Love wins! Union members join celebration at Twin Cities Pride Parade

June 29, 2015 by
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Joanne Hager and her daughter Amelia march in the Pride Parade along Hennepin Avenue.

 

Union members joined the party at the Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade in Minneapolis yesterday, cheering the Supreme Court’s historic decision making marriage equality the law of the land.

“We’re always fighting; it feels good to be celebrating for a change,” Charli Haataja, a member of Local 7250 of the Communications Workers of America, said.

Haataja was among more than 50 people who marched in the parade behind the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s banner. [Click here to view photos of the marching unit on Facebook.] The labor federation has maintained a presence in the parade for years, and Minnesota unions – and unions across the country – have been staunch allies in fight for LGBT rights.

web.Pride15-gjertson“We want to show our solidarity with other workers no matter if they’re gay, straight, transgender – it doesn’t matter,” CWA Local 7250 member Alaric Poseley-Hatton said. “We fight for equality in the workplace, and it’s great to have equality in marriage too.”

In a 5-4 decision released Friday, the Supreme Court found states that deny same-sex couples the right to marry are in violation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws. The ruling extends marriage rights to same-sex couples in all 50 states.

July 1 will mark the two-year anniversary of marriage equality in Minnesota, where lawmakers moved swiftly to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples after the state’s voters rejected a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in November 2012. Minnesota unions and labor organizations, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO, joined the coalition of groups fighting for marriage equality.

The Supreme Court ruling means same-sex couples wed in Minnesota will maintain their married status no matter where in the U.S. they go. Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, called it “a win for children, families, workers and our entire country.”

web.Pride15-groupBut union members at the Pride Parade said the fight for equality is far from over.

LGBT workers’ rights, in particular, need strengthening, as most states do not have laws protecting all workers from discrimination on the job as a result of sexual orientation. Jerame Davis, director of the labor-backed advocacy group Pride at Work, said there remains a “very real possibility that a worker could marry the person they love on Saturday and then get fired from their job Monday morning when they show pictures around the water cooler.”

“There’s still a fight out there,” Claire Zupatz, a member of the Twin Cities Musicians Union, said. “If you can do the job, you should be able to go and do the work and not be afraid of being fired because of your lifestyle.”

Collective bargaining agreements, of course, provide protection from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, but union contracts cover only a fraction of the private-sector workforce.

LGBT workers also face more subtle forms of discrimination in the workplace – union and non-union alike, Laborers Local 563 member Joanne Hager said.

“In the construction trades, it’s sometimes difficult to be open about who you are,” Hager said. “There is some homophobia in our industry, as in all industries.

“We’re in need of more workers in our industry, and we need to make sure these jobs are inclusive of everyone who wants to work to support their families.”

Hager and her 13-year-old daughter, Amelia, marched in the Pride Parade wearing hardhats and carrying a homemade banner that proclaimed, “Building MN with Quality and PRIDE!”

“People should be equally treated and not discriminated against because of who they love,” Amelia Hager said.

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Unions see plenty to like in results of 2013 legislative session

May 30, 2013 by
Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Legislative leaders called 2013 the “education session” for the new investments in E-12 students, and a bill to extend union rights to 21,000 child-care providers and home health care workers grabbed headlines as Republicans tried to filibuster it to death.

But the 2013 legislative session yielded many other victories for union members and middle class families. Here’s a look at some of the less-publicized measures passed by labor-endorsed majorities in the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton.

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.

• Protections for locked-out workers. Included in the jobs bill is a 26-week extension of unemployment-insurance benefits for any worker whose employer locks them out.

Lockouts have gained popularity among Minnesota employers looking to flex their muscles in contract negotiations with union workers. Minnesota Orchestra musicians remain locked out of their jobs, while St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians and workers at American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley recently struck deals to return to work.

Lawmakers viewed the extension of unemployment benefits as a way to mitigate the negative impact lockouts have had on families, communities and businesses.

• Marriage equality. Thousands gathered outside the Minnesota State Capitol on May 14 to watch Dayton sign legislation granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Several Minnesota unions supported the legislation as an issue important to their members and as an advance in equal rights for all.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, explained the union’s decision to endorse marriage equality: “Same-sex couples pay taxes in Minnesota. They vote here, run businesses here, and serve in our military. They work hard and contribute to our communities, and they have children who deserve to grow up in stable families with married parents.

“Everyone should be able to marry the person they love. No one should be singled out and denied the economic protections and cultural privileges associated with matrimony.”

• Fair trade advisory council. The jobs bill also included reauthorization of the Trade Policy Advisory Council, which saw its authority “sunset” in 2012, but in a new form – one more inclusive of the groups with a stake in international trade policy. The TPAC is required to meet at least once a year and report back to the governor and Legislature about potential U.S. trade agreements and their impact on the state’s economy. The council also may offer draft legislation to implement the recommendations.

Click here to read more about the reauthorized Trade Policy Advisory Council.

• Construction jobs. The Legislature did not pass a large bonding bill, but it did approve much-needed repairs to the Capitol building. Lawmakers also made investments in job creation tools and key construction projects like the Mall of America expansion.

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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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