Unions, employers reach out to St. Paul’s East Side at job fair

April 15, 2016 by
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Regional Labor Federation Bobby Kasper welcome job seekers and employers to the Union Job & Resource Fair at the East Side Freedom Library.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Regional Labor Federation Bobby Kasper welcome job seekers and employers to the Union Job & Resource Fair at the East Side Freedom Library.

Union employers, apprenticeship programs and community service agencies set up shop on St. Paul’s East Side last night, recruiting talent from the distinctly working-class neighborhood and beyond at the Union Jobs and Resource Fair.

Many Latino, Hmong, Karen and East African families call the East Side home, and the job fair, organized by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, shows local unions are serious about reaching out to communities – particularly minorities and immigrants – underrepresented in their ranks.

“This is only the beginning,” St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper said. “Too many members of our community don’t know what unions do, or aren’t aware of opportunities for employment in a good, union job.

“Unions built the middle class in St. Paul, but we won’t survive as a labor movement unless we reflect our communities as a whole. That’s what this job fair is about.”

Dua Thao (L) talks about resources available to jobseekers at St. Paul’s public libraries.
St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper welcomes people to the job fair.
IBEW Local 110’s Jim Grim (R) offers information about a career as an electrical worker.
Jody Paulson offers information on an apprenticeship with Bricklayers and Allied Crafts Local 1.
Gerone Hamilton, chief of community relations, represents the St. Paul Fire Department.
Matt Ryder of BCTGM Local 22 talks about employment opportunities in St. Paul’s industrial bakeries.
Interpreters fluent in several languages, including Karen, help jobseekers confer with representatives like Rick Dushaw of the Carpenters union.
Jose Marrero of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters talks with jobseekers.
Mayor Chris Coleman’s remarks open the Union Job and Resource Fair.
Gary Larsen, a native East-Sider and representative of the Laborers Training Center in Lino Lakes, talks with jobseekers.

During the fair, held at the independent East Side Freedom Library, jobseekers ducked in and out of booths staffed by representatives of about 20 union employers and eight local agencies, which provided resources on everything from resume writing to record expungement.

Ebba Benti, a resident of Frogtown, took home a business card from one of the St. Paul Public Schools’ maintenance managers, who said Benti’s skills sounded like a match for several openings in the district. “I told him what skills I have, what I know, and he liked me, I guess,” Benti said.

Ebba Benti (R) talks with a representative of the St. Paul Public Schools, who told Benti his skills made him a good fit for several openings in the district's maintenance department.

Ebba Benti (R) talks with a representative of the St. Paul Public Schools, who told Benti his skills made him a good fit for several openings in the district’s maintenance department.

An immigrant from East Africa, Benti said a job at a school sounded appealing. “I like seeing kids doing stuff, having fun,” he added. “Where I’m from, you don’t see that enough.”

The St. Paul school district was among several public-sector employers represented at the job fair. Others included the city’s fire department and water services, as well as the City of Minneapolis. Private-sector employers at the fair included several nursing homes, industrial bakers and Eureka Recycling.

“Jobs are good, good jobs are better and union jobs are the best of all,” St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman told jobseekers and employers during a brief program to kick off the event.

Gary Larsen, an East-Sider since birth, was one of several Building Trades representatives at the job fair promoting their apprenticeship programs. Larsen, a member of the Laborers union, said he was proud to be promoting good, union jobs in his own neighborhood.

“This is awesome for me,” said Larsen, a member of the Laborers union. “As a kid I used to ride my bike to this library.”

Apprenticeships in the trades offer workers the potential to earn as they learn, with middle-class wages and good health and pension benefits. Jobs like that were a lot more common on the East-Side when Larsen was growing up, before Whirlpool, 3M and Hamm’s shut down their production plants.

“Hopefully, we’re making some good connections here today that lead to not just jobs for East-Siders, but careers,” Larsen said. “We want to keep the East Side prospering the way it should be.”

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In victory for staff, charter acknowledges workers’ union rights – in three languages

October 6, 2015 by
Community School of Excellence is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture in St. Paul's North End.

Community School of Excellence is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture in St. Paul’s North End.

Staff at Community School of Excellence in St. Paul, still fighting for a first contract more than a year after organizing their union, have compelled Superintendent Mo Chang to acknowledge her administration infringed on workers’ legally protected rights on the job.

The admission comes in a notice to all employees, signed by Chang, affirming CSE employees’ legally protected rights to union representation and to engage in collective action for better wages and working conditions.

Posted Friday in English, Hmong and Karenni, the notice (view PDF) reiterates for staff members of all cultural backgrounds “that the federal government and the National Labor Relations Act are advocating for them,” CSE teacher Eric Johnson said.

CSE, located in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood, is a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture. About 100 teachers and other staff members voted in June 2014 to join the Federation of Charter School Employees, an affiliate of Education Minnesota.

“I don’t know many other situations where you’ve got notices like this to employees in these specific Southeast Asian languages,” Johnson added. “It’s a step forward in educating a variety of immigrant groups about how unionization can help them.”

CSE agreed to post the notice as part of a settlement agreement stemming from charges of unfair labor practices filed by CSE employees last winter. The Minneapolis regional office of the National Labor Relations Board approved the settlement last month.

The notice references interactions between workers and management last school year, after employees voted to unionize, and it provides a glimpse into the backlash workers faced for publicly supporting the organizing drive. For example:

“We will not threaten employees that their comments are appalling because they exercise their right to discuss or protest working conditions with employees, or because they publicize labor disputes at meetings with third parties.”

As part of the settlement, CSE agreed to “engage in further training” on workers’ rights under federal law, provided by the Minneapolis branch of the NLRB. And the district rescinded disciplinary actions against four pro-union employees, including Johnson, who is now president of the Federation of Charter School Employees.

“Because a lot of the events coincided with unionization, including reprimands of union leadership, we felt these things were all just too coincidental and seemed to be retaliatory,” Johnson said. “But as a union these issues now have been resolved, and we look forward to negotiating a first contract with the school.”

The two sides have held six negotiating sessions, and they plan to meet regularly until reaching a tentative agreement, according to Johnson.

CSE is one of two unionized charter schools in St. Paul. Teachers at the Twin Cities German Immersion School, who voted for union representation in January 2014, approved a first contract earlier this school year.

When union members at CSE have a tentative agreement of their own to vote on, Johnson said, “we’ll continue to legitimize charter school unions in Minnesota.”

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

CTUL activist Dominguez named Saint Paul Foundation’s Facing Race Ambassador

April 28, 2015 by
Lucilla Dominguez (L) speaks at a press conference during CTUL's victory celebration. Veronica Mendez translates.

Lucilla Dominguez (L), who will receive the Saint Paul Foundation’s Facing Race Ambassador Award, is pictured speaking at a CTUL press conference last year.

The Saint Paul Foundation honored workers rights activist Lucila Dominguez with one of its Facing Race Ambassador Awards at a program today in St. Paul. The award honors leaders in the fight for racial equity and against racism, and promotes the need for productive community‐wide conversations about race.

Dominguez is an organizer and activists with the worker center CTUL, or Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha.

Prior to joining CTUL’s staff, Dominguez worked for several cleaning subcontractors, working inside big-box retail stores. She looked to CTUL for help after experiencing sub-poverty wages, wage theft, extreme workloads and poor working conditions.

“Immigrant workers don’t always know their rights,” Dominguez said. “They are afraid to organize and confront their employers about stolen wages and unsafe working conditions. They need their jobs to survive.”

Now Dominguez works as the main organizer of CTUL’s Workplace Rights Defenders Program, educating others about their rights and helping them to address problems with their employers. CTUL has recovered more than $1.3 million in stolen wages and has succeeded in getting 31 companies to change policies that violate workplace law.

Dominguez also helps lead the Mesa Latina campaign at the Minnesota Legislature, working to pass a bill that would allow people to obtain drivers licenses regardless of immigration status.

Award recipients will each designate a $10,000 grant from The Saint Paul Foundation to an organization working to end racial disparity.

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

Union: Cretex harassed, discriminated against Latino workers

July 30, 2013 by

logo563The union representing workers on strike at a Shakopee concrete plant opened a new front in the labor dispute today, when 15 members of Laborers Local 563 filed civil rights charges with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission alleging Cretex mistreated Latino employees.

Local 563 represents 38 Cretex workers who have been on strike since June 19. After months of negotiations with the Elk River-based company, workers voted to authorize the strike when management refused to budge from its proposal to stop contributing to workers’ pensions.

But the EEOC complaint, announced by Local 563 today in a press release, reveals deeper tensions between the company and its Shakopee workforce. Allegations against Cretex, according to the press release, include:

• Use of insulting and offensive language – such as statements to the effect that ‘Mexicans have no brains’ and ‘Mexicans are too stupid to use computers’ – and harassment of Latino immigrants for speaking to each other in Spanish during breaks.

• Unequal treatment of Latino and immigrant workers, who are assigned more difficult and dangerous work, and disciplined more frequently and more harshly than their peers.

• Attempted intimidation through threats of firing and, in some cases, threats to the person and property of Latinos.

The 15 employees who filed charges are immigrants from Mexico and U.S.-born Latinos. Julio Ocampo Sanchez, who has worked at Cretex for three years, said the group’s patience reached a breaking point when the company allegedly promoted the most abusive person in the plant.

“We just try to do our jobs and stay out trouble because we’re working toward our pension,” Sanchez said. “Then they threaten to take it away, and suddenly the worst offender is wearing the red hat they give out to leads. It feels like a deliberate slap in the face.”

Tim Mackey, Local 563 business manager, said the union has reached out to a federal mediator with hopes of facilitating a meeting with Cretex about adding anti-discrimination language into workers’ collective bargaining agreement.

“We are asking Cretex to come back to the bargaining table to discuss a solution to the issues facing our Latino members,” said Mackey.  “While we remain far apart on the pension issue, there is no reason we can’t find common ground on efforts to prevent future discrimination and pave the way for an eventual settlement.

“It is sad to think that, in 2013, employees would be mistreated because of their race, ethnicity or national origin. This type of treatment cannot be tolerated, and we intend to demand contract language that protects all of our members from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation.”

The union plans a large rally on the Cretex picket line Aug. 6. Click here to follow the striking workers on Facebook.

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