Union members say Ellison has stuck up for workers as Attorney General

October 28, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks before a door-knock with SEIU President April Verrett in Minneapolis.

Locked in a tight re-election campaign, Attorney General Keith Ellison deserves working Minnesotans’ vote because he puts the power of his office to work for them, union members and labor leaders say.

And they have the receipts to prove it.

Hospitality workers at Target Field, members of UNITE HERE Local 17, have long raised questions about nonprofits that the stadium brings in to operate concession stands, purportedly raising funds for their charitable organizations.

When union members entered contract negotiations with Target Field’s concessionaire, Delaware North, earlier this year, they proposed limits on the practice. The employer showed no interest, Local 17 President Sheigh Freeberg said.

But in July, Ellison announced that his office had reached a civil settlement to shut down one of the nonprofits operating Target Field concession stands, MN Fundraising Initiative (MNFI), after investigating allegations that it was not operated for any charitable purpose. Instead, MNFI was operating as a staffing agency to misclassify hundreds of employees as “volunteers” and deploying them to work in concession stands at venues across the Twin Cities.

Freeberg called it a validating moment for Local 17 members.

“This is a thing that workers have been talking about for years,” Freeberg said. “It’s not right that these sham charities undercut union wages, undercut union labor and take away hours from union workers. It’s hard to overstate how important this settlement was.”

It’s just one of several cases Ellison’s office has built against bad bosses in recent years, seeking justice for victims of wage theft, misclassification or predatory employment practices.

The Attorney General’s Office secured $250,000 in back pay for dairy workers, won $800,000 in restitution for delivery drivers with the gig-economy firm Shipt and, earlier this year, won an important decision that keeps alive efforts to recoup wages allegedly stolen from cleaning workers at Madison Equities’ former holdings in downtown St. Paul.

Fighting back against Trump

Union leaders also point to Ellison’s work since January 2025 to defend Minnesota against attacks from the Trump administration, filing or signing onto over 50 cases against the executive branch.

Ellison’s office filed one of those cases in July, after Trump’s Department of Education abruptly announced it would withhold funding appropriated to local school districts across the country. Minnesota districts stood to lose a combined $74 billion.

“Two months before fall classes, before school was supposed to start, school leaders all over the state scrambled to see what they would have to cut if no one stepped in for students and no one stepped up for the Constitution,” Brian McCarthy, president of the West St. Paul Federation of Teachers, said. “Fortunately, someone did.”

Trump relented, and the federal government released the funding. But McCarthy wondered whether Ellison’s opponent, corporate attorney Ron Schutz, would have sued his own party’s president.

“Lawsuits like that tell me that Keith will continue to work for our kids and our communities,” McCarthy said.

Keeping an eye out for workers

For healthcare workers and advocates, meanwhile, Ellison’s leadership in the Attorney General’s Office is critical to navigating an unprecedented period of upheaval in the sector, with three pairs of health systems seeking the office’s approval for sales or mergers in the last year.

Unions say Ellison understands the importance of maintaining their collective bargaining rights as part of that process.

North Memorial and Sanford made that guarantee as part of a binding community benefits agreement that paved the way for approval of their merger earlier this year, but advocates are still pushing Allina and California-based Sutter Health, as well as HealthPartners and Essentia, for similar agreements.

Allina hospice nurse Susie Smerz said she’s grateful for the work Ellison did to get their newly organized bargaining unit a first contract – without having to go on an open-ended strike. Representatives of the Attorney General’s Office, she said, were directly involved with last-ditch talks to avoid a strike, doing “shuttle diplomacy” to get a tentative agreement between Allina Health and her bargaining unit with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

“The hospice nurses began feeling like an open-ended strike had become the only tool in our tool belt,” Smerz said. “I don’t know how, but the Attorney General’s Office got wind of it and, I think, was like, ‘Oh no, Allina.’ They really got us to the finish line.

“It really seemed like they cared about us – about the little people. We’re a unit of 55 to 60 nurses, and that’s a drop in the bucket for Allina. They were willing to wear us down. But the Attorney General’s Office wanted to be sure we didn’t get left in the dust.”

UNITE HERE’s Freeberg said he tells people Minnesota has the best Attorney General for workers in the country. But that comes with a target on Ellison’s race each time he’s on the ballot.

“He didn’t have to take on cases like ours,” Freeberg said. “These sham charities exist in all 50 states. But that’s who Keith is. He’s someone that workers can always count on, and his opponent is someone that their bosses can always count on. I really don’t think the stakes could be higher than that.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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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

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Health care unions back debt reform push in MN Legislature

April 22, 2024 by

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association support a bill that would reform laws around medical and other types of debt.

Jennifer Schultz has been cancer free for over two years, but being free from the debt she’s amassed in her battles with the illness feels a long way off for the four-time survivor from St. Paul.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m in a constant cycle of medical debt,” Schultz told labor, faith and community activists who rallied April 15 in the Capitol rotunda.

“There are weeks when I have to choose between filling up my gas tank, buying groceries for myself and making a full payment toward my cancer bills.”

Schultz and other activists applauded a package of debt-related reforms advancing through the DFL-controlled Legislature this session.

Proponents of the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act, including faith-based organizations, health care workers’ unions and Attorney General Keith Ellison, called it a first step toward correcting a debt collection system that needlessly forces families across the state into poverty.

Pastor James Alberts of Higher Ground Church of God in Christ in St. Cloud – one of three religious leaders who spoke at the rally –  said debt forgiveness is value shared among faith communities, from Judaism and Islam to Christianity. Alberts pointed to the Lord’s Prayer, which asks for “forgiveness of debts as we forgive our debtors.”

“Mercy and forgiveness are missing in our debt collection system, and here in Minnesota it is time to act in every way we can to fix this,” he said. “We must pass debt relief now.”

Medical debt is the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act’s primary focus, and members of the Minnesota Nurses Association were well represented at the rally. Jennifer Michelson, a retired United Hospital nurse, said MNA members see the strain of medical debt firsthand.

“I didn’t take care of very many patients who could cover the full cost of the care they received,” she said. “It’s hard for our patients to heal if their energy is going toward worrying about medical bills that they can’t afford to pay, or how their families will take care of it if they pass away.”

The proposed legislation would repeal a state law that automatically transfers medical debt to a patient’s spouse. In Minnesota, medical debt is the only kind of debt transferred in this way.

The Minnesota Debt Fairness Act would also ban medical providers from refusing care – or threatening to do so – to a patient with outstanding bills. A study by the Peterson Center on Health Care found 60% of people with medical debt have deferred care to avoid going further into the red.

Additionally, health providers or their collections agents would be barred from reporting patients’ debt to credit bureaus because, Schultz said, bad credit “shouldn’t be a side effect of getting sick.”

Other provisions in the bill would apply more broadly to the state’s debt collection system, making adjustments based on income levels to the maximum percentage of someone’s wages that creditors can garnish – and shielding the last $4,000 in Minnesotans’ bank accounts from garnishment.

“This is so you don’t go to the grocery store to buy groceries for your family and find out you have zero dollars left in your account,” Rep. Liz Reyer (D-Eagan) said. “We know this happens. It’s not right.”

After the rally, members of the House voted to advance a commerce policy bill that included the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act’s key provisions.

But the Senate’s companion bill, passed earlier in the session, did not address debt reform, meaning representatives of the two chambers need a conference committee to settle on a final bill to send to Gov. Tim Walz before lawmakers’ deadline to adjourn May 20.

Attorney General Ellison urged activists at the rally to keep the issue on their representatives’ agenda.

“This is a moral issue,” he said. “It’s not just a legal issue, it’s not just a political issue, it’s a moral imperative to pass this bill. Those signs that you brought, don’t just leave them here. Take that sign with you and put it up somewhere people can see it…

“I want the world to know that we’re passing this bill today, and this is not the end of it.”

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Workers warn ‘bigger does not mean better’ when it comes to hospital mergers

February 2, 2023 by

Rachel Hanneman, an intensive care nurse at Fairview Southdale, led a press conference before a Capitol hearing on legislation that would give the state Health Department power to block health system mergers. “Their right to do business ends where our right to accessible health care begins,” she said.

Since M Health Fairview and Sanford Health went public with plans to merge last November, workers have emerged as a leading voice of opposition, warning that further consolidation would not benefit Minnesota patients or workers, only the CEOs already profiting off the health care system.

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa spoke out at recent public hearings held across the state by Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is investigating whether the proposed merger complies with state and federal laws.

Union members also joined together with family farmers and medical students at the Capitol earlier this week to support legislation that would give the Minnesota Department of Health authority to approve or to block hospital mergers after a review of their potential impacts.

Opponents of the merger point to data suggesting that a wave of corporate hospital mergers across the U.S. has resulted in higher costs for patients and reductions to the services offered in local communities, but no improvements in the quality of care offered.

“Studies show that health care mergers have caused a 41% increase in prices with no evidence of improved quality of care,” MNA Executive Director Rose Roach said during a press conference before Ellison’s hearing in St. Paul Jan. 10. “What we need is public stewardship and oversight, holding the hospitals accountable to us, the public, not these independent, profit-making entities that focus on generating revenue.”

As for stewardship, neither Sanford nor Fairview has a track record likely to inspire public trust.

M-Health Fairview closed two hospitals in the middle of the pandemic, including the state’s only dedicated COVID-19 hospital. At the same time, CEO James Hereford took a 90 percent raise to more than $3.5 million in annual compensation.

Sanford, meanwhile, paid a $49.5 million golden parachute to disgraced CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft, who spread medical disinformation during the pandemic.

“Our state government has an obligation to pursue lower health care costs, better outcomes for patients and better conditions for health care workers,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said. “This merger will do the exact opposite.

“As health care becomes more consolidated year after year, the only people benefiting are the CEOs. Now Minnesota’s regulators have a chance to draw a line in the sand and tell these regulators enough is enough.”

Rank-and-file union members, meanwhile, have raised concerns that the merger would threaten their collective bargaining rights and drive more health care workers out of the industry at a time when staffing shortfalls are at crisis levels.

Ericka Helling, an intensive care nurse at Fairview Southdale and a 25-year employee of the system, said she was “alarmed that a Minnesota institution could be bought and sold to an out-of-state entity.”

She noted that South Dakota is very different from Minnesota, where Helling’s union, the MNA, has a powerful seat at the table both in bargaining contracts and in oversight of the industry.

“Worrisome for me, as a union nurse, is what happens when an employer buys out a system,” she said. “Is our contract recognized? Do we need to fight all over again for the high standards and protections our contract provides the practice of nursing and patient care?”

M Health Fairview, Helling noted, refused to include language in its nurses’ most recent contract, settled in December, that would have extended the agreement’s terms through any merger.

Cliff Adams, an SEIU member who works at Fairview’s Masonic Children’s Hospital, echoed those concerns, and he called on Ellison and other leaders to focus on “the problems in our own backyard first and foremost,” including staff burnout, safety and racial equity.

“In the last four years we have seen our health care system strip away the caring aspect and monetize the health aspect,” Adams said. “We have seen failure from our employer. We are struggling to tackle these major issues with a large, home-based, Minnesota-oriented organization…

“Bigger does not always mean better.”

Union opposition helped tank a previous proposal to merge the two systems, forwarded in 2013.

Sanford and Fairview have said they hope to complete a merger by the end of this year.

The Attorney General’s office is also collecting public feedback on the merger online.

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State AFL-CIO convention spotlights worker power, political goals

September 20, 2022 by

A panel brings together worker-organizers from Planned Parenthood, MN United, Activision Blizzard and Trader Joe’s.

Labor leaders and activists from across the state gathered in St. Paul this week for the Minnesota AFL-CIO‘s 56th constitutional convention, looking to tap into the energy of a recent wave of union-organizing victories as they make a united political push this fall.

Several of the federation’s endorsed candidates, including Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, addressed the delegation of nearly 300 union members. Walz said labor backing was less “a pat on the back” and more of a “kick in the butt” to win a second term, strengthen Minesota’s labor laws and carry forward the state’s economic recovery.

“The one thing I want union members in Minnesota to know is, as long as I am governor, you do not have to spend one second worrying about a piece of anti-union legislation crossing my desk,” Walz told delegates Sept. 20 as the three-day convention came to a close. “We have to get re-elected to make sure workers’ rights are protected, to make sure women’s rights are protected, to make sure voting rights are protected.”

“This November, labor is on the ballot,” Flanagan added. “Our opponent has made it very clear that he will gut labor protections and turn Minnesota into a right-to-work state. That will not happen on our watch.”

MN AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham chairs her first state fed convention.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham, chairing a constitutional convention for the first time, said Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen would “take Minnesota backwards” if elected. Unions, she said, have begun a robust member-to-member outreach campaign to get out the labor vote for Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Dean Phillips and other endorsed candidates.

“While the opposition might be able to outspend us, they will never out-organize us,” Burnham said. “We’re going to deliver the union vote in November not only for the governor’s race but to increase the working families’ majority in the state House and flip the state Senate so we can continue building a more just and fair Minnesota.”

Burnham, sworn in Feb. 1 as president of the statewide federation of over 1,000 local unions, won re-election on the convention’s final day, running without opposition. Brad Lehto, secretary-treasurer since 2018, also won re-election, fending off a challenge from Southeast Area Labor Council President Pommella Wegmann.

Burnham and Lehto pledged to continue making progress on the state AFL-CIO’s strategic priorities, to welcome new affiliates into the fold and to build solidarity across the labor movement to support legislative, organizing and collective bargaining campaigns.

“We have only just begun,” Burnham said. “Your state federation is there to assist you as we expand our labor movement and build our power.”

Union membership has increased in Minnesota in each of the last three years, and it’s likely to do so again in 2022, as a wave of union organizing has brought workers in coffee shops, bookstores, craft breweries, nonprofits and health care facilities into the labor movement, both locally and across the U.S.

“We need Minnesota’s labor movement now more than ever,” AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond tells delegates. “So keep organizing, keep mobilizing, keep being a force for working people.”

Organizing took center stage on Day 1 of the convention, when a panel discussion brought together four young workers who have organized or are currently organizing unions: a quality assurance tester at a video game company, a video board technician with Minnesota United, a Planned Parenthood employee and a Trader Joe’s clerk.

“This wave of workplace organizing has been hugely inspirational to all of us,” said Josiah Wollan, a video-board technician organizing with IATSE. “We’ve realized what power workers have, and knowing that has really started this process. We knew there was nothing coming down the line for us – we weren’t going to get anything until we unionized.”

Organizing growth strengthens and diversifies the labor movement, Burnham said. She also credited Minnesota Building Trades unions for their intentional efforts “to recruit workers and young people from underserved communities into their apprenticeship programs.”

“It’s this work that shows the people of Minnesota, no matter where you come from or what you look like, we want you in the labor movement,” Burnham added.

Recent polling shows people want to be in the labor movement, too. Attorney General Ellison was among several convention speakers who pointed to a Gallup survey, taken in August, that found 71% of Americans approve of unions, the highest mark since 1965.

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson welcomes delegates to the capital city. “Workers are building power in new and innovative ways, and they’re calling on us to join them in solidarity in that fight,” she said.

“Americans would not know that a union would improve people’s lives unless they saw you improving people’s lives with a union,” Ellison said.

Ellison, Walz and other guests also thanked delegates from the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) for fighting to put patients over profits in their current contract campaign. Some 15,000 hospital nurses in Duluth and the Twin Cities staged a three-day strike last week, the largest private-sector nursing strike in U.S. history.

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, said Minnesota nurses are turning heads across the labor movement.

“These are heroes, and they’re exhausted,” Redmond said. “They’re underappreciated, and yet corporations keep making cuts, keep squeezing, keep trying to get blood from a stone and keep putting profits before people. But those nurses here in Minnesota said enough is enough.”

MNA President Mary Turner said the strike was a lesson for many members of her union who had never been on a picket line that labor’s power stems from solidarity, which was, appropriately, the theme of the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention.

“We had community members, family and friends, elected officials and our labor allies on the line with us,” Turner said. “To see all the other unions there, this was a part of being a union a lot of younger nurses had no idea existed.

“We know the problems we are facing are not unique. We’re all fighting our own unique battles, but we’re all workers.”

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

Keith Ellison: Time to address wage theft is now

April 25, 2019 by

Frankly, I was shocked.

Here I was, listening to a man through an interpreter describe how the paycheck that he worked so hard for at fairly low wages was delivered to him in a debit card. He didn’t get a regular paycheck or a check stub of any kind: he was told that this debit card represented his pay and that the pay had been deposited for him.

It was hard for him to figure out how much he had actually gotten paid. When he did, he found that he had lost as many as three days’ wages even though he had worked hard every single day.

He’s not alone. Kevin’s restaurant didn’t pay him for the time he spent setting up and cleaning his work station as a cook. Emilio was told that his Sunday shift at a convenience store was “volunteer time.” Marfa’s employer withheld her wages and her passport; when she got her passport back, she was tricked into signing a document that said she had been paid when she hadn’t been.

Gonzalo, a construction worker, has had at least $1,000 a year stolen in wages – for each of the last eight years. Now, he just budgets for it.

These folks are all victims of wage theft. Wage theft takes many forms: having hours shaved off your paycheck; being forced to work off the clock; not getting paid for overtime; being paid at a lower rate than promised, sometimes below minimum wage; being paid in cash or other forms, with no Social Security, unemployment, or worker’s comp withheld; being misclassified as an independent contractor; and more.

I was shocked for two reasons. First, I honestly didn’t know wage theft happens. As much solidarity as I felt with hard-working people, I had never spent a day working hard for which I didn’t get the pay I was promised.

I was also shocked at the frequency with which wage theft happens. Reputable studies from several years ago estimate that two-thirds of all low-wage workers in the country have experienced at least one form of wage theft. The amount of wages stolen each year in Minnesota may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars: nationally, the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that $50 billion a year is stolen in wage theft. That’s more than three times the value of all the goods stolen through robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft combined.

Those estimates are 5-10 years old now. In an economy that’s gotten more and more predatory, it’s surely only gotten worse.

One reason people don’t know wage theft happens is because employers often retaliate or threaten to retaliate against people who report it. Another reason is that wage theft commonly happens in the shadows, to the most vulnerable among us, especially immigrants, people of color, and young people. African American workers are three times more likely to have had their wages stolen than white workers, and Latina/o workers are four times more likely. The predators who steal from these folks do so because they figure they’re the least likely to report it.

Too often, wage theft is connected to criminal abuse. According to human-rights advocates, every case of human trafficking also involves wage theft. If you find people being trafficked, you’ll find people whose wages are being stolen. That’s happening right here: in Hennepin County, a contractor has been charged with human trafficking, insurance fraud, and undocumented wage theft. The charges claim that “he knew the men that he had employed were undocumented workers and used that knowledge as leverage to force them to work long hours for less than market pay and without adequate safety protection,” and that “when workers were injured, he told his employees that they would lose their jobs and be deported if they sought medical attention.”

If you do get paid every penny you’ve earned – and I hope you do – wage theft still affects you. We’re all paying higher payroll taxes to cover this fraud. Legitimate companies who play by the rules and the people who work for them lose business because they can’t compete against companies that steal money from their workers and the government. Every dollar these thieves don’t pay in taxes is a dollar that isn’t going to pay a teacher or a nurse or a laborer building a road that benefits of all of us. And the money being stolen from workers is money that’s not going back into the local economy.

In short, if American workers are a ship trying to sail forward in ever rougher seas, wage theft is a dragging anchor holding them back.

Fortunately, we can do more to help. I strongly support a bill at the Legislature – HF 6, authored by Rep. Tim Mahoney, a union pipefitter, and SF 1933, authored by Sen. Bobby Joe Champion – that will give us more tools and resources to charge people with the crime of wage theft and prosecute it more aggressively. It also creates protections for workers who come forward, and imposes higher penalties on unscrupulous employers. And because wage theft is often a sign of other abuse, this bill will also make it easier to uncover and prosecute criminal behavior like denial of medical treatment, fraud and human trafficking. I encourage you to contact your legislators and ask them to support it.

In addition, I’m starting a new unit in the Attorney General’s Office that will focus exclusively on investigating and prosecuting wage theft and other abuse of workers. If HF 6 passes, it will give us many more tools to protect workers, recover wages and hold offenders accountable.

The principle that you should get paid for every hour you worked and every penny you earned is common sense. No one should be against that. But as the Minnesota Legislature heads into the final stretch, one of the biggest problems we face in fighting wage theft is that too many people still don’t believe it actually happens.

Our job is to speak the truth about wage theft and how it hurts all of us. That’s what I’m doing. I’m asking you to join me.

– Keith Ellison has been serving as Minnesota’s Attorney General since January 7, 2019. As the People’s Lawyer, his job is to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity and respect. Before becoming Attorney General, he represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.

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Two years after Thanksgiving shock, Teamsters aren’t letting FLE off the hook

November 1, 2018 by

Teamsters who lost their jobs when Lakeville Motor Express abruptly closed shop two years ago raise their hand at a picket-line rally.

Nearly two years after Lakeville Motor Express abruptly closed shop, 90 members of Teamsters Local 120 are still fighting for the wages, vacation pay and other benefits the Roseville-based trucking company owes them.

To show they aren’t giving up, former LME employees rallied Tuesday with fellow union members and supportive politicians on a picket line outside the Finish Line Express terminal in New Brighton.

“We’re out here every single day, Monday through Friday,” Local 120 President Tom Erickson said from the picket line. “We’re not going away.”

Finish Line, Local 120 officers claim, absorbed LME’s business after the company shuttered without warning Nov. 20, 2016 – three days before Thanksgiving – and refused to pay union members for the previous two weeks of work.

Finish Line and LME have ties that predate LME’s closing, including executives who worked for both companies. Local 120 alleges those executives gradually shifted work from LME to Finish Line until LME’s payroll dipped below 100 – the legal threshold at which companies must provide 60 days’ notice of plant closings under the WARN Act.

The bosses’ objective, Local 120 alleges, was to shed the Teamsters contract and escape all ties with the severely underfunded Central States Pension Fund, a liability of $90 million, according to the company’s bankruptcy filings.

“It was a company that was profitable, and they did this for one reason: to make more money,” Erickson said. “FLE is LME. Everybody here knows that.”

Julie Blaha, former Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and labor-endorsed candidate for state auditor, tells Teamsters Blaha remembers walking the FLE picket line two years ago as “one of the first picket lines I got to be on.”
Teamsters and their supporters outside Finish LIne Express.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the labor-endorsed candidate for attorney general, tells Teamsters he’s running for a new job because “the best any member of Congress can do is write the right law… An attorney general can take their ass to court.”
Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson spoke at a rally against wage theft at Finish Line Express in 2018.

Now, LME and Finish Line face legal challenges on a number of fronts: from the pension fund, from the National Labor Relations Board and from the state Department of Labor and Industry, which last year levied an $87,000 civil penalty against the firms.

A hearing on NLRB charges of unfair labor practices was postponed Monday after the employer expressed interest in negotiating a settlement. The two sides have since entered mediation, but it’s not the first time management has expressed interest in settling.

“They’ve asked what we want,” Erickson said. “What we want is these jobs restored. These should be good Teamster jobs.”

All 90 workers locked out of Lakeville Motor Express two years ago have since found other work or retired. But as the rally yesterday made clear, none has forgotten the debt LME still owes.

Local 120 invites supporters to join picketing any weekday between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., at 50 14th St. NW, New Brighton.

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Workers trust Ellison to have their back as AG

October 11, 2018 by
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U.S. Rep Keith Ellison, the labor-endorsed candidate for state attorney general, received a warm reception from union members during a meeting at the St. Paul Labor Center last night.

Deb Howze fought hard to get a union. Now, the home care worker from Minneapolis is fighting to stop politicians like Doug Wardlow from taking it away.

The state’s home care workers have successfully bargained for wage increases, paid time off, holiday pay and new training opportunities since organizing with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota four years ago. But they also have become the target of corporate special interests trying to roll back those gains with lawsuits and phony anti-union campaigns.

“If Doug Wardlow were attorney general, he would join these attempts and try to reverse the progress we have made,” Howze said.

How can she be so sure?

Hostility toward unions and attacks on workers’ freedom to join together form a common thread running through Wardlow’s career. Howze and other union members traced that thread during a press conference today in St. Paul with the labor-endorsed attorney general candidate, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison.

During the two years Wardlow represented Eagan in the Minnesota House, the Republican led efforts to get a “right to work” constitutional amendment on the ballot, cut state employees’ pay and repeal a state law requiring local governments to ensure women are paid the same as men.

Joe Fowler, business manager of Laborers Local 563, said Wardlow also attacked Minnesota’s prevailing wage law, which builds fair wage and benefit standards into the bidding process for public construction projects. For people who work in the Building Trades, Fowler said, having an attorney general who enforces prevailing wage is critical to their standard of living.

“Laws only protect the honest from the honest,” Fowler said. “Enforcement is what keeps the dishonest from taking advantage of the honest.”

By contrast, Ellison has earned the trust and support of union members as a dependable, energetic advocate on workers’ behalf.

“Our members know Keith has stood with them over the years on every front,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary C. Turner said.

Jennifer Christensen, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, said Ellison understands the economy is rigged in favor of corporations and the rich, and they too often treat workers “with little regard, as mere commodities and numbers.”

Ellison, she added, is someone union members can trust to hold corporations to their obligations during mergers, acquisitions, relocations and other “stressful” events.

“We need an attorney general who’s going to hold these big companies responsible and accountable if they don’t … honor their union contracts,” Christensen said.

On the campaign trail, Ellison has said he wants to be the “people’s lawyer.” He has pledged to crack down on corporations that violate safety regulations or don’t pay workers what they are owed. One report estimates wage theft costs 390,000 Minnesota workers – from a wide range of industries – nearly $12 million each year.

“I think it is the job of the Minnesota attorney general to stand with workers and say, if you put in a hard day’s work, you will get a hard day’s pay,” Ellison said. “But it’s not enough to have good laws; we’ve got to have good people who enforce those laws.”

Ellison also promised to defend working people against the corporate special interests funding legal attacks – like the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision – on their freedoms.

“These special interests already have high-powered lawyers on their side,” Ellison said. “They don’t need another one in the Attorney General’s Office.”

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

St. Paul fast-food workers strike for $15 on Labor Day

September 4, 2017 by

Striking fast-food workers rallied with supporters outside a St. Paul McDonald’s this morning, demanding $15 per hour and respect on the job.

“We need something to live on,” said 27-year-old Tay Polite, on strike from her job at McDonald’s in the city’s Midway district. “Even with a job we’re still struggling to support our families.

“For as much as we work and as hard as we work, we deserve that $15 an hour.”

Fight for $15 strikes and demonstrations targeted fast-food employers in 400 cities worldwide on Labor Day.

Locally, the strike kicked off a series of events planned by unions and community groups pushing a $15 minimum wage in St. Paul and funding for enforcement of the historic minimum-wage ordinance passed in Minneapolis earlier this year.

“Many people are currently working two and three jobs to support their families,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “Working families are just not able to get by with the current minimum wage. We need to stand behind striking fast food workers and keep working to get families back in the middle class.”

Striking fast-food workers, including Tay Polite and April Reeves (R), were recognized during a rally on Labor Day.

Elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, supported striking workers on the early-morning picket line.

“The CEO of McDonald’s is making $9,000 an hour and can probably afford to get by on $6,000 an hour,” Ellison said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous that they claim they can’t afford to pay workers $15 minimum wage and I’m proud to stand with workers this Labor Day as they fight to reclaim what the true meaning of what Labor Day really means, and that is to uplift workers.”

Fast-food workers in the Twin Cities are organizing with the low-wage worker center CTUL, which began reaching out to workers in the industry three years ago. The campaign has gained momentum since then, with several strikes targeting fast-food employers and actions in support of local minimum-wage ordinances.

Although the federal minimum wage hasn’t budged since 2009, Fight for $15 campaigns nationwide have resulted in wage hikes totaling more than $62 billion for 22 million working people, according to a recent report. The estimate reflects both corporate policy changes and political victories in places like California, New York, Seattle and Minneapolis.

April Reeves, who earns $11 an hour working at the Midway McDonald’s, hopes St. Paul is the next city to join that list.

“More money is always better when you’re struggling check to check,” Reeves said. “What do my grandkids need? What does my child need? Should we buy food or pay these bills? Those are the day-to-day choices I face.

“All I want is justice. Give us the money we need to survive.”

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

Retirees using education to debunk Social Security, Medicare myths

May 11, 2016 by
The Retiree Council's Tom Beer distributed information during a presentation on Social Security in Fridley, hosted by Congressman Keith Ellison's office.

The Retiree Council’s Tom Beer distributed information during a presentation on Social Security in Fridley, hosted by Congressman Keith Ellison’s office.

Looking to combat popular myths and widespread misinformation surrounding Social Security and Medicare, the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, is bringing a presentation on the federal safety-net programs to churches, union halls and civic centers across the state this election year.

Tom Beer, president of the retiree council in Minneapolis, said the presentations are designed to generate discussion about the value of Social Security and Medicare and to “give people a sense of optimism that these programs, which are so essential, can be improved and protected and maintained.”

Beer gave the presentation at a senior citizen forum Monday at the Fridley Community Center. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison’s office hosted the forum, although the congressman was too sick to attend.

The program debunked several myths: that the Social Security Trust fund is going broke, that Congress is using it as a checkbook and that privatizing Medicare would cut costs and improve service.

The facts, Beer said, are that Social Security is fully funded for the next 15 years, and turning Medicare into a voucher system would “only make it less available, more costly and less likely to solve our general health care and medical delivery problems.”

To extend the solvency of Social Security without cutting benefits, retirees advocate for “scrapping” the payroll-tax cap that shields income earned above a designated amount – currently $118,500 – from Social Security deductions.

“Then you’ve got a system that is not only fully funded into the foreseeable future, but you could improve benefits,” Beer said.

The Retiree Council’s presentation can run 15, 30 or 60 minutes, depending on audience preference. To arrange a presentation for your group, contact the council at 651-227-7647 or 1-800-652-9004.

Learn more about the retiree council, an umbrella organization of union retiree clubs and local unions with retirees, at www.mnaflcio.org/state-retiree-council.

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