Unions hold vigil for workers exposed to COVID-19

May 2, 2020 by

Lisa Weed of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota speaks at a vigil on the Capitol steps. Social distancing behind her are (L to R) UFCW Local 663’s Paul Crandall, the Firefighters’ Chris Parsons, MN AFL-CIO’s Bill McCarthy and MNA’s Mary Turner.

One thousand votive candles flickered on the steps of the State Capitol last night, a tribute to Minnesota’s essential workers who have fallen ill with COVID-19.

“To workers who have contracted COVID, this is for you,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner said, opening the candlelight vigil as the sun set in St. Paul.

Statistics show health care workers make up about 18% of Minnesota’s 5,000-plus COVID-19 cases. Shortages of personal protective equipment nationwide have only increased the risks faced by people working in hospitals, nursing homes and other health services.

“Our members are fearful,” said Lisa Weed, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, which represents more than 35,000 health care and long-term care workers across the state. “We as one Minnesota have a responsibility to make sure health care workers are not being put in harm’s way, as well as the residents and patients they care for.”

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But the coronavirus has spread in other industries, too. More than 20 meatpacking plants nationwide have been forced to halt production, including Worthington’s JBS pork processing facility, where over 200 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a report in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Warehouse workers, retail clerks, transit operators, child care providers, corrections officers – the list of essential workers at high risk of being exposed to the pandemic is long.

Unions representing many essential workers in Minnesota – including United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, which represents workers at the Worthington plant – took part in the vigil, which fell on International Workers Day, appropriately enough.

Local 663 Secretary-Treasurer Paul Crandall said at least 400 members of his union had contracted COVID-19. Chris Parsons of the Minnesota Professional Firefighters Association said lack of PPE creates a common fear among everyone who works with the public.

“The greatest fear among all of us is that we will bring (COVID-19) home to our families,” Parsons said.

Union leaders at the vigil said the best way members the public can help keep frontline workers safe is to follow state guidelines designed to contain the virus.

“Right now the best way we can prevent the increased spread of this illness is to stay at home,” Parsons said.

But Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy, head of the state’s largest labor federation, acknowledged those measures have created hardship for people working in industries like hospitality and leisure, who are making an “extraordinary sacrifice” during the pandemic response.

“As we pause this evening to recognize workers who have suffered and, in some cases, even died from COVID-19, we owe them action,” McCarthy said. “We owe it … to them not to simply focus on when we can reopen the economy, but rather how we can reopen it to ensure the health and safety of working people.”

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Hotel workers planning May Day march: ‘One job should be enough’

April 25, 2019 by

Ade Adigoun (L) and Jose Maquin

Last fall, nearly 8,000 Marriott workers in eight cities carried out the largest hotel strike in U.S. history. After two months on the picket lines, UNITE HERE members declared victory, ratifying new contracts that raised wages by as much as $4 an hour and established new protections against sexual harassment and assault on the job.

Marriott workers’ rallying cry – “One job should be enough!” – captured the struggle many families face to maintain healthy work-life balance. Wages aren’t keeping up with rising rents, health care costs and other expenses in many parts of the country, especially urban areas.

Now the slogan has been adopted by hotel workers in the Twin Cities, where 1,200 members of UNITE HERE Local 17 are bargaining contracts with eight hotels this spring. The union will mobilize hundreds of members and supporters for a march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis on International Workers’ Day, May 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Peavey Plaza. (Click here for more information.)

In interviews, two hotel workers leading the contract campaign explained what’s at stake in this round of negotiations – and shared their experiences trying to survive on one job in our community. Jose Maquin of south Minneapolis has over 10 years’ experience working in hotels, most recently in room service at Hotel Ivy. Ade Adigoun of St. Louis Park has worked as a housekeeper at the Millennium Hotel for the last 15 years. Their remarks have been edited lightly for length and clarity.

UA: What issues are most important to you in this round of contract negotiations?

JM: Not so much my department, but housekeeping. Ninety percent of housekeepers are minorities or immigrants. They are the most vulnerable group of employees in a hotel. They work hard; I see that every day. And I see that they are shy, they are quiet and they don’t always feel comfortable speaking up when they are hurt or feel unsafe. And they often work paycheck to paycheck. I feel we need to stick together.

UA: What improvements are you seeking?

JM: Wages. The minimum wage is going up, and that is good. But I feel like housekeepers should earn higher than just the minimum. I make the minimum, and I’m OK with that because I get tips. Unfortunately, I don’t think people who stay at hotels think they should tip their housekeeper. Sometimes they do, but housekeepers should be compensated better.

UA: The slogan of the May 1 march is “One job should be enough.” How hard is it for you and your co-workers to survive on one hotel job alone?

AA: People are doing two jobs because the hotels are not paying enough money. I’ve been working at Millennium for 15 years, and I still only make $15 an hour. It’s not enough; I’ve looked for a second job. People need to make $20, $25 an hour or more.

JM: I have two jobs. I have a baby with my wife. She works, and she just got a second job. We had to. It’s hard to survive without a second job. So when I hear “one job should be enough” – I wish that would be the case. If I’m absent from home because I have to work to survive, then I don’t have as much quality time with my baby.

When you think about it, there are so many social issues that arise because we are not able to spend time with our children, because we have to work a second shift. Otherwise, we won’t be able to eat or pay the mortgage or rent.

UA: As a union, you’ve reached out to workers in other unions for support. Why is that important?

AA: We have a lot of other union groups who want to support us, people who fight for good employment, good wages. We tell everyone, don’t just bring yourself. Bring your friends, your wife, your boyfriend, your kids – everyone who can walk.

JM: An issue like fair wages, it doesn’t affect just us. It affects everybody. As workers, we need to support each other in order to accomplish anything we want to accomplish.

UA: This is the highest-profile contract campaign at Twin Cities hotels in at least a decade. Is there a sense of urgency?

AA: In a day, we might make $100. But every day one housekeeper makes $3,000 for the hotel. You give me $100 out of $3,000 or more? That’s cheating. We want to eat a little of their cake…

JM: The hotels are making record profits. They have a lot of money. If we don’t ask them to share it with us, to give us a little part of the pie, they won’t.

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Twin Cities workers plan May Day actions for better working conditions, immigrant rights

April 26, 2017 by

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Workers have unveiled plans to strike, rally and march May 1 for better wages, safe working conditions and respect on the job.

At a press conference last week outside a Minneapolis Home Depot, local organizers said International Workers’ Day takes on added urgency this year, given the “current political climate and mass mobilization of communities all across the state and country.”

As they did on Inauguration Day, janitors who clean Home Depot stores, organizing with the Twin Cities worker center CTUL, will stage a one-day strike May 1, kicking off a series of related actions:

  • Picketing outside Home Depot, 1520 New Brighton Blvd. NE, Minneapolis, 9:30 a.m.
  • University of Minnesota AFSCME members’ contract campaign kickoff, Morrill Hall, 100 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, noon.
  • Mesa Latina rally, Minnesota Capitol, St. Paul, 1:30 p.m.
  • Resist from Day One March, East Phillips Park, 2399 17th Ave. S, Minneapolis, 4:30 p.m.

Home Depot uses subcontractors that hire janitors at low wages with no benefits. Some subcontractors have faced lawsuits alleging wage theft. It’s an approach CTUL members like Luciano Balbuena, who cleans a Home Depot store as an employee of the contractor Kimco, consider the “Trump model” of business.

“We have been fighting for fair wages, benefits and the right to organize for several years now and are still forced to survive with poverty wages,” Balbuena said. “Other retail janitorial companies have improved wages and other standards, but our companies refuse to meet those basic standards.

“We are not afraid of our bosses, nor are we afraid of Trump. When we unite and come together to make changes, we can win. That is what we will do on May 1st, because it is time for our hard work to be recognized.”

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May Day rally draws hundreds in support of immigration reform

May 2, 2013 by
Supporters of immigration reform rally on the Minnesota Capitol lawn.

Supporters of immigration reform rally on the Minnesota Capitol lawn.

Chants of “si se puede!” rang out from the Minnesota Capitol lawn yesterday, as hundreds of people rallied for federal and state action to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.

The May Day demonstration in St. Paul was one of dozens held across the U.S., organized by a broad coalition of groups – including labor unions – hoping to capitalize on growing momentum in support of a reform package that creates a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants now living and working in the shadows.

mayday-signs-webIn Washington the Senate Judiciairy Committee is debating an immigration reform bill that has bipartisan backing. Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken sit on the committee, and both sent staffers to the rally to reiterate their support.

Meanwhile, demonstrators cheered state senators who voted earlier in the day to pass the Minnesota Dream Act, legislation that would make children of undocumented immigrants eligible for financial aid at the state’s public colleges and universities.

Rep. Carlos Mariani, a DFLer from St. Paul, told the crowd he hoped the Minnesota House would follow the Senate’s lead. “It’s the value of dignity that pulls us together, that brings us here today,” Mariani said. “It’s that same dignity our government representatives need to acknowledge.”

Other speakers at the rally expressed support for state legislation that would enable undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Advocates say the measure would help keep uninsured drivers off the road.

May 1 is International Workers’ Day, a commemoration of the global struggle for labor rights and a public holiday in more than 80 countries worldwide. For the past decade, immigrant groups – particularly the Latino community – in the U.S. have used May 1 as a date for rallies and other public actions, including a general strike and boycott in 2006.

This year unions threw their resources behind the May Day immigration rallies, and union members bolstered the number of demonstrators at events nationwide, including in St. Paul. Groups that participated in yesterday’s rally included the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Education Minnesota, the SEIU Minnesota State Council, UNITE HERE Local 17, UFCW Local 1189 and the Organizing Apprenticeship Project.

“Immigrant workers need to have the same mobility as any other worker to move from one employer to another as better opportunities arise,” Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter said. “When an employee is tied to a specific employer to maintain his or her status, that employee can be subject to intimidation, exploitation and abuse in the workplace, which drives down wages and working conditions for everyone.”

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