With lockouts on the rise, state lawmakers weigh social, economic impacts

January 24, 2013 by
Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

Lockouts have gained popularity among Minnesota employers looking to flex their muscles in contract negotiations with union workers, but state lawmakers yesterday began examining the impact these prolonged work stoppages have had on families, communities and businesses.

The House Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee’s hearing on lockouts was likely a first step toward legislative action to protect locked-out workers – and make the tactic less appealing to employers.

Committee members surveyed ongoing lockouts at American Crystal Sugar, the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as the recently settled dispute between the National Hockey League and its players’ union. Testimony, often impassioned, came from labor, management and community stakeholders.

Becki Jacobson, a Moorhead, Minn., resident locked out of her job by Crystal Sugar for nearly 18 months, fought back tears as she talked about struggling to make her mortgage payments after her unemployment-insurance benefits expired six months ago. She added that she was recently diagnosed with severe depression.

“I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills,” said Jacobson, one of 1,300 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union locked out by the sugar-beet cooperative. “I don’t know where my next meal is going to come from.”

Heidi Durand, a sociology professor and member of the Moorhead City Council, said her community was not equipped to handle the volume of problems Jacobson and Crystal Sugar’s other locked-out workers are facing, from increased foreclosures and bankruptcies to mental-health issues and substance abuse.

Receipts are down at local businesses, and Moorhead’s homeless shelters have been “beyond capacity” since the fall, Durand said. Longtime friendships have splintered, leaving the community’s “social fabric greatly weakened.”

Orchestras locked out

In the metro area, two pillars of the classical music scene fell silent after the Minnesota Orchestra and the SPCO locked out their musicians last fall.

The musicians, members of the American Federation of Musicians Local 30-72, voted overwhelmingly against contracts that included steep salary, benefit and work-rule concessions. Rather than continue negotiating during the 2012-13 concert season, the orchestras went on the offensive, canceling concerts and cutting musicians off from their jobs.

At the House committee hearing, orchestra fans and business owners joined locked-out musicians in describing the ripple effects – economic, civic and artistic – of the lockouts.

Laurie Greeno, co-chair of the community group Orchestrate Excellence, said downtown Minneapolis merchants already have lost $1.25 million as a result of the lockout. Restaurants have told the group they are losing between $3,000 and $10,000 per concert.

Minnesota Orchestra trombonist Doug Wright said orchestra board members have shown a “disregard for the greater musical community,” pointing to music-education programming in schools across the state that has been canceled as a result of the lockout.

And SPCO musician Carole Mason Smith warned the committee that each day the lockout continues, the likelihood increases that another world-class musician from one of the Twin Cities’ orchestras will take their talents elsewhere. “Some of us have sold our homes,” she said, pointing to growing frustration among musicians with management’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful dialogue with the union.

Legislative action coming?

Although the committee hearing was not related to any specific bill, lawmakers heard some suggestions for how they might get involved. Greeno urged a “thorough analysis” of lockouts’ economic impact on the state, while Mark Thoson of the audience-driven group Save Our SPCO suggested holding the orchestras’ accountable for their nonprofit statuses.

“When the state confers nonprofit status to an organization, the state and organization have a duty to ensure the benefit to the public are protected,” Thoson said.

Musicians said lawmakers would not be overstepping their bounds by getting involved in the orchestra lockouts, as the state has financially supported the orchestras’ programming and facilities in the past, most notably a $14 million investment in ongoing Orchestra Hall renovations.

“We didn’t build Target Field for a minor league baseball team,” Wright said.

Unions also will push lawmakers to extend workers’ unemployment benefits for the duration of a lockout. Such an extension would prevent employers like Crystal Sugar from starving workers like Jacobson into accepting their contract demands.

Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter said the state’s largest labor federation also would support adding a penalty to the unemployment tax paid by employers after a lockout enters its second month. Money collected through the penalty would be split equally between the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and the Workforce Development Fund.

Testifying before the House committee: Becki Jacobson, Moorhead school teacher Jeff Offutt and Moorhead City Council Member Heidi Durand.

Testifying before the House committee: Becki Jacobson, Moorhead school teacher Jeff Offutt and Moorhead City Council Member Heidi Durand.

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Steve Hunter: Labor agenda includes investments, tax fairness, new jobs and workplace dignity

January 24, 2013 by

mug-hunter-webThe 2013 legislative session presents Minnesota’s labor movement with opportunities we haven’t seen since 1990, the last time we had a pro-labor governor and labor-friendly majorities in both the House and Senate. After 22 years of playing defense, we finally have an opportunity to accomplish positive change for working people. The Minnesota AFL-CIO, working with our affiliate unions, has assembled an agenda for this session that focuses on new investments, tax fairness, job creation and workplace dignity and fairness.

Our No. 1 priority is the state budget. We need to make new investments in our roads and bridges, schools and colleges – and provide care and dignity for our senior citizens. To make these important investments, there needs to be new tax revenue. We need to increase revenue by reforming our tax system to ensure fairness and stability. We have witnessed years of cuts to state and local government services, education, higher education, health care, human services, transportation and public safety. At the same time we’ve been asked to pay more in fees, property taxes and tuition. To protect the wealthiest Minnesotans from paying their fair share, previous governors and legislators have resorted to spending down reserves and borrowing from schools and endowments. It’s time to balance the budget without gimmicks while providing the additional funding needed to invest in our future.

We can also increase revenue by putting Minnesota back to work. The state AFL-CIO supports the Mall of America expansion, and we also support a significant bonding bill to put people back to work improving our state’s infrastructure, which will support and facilitate future economic growth.

Feb. 1 will mark the 18th month of the American Crystal Sugar lockout. As I write this, both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra remain locked out, and the NHL has only recently resumed games after a prolonged lockout. Locked out workers in Minnesota qualify for unemployment benefits, but cases like Crystal Sugar show that lockouts can linger well beyond the length of those benefits. That’s why we are proposing legislation to extend unemployment benefits for the duration of a lockout, and also add a penalty to the employer’s unemployment tax after the beginning of a lockout’s second month. Half of that penalty would go to the UI Trust Fund; the other 50 percent would support the Workforce Development Fund.

We will also support initiatives to protect workers’ right to organize, raise minimum wage and limit employers’ use of credit checks related to terms of employment. We will soon announce our complete agenda to the public.

The election was only the first half of ensuring pro-labor policies become law; the other half is holding elected officials accountable. We need union members to contact their legislators concerning these issues. For more information on labor-related legislation, contact our offices, visit www.mnaflcio.org or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

– Steve Hunter is Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the statewide labor federation representing over 300,000 workers.

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Unions seek organizing rights for Minnesota’s home health care workers

December 13, 2012 by
Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Karen Urman of Mounds View works as a personal care attendant for her adult son, Ziggy Norberg, who has used a wheelchair since he was 3 years old. The work is a full-time job, one Urman gave up her career as a tax preparer and office supervisor to pursue.

For Urman it is rewarding work, even if it doesn’t always draw the attention – or respect – it deserves. “Being a PCA is rarely considered a real job, especially when you’re a PCA for a family member,” she said.

State legislators can count on hearing from home health care workers like Urman during the 2013 legislative session, as they push for changes to a state law that prohibits them from organizing a union – a step many believe is critical to making their voices are heard as the state plots its course for meeting the needs of a rapidly aging population.

The number of Minnesota adults over 65 is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to the Wilder Foundation.

What’s more, workers believe a union would help legitimize the home health care profession and ensure workers are treated with the respect they deserve. Urman pointed to nurses and teachers as “respected career” paths that afford their professionals the right to unionize.

“My job is not necessarily more important than them, but it’s definitely not less important,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I have the right to form a union too?”

Unions push changes to law

The answer stems from a distinction made in state law between workers employed by home health care agencies, many of whom are unionized already, and workers like Urman, who are providing so-called “self-directed” care. Considered more like independent contractors by the state, workers in self-directed programs are denied organizing rights.

That’s a law two of the state’s largest unions will push lawmakers to change when the Legislature convenes next month.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota launched its drive to organize home health care workers with a media event yesterday in St. Paul, where PCAs like Urman, joined by their clients and family members, talked about the challenges they face, including low wages, minimal benefits and limited training opportunities.

Sumer Spika of St. Paul, who provides in-home care for her friend’s daughter, said her take-home pay has fallen over the last four years to the point where she can no longer afford to take days off work.

“I have sacrificed financial stability, I live paycheck to paycheck, I have sacrificed health insurance for my family at times, and I do so because I love what I do,” Spika said at the SEIU event. “I believe as a society and a community … we should not only value the ones that we care for, but also the ones that care for them.”

Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an active campaign to organize workers in self-directed home health care programs, according to Organizing Director Eric Lehto.

AFSCME has represented agency-employed home health care workers in Minnesota for more than 30 years, including 175 workers at Brooklyn Park-based Transition Health Care who won their first contract earlier this year.

“We have been advocating for workers in this industry for decades,” Lehto said. “We believe in collective bargaining rights for all workers, so we’ve been talking to and signing up (self-directed program) workers as well.”

Better Legislature provides hope

The drive to organize self-directed home health care workers parallels recent efforts to win union representation for child-care providers receiving direct subsidies from the state.

Last year, after Council 5 and SEIU Local 284 signed up thousands of child-care providers, Gov. Mark Dayton called for providers to vote in a union election, but a judge ruled Dayton lacked the authority to call an election without legislative approval.

Such approval may be easier to find next year, when labor-endorsed majorities take over both chambers of the Legislature. If they are successful in changing the law, it could pave the way for a union vote among the thousands of home health care workers statewide.

Ziggy Norberg, Urman’s son and client, said a vote to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is one he hopes his mother gets to take – for her sake and for his own.

“She has given up a lot in order to take care of me,” Norberg said of his mother. “The fact that she does this work for me, on top of caring for my brother and sister as a single parent, all without the benefits and wages of a real career is ridiculous.

“I dread having to get a stranger to come take care of my needs, (but) if the day comes that I do need to find someone else to be my PCA, I should be able to find someone who takes the job seriously like my mom does.”

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Report warns Minnesota lawmakers against following Michigan’s lead on ‘right to work’

December 11, 2012 by
Click to download Minnesota 2020's full report on RTW's potential impact on Minnesota's economy.

Click to download Minnesota 2020’s full report on RTW’s potential impact on Minnesota’s economy.

A report released today by the St. Paul-based think tank Minnesota 2020 backs up what unions have been saying about “right to work” laws like the one Michigan Republicans scurried to pass this week: They are bad for workers’ wages and benefits, as well as the economy as a whole.

Titled “A Losing Bet,” the report debunks the economic benefits touted by RTW proponents in Minnesota, but speakers at today’s Capitol news conference also weighed in on protests raging in Lansing, Mich., where Republicans used a lame-duck session to force two RTW bills – one for public-sector workers, another for private-sector workers – through the Legislature without committee hearings.

Matt Entenza, Minnesota 2020’s senior policy director, called the Michigan bills a “sneak attack” on workers.

University of Minnesota history professor Hy Berman called it a “tragedy that the great state of Michigan, the bedrock of industrial unionization, should join forces with Mississippi, Louisiana and other Confederate states to become a right-to-scab, right-to-keep-wages-down state.”

In an about-face from promises made on the campaign trail two years ago, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has said he will sign the RTW bills into law, making Michigan the nation’s 24th RTW state. (UPDATE: Snyder has signed the bills, making Michigan a RTW state.)

A question of fairness

Also known as “Freedom of Employment,” RTW would allow workers covered by union contracts to avoid paying their share of the costs of representation, but still enjoy the wages and benefits provided by the union contract.

Current law in Minnesota says a worker whose job is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement is obligated to pay “fair-share” fees to the union – at a lower rate than membership dues – to cover the costs of representation and bargaining. Under federal law, unions are required to represent and bargain for all workers subject to the contract, whether they are full members or not.

RTW would eliminate “fair share” fees. Some workers would pay dues if they chose to, but all workers would receive the benefits of union representation – from negotiated wage and benefit increases to grievance representation and seniority.

Unions argue RTW creates a “free-rider” incentive that undermines their ability to represent workers effectively. By eroding union membership, RTW also erodes wages, benefits and workplace protections for both union and non-union workers.

Those arguments are backed up by “A Losing Bet,” a review of independent academic literature on RTW. Minnesota 2020’s research shows union membership declines by 6.6 percent in states that pass RTW, while the “free-rider effect” in increases anywhere from 6 to 10 percent in bargaining units.

Minnesota 2020's Matt Entenza (right) and U of M professor Hy Berman discuss the findings of a new report on right-to-work laws.

Minnesota 2020’s Matt Entenza (right) and U of M professor Hy Berman discuss the findings of a new report on right-to-work laws.

The wrong approach to economic development

But do RTW laws draw large employers? Not so much, according to the report, which finds other factors – like highway accessibility and availability of skilled labor – are more important to large employers looking to develop or relocate their facilities.

In fact, Entenza said, RTW laws “hurt wages and hurt the ability of states to compete for high-wage jobs.”

With DFL majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, Minnesota is unlikely to follow Michigan’s lead during the upcoming legislative session. But if anyone had forgotten Minnesota Republicans’ attempt last spring to push a RTW constitutional amendment, the events in Lansing should serve as a wake-up call, Entenza said.

“We must use this opportunity to move the discussion forward on enhancing policies that ensure dignity, respect and wage protections in the workplace.”

Minnesota 2020 is a progressive, non-partisan think tank that focuses its research on education, health care, transportation and economic development.

Click here to download “A Losing Bet: Projecting Right to Work’s Impact on Minnesota’s Economy.”

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St. Paul Regional Labor Federation: Election results are cause for celebration

November 29, 2012 by

[Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, wrote this Labor Voices column with Kera Peterson and Peter Polga-Hecimovich, political organizers for the Federation.]

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has a lot to be proud of from the November elections. With our union brothers and sisters from across the state we helped beat back a destructive Voter ID Amendment, the anti-gay marriage amendment and, most critically, swung control of the Legislature to a pro-labor majority.

In our federation alone we managed to swing an incredible nine legislative seats from anti-union candidates to pro-Labor candidates, including six in Dakota County and two in Washington County. Also victorious was Rick Nolan, our 8th Congressional District candidate. With these victories and others across Minnesota we sent a powerful message to those at the Capitol that unions are a force to be reckoned with and, when awakened, we will use our strength to fight with all of our might for those causes in which we believe.

During the last legislative session the Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature and we hoped, despite our better instincts, that they would hold true to their promises of a jobs-centered legislative session. Instead of enjoying job creation, however, we found ourselves fighting a possible Right to Work amendment, devastating changes in prevailing wages, and a host of social issues the Republicans put forward.

We knew, given how close we were to seeing that Right to Work Amendment on the ballot this fall, that without a legislative majority it was only a matter of time before it came up again. So the St. Paul RLF got out early, with a series of candidate meet-and-greets in all four of our counties in June, introducing our legislative and congressional candidates to the unions. This crop of candidates, we knew, was a powerful group who would be our allies if elected.

In true form, our affiliate unions came through with volunteers, resources and release staff for the Federation, and we were able to start on the ground early, with calls and door knocks to targeted households happening as early as July. Between our volunteers and release staff, we began a mission that culminated with over 1,000 volunteer shifts.  This involved more than 20,000 individual doors knocked and tens of thousands of calls more to our targeted universe of union members.

Make no mistake about it; those phone calls and door knocks helped push our endorsed candidates over the line. This was the work that you all did.  We pushed hard and because of you we were blessed with a historic victory.

Sisters and Brothers, we should all be proud. For the first time in 22 years we have a legislative majority and governor who, after two years, we can finally bring out of the net to help us go on the offensive. We have this because of the hard work of our volunteers and release staff and the resources that all of our unions threw into this fight.

Now, as we approach this new legislative session, we can finally put a focus on the issues that we all know should reign supreme. It is time to put our friends and families back to work. Our efforts cannot be finished. We must keep pushing to hold all of our elected officials accountable, and we must turn our seasonal campaign into a year-around one.

With the election over, we look hope you join us in the new year as we let our new legislature know that the unions are here, and we are here to stay.

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Labor 2012 Endorsed: Carlson, Masin, Morgan eye return to Legislature

October 29, 2012 by

Jim Carlson (top-left), Sandy Masin and Will Morgan are labor-endorsed candidates seeking to return to legislative seats they lost in 2010.

Jim Carlson, Sandy Masin and Will Morgan are hoping voters who bounced them from office two years ago will show buyer’s remorse in 2012.

All three DFLers represented suburban areas south of St. Paul, including Burnsville, Eagan and Lakeville, from 2007 to 2010, but they were swept out of office by a wave of support for “tea party” Republicans two years ago.

What have Republicans accomplished since taking control of the Legislature? One state government shutdown, two divisive constitutional amendments and a $2.4 billion I.O.U. to public school districts.

“Instead of focusing on creating jobs and improving the economy like they promised, they got sidetracked by irrelevant issues, gridlock and shutting down the government,” said Morgan, a high school physics teacher from Burnsville running for House District 56B (map). “None of that helped improve the lives of working Minnesotans.”

Morgan, Carlson and Masin believe voters want a Legislature that will focus on moving Minnesota forward with real solutions – not scoring political points or advancing an extremist ideology.

Masin, a longtime parks advocate and community volunteer in Eagan, says voters in her House District 51A (map) deserve representatives who will act like adults. “We know some of the Republicans were just not willing to compromise at all to do the work of the state,” she said. “That’s the reason for the state shutdown.”

Carlson, a retired mechanical engineer from Eagan, is running against Sen. Ted Daley in District 51 (map). Daley was among the most vocal supporters of so-called Right to Work legislation, a direct attack on workers, collective bargaining rights and the middle class.

Carlson says Daley is taking marching orders from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, the corporate-backed lobbying group behind right-wing model legislation introduced in statehouses across the country, much of it aimed at stripping protections for middle class workers and their families. “If you go to China or to India, you’ll see what (ALEC) wants: to be able to have the lowest labor rates avail to them.”

Rather than compete in a race to the bottom, Minnesota should be developing an economy prepared to compete for the best jobs of the future – and that means making investments in K-12 and post-secondary education, keeping our infrastructure sound and preserving our high quality of life.

Masin agrees: “If we want to maintain our businesses and attract businesses, they need to know we have a workforce that is well educated.”

Morgan, meanwhile, isn’t shy about telling union members what’s at stake in this election. If Republicans maintain control of the Legislature, he predicts Minnesota will have a Right to Work constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2014 – legislation that would “turn Minnesota into a cold Mississippi.”

“We need to make sure our economic future is sound to bring prosperity to all,” Morgan added. “It starts with a strong middle class, and that starts with good schools and making sure working folks have a voice regarding their working conditions, wages and benefits.”

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For unions, opposition to marriage amendment swells from grassroots

October 29, 2012 by

Minnesota workers are pushing back against the marriage amendment – and pushing their unions to make marriage equality a priority.

Mary Larson Dennis, a social worker and member of AFSCME Local 151, remembers exactly the moment when she decided the freedom to marry wasn’t just a gay-rights issue, but a union issue as well.

It was March 2011, and Dennis, then an officer in her union, was making the rounds on a lunch break, talking to co-workers at Ramsey County about proposed cuts to the state budget. When she approached a co-worker on an elevator and asked if she had called her legislators yet, Dennis got an answer she wasn’t expecting.

“Of course I’m calling my representatives,” the co-worker told her. “Have you seen what they’re doing to marriage?”

The conversation that followed is one playing out thousands of times over in workplaces across Minnesota this year, after Republican majorities at the Legislature forced a proposed constitutional amendment limiting the right to marry onto the 2012 ballot.

“That was my co-worker looking me in the eye in the elevator and saying, ‘This is my issue,’” Dennis said. “I didn’t feel like I could look her in the eye back, as an officer of the union at that time, and say, ‘Yeah, I’m with the union and we’re not doing anything about issues that affect your family.’”

Instead, Dennis decided to take action. After consulting with other officers and union stewards, she and a handful of supporters drafted a resolution opposing any legislative attempt to limit the freedom to marry – a resolution that passed at Local 151’s next meeting.

Dennis and Local 151 may have been among the first Minnesota unions to take a stand on the marriage amendment, but several others quickly followed.

The grassroots momentum prompted several statewide union councils and federations to take up the cause of marriage equality. Dennis’ union, AFSCME Council 5, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO,  are among several labor organizations that have joined the coalition working to defeat the marriage amendment, Minnesotans United for All Families.

“Make no mistake – this is a labor issue,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson told delegates to the federation’s convention in September. “It is because we fight for all families. It is because unions have always been at the forefront of civil rights.”

Organizing union support

Knutson and other union leaders are backing up their words with actions – and campaign cash. The state’s unions have contributed more than $35,000 to Minnesotans United, and many have sponsored member-to-member phone banks about the issue in advance of the Nov. 6 election.

The conversation about marriage rights isn’t an easy one, even among friends, family members and co-workers. Cold-calling other union members about the topic is an especially daunting task. To give their volunteers confidence, leaders of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers’ committee working to defeat the marriage amendment hosted a “conversation training” with Minnesotans United in advance of their first member-to-member phone bank.

“We learned how to have the conversation with another individual so that you’re not on top of them saying, ‘You need to vote no!’” said Mary Denton, a member of the SPFT committee.  “We learned to slowly change their perspective and how they view the amendment, and we learned when to stop trying.”

Denton, Dennis and other union members working to build opposition to the marriage amendment – and grow support for marriage equality – say they focus their conversations on equal rights. As long as same-sex couples are denied the right to marry, they are denied the benefits that come with marriage – many of which are employer-provided.

“When we go to that bargaining table to negotiate a contract, right now we’re not able to represent all of our members,” Denton said. “When we are bargaining for health benefits, we can’t bargain for our LGBT membership – not for family coverage, or for their partners.”

The same applies to bereavement leave, medical leave, Social Security benefits – “all of these different things that heterosexuals just take for granted,” Denton said. “If this marriage amendment passes, it will only further inhibit our ability to represent all of our membership.”

Dozens of union members marched behind the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s float during the Pride Festival parade in Minneapolis earlier this year. (MN AFL-CIO photos)

Making a difference

For unions, taking a stand on the marriage amendment has not been without resistance, both from management in the worksite and from rank-and-file members. “To say there is not would be false,” said Tee McClenty, executive Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, another union that has been active in efforts to oppose the marriage amendment.

Still, the pushback wasn’t as stiff as McClenty and other leaders expected.

“We focused on educating the members who didn’t understand why we passed the resolution,” she said. “We told them we support all of our members, including our members in the gay community.”

Dennis, too, acknowledged “some drama” in efforts – ultimately successful – to get AFSCME Council 5 to endorse the Minnesotans United cause.

“If nobody’s trying to stop you, you’re not really making a difference,” Dennis said. “For me it comes down to an injury to one is an injury to all. If unions are about social justice, then we have to be about this.”

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Labor 2012: Minnesota unions eye legislative seats in suburban areas

October 24, 2012 by

Mona Meyer, a volunteer from the Communications Workers of America, picks up her door-knock route from Peter Polga-Hecimovich, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation political organizer.

On a sunny Saturday morning Oct. 20, dozens of union volunteers trickled into a coffee shop downtown Burnsville. They paired up, gathered routes and handbills, and fanned out across the suburb, knocking on fellow union members’ doors and talking about their labor-endorsed candidate for Minnesota House, Will Morgan.

Similar campaign activities have been taking place in Stillwater, Woodbury and other East Metro suburbs this fall, and they reveal a key strategy behind Minnesota unions’ Labor 2012 campaign: Building a better Legislature means winning in the suburbs.

“These are the races that have been tight in recent elections,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, which organized the door-knock in Burnsville last month. “We know they are going to be really tight again this year, and labor-endorsed candidates are going to need every union vote in order to win.”

The St. Paul RLF, working with the Minnesota AFL-CIO and other union federations, has identified eight races critical to rebuilding a pro-middle class majority in the Legislature. Those candidates come from places like Shoreview, Stillwater, Woodbury, Eagan and Burnsville – places where “Tea Party” candidates swept into office two years ago, helping Republicans gain majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate for the first time in decades.

Despite winning by narrow margins in these suburban districts, freshmen lawmakers did not seek out the middle ground at the Capitol. Rather, many of them sought to push their party to new extremes, shutting down the state government, attacking collective bargaining rights and pushing Right to Work legislation that would undermine the middle class.

Volunteers in Burnsville reported hearing a lot of frustration from union members they have talked to during door-knocks and phone banks.

“When you talk to union members out here about what the Legislature has done for middle class families, they say they are fed up with the gridlock, with the attempts to divide people,” said Mark Krey, a rank-and-file member of SEIU Local 284. “We need to get people elected who are running because they want to do good for the community – not people who just want to take the seat for the Republican Party.”

The Burnsville campaign event was the fourth door-knock this fall for Troy Eisenhuth, a member Teamsters Local 120. “I know my livelihood is at stake,” he said. “If these guys pass Right to Work, they take away my union – and they take away everything I’ve got.”

Find a list of labor-endorsed candidate – and sign up for a volunteer shift with your union – at www.middleclassmn.org.

Labor 2012 volunteers gather in a coffee shop downtown Burnsville before a door-knock organized by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.

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Statewide labor convention opens with political call to action

September 17, 2012 by

Election-year politics dominated Day 1 of the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 51st Constitutional Convention in Rochester yesterday, as speakers, including U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, urged delegates to take action in support of labor-endorsed candidates up and down the Nov. 6 ballot.

Klobuchar, whose campaign for a second term has the state labor federation’s endorsement, said unions will succeed in the 2012 elections by sticking to their vision for the U.S. economy – one that creates shared prosperity, preserves opportunities for all and rewards those who work hard and play by the rules.

“As hard as this (economy) is, it could be so much worse,” Klobuchar said. “We have to keep focused on the economic agenda, and that’s what I’ve done.”

Klobuchar and other speakers drew a sharp distinction between President Obama’s economic plan and the vision offered by Republican nominee Mitt Romney. One candidate puts middle class families first, she said; the other serves the interests of the richest 1 percent.

“In order to bring the debt down – which it actually doesn’t do – they’re proposing $250,000 in additional tax cuts for people making over $1 million,” Klobuchar said. “That’s totally the opposite of what we need to do.”

Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, called Romney the “outsourcer in chief.”

“At Bain Capital he destroyed jobs and bankrupted companies like they were toys in his personal toy chest,” Shuler said, adding that Romney “even outsources his own bank accounts to Bermuda and Switzerland and other tax havens so he doesn’t have to pay his fair share to support this country.”

Delegates to the convention also heard about political efforts closer to home, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s plan to rebuild labor majorities in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature. Republicans in the House and the Senate, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said, have done much over the last two years to divide workers, weaken unions and make it harder to vote – but they haven’t done much to create jobs.

“They tried to throw everything they could at us,” Knutson said. “They tried to weaken collective bargaining, gut prevailing wage, reduce safety standards and attack the professionals that educate our children… There were hundreds of attacks.”

Ultimately, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton helped stave off most attacks on workers. But as Nov. 6 draws closer, Knutson said, union members must remember how narrow Dayton’s election was.

“If 2.4 percent of union members had voted for Emmer instead of Dayton, Tom Emmer would be governor, and our state would look just like Wisconsin,” she said, referring to the all-out attack on collective bargaining that took place after Republicans swept control of that state’s government in 2010.

“If we do what we need to do – knock the doors, make the calls, get those fliers out at the worksite, talk to our friends and neighbors – we will elect a pro-worker majority to the Minnesota Legislature that will put us, middle class families, to work,” Knutson added. “If we fail, Right to Work will come back with a vengeance.”

After the conclusion of business Sunday, the convention floor became the site of a brief Labor 2012 campaign phone bank, as delegates called fellow union members on behalf of endorsed candidates from Southeast Minnesota.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s convention continues today. Delegates participated in workshops this morning, and were scheduled to hear from more speakers, including Dayton, this afternoon.

Today’s schedule also includes presentations on union organizing, the campaigns to defeat both constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot and the lockout of 1,300 American Crystal Sugar workers in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa.

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Bobby Kasper: Let’s make sure the next Legislature stands with workers

May 16, 2012 by

I breathed a sigh of relief when the Minnesota Legislature finally adjourned the 2012 session. It meant an end to the seemingly endless string of Republican attacks on Minnesota’s working families – attacks on our union rights, attacks on our wages and pensions, attacks on our voting rights and more.

I’m writing today to say “thank you” to everyone who helped us fight these right-wing attacks at the Capitol over the last three months.

Some of you volunteered to staff our phone banks, where we called union members and asked them to talk to their legislators about the irresponsible “Right to Work” constitutional amendment. Others of you joined us at the Capitol, where we maintained a visible presence advocating on behalf of good jobs, safe workplaces and a strong middle class.

By putting aside our differences and working together as union brothers and sisters, we kept “Right to Work” off the ballot this November. We also helped pass an infrastructure-jobs bill and a stadium bill that, together, will succeed in putting thousands of Minnesotans back to work in high-paying, construction-industry jobs. That’s a good start toward getting Minnesota’s economy going in the right direction again.

I’m proud of what we accomplished together during the 2012 session. And I know I can count on union members to join us again this summer and fall, as our staff at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation puts our Labor 2012 political plan into action.

Together, we can make sure that when the Legislature reconvenes in 2013, we’re not fighting the same battles we fought over the last three months.

The 2012 legislative session found Minnesota unions in a collective panic, and it is simply because we did not have enough labor friendly legislative allies at the Capitol. The upcoming Fall elections give us a valuable opportunity to reverse that.

Working together, we will win seats for political allies who will work arm-in-arm with labor as partners to drive toward a better tomorrow – a tomorrow in which preserving our state’s middle class is once again the top priority of our elected officials. Over the last two years, we’ve learned that for too many state legislators, workers and jobs do not rank among the top priorities. This Fall we will change that.

We will win this fall because the strength of labor is unmatched and because our brothers and sisters will fight for our present and fight for our future.  We will win because we have the strength.

We will win because there is no other way.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, and a member of Laborers Local 132. Reach him at rkasper [at] stpaulunions [dot] org.

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