Kera Peterson: On this Labor Day, let’s commit to stopping the billionaire takeover

September 4, 2026 by

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at the 2026 AFL-CIO Convention, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. (Photo courtesy Jay Mallin)

You might think of Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer or the last day before school starts. Maybe it’s just a welcome three-day weekend. But in the labor movement, Labor Day is a celebration of the power that we, as workers, have when we join together in unions – the power of solidarity. When working people come together and fight for each other, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. We can stand up to the wealthiest CEOs and the most powerful politicians. We can topple corporate greed and rewrite the rules.

Of course, Labor Day also brings us closer to Election Day, and our unions are already working hard, both here in Minnesota and across the country, to power a campaign that takes back our country for working people. We’re mobilizing to elect pro-worker candidates who will be on our side, not for the elites.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen what a billionaire-first government looks like ever since President Trump and his allies in Congress took power last year. Their “big, beautiful bill” gave record tax cuts to billionaires and corporations – paid for with cuts to healthcare, food assistance and other services that working families rely on. Before the bill passed, unions joined a chorus of voices warning that the measure would leave more Americans uninsured, increase costs for local providers and raise premiums for the rest of us. Now it’s happening, making it harder than ever for working families just to make ends meet.

Healthcare isn’t the only thing more expensive in Trump’s economy. From gas and groceries to rent, families’ costs are skyrocketing. Too many of us feel like we’re falling behind or just barely getting by, whether we’re working longer and harder than ever for less in return or attempting to retire. Too many working people are living on the edge, stressing over every bill, every purchase, every paycheck.

It doesn’t have to be this way. And it shouldn’t. Working people built this country, yet every day we seem to matter less to the wealthy elites in power.

It’s past time that elected officials, from the Capitol in Washington to our city halls, prioritize working people by creating good jobs with better pay and affordable health care, and by protecting the programs we all depend on like Social Security and Medicare. We also need leaders who will fight to remove barriers workers face when they try to organize a union and bargain a first contract. More than 70% of Americans and nearly 9 in 10 people younger than 30 support unions, and polls show that millions of workers would join a union tomorrow if they could. Yet less than 12% of the workforce enjoys union representation on the job.

So on this Labor Day weekend, let’s take a moment to celebrate our solidarity, and then let’s recommit ourselves to fighting for worker power. Because the stakes have never been higher. Our labor movement is ready to fight for an economy, a government and a country for the people, not the billionaires. We’ll knock on doors, we’ll make phone calls and send texts, we’ll rally and we’ll fight to elect the candidates who share our vision for the future. We’ll share volunteer events on our website and social media. We hope you’ll help us win for working people on Election Day!

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Her column appeared in the September 2026 issue of The Saint Paul Union Advocate, which is the SPRLF’s official publication.

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Kera Peterson: Workers deserve freedom, fairness and security

August 25, 2025 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

As American workers, our labor takes many forms. We create wealth, build communities and deliver the goods and services that grow our economy. We serve the public, care for the sick and create a safety net for the most vulnerable. We educate, advocate and strive for a better world. But no matter where we work, no matter who signs our paychecks, we all share the dignity that our work brings.

That’s what we, as Americans, celebrate on Labor Day – the struggles, values and shared interests that united previous generations in the fights for child-labor laws, health and safety standards and the eight-hour day. Throughout our history, the labor movement has had the vision to imagine a life for working people that didn’t exist yet. As union members, we stand on the shoulders of workers who found the collective will to make that vision a reality. On Labor Day we honor their sacrifices, and we renew our commitment to carrying on the fight for what all workers deserve: freedom, fairness and security.

That’s what our labor movement is fighting for every day, and we’re doing it in the face of unprecedented attacks from union-busters – and that includes the Trump administration. Union members know firsthand the value that comes with the freedom to form a union, to bargain a contract and to speak up with one powerful, unified voice. It’s a freedom that the American public overwhelmingly supports. It’s a freedom we can’t afford to take for granted. Right now, unions are fighting back in court to stop the president and his crony cabinet from stripping federal workers of their union contracts, and from seizing control of the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency charged with upholding collective bargaining rights.

Our unions also lead the fight for fairness, for a just share of the wealth that workers create and for a square return on a hard day’s labor. Workers deserve an economy built on fairness, too, but the president and Republicans in Congress are taking our country in the opposite direction. The AFL-CIO’s annual “Executive Paywatch” report, released last month, found that the CEOs S&P 500 Index companies out-earned their workers by a 285-to-1 ratio, on average, last year. That means the median employee would have had to start working in the year 1740 to earn what the average CEO raked in last year alone. And the president’s signature tax and spending bill, which overwhelmingly benefits corporations and the wealthy, will only make inequality worse.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to weather rising health care costs, cuts to public services and the economic uncertainty resulting from the president’s tariffs. When we say American workers deserve security, we mean a country where children and families don’t have to struggle to afford food, housing and health care. We mean a nation where no one is targeted for who they are or where they were born, and where we can raise children and retire in dignity. That’s what our unions are fighting for.

Our movement faces attacks on multiple fronts right now, and that can feel overwhelming. No single march, protest or campaign will deliver the kind of change we know our country needs, the freedom, fairness and security that workers deserve. But every organizing drive, every strike, every time workers and their allies take action together is an act of radical hope. We bet on our solidarity and our collective power because we’ve seen it work before. Yes, the moment is tough, but toughness defines working people.

That’s what we celebrate on Labor Day.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which brings together 140 local unions representing workers in Ramsey, Dakota, Washington and Chisago counties. Learn more about the federation and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Peterson: Let’s re-commit to keeping unions strong

September 3, 2024 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in almost 60 years, and we’re seeing exciting labor organizing across Minnesota and the United States. Workers in both the public and private sector are coming together in union to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. Union organizing has swept across the U.S. in recent years, as workers in every sector of our economy continue to exercise their freedom to join together in unions – at auto manufacturing plants, health care facilities, bars and restaurants, white-collar offices and beyond. Here in Minnesota, we are 356,000 union members strong and growing!

This momentum is the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by unsafe workplaces and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. It’s also driven by wages that are outpaced by the increased costs of food and housing, child care and health care. Union members know that collective action can improve things for ourselves and our families, and that our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers. More than half a million U.S. workers went on strike last year, and recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements have secured large wage increases for workers in industries including construction, education, health care, manufacturing, and transit and transportation, as well as meaningful breakthroughs on non-wage issues.

Working people are actively trying to unrig the economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy. Meanwhile, corporate special interests are lobbying for massive tax breaks and deregulation, financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections, and financing candidates who will help them maintain the status quo by restricting our freedoms.

We’ve seen Project 2025, what these lobbyists are referring to as their 180-day playbook. Project 2025 includes proposals to make it easier for employers to get rid of workers’ unions mid-contract and to ban all public employee unions. It would allow states to ban labor unions, eliminate overtime protections and choose not to follow the national minimum wage. And it calls for the elimination of child labor rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants and other dangerous worksites.

They’ve shown us what they want to do to workers, and we should believe them. As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our general election on or before Nov. 5. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall, and we should get out and vote for our labor-endorsed candidates up and down the ticket. The power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests, the billionaire CEOs and anti-worker politicians who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.

We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.

Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful both at work and at the ballot box through our free and fair elections. This Labor Day, I hope you’ll re-commit yourself to showing up for our freedoms and democracy, and that you’ll join me in this work.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which publishes The Union Advocate newspaper. The SPRLF brings together nearly 150 local unions representing over 50,000 union members who live or work in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.

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Jamie Gulley: Time is right to organize ‘unions for all’

September 21, 2022 by

Jamie Gulley is president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

As we celebrated Labor Day this year, it felt like there was some wind at the backs of working people and our unions. Don’t get me wrong, we still are facing unprecedented challenges and well-funded opposition who would love nothing more than for us to no longer exist, but there is a spark evident everywhere you look that showcases that we may be entering a new phase of the American labor movement.

The union for which I am the elected president, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, has seen an amazing surge in the last year. We had over 1,500 new members join our union, most of them just in the last half of 2021. There are more organizing campaigns happening as we speak.

It is exciting to see win after win, especially as workers at places like Starbucks and Amazon are taking on big, national fights of their own. Some of the groups joining our union were small shops of just a dozen health care workers. We also welcomed over 400 mental health workers from local hospitals and over 400 Planned Parenthood workers across five states. Each one of these amazing health care workers deserves respect from their employer, and our union plans to fight like hell alongside them to make sure they get it.

Each union win was different, but each also felt linked by the agitation from a system that is so clearly broken. You would think the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed clearly just who is “essential” to keep our state running, would help push the small handful at the top to do better by their frontline workers. But that isn’t the case.

Despite health care workers risking their health and safety throughout the pandemic, too many are still fighting for basic respect, protection and pay. Many workers are finding out what readers of this paper have probably known for a long time: there is power in a union.

It is exhausting to see these billionaires flying to space and seeing local “non-profit” health care leaders having their pay skyrocket, all while too many of our members struggle to pay the rent or mortgage, and to afford the rising costs that have come from corporate greed.

We can’t fool ourselves: unions are in a rough position. With just over 10% of workers in unions (and much less in the private sector), we’ve been beaten back by decades of attacks from those at the top. We know that their playbook is trying to divide us by what we do for a living, where we live or the color of our skin. They want us mad at each other to distract from their greed.

While health care workers who kept our state safe and running during this pandemic are sitting at their kitchen tables trying to make the math work on how to pay their bills, people at the top who care only about profits are taking more and more for themselves.

This is why our work to build a strong union movement is so critical. We’re proud of the growth our local has seen in the last year (not to mention the big gains we’ve made in the last decade, when we doubled our size and expanded into neighboring states), but we need the whole labor movement to grow.

We need to capture the energy that is out there now and make sure this growth results in more people who have a strong union contract. A strong union means higher wages and better benefits, but it also means demanding respect from our employer. It means having a voice and being able to stand up for what is right.

It was exciting to celebrate Labor Day this year with new polls showing the highest approval ratings for unions in decades. But we need to meet this moment.

At SEIU we have been saying we are fighting for Unions For All, and I hope that goal can be closer to a reality in the next year. I hope next Labor Day we’re celebrating continued popularity and growth for not just SEIU, but every union in Minnesota and across the country, and we can begin the real work of taking this country back from the rich and powerful. Together, we will make sure the working people who make this country run are getting the respect and pay they deserve.

– Jamie Gulley is executive director of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, a union of nearly 50,000 health care and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home care across the two states. His column appeared in the October 2022 issue of The Union Advocate.

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Peter Rachleff: Labor Day roots trace to St. Paul’s East Side

August 31, 2022 by

Most of us, from St. Paul workers and labor activists to labor historians like me, have been unaware of the role that St. Paul workers played in the establishment of the Labor Day holiday.

In April 1894, railroad workers from Montana to Chicago struck the Great Northern Railroad. Owner James J. Hill had cut their wages three times since a depression had begun in the fall of 1893, and, across all the running trades, workers had joined the new American Railway Union under the charismatic leadership of Eugene V. Debs. Debs made the case to workers that, facing the country’s biggest corporations, they were ill-served by belonging to 14 different craft unions rather than coming together in one big union of railroad workers. By spring of 1894, this argument made sense to tens of thousands of engineers, firemen, brakemen, switchmen, trainmen, conductors, maintenance of way workers and more.

The very center of the strike was the East Side of St. Paul. Strikers met in the second-floor meeting room of a mutual benefit society located at 896 Payne Ave. Following their spirited meetings, they would march, singing, to the newly built overpass above the tracks three blocks south on Payne, just north of Minnehaha Avenue. There they dumped garbage on the tracks, seeking to interfere with the scab-operated trains that Hill had funded. Great Northern trains on these tracks ran from the flour mills on the Minneapolis riverfront, through St. Paul’s Swede Hollow, on their way to Duluth. There, barrels of flour would be loaded onto ocean-going ships and sent across Lake Superior, out the Saint Lawrence Seaway and across the Atlantic Ocean. Due to the productivity of midwestern wheat farming, flour milling and transportation, barrels of Minnesota flour undersold European flour in cities across the continent and made the Pillsburys, Washburns and Crosbys oligarchs to rival Hill.

And they were unhappy when “his” workers went on strike and disrupted the shipment of “their” flour. Pillsbury called on Hill and urged him to settle with his workers. Hill agreed to participate in the first ever third-party arbitration of a major strike and to allow Pillsbury to serve as arbitrator. Debs agreed, too.  Lo and behold, Pillsbury ruled in favor of the American Railway Union and ordered Hill to restore the wage cuts!

Word spread among railroad workers that the American Railway Union had defeated Big Jim Hill, and in the next months Debs was deluged with requests for membership.  One of those requests came from the machinists, molders and foundry workers who made Pullman sleeping cars in a company town just outside Chicago. Pullman had not only cut his workers’ wages several times, but he had refused to reduce their rents or the prices charged by his company stores. Workers explained to Debs that, while they did not work on moving trains, they were railroad workers, and he agreed. And when they added that they were already on strikes, Debs called for a nationwide “boycott” of all trains that included Pullman cars. This was tantamount to calling a nationwide railroad strike, since virtually all trains included Pullman cars, and the East Side railroad workers, back on the job only two months, returned to the picket lines.

Pullman hired the former U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney to help him break the strike. Olney argued before a federal judge in Chicago that, because every train included a mail car, the strike was interfering with the shipment of the nation’s mail. The judge agreed and issued the first ever federal injunction against a strike. Debs was hauled into court and told to issue an order ending the strike. When he refused, the judge found him in contempt and ordered him to jail. Debs would spend the next 18 months in prison, refusing to call off the strike.

President Grover Cleveland decided to send the National Guard to break the picket lines in Chicago. There was considerable violence, and the strike began to crumble. But this “success” sullied Cleveland’s political reputation, and the Democrat’s advisors told him he had to do something to win back working class support, which had put him in office. And so, in August 1894, he decreed there would be an annual national holiday called “Labor Day.”

On Saturday, Sept. 10, from 3 to 6 p.m., the East Side Freedom Library will host a Labor Solidarity Picnic on our beautiful front lawn. Come learn other labor history stories that you and your families might not know. And come hear about current labor struggles, from union organizing at Starbucks, Amazon and Half Price Books to the struggles of railroad workers nurses, nurses and other health care workers, and of Building Trades workers today.

Yes, there is history to learn, and there is history to be made. Join us!

– Peter Rachleff is co-executive director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

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Kera Peterson: Organizing surge shows what’s possible at the polls

August 30, 2022 by

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at a union rally in the Chisago Lakes School District, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation.

We’ve all seen the headlines: From Amazon warehouses to hospitals and clinics, from bookstores to coffee shops, we are in the midst of a historic upswing of labor organizing. Working people in Minnesota and across the country are coming together to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. And they are looking to our unions for solidarity and support in that fight.

Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in the past 50 years. We have seen a surge in U.S. workers looking to exercise their freedom to stand together in unions, driving up the number of petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board by 69% compared to last year.

And more often than not, those NLRB elections are going workers’ way here in Minnesota. Our state’s union density – the share of union members in the total workforce – has increased in each of the last two years, bucking a national trend. More than 16% of Minnesota workers are union members. We are 416,000 members strong and growing!

This momentum is exciting and inspiring. It is also the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by low wages, unsafe workplaces, unaffordable health care, and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. When we join together in union as workers, we have the opportunity to make better lives for ourselves and our families. Our unions help ensure safer workplaces, and our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers, whether they are union members or not.

But working people are also looking to the labor movement to restore balance to our economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy.

Corporate special interests have lobbied successfully for massive tax breaks and deregulation, while financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections. Companies like Amazon pit states and municipalities against each other for public subsidies and incentives, while avoiding billions in federal taxes. Meanwhile, working families paying their fair share in taxes have seen the cost of health care, child care and energy cut deeper into their paychecks. Sometimes it feels like the deck has been stacked against us, and in many ways it has.

As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we take the same momentum driving this surge in workplace organizing and use it to mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our General Election on or before Nov. 8. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall. Only the power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests and the billionaire CEOs who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.

We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.

We’ll never outspend the corporations and billionaires, but we can always outwork them. Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful, both at work and at the ballot box. Together, we can help elect pro-worker candidates who support our freedoms to join a union, to earn a good living, to access affordable health care and to vote for our representatives in free and fair elections. I hope you’ll join me in this work.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. The SPRLF unites over 50,000 union members who live and work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. Learn more about the federation, its endorsed candidates and how to volunteer with the Labor 2022 campaign at stpaulunions.org.

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A ‘prime opportunity’ for workers, communities to take on Amazon

October 1, 2020 by

Workers at Amazon’s Shakopee facility went on strike in July 2019.

By Kristi Wright and Peter Rachleff, East Side Freedom Library

Half a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 190,000 Americans have lost their lives, tens of millions are unemployed or underemployed and many small businesses have closed permanently. While working people have struggled, major corporations like Amazon have consolidated power, posting record profits as they expand operations. The company has intensified the exploitation of its growing workforce, breaking promises to provide hazard pay and bonuses to workers risking their health and safety.

A century ago, farmer, labor and community activists used an octopus to depict the ways that they saw capitalist greed grasping for control over social, economic and political life. Today, it is hard to imagine a more appropriate metaphor for Amazon.

Yet the breadth of Amazon’s reach makes possible intersectional and international alliances. In honor of Labor Day, the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul hosted “Labor Day Ain’t No Picnic,” a conversation among a group of activists using research, social media, art and on-the-ground organizing to rein in the modern-day octopus. They detailed Amazon’s tightening grip on workers, e-commerce, cloud computing, public policy and more, as well as what we can do about it. (Watch the full discussion here.)

Speakers included Tyler Hamilton, a worker at the Amazon warehouse in Shakopee who has ties to the Awood Center, an East African worker center; Dania Rajendra, director of Athena, a coalition of over 50 nonprofits taking on Amazon; Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit dedicated to building economic and political power for local communities; and Sue Zumberge, owner of Subtext Books, an independent bookstore in St. Paul. Funds raised from the event were split between ESFL and the Education Minnesota Foundation School and Child Care Worker Relief Fund.

A trillion-dollar company, Amazon is massive. Rajendra explained that it directly employs 850,000 workers, and relies on an additional 75,000 subcontracted workers to fulfill its signature one- and two-day shipping. It dominates the e-commerce space, with more than two-thirds of online shoppers starting their search at Amazon, and more than half of American families subscribing to Amazon Prime. The company acquired grocery chain Whole Foods in 2017. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s main revenue driver, provides cloud computing and storage for nearly half of the web, including such household names as Zoom, Netflix and Slack. Lesser known are Amazon’s partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the CIA and local law-enforcement agencies. CEO Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $192.1 billion, is the world’s richest person.

At Amazon warehouses, where home delivery orders are tracked and packed, workers face grueling conditions. Held to superhuman productivity standards, they are pressured to “make rate” of up to 400 packages per hour, or risk being written up or fired. The system treats workers as machines, Hamilton said, and is not designed to include them in a decision-making process dominated by executives and shareholders. If a worker speaks up as an individual, the company’s resources are mobilized to silence them, which is why collective action is necessary to win change. Hamilton recounted how in March 2019, at the 2,500-worker warehouse in Shakopee, managers announced higher rates, cuts to support roles and an increase in low-paid temp positions. Objections raised by workers through official channels were ignored. Fed up, a group of mostly East African workers partnered with the Awood Center in Minneapolis to organize a three-hour walkout. Proclaiming “we are humans, not robots,” they rallied for safe jobs, respect from managers and a voice in the workplace. Since then, the Awood Center has continued to organize strikes and protests at the warehouse.

Small businesses have also been hurt by Amazon’s near-monopoly. Zumberge, owner of Subtext Books, explained how bookstores were the first target of the octopus. In 2007, she testified at the Minnesota Legislature about Amazon’s evasion of state sales taxes. As the company has grown, more customers use her bookstore as a showroom for Amazon, scanning barcodes to look for a lower price on the app.

To be sure, the web, e-commerce and home delivery have been a great convenience during the pandemic. Rather than conflate opposition to Amazon with opposition to these services, Mitchell urged communities to imagine ways to provide them by democratic means. Putting the company in historical context, she described how the weakening of labor and antitrust laws over the last several decades has led to an immense concentration of corporate power, allowing large businesses like Amazon to hold down wages, defeat unions, crush small businesses, enforce racial hierarchy and capture the political process. With its e-commerce, shipping, and cloud computing services, it controls important economic infrastructure. How could we build a system that better serves our community?

It is nearly impossible to avoid Amazon completely, speakers acknowledged. They urged supporters not to feel guilty for using Amazon, but rather to engage in collective action. Donate to labor and community organizations that are taking on Amazon, and show up to support picketing workers. Vote for policymakers that will pass pro-labor and pro-worker legislation, break up monopolies and strengthen safety protections. Avoid ordering heavy, bulky items that are hard on warehouse workers’ bodies. Shop at local businesses offering curbside pickup and delivery. And donate to organizations like ESFL that provide a forum for learning about these issues and their history.

In the present crisis, issues of corporate power have become all the more pressing. As we grow increasingly dependent on economic infrastructure controlled by capitalist greed, it may seem difficult to envision anything different. A century ago, farmer, labor and community activists taught us that even when the octopus seems unbeatable, victory is possible if the working class fights together. Whether it be through research, social media, art or on-the-ground organizing, we too have the power to transform our world. A better world is possible, and we shouldn’t settle for anything less.

– Kristi Wright is labor liaison for the East Side Freedom Library. Peter Rachleff is the ESFL’s co-executive director.

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Workers tap into community support, put Surly on notice: ‘We’re not done here’

September 6, 2020 by

Credit Surly for this much: the union-busting craft brewer inspired one raucous Labor Day-weekend rally, drawing nearly 200 people into the streets outside its destination beer hall in Minneapolis today.

Workers at the gleaming, new complex in Prospect Park went public Monday with their plans to unionize. Two days later they received layoff notices, and Surly owner Omar Ansari, citing COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants and bars, announced the beer hall would close indefinitely Nov. 2.

Today, workers like Megan Caswell served Ansari with notice that they aren’t going away quietly, even if the beer hall is.

“We’re not done here,” the bartender said. “We’re still fighting.”

Caswell and her co-workers aren’t fighting alone.

UNITE HERE Local 17, the union representing more than 6,000 Twin Cities hospitality workers, has pledged legal action against Surly. And today’s demonstration followed a steady barrage of social-media backlash to Surly’s announcement.

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Workers and supporters marched along the public sidewalk bordering Surly’s makeshift beer garden, which steadily emptied as the protest swelled. Later, demonstrators shifted their route to extend through a crosswalk, halting cars and bicycles en route to the beer hall’s parking lot and turning dozens away.

Labor Day weekend in the Twin Cities usually brings working people of all stripes together for picnics and parades, canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scene outside Surly offered a reminder of the history – and ongoing struggle for justice at work – behind the holiday.

Members of several Twin Cities labor unions jumped at the opportunity to celebrate by showing some solidarity.

“What better way to spend Labor Day?” asked Kyle Karr, a member of Minneapolis Fire Fighters Local 82, marching in his bunker gear.

Karr previously worked in the food-service industry.

“I’ve been in their position before, and they’re looking for the same thing I’ve been granted as part of a large, national union,” Karr said. “We’re all workers at the end of the day, and we all want the same things.”

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, Service Employees, St. Paul Federation of Educators and other unions also wore their union colors to the demonstration.

“Like any other workers, Surly workers are fighting for a voice on the job, a voice in their safety and a voice in their welfare,” said Mat Terwilliger, business agent for Local 13 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees. “I’m going to support that anywhere it happens.”

Ali Fuhrman, president of AFSCME Local 2822, which represents Hennepin County clerical and related workers, said it’s particularly exciting to see union organizing happen at places like Surly. Research shows workers in the food-service industry face greater vulnerability to wage theft and sexual harassment, and less than 2% of workers nationwide are represented by unions.

“I’m sure all the other breweries and distilleries are happy Surly is doing this,” Fuhrman said of the company’s end run around its workers’ union drive. “I think momentum is starting to swing. It’s really exciting to see.”

The community support hasn’t gone unnoticed by Surly workers.

Natalie Newcomer, a former server who was fired by Surly on Aug. 5 – in retaliation for union organizing, she believes – said it was disheartening for workers to see their concerns about safety, economic security and customer experience dismissed so casually by management. But today’s rally, she said, is a reminder that the fight is worth it.

“It’s been really beautiful to watch the community get together and fight for what is right,” Newcomer said. “Our family has only grown stronger. And that’s an awesome feeling.”

Any regrets?

“Absolutely not,” said Caswell, who joined the rally after finishing a shift behind the bar. “I’ve never organized anything in my life – maybe my sock drawer. It’s been a real education, and I would do it again in a second if need be.”

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Kera Peterson: A distant Labor Day this year, but our solidarity endures 

September 3, 2020 by

Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Her “Labor Voices” column appeared in the September 2020 issue of The Saint Paul Union Advocate.

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Kera Peterson

For many of us, Labor Day weekend marks the final days of summer, one last chance to throw a backyard barbecue or head up to the cabin before the school year begins. For the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, Labor Day has in recent years been an opportunity to bring hundreds of union members together for a parade through the State Fairgrounds. 

This year, of course, Labor Day looks a lot different. Get-togethers with loved ones are spaced six feet apart. And not only is our parade canceled, the whole State Fair has been called off. Despite the differences, Labor Day should always be about celebrating the contributions of America’s working people – especially the essential workers who have kept our country and our state going through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The list of heroes working on the front lines during this public health crisis is long and filled with union members. Millions of America’s working people have stepped up, risking our lives and livelihoods, to continuously go to work since the onset of COVID-19. U.S. Postal Service employees are working in challenging, sometimes chaotic conditions to make sure our mail is safely delivered. Grocery store clerks are working overtime to ensure we have food to put on the table. Tradespeople are building and maintaining our infrastructure. Health care workers are adjusting to new protocols and care models to keep our communities well. Educators and public employees are working hard in conditions that continue to shift. Transit workers are getting essential workers to and from their jobs. 

COVID-19 has highlighted the vast social, economic and racial inequalities in this country, challenges we must face head on moving forward. But the pandemic is also shedding light on another crucial difference in economic and health security: the benefits of belonging in a union. According to the Economic Policy Institute, just 67% of nonunion private-sector workers had access to health care benefits in 2019, compared to 94% of union members. The union difference is real. Collective bargaining leads to benefits like paid leave, job security and wages high enough to sustain a family. 

On a more typical Labor Day, the Saint Paul RLF would bring together over 200 union members to march in the Minnesota State Fair’s parade. But not this year.

There’s never been a year where the union advantage – the power of having a voice on the job, a seat at the table – has been more clear. From National Nurses United winning victories in its fight for adequate personal protective equipment to the United Food and Commercial Workers demanding (and winning) stricter safety guidelines for grocery stores, solidarity has been fundamental in protecting America’s workers in this crisis. When working people come together, we make things better for everyone, especially in a crisis. 

But as we celebrate the working people who got us here and will keep us going, we also must take Labor Day to honor our brothers, sisters and friends who have fallen to COVID-19, especially those who became infected while on the job. No one should have to choose between risking their life or losing a paycheck. In our moments of great darkness, we must continue the fight for safe working conditions, hazard pay and paid sick leave.  

As union members, we must never take for granted the rights that empower us to bargain for safe workplaces, quality health insurance, family-sustaining wages and protections on the job. And in the face of this unprecedented pandemic, it’s important now more than ever to take this year’s holiday to uplift political candidates who share our values and fight to protect our rights.  

We’ve seen firsthand the devastation caused by political pundits who choose to put profits over people. That’s why this November, it’s crucial we get to the ballot box to elect labor-endorsed candidates for the Minnesota Legislature, for Congress and Joe Biden as the next president of the U.S.  

The labor movement has responded to COVID-19 with passion and dedication, fighting nonstop for workers’ protections. On Labor Day, we’ll pause to celebrate our essential workers and pay tribute to those we’ve lost, to cherish the rights won by union members before us and imagine what we can accomplish with an ally in the White House. And then we’ll get back to work. 

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

No picnics, no parades, but Freedom Library will mark Labor Day with virtual event on organizing Amazon

September 2, 2020 by

Workers at Amazon’s Shakopee facility went on strike in July 2019.

The East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul will celebrate Labor Day early and online this year, with a virtual discussion about worker organizing at the world’s largest retailer, Amazon.

The event, “Labor Day Ain’t No Picnic,” will broadcast on the ESFL’s Facebook and YouTube pages Sept. 3, bringing together activists who are using research, social media, art and on-the-ground organizing to build worker power at Amazon.

“A century ago, farmer, labor and community activists used an octopus to depict the ways they saw capitalist greed grasping control over work, business, community, and political life,” East Side Freedom Library Co-Director Peter Rachleff said. “Today, it is hard to imagine a more appropriate metaphor than such a creature for Amazon. Yet, the very breadth of its reach makes possible the weaving of intersectional and international alliances.”

All are welcome to join the discussion and learn how to get involved in ways that, as the independent, nonprofit library’s mission statement says, “inspire solidarity, work for justice and advocate for equity for all.”

The online event will begin at 7 p.m. Click here to register.

Lead presenters are Dania Rajendra, director of the Athena Coalition, which brings together more than 50 organizations wrestling with different aspects of Amazon’s power and influence, and Stacy Mitchell, co-director of one of those organizations, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Graduates of Macalester College, both have deep connections in the Twin Cities and to the East Side Freedom Library.

Rajendra is a poet, essayist and journalist who worked for both the St. Paul Union Advocate and the Minneapolis Labor Review in the early 2000s, then moved to New York to be associate editor of The Clarion, the newspaper of the faculty union at the City University of New York. Rajendra also has taught at the Institute for Labor Relations at Cornell University.

Mitchell is the author of “Home-Town Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why it Matters” and “Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses.” Last year, Mitchell was a significant voice in CNN’s documentary film “The Age of Amazon.”

While COVID-19 has greatly expanded Amazon’s reach and CEO Jeff Bezos’ wealth, making him the richest man in the world, the pandemic has further revealed the corporation’s ugly sides, Rachleff said, pointing to its “disregard for workers’ safety and security, their resistance to workers’ efforts to organize, their economic impact on independent small businesses, and their political influence with city, state, and national governments.”

“Dania and Stacy will discuss their work to weave together the wide range of people whose lives are being undermined by the modern-day octopus, and they will be joined by some of the grassroots activists with whom they have been working,” Rachleff added.

“Grassroots responses to both COVID-19 and the murders of George Floyd and others have revealed the potential power that still exists across this country, across this world. Learn how organizations like Athena and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance are amplifying this power, and learn how we can become involved in productive and constructive ways to promote economic and political democracy.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , ,
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