Mayors take up call for $9.50 minimum wage

Raising the minimum wage to $9.50 would boost the paychecks of an estimated 20,000 workers in St. Paul, injecting $27 million into the city’s economy. In Minneapolis 30,000 workers would get a raise, a $40 million bump for the city’s economy. It’s no surprise, then, that both Twin Cities mayors today added theirs to the […]

Shar Knutson: It’s time for Senate to act on minimum wage

When the Minnesota Legislature reconvenes on February 25th, lawmakers will be greeted by hundreds of people from Labor, Faith, Non-Profit, and Community Groups calling on them to increase Minnesota’s minimum wage to at least $9.50 per hour. The hundreds of Minnesotans gathered at the Capitol will be there because of one underlying principle; nobody who […]

Strike supporters say fast food’s poverty wages bad for workers, communities

As fast-food workers in an estimated 100 U.S. cities walked off the job today to protest the industry’s poverty-level wages, union members and faith leaders in Minnesota showed their solidarity – and their support for raising the state’s minimum wage – outside a block of fast-food restaurants in Northeast Minneapolis. The demonstration took place over […]

Minnesotans to support fast-food workers’ strike for better wages

Building on a string of public actions last week calling out poverty-wage employers across the state, Minnesota activists will stand in solidarity tomorrow with fast-food workers planning one-day strikes in more than 100 cities nationwide. Organizers today laid out plans for solidarity demonstrations tomorrow outside two McDonald’s restaurants around the metro area: • In Northeast […]

Call to end poverty wages rings out from Black Friday protests in Twin Cities

Hundreds of people flocked to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul today, but it wasn’t deep discounts or door-buster deals they wanted. It was justice for workers who make the holiday season happen. Black Friday protests in the Twin Cities took on a renewed vigor this year, as activists from labor, faith and community groups […]

At MSP Airport, workers use heavy travel day to rally for better wages

On one of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s busiest days of the year, the low-wage workers who make holiday travel happen put the public on notice they will no longer settle for poverty-level wages. Airport workers and their supporters – about 100 people total – rallied outside the arrivals area of Terminal 1, showing support for […]

Bouyed by prayers, workers return to Brooklyn Center Walmart after one-day strike

One day after exercising her legally protected right to strike, April Williams walked back into the Brooklyn Center Walmart for her scheduled shift this morning. But Williams did not take that walk alone. In the parking lot outside the store, about 25 people, including eight clergy members, huddled around Williams, praying for a safe return […]

Walmart workers go on strike in Brooklyn Center, kick off week of action for better wages

The nationwide wave of Walmart strikes hit Minnesota this morning, when three women who work at the Brooklyn Center store informed management they were going on an unfair-labor-practices strike. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and Rev. Doug Mork of nearby Cross of Glory Lutheran Church accompanied the workers into the store, and dozens of supporters from […]

Study finds taxpayers subsidize big-box stores at cost of $150 million per year in Minnesota

Retail workers and activists who join the protest outside Walmart in St. Paul on Black Friday will be armed with a scathing new report shedding light on the public cost of poverty-level wages paid by Walmart, Target and other big-box department stores. “At What Cost,” released Nov. 12 by the union-backed Minnesotans for a Fair […]

Retail workers’ Black Friday wish list includes higher wages, a voice on the job

On Black Friday, will you shop for doorbusters? Or protest union-busters? Twin Cities labor activists have announced their plans for the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season, which in recent years also has become a day of action for unions and worker-advocacy groups fighting back against big-box retailers’ crazy hours, frenzied working conditions and […]