Workers lead push for community guarantees before potential Allina, North Memorial sales

July 14, 2026 by

Health care workers line the entrance to a public hearing in St. Paul on the proposed Sutter-Allina sale.

Unionized healthcare workers are leading a campaign to secure binding commitments from two large, out-of-state health care systems looking to expand their reach in Minnesota, seeking guarantees around patient access, workplace standards, use of artificial intelligence and other issues.

A coalition of labor, faith-based and community organizations want so-called “community benefits agreements,” or CBAs, in place before two proposed acquisitions that, if approved by the state, would reshape the local healthcare sector: Sutter Health’s takeover of Allina Health and Sanford’s acquisition of North Memorial.

Advocates made the case for CBAs at public hearings last month held by Attorney General Keith Ellison, after their efforts to engage directly with executives at Sutter and Sanford stalled.

Wanda Malden, a member of the faith group ISAIAH, said executives at California-based Sutter Health appeared not to take workers and patients’ request for a CBA seriously.

“We sent them a letter last week, and just this weekend they wrote back a letter that said, basically, that we should trust them,” Malden said outside Ellison’s July 13 hearing into the Sutter-Allina deal in St. Paul.

But several current Sutter workers, who traveled from northern California to Minnesota for the hearing, warned union and community members here to be cautious with their trust. Sarah Pineda, a surgery scheduler and member of the Service Employees (SEIU-UHW), said her union sees “daily violations” of their contract at Sutter’s eight unionized facilities.

“This is a giant that you are going to be battling,” Pineda told Minnesota workers. “It is very important that you guys get that community benefits agreement because you are going to need it.”

Sutter Health worker Sarah Pineda traveled from northern California to attend the hearing.

Legislation passed in 2023 gives the Attorney General’s Office authority to block large sales or mergers of healthcare systems if it determines the transaction is “contrary to the public interest.”

The easiest way Sutter and Sanford can allay doubts that their expansion plans are in the public interest, union members said, is by signing onto CBAs.

“Union workers know that words don’t mean anything until they are written down and agreed upon by both sides, which is all we are asking for,” SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa member Kia Pulle said.

Advocates said CBAs are rare in the healthcare sector but have been used in publicly funded developments like stadiums. With mergers and consolidation on the rise in the industry – and with data suggesting the result is often higher costs, lower quality of care and reductions in service – CBAs offer a voice in the process to those too often left out.

Dr. Matt Hoffman, a member of Doctors Council SEIU who practices at Allina’s clinic in Vadnais Heights, called on Sutter to negotiate a CBA that guarantees it won’t “jack up prices.” He said it should also protect quality patient care, safeguard union rights and benefits, and deliver meaningful investment in the community – instead of closing more birthing centers, clinics and hospital wards in the Allina system.

“If a California company is coming to our town to run our health care, at the very least we need a signed, guaranteed community benefits agreement that will make sure every Minnesotan has access to excellent, affordable health care,” Hoffman added.

South Dakota-based Sanford Health, meanwhile, has made some commitments in advance of its proposed acquisition of North Memorial, which employs over 6,500 people at two hospitals and several clinics in the Minneapolis suburbs.

Sanford signed a letter of understanding with the Minnesota Nurses Association covering members at North Memorial’s long-unionized Robbinsdale hospital to protect their contract and pension benefits. Sanford also agreed to honor a contract at the Maple Grove hospital, where nearly 600 nurses voted to unionize last year but are still bargaining a first contract.

Allina nurse Karen Norman urged Sutter to reach a similar agreement with MNA and other unions – but also to work toward a CBA that protects all workers and patients.

“Minnesotans deserve health systems that realize serving patients and communities is more important than serving corporate bottom lines and bloated bonuses,” Norman said.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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

Poll finds ‘staggering’ support among Minnesotans for massive ICE protest

January 30, 2026 by

Thousands march through downtown Minneapolis during the labor-endorsed “Day of Truth and Freedom.”

Faith, labor and nonprofit groups behind the massive “ICE Out of MN” day of action Jan. 23 released polling today that suggests nearly a quarter of Minnesota voters participated in the protest.

Hundreds of businesses closed Jan. 23, as tens of thousands of protesters marked a “Day of Truth and Freedom” in the streets of downtown Minneapolis, marching in subzero temperatures to demand an end to federal immigration operations in Minnesota.

Local labor organizations, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO and area labor councils in the metro, endorsed the massive march, which culminated with a rally at Target Center. And union members showed up for the event in any number of ways – as trained “union peacekeepers” helping direct traffic around the march, as volunteered stagehands preparing the arena, or by taking a stand in their community or workplace.

Earlier in the day, about 100 clergy members were arrested in a civil-disobedience action at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a key site in the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to abduct and rush detained Minnesotans into detention centers.

Organizers behind the one-day action called for “No Work, No School, No Shopping.” The polling found 23% of Minnesota voters participated in some way, with 38% of participants saying they did not go to work and 65% saying they did not shop.

Minister JaNaè Bates, co-director of the progressive faith coalition ISAIAH, called the poll results “staggering.”

“People were willing to take a real hit to their paychecks and demonstrate their resolve for getting ICE out of the state,” Bates said.

She also noted that 33% of Minnesotans polled said they were more likely to shop at a business that closed in solidarity with the day of action. “People will remember who’s standing by us, and people will remember … who businesses choose to stand behind.”

Indeed, the solidarity on display Jan. 23 offered a stark contrast to the silence from Minnesota’s large corporations.

Groups like ISAIAH have ramped up the pressure on corporations like Target, Delta and Starbucks in recent weeks, demanding they refuse to allow federal agents on their properties – and use their clout in Congress to freeze funding for ICE operations.

A delegation of clergy members took those demands into a meeting with Target CEO Brian Cornell on Jan. 22. In a statement after the meeting, they said Cornell’s response fell short of “the urgency this moment requires.”

Some clergy groups are planning sit-ins at Target stores this weekend.

While the day of action called for no work, most labor groups that endorsed the action cautioned union members to follow the terms of their contracts, which typically include no-strike clauses. Still, hundreds of independent restaurants and retailers closed, and weather-related school closings made it easier for families and workers to show up, too.

Educators hold a “teach-in” at City Hall.

As demonstrators gathered two blocks away for the march through Minneapolis, rank-and-file members of the Minneapolis and St. Paul educators unions held a teach-in at City Hall, dramatizing the heartbreaking impacts of “Operation Metro Surge” on their schools.

The somber event featured sing-alongs, readings from a children’s book and a group discussion – guided by a teacher at the whiteboard – about how communities and elected leaders can help students and families who have gone into hiding or, worse, seen family members disappear.

St. Paul and Minneapolis are among metro-area school districts that have adopted a hybrid learning model, and the classroom at the teach-in reflected that reality, with empty desks and floor mats marked with signs depicting the fate of absent students.

“Students and staff have been abducted, schools stalked and teargassed, with classrooms missing more students every day,” said Drake Myers, an education support professional in Minneapolis. “I don’t know a single educator who wants our federal tax money going to pay for this.”

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, noted that messages of solidarity have been pouring into her office since the massive march, including solidarity from unions in other countries.

“Our international labor community is concerned for the welfare of people of their nationalities who are in our communities,” she said. “They are pushing us to fight this fight, especially for people of their nationalities who are being illegally targeted and harassed..

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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

Push for paid family leave takes on new urgency in pandemic

February 22, 2022 by

A union-backed coalition of groups renewed its lobbying push for paid family and medical leave on Valentine’s Day – and not by accident.

Love is at the heart of the proposed legislation, advocates said, adding that its failure to gain traction in the Senate over the past six years has cornered too many Minnesota families into achingly difficult choices that no one should have to make.

“No family should have to choose between a paycheck and caring for their loved ones,” said Rev. Vanessa Bradby, pastor of New Spirit United Church of Christ in Savage. “If we are serious about loving our neighbor, we should be serious about passing paid family and medical leave.”

Bradby and other faith leaders are once again teaming with small business owners, unions and community groups to push paid family and medical leave legislation at the Capitol this year.

Their proposal, which has support from the House DFL majority and Gov. Tim Walz, would create a statewide insurance pool to cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member.

It would operate like the state’s unemployment insurance system, with workers and employers paying into the proposed fund. Workers who access the benefit would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits averaging two-thirds of their typical wages.

Republicans who control the Senate have been cool to the idea of a statewide family leave benefit in recent years, but advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need to give all workers – regardless of their race, class or zip code – the time they need to care for themselves and their families.

“The COVID pandemic has exposed the inadequate and inconsistent safety net available for families in this state,” the bill’s chief author, Rep. Ruth Richardson (D-Mendota Heights), said. Richardson noted that low-wage workers, workers of color and women are much less likely to have access to family leave than other workers, and she pointed to research showing the “stark disparities” in mental and physical health outcomes that result from lack of access to paid leave, including higher rates of infant mortality and pre-term births.

Advocates praised the DFL proposal to invest part of the state’s projected $7.7 billion budget surplus in pre-funding two years’ worth of benefits while the paid family leave program gets up and running.

“We cannot stand by and pretend we can’t do anything about” disparities in access to essential economic measures like paid family leave, said Gloria Perez, president of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.

The proposed legislation would also help level the playing field for small businesses in the hyper-competitive labor market, said Dan Swenson-Klatt, owner of a bakery and café in Minneapolis.

“As much as I would like to provide paid leave to all of my employees, I cannot do it alone,” he said.

The Minnesotans for Paid Family & Medical Leave coalition brings together over 30 organizations, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, is a co-chair.

“Essential workers have sacrificed their time and risked their safety like never before,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said. “But hopefully, we’ve all gained a greater appreciation of how precious time with our loved ones truly is – and how we need the freedom to care for them when they need us.”

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

Union educators join effort to expand child care, early ed

February 2, 2022 by

Access to early care and education is good for children, parents and communities. But the shortage of child care providers in Minnesota has gone from bad to worse during the pandemic.

Union educators are putting their weight behind a push to address the child care crisis this legislative session, teaming up with Head Start advocates, child care providers and parents who want a portion of the state’s $7.7 billion budget surplus invested in early education.

In a virtual press conference Tuesday, Maplewood child care teacher Mary Solheim said change won’t happen in the industry unless stakeholders come together and demand it.

“We need a unified understanding of each other, an understanding that child care, early learning and public education can coexist together because we are equally important in the lives of our families,” Solheim said. “Children need education, children need care and children need to be educated by caring people.”

Solheim is a leader in the advocacy group Kids Count On Us. Its agenda includes capping child care costs at 7% of a family’s income and giving workers in the industry better wages and career opportunities.

Greta Holupchinski, a Head Start home visitor in Ramsey County, said it’s time for Minnesota to start recognizing the importance of child care and early education to the state’s economy – and investing accordingly.

“The benefits of accessible child care affect everyone in a community, not just the families and kids,” Holupchinski said. “We’re currently seeing a huge worker shortage, and lack of child care is one of those causes.”

Minnesota was short nearly 80,000 child care slots before COVID-19, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Federal employment data shows the industry lost about a third of its workers at the outset of the pandemic, and employment remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Kirsten Ragatz, a former preschool and kindergarten teacher in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said she retired early two years ago, in part, because of a “lack of respect for teachers at every level.”

“Now that we are in global pandemic, teachers are leaving the profession at very high rates, and no one who has worked in a school or child care center is surprised,” she said.

Attracting workers to the field is a challenge, researchers say, given long hours and wages that often are too low to meet the cost of living – even for positions that require post-secondary degrees, like preschool teachers.

But availability isn’t the only barrier families seeking child care face. The average cost of full-time care ranges from $12,000 to over $15,000 in Minnesota.

LaTanya Hughes, a personal care attendant who manages two group homes, said she applied for child care assistance from the state, but was denied because her income was too high. When she found a child care center that would accept her 5-year-old, Hughes had to take another job to cover the fees, only increasing her child care costs further.

“Sometimes I feel like the working people are penalized the most,” Hughes said.

Even for families who qualify, the state child care assistance program lacks sufficient funding, resulting in long waitlists in some areas of the state.

Gov. Tim Walz set out to change that last week. He proposed spending $2.6 billion over the next three years to fund state’s subsidy program in full, eliminate waitlists and raise reimbursement rates for providers. The plan would also provide direct grants to keep child care centers and family providers open.

Advocates at the press conference called the governor’s proposal a necessary first step, and they urged legislators to act during the session that began Monday.

Mercedes Lee, a member of the St. Paul Federation of Educators who has taught kindergarten and second grade, said the most important return on an investment in early care and education is the opportunity it provides children.

“It was always incredibly apparent to me who had experiences with early education and child care prior to coming to kindergarten, and who did not,” Lee said.

“Early education matters, and if we truly care about our children, we need to prioritize funding and resourcing early education. And we need a strong workforce that is well supported through wages, benefits and educational opportunities, so that they can give their full selves to the children they are educating.”

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

Working people plan big push for paid family leave next year

December 17, 2018 by

Miguel Lindgren, a state employee and member of MAPE, describe how valuable paid family leave – which state employees won in contract negotiations two years ago – in the process of adopting a child from Colombia last September.

Supporters of paid family and medical leave launched a lobbying push at the Capitol today, calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation next year expanding the benefit to all Minnesota workers.

“It’s simple, it’s popular and it’s the right thing to do,” Pastor Corinne Freedman Ellis of Macalester Plymouth United Church in St. Paul said during a press conference at the Capitol, surrounded by fellow clergy, working people, retirees and business owners.

Ellis is a leader in the faith-based advocacy group ISAIAH, one of 25 local organizations leading the Minnesotans for Paid Family Leave campaign. Eight unions are on board, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, is a campaign co-chair.

The groups propose creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

To build up the insurance pool, employees and employers would make mandatory contributions, similar to payroll deductions for health insurance or workers’ compensation. The median worker would pay an estimated $1.75 per week into the fund.

Similar policies are on the books in eight states, and two powerful lawmakers in Minnesota – Lt. Gov.-elect Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Melissa Hortman, the next Speaker of the House – have expressed support for making Minnesota the ninth.

The policy enjoys support among voters, too. A recent Pew poll found 84 percent of Americans back paid family and medical leave, but only 14 percent of U.S. employees have access to the benefit.

Jason Rathe, who owns a landscaping business in Minneapolis with over 20 employees, called the coalition’s proposal a win-win for working people and business owners.

“I really believe paid family leave is important to businesses because it creates a level playing field,” Rathe said. “It allows our employees and ourselves to do the things that are important.”

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

Photos: Labor, faith, community activists stand up for sick time, resist corporate interference

March 3, 2017 by

web-preemption-house-3The Minnesota House passed a bill last night that would strip 150,000 Minnesotans of newly won earned-sick-and-safe-time benefits and block local governments from raising labor standards in their communities.

As debate raged inside the Republican-controlled House, opponents from labor, faith and community groups rallied outside the chamber, calling the bill a corporate power grab and a step backwards in addressing the state’s yawning disparities between white workers and workers of color.

Rosheeda Credit, a McDonald’s worker and who has been a leader for paid sick time and a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis, shared her frustration with the preemption bill in a press conference before the House session, staged by Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.

“I recently became homeless with my five children because my rent in north Minneapolis more than doubled,” Credit said. “We need to be able to pass laws in Minneapolis that will help people in Minneapolis. We have been fighting for paid sick time and a $15 minimum wage for a long time and now corporate lobbyists are trying to take it away. What are they so afraid of? Why are they trying to silence our voices?”

More than 100 people answered the call to pack the House chamber with opponents to the corporate-interference bill, which could come before the Senate as early as next week. Click here to tell your state senator you oppose the measure, Senate File 580.

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Nurses, allies back MinnesotaCare expansion as fix for state’s individual market woes

February 14, 2017 by
Rally participants signed Valentine’s Day cards to Gov. Dayton urging him to stand against legislation that would bail out insurance companies.

Rally participants signed Valentine’s Day cards to Gov. Dayton urging him to stand against legislation that would bail out insurance companies.

Union nurses rallied at the Capitol today with family farmers, small business owners, clergy and other allies in their push to expand health care coverage to all Minnesotans – and hold insurance companies accountable.

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association spent the day talking to state representatives about making health care more accessible and affordable, including a proposal by Gov. Mark Dayton to expand MinnesotaCare and make it an option for all Minnesotans buying individual insurance.

Rose Roach, MNA’s executive director, called expansion of the popular, successful insurance program for low-income Minnesotans an “obvious solution that’s been in front of us all along.” It’s preferable, she added, to Republican and industry calls for the state to subsidize a “reinsurance” fund to protect insurers from losses.

Insurance companies “want to socialize debts and privatize profits, and they dare to ask us for more,” Roach said.

Small business owners, farmers and retirees at the rally took to the podium to vent their frustrations with the individual health insurance market, which saw premiums soar and provider networks shrink dramatically this year.

Dayton and state lawmakers agreed last month to provide emergency assistance to consumers, but that’s a one-time fix, Franklin dairy farmer James Kanne said. Kanne would have paid individual premiums of $1,040 per month this year without subsidies. But farm incomes fluctuate, and he said he’s worried next year those subsidies might not be available.

web-mna-capitol2The “ultimate” fix,” Kanne said and other speakers acknowledged, would be a single-payer health system, such as the proposal long advanced by Roseville Sen. John Marty. But with Republicans controlling the Legislature, Marty’s plan is not likely to get a hearing.

“That first rung on the ladder (to single payer) is MinnesotaCare as a public option,” Kanne said.

MNA’s rally drew support from members three progressive organizations partnering with the union on the health care campaign: the Land Stewardship Project, TakeAction Minnesota and faith-based ISAIAH.

“Nurses don’t care about your insurance card or your credit card,” Roach told supporters. “They only care about your get-well card.”

After the rally participants delivered a Valentine’s Day message to Dayton “thanking him for his leadership and urging him to stand against proposed legislation that provides more money to bail out insurance companies.”

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

‘End run’ around local sick-pay victories advances at Capitol

February 3, 2017 by

web-localcontrol-buttonsCorporate special interests clashed with working people during a Capitol hearing last night on legislation that would roll back ordinances extending earned sick and safe time to an estimated 150,000 workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The local preemption bill, authored by Rep. Pat Garafalo (R-Farmington), passed its first committee hearing after a lengthy round of public testimony. A companion bill in the Senate will receive its first committee hearing Monday.

The measure would restrict local governments from establishing higher employment standards – like earned sick time, fair scheduling and minimum wage – within their boundaries. Additionally, it would strike down any such ordinances passed after Jan. 1, 2016, nulling historic victories on earned sick time in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minnesota Nurses Association director Rose Roach, who co-chaired a citizen task force that helped draft St. Paul’s sick time ordinance, called Garafalo’s bill “an end run around the will of the people” in her city.

Roach was among dozens of people who lined up to testify on the measure before the House jobs committee. An overflow crowd spilled into two additional hearing rooms, and the committee’s decision to take a dinner break – passed by a party-line, roll-call vote – drew groans from those still waiting for their chance to speak.

A diverse group of working people, religious leaders and small business owners voiced concerns with the bill, which they called a corporate power grab.

“We see what’s going on here,” Javen Swanson, pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, told committee members. “Businesses don’t want to expand worker benefits or increase wages. And with vast resources and an army of lobbyists in Washington and here in St. Paul, they usually get their way.”

Indeed, lobbyists for several industry associations and trade groups – representing restaurants, banks, temp agencies and others – spoke in favor of stripping local governments of their power to set higher workplace standards. A “patchwork” approach to workplace regulations, they warned, creates bookkeeping headaches for firms doing business across the state.

Doug Sams, owner of D. Brian’s catering, said his employees are like family, and he worried that different wage-and-benefit standards would drive a wedge between employees in different municipalities. “I’m looking at this as a challenge for me to keep my family together,” he said.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee's unexpected dinner break.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee’s unexpected dinner break.

But one after the other, working people at the hearing came forward to express fear and outrage that state lawmakers would seek to undermine their efforts to secure the sick time necessary to care for themselves and their families.

“My whole working life I have been a number, and an easily replaceable number,” retail worker Katie Drahos, a member of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, told committee members. “I have no say in the corporate world. My only saving grace is that I am able to lobby for my interests at a city level.”

“We get sick because we are human beings, so we need sick time,” SEIU Local 26 member Kadra Ali of St. Paul said. “If I miss one day at my job because I’m sick, I miss my check, or if I stay with my children when they get sick.”

Several small business owners joined workers in opposition, including Todd Mikkelson, a small business owner from Orono. While corporations and industry associations might have the ear of state and national lawmakers, he said, Main Street businesses have the ear of their local officials.

“To take away our local control of things is nothing more than an intrusion,” Mikkelson said. “City councils are listening to us constantly. We have much easier access to them, and they are our neighbors. To stifle them is to stifle us.”

If it’s uniformity corporate interests want, Swanson offered a proposal: “Let’s use St. Paul’s sick time ordinance as a model for statewide legislation that protects the most vulnerable members of our communities,” he said.

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

Council vote gives St. Paul nation’s strongest earned sick time ordinance

September 7, 2016 by
St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan speaks in support of a citywide earned sick time policy at a press conference before a public hearing on the issue.

St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan speaks in support of a citywide earned sick time policy at a press conference before a public hearing on the issue.

Members of the St. Paul City Council today voted 7-0 to pass an ordinance hailed by working people, small business owners, clergy members and other advocates as the strongest earned sick and safe time law on the books nationwide.

Mayor Chris Coleman immediately indicated he would support the ordinance, making St. Paul the 35th U.S. location to pass sick-pay legislation, according to Family Values at Work.

“We are experiencing tremendous momentum as a city,” Coleman said in a statement. “We need to do everything we can to ensure even the most vulnerable among us are experiencing that same momentum. This ordinance brings us one step closer to doing so, and I support it for that reason.”

Set to take effect July 1, 2017, the ordinance will extend ESST benefits to an estimated 72,000 working people in St. Paul.

It requires all employers – regardless of size, unlike the ordinance passed in Minneapolis earlier this year – to provide one hour of sick time for every 30 hours an employee works, with sick-time earnings capped at 48 hours per year. Employees will begin accruing sick time after working 80 hours, and they become eligible to use the benefit after 90 calendar days of employment.

Supporters like Nuurto Mohamed, a janitor for 3M in St. Paul, said the new ordinance will give healthier choices to working families like hers.

“I am so excited that we won paid sick days for families like mine in St. Paul,” Mohamed said. “We work hard, and having more paid sick days will mean we no longer have to choose between our health and our paycheck when someone in our family is sick.”

The ordinance also gives employees the right to sue if they face retaliation for using their paid sick time. Michelle Parker, a member of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change who works at Papa John’s in St. Paul, welcomed the enforcement provision.

Pastor Bradley Schmeling explains his support for a citywide earned-sick-time ordinance during a press conference at St. Paul City Hall.

Pastor Bradley Schmeling explains his support for a citywide earned-sick-time ordinance during a press conference at St. Paul City Hall.

“When I have to call in sick, my employer cuts my hours for the next week,” she said. “My family needs this safeguard.”

The ordinance closely follows the recommendations of a task force established earlier this year by Mayor Coleman and council members to study the issue. It included labor, faith and community leaders, as well as representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and small business owners.

“The benefits to providing sick time outweigh the costs a hundred fold,” said Workhorse Coffee’s Shannon Forney, one of more than 50 business owners citywide to back the ordinance publicly. “If we, a scrappy small business not supported by capital investments, can do it, certainly other businesses can too.”

Supporters celebrated the council vote as the culmination of a yearlong campaign that included congregational meetings, forums, door-knocks, phone banks, strikes, rallies and meetings with elected officials.

“This vote is a big step toward improving the quality of life for all working people in Saint Paul,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and a member of the ESST task force. “We’re grateful to the elected officials who showed courage on Earned Sick and Safe Time, and proud to be part of a coalition of community groups that, by working together, made history today.”

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Advocates stage last-ditch rally for paid family leave

May 17, 2016 by
Sen. Katie Sieben of Newport, a lead propoent of paid family leave, leads a rally outside the Capitol.

Sen. Katie Sieben of Newport, a lead propoent of paid family leave, leads a rally outside the Capitol.

With fiery speeches and foam “No. 1” fingers, advocates of paid family leave rallied outside the Minnesota Capitol today, calling on House Republicans to take up the issue, which Gov. Mark Dayton called “a moral responsibility.”

Earlier this month, the DFL-controlled Senate approved a measure designed to prevent workers from being forced to choose between paying their bills and providing care for a newborn child or ailing family member.

But the bill hasn’t garnered a single committee hearing in the House, and an aide to Speaker Kurt Daudt told clergy members, who sent a delegation to the Crown Republican’s offices after the rally, that it was not among the speaker’s priorities in negotiations to close the session.

Bill McCarthy, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, urged Daudt to reconsider.

“Now’s the time for the House majority to stand with working families and support this legislation,” McCarthy said. “Now is the time to act.”

The Senate bill, supported by a coalition of labor, faith and community groups, would provide Minnesotans who miss work after the birth of a child or during a family member’s extended illness with partial replacement wages for up to 12 weeks. It’s funded by a small tax on workers and employers.

web.PaidFamLeave-fingerSenate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a DFLer from Cook, promised that if House Republicans fail to act on paid family leave this year, “the DFL Senate will be back next year” to pass the bill again.

But that was little consolation to Morgan Searcy of Northfield. Searcy, whose 41-year-old mother is gradually losing vision, will soon face a choice between going to work and helping her mother transition to life without sight.

The Senate bill’s 12 weeks of paid leave “would be enough for me to help my mom, to figure things out,” Searcy said. “It would be heaven-sent if this bill passed this year.”

It’s estimated only 13 percent of Minnesota workers have access to paid-family-leave benefits.

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