Mitra Jalali Nelson: Labor endorsed in St. Paul’s Ward 4

August 6, 2018 by

Mitra Jalali Nelson thanks delegates to the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation for their support.

Renters outnumber homeowners in St. Paul, but there are no renters on the city council. That’s something Mitra Jalali Nelson is out to change.

Nelson, the labor-endorsed candidate in a special election Aug. 14 to fill St. Paul’s Ward 4 seat, has drawn on her experience as a renter to craft a “blueprint” of policy proposals aimed at making housing in St. Paul more affordable, like zoning rules that allow development of more rental stock and programs that support aspiring homeowners.

Nelson is thinking big. And as a former union organizer and current aide to U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, she has firsthand experience turning big ideas into reality.

The self-described “organizer at heart” knows it takes teamwork to make meaningful change.

“I look forward to working hand-in-hand with workers, unions and partners citywide to address income inequality head-on, and achieve citywide progress that brings all of us with it,” Nelson said.

‘The rent won’t wait’

Nelson has positioned herself as a champion of affordable housing from the start of her bid for City Hall. She won labor’s backing, meanwhile, by connecting the dots between her top issue and the things St. Paul unions fight for every day – good jobs, quality public services and strong public schools.

Affordable housing, Nelson said, is “key to ending income inequality” and, in St. Paul, a “crisis” that demands urgent attention.

Recent data from the Census Bureau backs up her claim. It shows 51 percent of renters are in “cost-burdened” situations, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Too often, Nelson said, the amount is closer to half.

“When people spend most of their income on housing, they’re forced to buy fewer groceries, skip a doctor’s appointment, forego school supplies and spend less in St. Paul businesses,” she said. “Foregoing action on this issue is holding our city back.”

A leading contributor to St. Paul’s affordable housing crisis? Rents are going up faster than working people’s wages. Over the last 25 years, median rents have increased by 9 percent, when adjusted for inflation, while median household incomes have fallen by 3 percent.

Backers of a $15 minimum wage ordinance in St. Paul have printed shirts with their rallying cry: “15 Now because the rent won’t wait.” Nelson said she supports $15 “without any exemptions.”

“I support passing one fair wage for our city and will work with community partners toward a $15 minimum wage citywide without any exemptions,” she said. “As the costs of living rise, our wages have been stagnant, and we need to take significant action locally to address this.”

But the city can also do more to make rental housing more affordable, she said.

“We need to act on our affordable housing crisis, using tools at the city level like inclusionary zoning and upzoning to help create more affordable units throughout the Ward and our city,” Nelson said. “We also need help from the county and state, and I will advocate for and seek additional resources to support the construction of more affordable housing, including public housing.

“As a renter, I am running to organize a coalition of renters and homeowners alike to achieve progress on this issue.”

Unions impressed

Barb Herrington-Hall, who retired this summer after 33 years as an educator, participated in the St. Paul Federation of Teachers’ screening process in Ward 4. She came away impressed with Nelson’s vision, energy and grasp of the issues facing St. Paul.

Nelson’s passion for affordable housing struck a chord with Herrington-Hall, whose job involved making house calls to families in the district to screen children for special education services.

“I’ve been in apartments that the number of people living there, the quality of the housing, it would break your heart,” Herrington-Hall, a Ward 4 resident, said. “And it’s parents who have to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent.

“As educators, we know these parents aren’t able to come to meetings at conference time or help their child with homework. So I see the difference it would make if parents only had to work one full-time job.”

Herrington-Hall also knows Nelson does more than talk about supporting union members.

“The first time I met her she was participating in a rally in front of the school board building to support our bargaining team,” Herrington-Hall said. “Mitra was there in the crowd before she was ever endorsed, standing out in the cold with the rest of us.”

On the web

• Learn more about Nelson’s campaign at www.mitranelson.com.

• View a list of labor-endorsed candidates on the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s website.

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

Teaching, union leadership ‘all come together in the auditor’s office’ for Blaha

August 2, 2018 by
blahaunion960

Julie Blaha

Julie Blaha’s first paycheck came from a job making cold calls for the United Democratic Fund. She was 14 years old.

“I asked people over dinner how they were going to vote for president,” recalled Blaha, the DFL- and labor-endorsed candidate for state auditor. “I thought it was amazing. I thought it was glamorous.”

A self-described “math nerd,” Blaha’s thirst for glamour and excitement eventually led to a career as a middle school math teacher, but her interest in elections and politics remained. She served multiple terms as president of the Anoka-Hennepin teachers’ union and, two years ago, made a successful bid to become Secretary-Treasurer of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

In June, Blaha secured the DFL nomination in the auditor’s race, prompting her to resign from her labor position to focus solely on campaigning statewide. Her interview with The Union Advocate has been edited for length and clarity.

UA: Is running for auditor just a way for a middle school math teacher to find trickier word problems for her students?

JB: When you’ve been on a nerd trajectory of math teacher to treasurer, this is really the next logical step…

I started out as an educator, and you learn really early on that if you truly want to support your kids, you need to get involved politically. We say we’ll do anything for our kids, and one of those things is making sure our policies give them the schools they deserve. We have wonderful policy ideas. All we need are the resources to implement them.

UA: You’ve seen that at the bargaining table, as a president of your union.

JB: One of the first things that really opened my eyes to school finance issues was when we didn’t have enough, when we had to lay off 100 teachers. We realized our only choice was to go to our community and ask them to agree to a tax increase.

That’s a big lift, but as you begin to talk to people about money that gets spent close to home, you start to have some real good conversations. It was a very real, very authentic, relatively nonpartisan discussion we could have, and it was one of the few places you can have it – in your county or your township or your school district. I love that part of government.

UA: What perspective will you bring to the auditor’s office, as a math teacher and as a union leader?

JB: I know I don’t have to have all the answers, but I want to give our local governments all the tools. As an educator, your job is not to do the work for your kids. It’s not to tell them the answer… The solutions are all in our communities. Just like in the labor movement, we know you should never do for a member what they can do for themselves. As the auditor, I’m not there to tell you what to do in your community. I’m there to make sure you’ve got the tools to find the solutions together – and then to check to see if your solution did what you hoped it would.

There’s something that is absolutely connected to how a good teacher works, to how a good union leader works and how a good politician works. They all come together in the auditor’s office for me.

UA: Some are pushing to get rid of the office altogether? I would assume you disagree…

JB: I think we can all agree that in this time of fake news and unprecedented assaults on truth-tellers at every level of government and work, we absolutely need the auditor’s office more than ever. It’s important we have somebody people know is simply there for the truth.

The people for getting rid of it, you really ought to ask them, why don’t you want that truth out there?

UA: What should union members who are public employees, in particular, expect of their auditor?

JB: I think you have an opportunity to look at public and private spaces, where you have private interests encroaching on the public. That’s a place to watch, where those worlds meet…

We have people in the public sector who have seen how it’s been abused. We have contractors in the private sector who have done it right. Our job is to make sure we all know what an effective public-private partnership looks like… And these aren’t always black and white issues. You’re not calling a coin toss. Your job is to look deeply into it.

UA: Retirees, too, have an interest in electing a good auditor, right?

JB: The next auditor is definitely going to need to understand pensions well. The auditor audits a number of public pensions, and we’re seeing right now unprecedented attacks in Minnesota on defined-benefit pensions. You need an auditor who can see through some of the subterfuge from folks against public pensions. That next auditor had better be able to look at the numbers and know which ones are real and which ones aren’t.

UA: You’ve given up your position at the state AFL-CIO. Was that a difficult decision?

JB: It was heartbreaking to leave. A friend of mine asked me, where are you most needed right now – is it secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, or is it in a statewide office? That was a real turning point. There are wonderful people who are ready to step into the secretary-treasurer’s role. There are fewer people who could run for office. But I miss it every day.

The main reason I had to resign is that I wanted to be crystal clear that we were being fair about the finances. It’s the way campaign finance laws work – and should work.

UA: What were your favorite parts of the job?

JB: My absolute favorite part of being a union officer has been standing up to right to work. For years, I’ve been part of this reawakening of the labor movement. It’s been exciting, it’s been terrifying, but most of it has been absolutely invigorating and inspiring.

UA: The ways that we work together as union members, is that what you mean?

JB: This idea that the movement is more than our individual organizations… It is something bigger and deeper, and you can just feel it throughout the entire country.

UA: It feels like a very pivotal moment, like our back can’t get any closer to the wall.

JB: And what are we seeing? We’re seeing increases in membership, we’re seeing increases in organization, we’re seeing increases in influence. We have to keep doing what we’re doing – and do it even more – because it’s working.

UA: You’ve been running for union office for a long time. How has it prepared you to run for auditor?

JB: I’m probably better prepared to be a first-time candidate than most because of my background in the labor movement. I’ve gotten a ton of training through the movement, and the movement’s support has been amazing. I’m a math teacher. I don’t have millions of dollars at my disposal. I don’t have the money to pay hoards of people to do the work. But I’ve got my union family. People ask what solidarity looks like? I know what it looks like now.

UA: Is this why we talk so much about encouraging union members to be candidates?

JB: If you’re going to fight big money in politics, you fight it with your family. I know if there’s something that I need, there’s always somebody I can call… If you’re a union member who’s thinking of running for office, remember that your union family is one of your biggest assets. Remember your union family – and then run!

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With support from more unions, St. Paul labor federation gains strength

July 31, 2018 by

Working people gain a stronger, more powerful voice when they join together in unions. That’s the basis of collective bargaining and a core principle of the labor movement.

But solidarity works for unions, too. By joining together in coalitions and federations, unions build important bonds that amplify the voice of all working people and advocate for our common interests.

Faced with a relentless wave of corporate attacks on unions and collective bargaining, unions won’t survive unless they stick together.

Three local unions – Bakery Workers Local 22, Teamsters Local 320, and Office and Professional Employees Local 12 – pledged to do just that last month, affiliating with the east metro’s largest labor organization, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

“We’re excited and honored to welcome these three local unions into our labor family,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “There is strength in numbers, and we need to be as strong as possible heading into election season.”

The St. Paul RLF works year round to support its affiliates’ contract, organizing and issue-based campaigns. The federation also recruits, trains and deploys volunteers for Labor 2018, the campaign to elect union-endorsed candidates, in four east-metro counties: Ramsey, Dakota, Washington and Chisago.

OPEIU Local 12

Local 12 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union represents more than 2,500 people working in health care operations, credit unions, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, local union offices and other workplaces in Minnesota.

The local’s largest bargaining unit is at HealthPartners, and women make up roughly 80 percent of the union’s total membership.

Ryan Mortensen, Local 12’s business manager, said the political atmosphere for organized labor drove his union’s decision to affiliate with the RLF.

“We alone cannot take this on,” he said. “By affiliating with the St. Paul labor federation, we gain more voice, more power to get our message out across the state and, hopefully, the nation.”

BCTGM Local 22

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 22’s history in St. Paul dates back to 1886, when it was just the Bakers and Confectioners Union. The founding charter still hangs in Local 22’s offices in Minneapolis.

Today, Local 22 represents about 1,800 workers in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, including people working at Pearson’s Candy and Baldinger Bakery in St. Paul.

Union President Bruce Peglow noted the St. Paul RLF provided assistance to Local 22 even before the union affiliated. The RLF stepped up in support of workers at Franklin Street Bakery, whose attempt to form a union has been met with harsh – and sometimes illegal – pushback from management.

“We appreciated that help, and we wanted to help out others in the labor movement as we are able to,” Peglow said. “We’re all stronger when we’re all together. None of us can afford to be an island unto ourselves.”

Teamsters Local 320

Teamsters Local 320 represents 11,500 public employees in all 87 Minnesota counties. They serve cities, townships, counties, school boards and other municipalities in a wide variety of jobs: maintenance workers, lawyers, food service aides, doctors, police and corrections officers, airport workers and more.

Brian Aldes, secretary-treasurer and principal officer, considers Local 320’s diversity to be among its greatest strengths.

“No matter what the member’s craft is, we all have something in common, and that’s being public employees who serve the taxpayers,” Aldes said. “We all understand how important what all of us do is for the public and for our communities.”

Local 320 members also know the importance of electing people to local, state and national office who value the work public employees do. That was among the reasons, Aldes said, the union’s political board voted to affiliate with the RLF.

“We live and die by who we elect to serve in public office,” Aldes said. “We saw what can happen when we don’t have a positive outcome in our presidential elections when the most recent Supreme Court nominee tipped the scales in the Janus case. Now we have nationwide right to work in the public sector.”

Closer to home, Local 320 saw the power of building relationships with elected officials during a difficult round of negotiations with the St. Paul Public Schools over cafeteria workers’ contract.

“We reached out to the St. Paul labor federation and Bobby Kasper, and I’ll tell you, it was an incredible resource to have,” Aldes said. “Whether it’s connections in community-based organizations, school boards, city councils or county boards, the work the labor federation does – and its ability to reach so many households with our message – we just knew we had to be a part of this.

“We’re stronger together.”

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Kera Peterson: Political action critical to defending our basic freedoms

April 27, 2018 by

Kera Peterson

There are just a few weeks left in Minnesota’s legislative session. During this session Republican members voted for a bill that would allow employers to pay less than minimum wage to tipped employees. They supported bills that would weaken teacher licensure, criminalize protest and prohibit teachers from introducing controversial material in their classrooms. They even supported bills in the Minnesota House and Senate to prohibit unions from collecting fair share fees from nonmembers which would be enforceable the day after the U.S. Supreme Court announces a decision to that effect, enshrining a possible ruling on the Janus v. AFSCME case into state law before the ruling is delivered.

Last week the Senate and House Finance Committees put together their omnibus bills, and most of these anti-union provisions are moving forward in one chamber or the other. This is happening despite Gov. Dayton clearly stating that he will not sign budget bills that contain controversial policy provisions into law. At the same time, issues like bonding, tax conformity and pension reform remain unresolved.

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation wanted to keep union members informed about what was happening at the State Capitol during the legislative session and asked local unions and union activists to join us in the work. Because folks understand the importance of educating members about public policy, union activists volunteered for more than 110 phone bank shifts and attempted conversations with more than 6,600 union members in the East Metro. This work will be expanded on with a series of member-to-member door knocks scheduled April 28, May 5 and May 19.

Many union members have come to think of Gov. Dayton as a hockey goalie defending against a power play. We know he would prefer that his team play offense, and we know that Minnesota’s governor doesn’t have the ability to make laws on his or her own. Because of that, the Regional Labor Federation is planning its electoral work now so that we are in the best position to help elect pro-worker candidates up and down the ticket this fall. The best way for us to do this is by talking with union members about issues they care about, and by getting them to take action on those issues by voting.

We are strongest when we come together in union. This November, Minnesota voters will be asked to choose between candidates who support this basic freedom and those who oppose it.

The Regional Labor Federation is committed to running a robust member-to-member field program that will educate union members about labor-endorsed candidates who support our freedom to join together in union. Our program will include door knocks, phone banks and support for worksite organizing. There will be opportunities for individuals to volunteer and for local unions to mobilize groups of volunteers by adopting a day or night of phoning or co-hosting door knocks. President Bobby Kasper and I invite you and your local union to join us in this work.

– Kera Peterson is political director of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Learn more about the federation and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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