Unions decry Supreme Court ruling, urge action to protect abortion access

June 27, 2022 by

Minnesota’s highest-ranking union officer added to the chorus of labor voices decrying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the federal right to abortion.

“Reproductive rights are workers’ rights,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said in a public statement, calling the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years as the law of the land “a direct attack on working women and people who can get pregnant.”

Research shows people denied abortion care face increased health, wellness and financial risks as a result. Burnham noted that, in the post-Roe landscape, those risks will disproportionally impact “low-income women, black, brown, non-binary and trans workers seeking care.”

“Fortunately for working women and people who can get pregnant in Minnesota, our state Supreme Court has ruled our state constitution protects reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy,” Burnham added. “Minnesota’s unions are committed to protecting these freedoms and closing disparities through policies such as universal paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare, and creating more family-sustaining jobs.”

Leaders of several national unions, including the Service Employees (SEIU), Communications Workers of America, Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) and American Federation of Teachers, issued similar statements in the hours following the June 24 ruling.

National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the decision “a devastating blow to working women and families.”

“We strongly believe everyone should have control over their own bodies, including decisions over their personal reproductive health care,” Shuler added.

Some unions already have begun strategizing ways to use the collective bargaining process to ensure access to abortion care.

The Newsguild-CWA, which represents about 26,000 journalists and other workers in the U.S. and Canada, began holding meetings in May, after a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked to Politico, moving quickly to “develop bargaining approaches that provide coverage for abortion care in collective bargaining agreements and to equip our membership with the tools to organize their coworkers to take action on this core labor issue.”

“Working people need access to safe, affordable abortion care just as we need quality health care generally, parental leave, childcare, and all other policies that help us support our families,” NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss said. “This is an issue that spans class, race and gender. And we should fight for it as such.”

That fight will play out in the political arena, too, as several union leaders noted.

Education Minnesota, the statewide union of nearly 90,000 educators, issued a statement from its executive board calling on unions “to harness their collective power and fight for affordable health care for all, equal pay for equal work and paid family and medical leave so workers can care for themselves or loved ones without fear of losing a paycheck.”

“That’s why this fall’s election is so important,” the statement added. “Every Minnesotan needs to be a voter to elect candidates who will defend workers’ rights – including their right to health care and bodily autonomy. We can make it happen, but only if Minnesotans do it together.”

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

Frontline workers’ focus turns to Senate after House passes bonus pay

February 25, 2022 by

As lawmakers debate bonus pay on the House floor, frontline workers rally outside the chamber.

The Minnesota House passed union-backed legislation yesterday that would deliver bonuses of up to $1,500 to the frontline, essential workers who have kept the state and its economy running during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unions representing nurses, food-production workers, janitors, public employees and other workers called on Republicans who control the Senate to follow House members’ lead and take up the $1 billion measure, which would tap into the state’s projected $7.7 billion budget surplus.

“When everyone else was locked down safely in their homes, we were out there doing our job, and we continue to do our job,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner, a nurse in the North Memorial intensive care unit, said during a press conference in advance of the House vote. “We deserve a little bit of recognition.”

Turner’s message to members of the Senate: “Do what is right to honor us and the work we did and that we continue to do.”

If the House bill becomes law, an estimated 667,000 Minnesotans would be eligible for payments.

The measure limits eligibility to workers who logged at least 120 hours in frontline positions between March 15, 2020, and June 30, 2021. It also would restrict workers who collected more than 20 weeks’ worth of unemployment benefits from accessing the funds.

But the bill faces an uphill climb in the Senate, as Republicans have sought to carve out a much narrower slice of frontline workers eligible for pandemic bonuses since debate over the issue began last summer.

In July, Minnesota lawmakers agreed to create a $250 million fund to compensate essential workers, but a bipartisan working group failed to reach an agreement on which workers should be included.

Republicans blocked any plan that did not narrowly target health care workers, first responders, long-term-care workers and correctional officers. But Sen. Erin Murphy, a DFLer from St. Paul, called it “unconscionable” to exclude food-processing workers, custodians, child care providers and others on the front lines.

“There are so many people who did their part, and today the Republicans are serving as a roadblock to recognizing their unique contributions at a time when they continue to put themselves in harm’s way,” Murphy said. “It’s time for the Senate Republican majority to get off the dime and to do their work.”

As lawmakers debated the bill on the House floor last night, frontline workers rallied outside the chamber. Members of a coalition of unions and other worker advocacy groups pledged not to be divided as they push for legislation that recognizes the sacrifices of all Minnesotans who showed up to work.

“Other frontline workers supported us inside and outside the hospital,” Turner said, looking back on the early days of the pandemic. “At least I had one N95. They had nothing.”

“I thank you as a Minnesotan for what you’ve done to allow myself and my family to stay safe, but also have the services we need to continue moving forward – and I know that all Minnesotans appreciate you as well,” said Rep. Cedrick Frazier (D-New Hope). “I am imploring our senators on the GOP side to move this bill forward…

“Let’s get together, let’s get it passed and let’s honor all of our essential workers.”

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Remembering Shar Knutson: ‘Her presence will be missed, but her legacy lives on’

February 22, 2022 by

Shar Knutson ascended the ranks of Minnesota’s labor movement, starting as a member of AFSCME Local 1842 in St. Paul and retiring after six years in the state’s highest union office. Remembered by colleagues and friends as a bridge-builder, trailblazer and mentor, Knutson died Feb. 2 at the age of 72.

A native of Fridley who made St. Paul her home, Knutson made history in 2009 as the first woman elected president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the federation of over 1,000 affiliate unions representing 300,000 working people statewide.

Knutson held the office until 2015, during a tumultuous time for American unions. Efforts to weaken workers’ bargaining power and roll back labor standards succeeded in other states, but not in Minnesota. Under Knutson’s leadership, Minnesota unions not only kept “right to work” and other anti-union measures at bay, but they lobbied to expand collective bargaining rights and pass the first statewide minimum-wage increase in a decade.

“Shar played an active role in the successful campaign to increase labor’s voice in national, state and local issues, including raising awareness and promoting community debate about social and economic justice,” U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum said. “This shift laid the groundwork for important progress being made today that benefits all Minnesotans.”

Labor leaders who worked with Knutson recalled her attention to detail, quiet resolve and ambition.

“She got her facts, and she moved forward,” said Ray Waldron, Knutson’s predecessor as president of the state AFL-CIO. “She was very decisive.”

It showed, Waldron remembered, when he approached Knutson in 2009 with the news that he planned to retire. Knutson had been serving as president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and, previously, the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly for more than a decade.

“I walked into her office and said, ‘How would you like to run for president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO?’” Waldron said. “Shar didn’t hesitate. She just said yes, reached across her desk, shook my hand, and I walked out.”

Though self-assured, Knutson “was never a bully,” said Harry Melander, former head of the St. Paul and statewide Building Trades councils. Rather, she built her career on a knack for bringing people into the decision-making process and working in coalition.

“We all love each other, we’re family,” Melander said. “But families have fights. Shar made a point to make sure everyone, whether you got along within the labor family or not, was at the table when we had a big item to discuss, so we could figure this out together.”

Knutson grew up in a union household, but her ties to the labor and political communities deepened after leaving a public-health job with the City of St. Paul in 1990 to work for Mayor Jim Scheibel. At City Hall, she shared an office and a budding friendship with Molly O’Rourke, who said the two “bonded over that experience of working in a very fast-paced and energized office.”

Knutson was the mayor’s liaison to organized labor and other constituent groups, including the emerging immigrant and refugee communities. It was a good fit, O’Rourke said, given Knutson’s “belief that everyone, no matter their station in life, needed to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Scheibel declined to run for re-election in 1993, and Knutson went to work for the Trades and Labor Assembly. Delegates elected her president in 1998, and within weeks of taking office, St. Paul’s new mayor, Norm Coleman, stunned the city’s unions with a proposal to privatize a swath of city services, from golf courses to the water department.

Coleman’s “Compete St. Paul” plan threatened hundreds of city jobs, and union leaders looked to the Assembly to fight back, said Barb Kucera, then editor of The Union Advocate newspaper. Knutson worked quickly to convene the St. Paul Works Alliance, a coalition of groups that would oppose the privatization scheme.

“Right away, Shar brought in as many stakeholders as possible to be part of the discussion, leading with the unions but inviting other organizations too,” Kucera said. “She really decided to mount a public campaign, and that’s what eventually stopped the whole idea in the fall of 1999.

“Shar really pushed the organization to focus and get a clear message across, and she did a lot of media appearances and events and public speaking. They talked about jobs, but they didn’t make it about jobs only. They very wisely chose to make it clear this was going to be a real threat to public services in the city, particularly the water service.”

Defeating Coleman’s plan drew national attention, and Knutson was among a handful of local labor council presidents invited to serve on an advisory committee to the AFL-CIO Executive Board. “She was willing to try to do some things differently, and she projected a different image, being the first woman and first public employee in that job,” Kucera said.

“She surprised a lot of people in Washington, D.C.,” Waldron added. “She was courageous.”

Knutson’s profile continued to grow after another successful, coalition-based campaign in 2006, this time to save 500 jobs at a paper recycling plant in the Midway. The plant, then owned by Rock-Tenn, needed a new power source after Xcel Energy stopped burning coal at its High Bridge plant. But opposition from neighborhood groups put Rock-Tenn’s future – and the jobs of Steelworkers like Bob Ryan – in doubt.

Ryan, who now works as the rapid response coordinator for his union, called Knutson “instrumental” in keeping USW Local 264 members working in St. Paul.

“It was a lot of public meetings, and Shar was at a lot of them with us, speaking on our behalf,” he said. Both Knutson and her father had worked at the facility, he said, “so Shar could talk to people with true emotion about how long the plant had been there and its connection to the city. She just delivered.”

Knutson introduced former Gov. Mark Dayton at a union event in 2013.

By then, the Assembly had merged with surrounding labor councils to form the Regional Labor Federation, with Knutson as president. She won a three-way race for president of the state AFL-CIO in August 2009, and guided the union campaign to elect Minnesota’s first labor-endorsed governor in 20 years, Mark Dayton, a year later.

As her list of accomplishments grew, Knutson continued to prioritize her work to mentor women and young workers pursuing leadership roles in the labor movement and in politics.

Those fields were even more male-dominated 22 years ago, when McCollum became just the second Minnesota woman elected to federal office, than they are today. The 4th District congresswoman remembered Knutson and longtime friend Robin Madsen, an AFSCME leader who died in 2017, teaming up to host a “Working Women for Betty” campaign-kickoff event after McCollum announced her first run for Congress.

Knutson and McCollum remained friends as their careers progressed. Knutson attended President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address as McCollum’s guest, and the congresswoman presented her friend with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol upon her retirement from the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

“I am thankful I had the opportunity to know and work with Shar Knutson,” McCollum said. “Her presence will be missed, but her legacy lives on.”

Jennifer Guertin, president of AFSCME Local 2508, called Knutson a source of “quiet support” going back to the days when delegates to the Trades and Labor Assembly were “75 to 80% men.”

“There were times when I was so frustrated by the guys that I was like, ‘I’m done, I can’t do this anymore,’” said Guertin, now the federation’s sergeant at arms. “Shar would take me aside and say, ‘You have to learn how to deal with people that don’t know what you’re capable of. You can’t let them win.’”

Current Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson counts herself among the countless other union members Knutson took time to mentor.

“President Knutson helped us grow as people, advocates and leaders, and she fostered connections among us,” Peterson said. “I don’t know that many of us realized it at the time, but Shar was building a network of union and community activists with an eye towards our future.

“I’m grateful that she took a long view on what our labor movement can accomplish together, and for the investments she made in all of us.”

Knutson was also quick to remind young activists about the importance of work-life balance. “A lot of times during campaigns, when I was pretty much living at the Labor Centre because that’s what we did, she was the one to tell me that I needed to go home sometimes, too,” Guertin said.

Knutson, who raised two daughters as a single working mother, “was really dedicated to her family,” O’Rourke said. “I think they gave her a lot of strength.”

Although Knutson spent more time with family and friends after retiring in 2015, Alzheimer’s disease progressively limited her independence.

“It was hard to see such a strong and powerful and articulate woman not really know the amazing impact she had on people around her,” O’Rourke said.

“She was a friend of mine, a good friend to me and to a lot of people,” Melander added. “It’s hard because she didn’t have enough time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.”

Knutson’s family has published an obituary at BradshawFuneral.com. They plan to hold her memorial service later this spring.

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Push for paid family leave takes on new urgency in pandemic

February 22, 2022 by

A union-backed coalition of groups renewed its lobbying push for paid family and medical leave on Valentine’s Day – and not by accident.

Love is at the heart of the proposed legislation, advocates said, adding that its failure to gain traction in the Senate over the past six years has cornered too many Minnesota families into achingly difficult choices that no one should have to make.

“No family should have to choose between a paycheck and caring for their loved ones,” said Rev. Vanessa Bradby, pastor of New Spirit United Church of Christ in Savage. “If we are serious about loving our neighbor, we should be serious about passing paid family and medical leave.”

Bradby and other faith leaders are once again teaming with small business owners, unions and community groups to push paid family and medical leave legislation at the Capitol this year.

Their proposal, which has support from the House DFL majority and Gov. Tim Walz, would create a statewide insurance pool to cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member.

It would operate like the state’s unemployment insurance system, with workers and employers paying into the proposed fund. Workers who access the benefit would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits averaging two-thirds of their typical wages.

Republicans who control the Senate have been cool to the idea of a statewide family leave benefit in recent years, but advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need to give all workers – regardless of their race, class or zip code – the time they need to care for themselves and their families.

“The COVID pandemic has exposed the inadequate and inconsistent safety net available for families in this state,” the bill’s chief author, Rep. Ruth Richardson (D-Mendota Heights), said. Richardson noted that low-wage workers, workers of color and women are much less likely to have access to family leave than other workers, and she pointed to research showing the “stark disparities” in mental and physical health outcomes that result from lack of access to paid leave, including higher rates of infant mortality and pre-term births.

Advocates praised the DFL proposal to invest part of the state’s projected $7.7 billion budget surplus in pre-funding two years’ worth of benefits while the paid family leave program gets up and running.

“We cannot stand by and pretend we can’t do anything about” disparities in access to essential economic measures like paid family leave, said Gloria Perez, president of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.

The proposed legislation would also help level the playing field for small businesses in the hyper-competitive labor market, said Dan Swenson-Klatt, owner of a bakery and café in Minneapolis.

“As much as I would like to provide paid leave to all of my employees, I cannot do it alone,” he said.

The Minnesotans for Paid Family & Medical Leave coalition brings together over 30 organizations, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, is a co-chair.

“Essential workers have sacrificed their time and risked their safety like never before,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said. “But hopefully, we’ve all gained a greater appreciation of how precious time with our loved ones truly is – and how we need the freedom to care for them when they need us.”

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

Burnham sworn in as first person of color to lead MN AFL-CIO

February 1, 2022 by

Bill McCarthy administers the oath of office to Bernie Burnham.

In a ceremony broadcast live on the federation’s social media platforms, outgoing Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy swore his successor, Bernie Burhnam, into the state’s highest-ranking union office today.

“Every Minnesotan deserves the best opportunity in life, no matter where they live, what they look like, who they love, where and how they worship and even how they vote,” Burnham said in remarks after taking the oath of office. “I promise to do my very best work with you and for you in achieving the goals of our Minnesota AFL-CIO strategic plan, ensuring well-paying jobs which will strengthen our communities and, finally, raising the voices of all working people and their families.”

McCarthy, a longtime member of UNITE HERE Local 17, has retired after more than six years as president of the state federation of labor unions, representing more than 300,000 working people.

The federation’s General Board voted unanimously in December to elect Burnham, a former Duluth elementary teacher and member of Education Minnesota. She is the federation’s 10th president and, as a Pacific-Islander, the first person of color elected to the office.

Burnham pledged to carry forward the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s racial-equity and diversity work, both internally and in the community at large. She has co-chaired the federation’s Committee on Racial and Economic Justice for the last two years.

“I am committed to broadening our understanding of one another’s members, our unions and other organizations,” Burnham added. “We must stay united against the forces that try to divide us.”

Burnham also pointed to recent workforce data showing Minnesota’s union membership is growing, and she called on unions across the state to work together, in partnership with the federation, to keep that momentum going.

“Let’s work to keep growing,” she said. “One-to-one conversations, mentorship, increasing and supporting apprenticeship programs in our schools – these are some of the ways we will make this happen.”

Burnham taught for 14 years in the Duluth Public Schools and was elected president of the Duluth Federation of Teachers. Members of Education Minnesota elected her the statewide vice president in 2019.

Burnham is a dues-paying member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, which released a statement celebrating her swearing-in. Jigme Ugen, the APALA’s state president and executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, called it a “historic and exciting moment” for the local labor movement.

“Besides being the first person of color and AAPI to be elected president of the MN AFL-CIO, Bernie brings decades of union membership with diverse experiences around racial and social justice at the local and national level,” Ugen said. “She is an inspiring choice to lead our labor movement into the future.”

Bill McCarthy (L), Bernie Burnham and Brad Lehto

Burnham will serve alongside Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto, who has held office since 2018. Both officers’ terms run until the next Minnesota AFL-CIO convention, planned in September.

McCarthy, meanwhile, enters retirement after 36 years in the labor movement, a career that began as a bartender at Cleo’s Lounge on the 50th floor of the IDS Tower in downtown Minneapolis.

He rose through the ranks and served 15 years as president of Local 17, the Twin Cities hospitality union, before a successful run for president of the Minneapolis Central Labor Council in 2002. McCarthy won election as state AFL-CIO president in 2015.

The outgoing president thanked his staff, the federation’s board members and its affiliate unions for their support, and said the federation is “positioned well” for the transition.

“I want to congratulate President Burnham on her history making achievement and wish her all the best in leading Minnesota’s Labor Movement,” McCarthy said. “The Minnesota AFL-CIO is in good hands with an exceptional leader in the fight to build a more just and equitable state.”

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As session begins, Minnesota unions see opportunity for investments in infrastructure, frontline workers

January 31, 2022 by

Essential workers marched outside the Capitol during a union rally last summer.

With a projected $7.7 billion budget surplus, state lawmakers have an historic opportunity, union leaders said, to fully invest in public services, infrastructure and frontline workers during the 2022 legislative session, which began today.

Lawmakers traditionally take up capital investments – the so-called “bonding bill” – in even-numbered years, but the record surplus, coupled with unspent federal pandemic relief funds, could allow for more broad spending measures this year, including long-delayed compensation for frontline workers.

Unions also plan to lobby for pro-worker policy changes like paid family leave, and to remain vigilant in preventing attacks on existing worker rights and protections from gaining traction.

While Gov. Tim Walz and a labor friendly DFL majority in the House have expressed an appetite for robust investments and pro-worker policies, the outlook is less rosy in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

“The Senate has proven to be an obstacle – if not a roadblock – for years to paid family and medical leave, as well as more recently frontline worker pay,” said Melissa Hysing, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s legislative and strategic research director. “The challenge is always going to be the Senate.”

Minnesota unions are sure to advance their own priorities to the Capitol with solidarity from the labor community. But here’s a look at the agenda unions crafted together as part of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which unites over 1,000 affiliate unions and 300,000 working people.

Union tradespeople called on lawmakers to pass a bonding bill outside the Capitol in 2020.

• Infrastructure jobs

Not only is it a bonding year, but the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden last November, gives Minnesota an opportunity to leverage additional funds for capital investment and create tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs.

The Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, the voice of the state’s construction unions, praised Walz’s Local Jobs and Projects Plan, unveiled earlier this month. In a statement, Executive Director Tom Dicklich said the $2.7 billion infrastructure bill would leverage funding to support “statewide projects for years to come.”

“The passage of the Local Jobs and Projects act will provide an opportunity to create a solid pipeline of projects that can sustain the construction industry and the jobs it provides,” Dicklich said. “We thank Governor Walz and his team for putting forward this plan and urge all lawmakers to work together to make these needed investments in the jobs and infrastructure that Minnesota deserves.”

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis in December 2021, advocates called on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

• Frontline worker pay

Last July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. But workers never received a penny, as lawmakers on a bipartisan working failed to agree on who should be eligible.

Republicans on the working group blocked any plan that did not direct the payments to a narrow pool of health care workers, first responders and long-term-care workers. But unions, including the Minnesota Nurses Association, argued against excluding any frontline worker.

Hysing said the Minnesota AFL-CIOwill support Walz’s proposal to give each of the state’s estimated 667,000 frontline workers a $1,500 bonus, calling it “unfinished business.”

Julie Bleyhl, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 5, called Senate Republicans “disrespectful” for seeking to exclude retail workers, bus drivers, janitors and others from the payments. Many Minnesotans have churned through their paid time off – or gone without pay – to quarantine or provide care for themselves and their families.

“While the need for public services has increased dramatically for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on our workforce, through forced overtime and COVID-19 exposure,” Bleyhl said. “That is why our union remains steadfast in our commitment to fighting for frontline worker bonus pay for all frontline worker heroes.”

• Paid family leave

In more unfinished business, the Minnesota AFL-CIO will continue to co-chair a statewide coalition of labor, faith and community organizations lobbying to extend paid family and medical leave benefits to all workers in the state.

The coalition supports creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

The program is included in Walz’s proposed spending package, and House DFL leaders have proposed using part of the budget surplus to pre-fund benefits for two years.

“Working people should never be forced to choose between a paycheck and taking care of themselves and the people they love, and lawmakers can take action so we never have to make that choice again,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said.

• Workers’ Compensation eligibility

Unions will encourage lawmakers to extend the law, passed in 2020, creating a presumption that first responders and health care workers who contract COVID-19 did so on the job, making them eligible for Workers Compensation benefits.

• Wage theft

Despite passing with bipartisan support in 2019, Minnesota’s new wage theft law – the strongest in the nation – has been a target of attempts to weaken its protections and soften penalties on offending employers. Hysing pointed to Republican proposals last year that would have stripped language requiring employers to notify new workers of their wages before their first shift.

“So workers wouldn’t know until after they’ve received their first paycheck what they’re supposed to receive,” she said. “One of the first defenses against wage theft is workers knowing what they’re supposed to be paid – that shared understanding between the worker and employer about what the wage is for work performed.

“We will continue to work to maintain these hard-won protections and make sure workers get paid for the work they’ve done.”

For updates on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s work at the Capitol and alerts about how to take action, follow the federation on Facebook and Twitter, sign up for text and e-mail alerts.

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

Bernie Burnham: From ‘PTA mom’ to president-elect of the MN AFL-CIO

January 28, 2022 by

Although I never met the late Senator Paul Wellstone, two quotes of his ring true to me in the work I do each day:

  • “We all do better when we all do better.”
  • “If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.”

I am Bernie Burnham, new president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. I’ve been thinking about how I came to this point in my life. A woman of Filipino and Irish heritage, it seems natural to me to be the voice of labor and to stand with working people in Minnesota. My parents raised my brother and I to always help people, especially if they were in need.

As a young girl, I witnessed, like many of you, the Civil Rights Movement on television. I thought, truly, the world is better because of the actions of Dr. King, and yet today I mourn the atrocities of racial and economic injustices so many of our sisters and brothers live with daily.

Moving through life, it’s been clear my work is to lead and make change to improve people’s lives. I started my life’s work as a PTA mom. I then became a classroom assistant and playground monitor, where I saw children whose lives were dependent on their parents doing their best, in spite of frequent obstacles they encountered. I saw the unfairness and inequities in a system we all trusted.  It was evident we had work to do!

Time went on, and I was encouraged to get my teaching certificate by the assistant principal at the school my children attended. With support from my family, I went to the University of Minnesota to earn my bachelor’s degree in elementary education. It was a proud day when I crossed the stage to begin my career as an educator.

Starting my first classroom job, I signed up to be a member of the Duluth Federation of Teachers, Local #692, immediately. I was 40 and clearly had expectations about how things should be for our students and colleagues. Asked to be a union steward, I accepted the responsibility readily. Our school district started, in partnership with the DFT, what was to become a strong labor-management team. I was fortunate to be a part of this and decided I wanted more as a union leader and advocate. I ran for the DFT executive board twice and earned a spot the second time around. I became the president of our local in 2014. Engaging with our community as a voice for educators and at the state level with Education Minnesota fed my soul.

I thrived on the energy my work provided, particularly working with the community, with and for our members and having conversations about the impact of our voice collectively. With our state union, we were able to have an Early Career Leadership group, something I knew was vital to our future.

Our partnership with the Central Labor Body in Duluth opened my eyes to another larger piece of the labor movement. We were successful, together, in electing leaders who supported labor. We turned a school board over to be pro-educator and passed a referendum or two.

The last two years have challenged us all, with COVID and racial injustice putting Minnesota in the spotlight. A good number of our members have been on the front lines – at first appreciated, now fighting for the contracts they deserve. Affordable health care, earned safe and sick time, family sustaining jobs, and the fight to get the PRO Act passed – these are issues worth fighting for. Standing together in solidarity is key to our survival!

I’ve been fortunate to have great support in my life, and I am grateful. I look forward to our collective work as a labor movement. I am certain, working together, that we can keep Minnesota strong, a place where all people – no matter their color, who they love or where they live – will thrive. I hope you’ll join us.

– Elected in December, Bernie Burnham will succeed Bill McCarthy as president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO on Feb. 1. A member of Education Minnesota, Burnham is the first person of color elected to the state’s highest-ranking union office. She wrote this column for The Union Advocate’s February 2022 edition.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: ,

MN unions grew in 2021, bucking national trend

January 21, 2022 by

Minnesota bucked the national trend of declining union membership last year, as the state’s union rolls grew by 18,000 workers.

“Working people across Minnesota stood up in 2021 and demanded a voice on the job, better pay and benefits, and safer workplaces,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said in response to the annual U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on union membership, released yesterday.

Minnesota has seen a flurry of successful union drives over the last two years, bringing workers at hospitals and clinics, nonprofits, craft breweries and distilleries, bookstores and elsewhere into the labor movement.

The BLS data also underscores the union advantage, McCarthy said. A union contract raises wages by roughly 20% and overall compensation by about 28%, on average, making union jobs more attractive to workers at a time when many are reevaluating their career paths.

“Through a combination of workers organizing unions at their workplace and others flocking to union jobs, it’s clear that more Minnesotans understand that by speaking up together, they can truly earn a fair return on their work,” he said.

Union members made up 16% of Minnesota’s workforce in 2021, up from 15.8% in 2020. It was the second consecutive year in which Minnesota’s union density rose.

Nationally, union membership declined by 241,000 last year, to a total of about 14 million workers. Union density fell to 10.3% of the workforce.

The decline came despite a wave of collective action among workers, both union and non-union, for better wages and working conditions in 2021.

Public support for unions, too, is at its highest point in decades. A 2021 Gallup poll found 68% of Americans support organized labor, including 77% of young people. An MIT study found that 60 million Americans would join a labor union if they could.

Something doesn’t add up, union leaders said.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler pointed the finger at federal labor laws, written nearly a century ago, that do little to deter employers from illegally intimidating or retaliating against workers who try to form unions. In a statement reacting to the new data, Shuler said the laws “are designed to make joining a union as difficult as possible.”

“Across this country, workers are organizing for a voice on the job and millions of Americans are standing in solidarity with union members on strike,” Shuler added. “If everyone who wanted to join a union was able to do so, membership would skyrocket.”

“As we work to rebuild economy and seek justice for working people, the Biden administration and Congress must institute policies – such as the PRO Act, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act and other legislation to expand Americans’ freedom to join together in unions,” said McCarthy, Minnesota’s highest-ranking union officer.

Meanwhile, the BLS report showed promising data for communities of color. Black workers continued to have the highest unionization rate in 2021, with 12.9% membership. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, Black union workers are paid 13.7% more than their non-union peers.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Burnham to succeed McCarthy as Minnesota AFL-CIO president

December 14, 2021 by

Bill McCarthy and Bernie Burnham

The Minnesota AFL-CIO General Board today elected Bernie Burnham as the statewide labor federation’s next president. The former Duluth teacher, who currently serves as Education Minnesota’s vice president, will succeed Bill McCarthy, who plans to retire Feb. 1 after more than six years in the state’s top union office.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO represents over 300,000 union members across the state. The federation supports more than 1,000 affiliate unions in their efforts to build worker power through contract and organizing campaigns, as well as the political process.

As a Pacific-Islander, Burnham is the first person of color elected to an executive office at the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and the second woman elected president. The vote was unanimous.

Burnham became active in the Duluth Federation of Teachers after taking an elementary teaching job 22 years ago and quickly. She served as a steward and member of the union’s racial equity teams, and on the district’s labor-management committee.

“I was a woman of color who took an unconventional route into the teaching profession,” Burnham said. “I didn’t know if I would be accepted, but my new union family embraced me.”

DFT members elected Burnham vice president in 2010 and president in 2013. She successfully ran for vice president of Education Minnesota in 2018.

In campaigning for state AFL-CIO president, Burnham pointed to her experience working in coalition with other unions to boost political activism and to elevate racial justice as an area of focus in the labor movement.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be elected to this office,” she said. “I am committed to continuing the labor movement’s fight for a state where everyone earns a fair return on their work, where every child can pursue their dreams and where every family that’s struggling today will get what they need, things like accessible healthcare, modern roads and bridges, safe housing and world-class schools.”

Burnham is co-chair of the Minnesota AFL-CIO Racial and Economic Justice Committee, which has taken a prominent role in the work of the federation during McCarthy’s time in office.

In an interview last week, McCarthy called the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin a turning point. “We just couldn’t stand by and not do anything,” McCarthy said.

Within a month, McCarthy had issued statements calling on the president of the Minneapolis police union to resign and affirming the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s commitment to “dismantling systems of oppression” inside and outside the labor movement.

“These are tough, hard issues, and we’ve just got to keep at it,” McCarthy said. “And I know we’ve failed along the way. We’ve made mistakes. But we cannot be a labor movement that’s effective in any way if we’re not working on social and racial justice issues.”

McCarthy’s accomplishments also include overseeing political programs that thwarted a wave of attacks on union rights at the state level. While anti-union lawmakers were passing right to work and repealing prevailing wage in Wisconsin and other Midwest states, pro-union lawmakers in Minnesota were passing the nation’s strongest wage theft protection law.

Minnesota unions were in better position to advocate for emergency protections after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, too. Under McCarthy’s leadership, the Minnesota AFL-CIO pushed Walz to issue an executive order protecting workers who speak up about unsafe conditions, and fought at the Capitol for expanded unemployment and workers comp.

“Thank God for Gov. Walz,” McCarthy said. “Here’s a man who, I think, really understood what the workers were going through, especially our frontline workers. We asked him to do certain things, to create executive orders to support workers – and he agreed.”

McCarthy also pointed to the expanded work of the federation’s nonprofit, the Minnesota Training Partnership, as a focal point of his presidency. The organization has leveraged grant funding to support Minnesota unions and their apprenticeship programs, helping prepare tradespeople, window washers, manufacturing workers and others for family-sustaining jobs.

“The more we’re supporting our affiliates, the bigger they’re going to be able to grow their unions,” McCarthy said.

A longtime member of UNITE HERE Local 17, the hospitality workers’ union, McCarthy first ran for union office 36 years ago, when he was tending bar at Cleo’s Lounge on the 50th floor of the IDS Tower in Minneapolis.

From there, McCarthy’s rise through the labor ranks began. After taking a job as business agent, McCarthy successfully ran for president of Local 17, a title he held for 15 years before being elected president of the Minneapolis Central Labor Council (now known as the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation) in 2002. He was seated as state president in 2015.

“I feel like I’ve left the organization in a good place,” he said. “We have a strong team, one of the best teams I’ve worked with. Whoever moves into the leadership role is going to have an opportunity to make it better.”

General Board members voted to name McCarthy president-emeritus for his career of service to Minnesota’s labor movement.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Minnesota AFL-CIO wraps 55th convention with call for solidarity

September 21, 2021 by

During a pandemic-shortened convention that gaveled to a close this morning, delegates from the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s affiliate unions reflected on the importance of solidarity during times of crisis, and reaffirmed their commitment to building a just, inclusive labor movement capable of fighting for all working Minnesotans.

“No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all should have the freedom to come together and negotiate,” Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto said in opening remarks Monday.

Held virtually, the statewide federation’s 55th convention featured guest speakers, resolutions and reports on local unions’ organizing and political work.

During a special presentation, frontline workers discussed their experiences keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryan Ellison, a grocery store worker and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, recalled tense interactions with customers about masks and widespread fear about coming into contact with the virus.

“None of us signed up for what we had to go through,” Ellison, a shop steward, said. “This isn’t something that was ever included in the job description.”

In a live address to the convention Monday, Gov. Tim Walz praised essential union members for “incredible acts of selfless service to others.”

“What’s been asked of you has not been asked of a generation,” Walz said. “I’m incredibly proud of you and the work you’ve done.”

Walz also credited unions for pushing employers, lawmakers and regulators to make workers’ health and safety a top priority after the pandemic hit, noting that “workers who were in unions felt safer in their positions, felt better respected.”

“More Minnesotans are alive today because union workers forced us to treat COVID as it should have been treated – as a life-threatening pandemic,” Walz said.

Looking forward

Convention business also included a series of resolutions that advanced out of committees and onto the convention floor, offering delegates the opportunity to shape their federation’s priorities.

Resolutions ranged from opposing the corporatization of health care to supporting union members in a fight to stop AT&T from outsourcing union jobs. Another put the federation on record supporting truth in education – a response to right-wing hysteria around the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools.

Delegates also celebrated steady growth in the local labor movement’s ranks. Spokespeople from new bargaining units at two charters schools, Fair State Brewing Cooperative and Augsburg University offered insights into their successful organizing drives, which took place in unprecedented times.

“We were organizing virtually,” Augsburg staff member Katie Asfeld said. “We didn’t have an opportunity to bump into colleagues after meetings or get together and have coffee…

“We developed different ways for staff to be able to show their support, and at the end of the day we saw that whether we are virtual or in person, there is power in our collective voices.”

Seizing an opportunity

Recent polling suggests more workers would like to join together and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

A Gallup survey of U.S. public opinion of labor unions, released annually around Labor Day, this year recorded the highest favorability rating – 68%, since 1965. Support is relatively bipartisan, and a whopping 77% of young people view unions favorably.

“As long as I can remember, our opponents have been saying, ‘Unions will die, unions are obsolete,’” Lehto said. “Don’t you believe it.”

Passing the PRO Act into federal law, he added, would give unions a greater opportunity to capitalize on their surging popularity. The measure, which has passed the House, would hold corporations accountable for union-busting, strengthen workers’ rights to form and join unions and repeal right-to-work laws.

Minnesota’s senators assured delegates they are working to advance the bill to President Biden’s desk. Sen. Tina Smith said the PRO Act is necessary to undo the “concerted campaign” by big corporations “to undermine organizing rights.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar added, “I believe in my heart that when unions are strong, our economy is strong, and when our economy is strong, our country is strong.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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