolis janitors who work at Home Depot. (The retailer’s founder is a major Trump donor.)

Here’s a rundown of inauguration events on our radar. Our comments section is a great place to share anything else Trump-related that’s in the works locally.

Thursday, Jan. 19

• Members of St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28 will lead a rally outside LEAP High School, which serves students new to the U.S. Parents, students and community members will join teachers in calling for public schools to serve as “sanctuaries” that protect students from bullying, racism and deportation.

The “Rally to Protect Our Students and Our Public Schools” will start at 3:45 pm. outside LEAP High School, 631 Albert St. N.

Friday, Jan. 20

• In the early-morning hours of Inauguration Day, janitors who clean Home Depot stores in the Twin Cities will go on strike, protesting not only the poverty wages paid by their cleaning-contractor employer, but Trump’s anti-worker agenda as well.

Striking workers are members of the Twin Cities worker center CTUL. Join them on the picket line beginning at 5:30 a.m. at the Quarry store, 1520 New Brighton Blvd., Minneapolis.

• Friday afternoon, organizers plan to march in opposition to Trump’s “racisit agenda,” from the intersection of Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue to Minneapolis City Hall. The “Resist from Day 1” march will begin at 2 p.m., with plans to reach City Hall by 5 p.m.

Several unions and labor organizations have endorsed the action, including AFSCME Council 5, SEIU Local 26 and the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.

Saturday, Jan. 21

• In solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington happening the same day, activists will stage the “Women’s March Minnesota” in St. Paul, culminating with a rally on the Capitol grounds. The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and IATSE Local 13 are co-sponsors of the march, set to launch at 11 a.m. from St. Paul College.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Peter Rachleff: East Side Freedom Library celebrates second anniversary

June 24, 2016 by
Peter Rachleff is professor of history a President of the East Side Freedom Library.

Peter Rachleff is co-director of the East Side Freedom Library.

This summer, the East Side Freedom Library is celebrating its second anniversary. Our roots lie in the vision that Dave Roe and Rudy Perpich had in the 1990s of a Labor History Center to tell the stories of the state’s workers and their labor movement, and our branches grow far and wide, reaching out to young people who have not yet entered the workforce and to workers new to our state and our country, new to the labor movement.

Our mission is driven not only by our appreciation of the rich history of the labor movement and our sense that this history is all too rarely recognized in our culture; it is also driven by our awareness of the challenges faced by working people and the labor movement:

  • Since the Reagan era, corporate employers and government have turned away from their cooperative relationships with unions and a willingness to share the benefits of increases in productivity and profits with workers.
  • The place of the United States in the global economy has changed, with millions of manufacturing jobs having been shipped abroad.
  • Working men and women are now more often employed in healthcare, education, retail, public sector and service industries than in manufacturing.
  • As much of the world has been engulfed in the dynamics of change, millions of new immigrants have come to the U.S. (and Minnesota), seeking jobs, security, and a home.
  • Added together, these changes pose great challenges to working people and to the labor movement.

The East Side Freedom Library draws on the rich history of the labor movement in order to incubate ideas, strategies, values and visions that can serve workers and the labor movement now. We are also educating the wider community to better understand how a strong labor movement and fairly compensated workers have been central to the past successes of our national economy and to the establishment of a high quality of life.

While we have a beautiful building and outstanding resources in 15,000 books plus visual art, music, and historical objects, we could not do this work without the partnership of the labor movement. In our two short years, we have:

  • received financial support from the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and more than a dozen affiliated unions;
  • collaborated with SEIU to bring Ai-Jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, to discuss the crisis in personal care work;
  • collaborated with a network of public sector unions to bring veteran labor educator Bill Barry to keynote a discussion about the Supreme Court and the Friedrichs case;
  • collaborated with the St. Paul RLF to host AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler for a discussion of the “Raise the Wage” campaign;
  • collaborated with the St. Paul RLF, the Carpenters, Bricklayers, Laborers, AFSCME and the UFCW to organize a host a Union Job Fair in which 125 job seekers met prospective employers with union jobs on offer;
  • collaborated with the St. Paul Federation of Teachers to organize a monthly film series about education and then a summer book discussion group about the crisis in education;
  • collaborated with the Caucus for Change to host several “meet and greets” with candidates for St. Paul School Board;
  • collaborated with AFSCME Local 3800 (University of Minnesota) on a monthly labor film series;
  • hosted meetings for the Newspaper Guild, Teamsters Local 320, SEIU Local 284, AFSCME child-care providers, and Workers United Local 150;
  • organized and hosted celebrations of labor and art, labor musical concerts, labor history classes and walking tours.

As St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper has said of us, “This is a Labor Hall for the community!”

It’s been a great two years working with the labor movement and working with our community on the East Side. Together, we can mine the past to find valuable insights and ideas with which to shape the future. Please join us!

– Peter Rachleff is co-executive director of the East Side Freedom Library, located at 1105 Greenbrier Street. For more information about the ESFL’s resources, programs and hours, go to eastsidefreedomlibrary.org or call 651-230-3294.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , ,
Next Page»