Pandemic likely to alter unions’ political push, but how? 

May 7, 2020 by

By Bill Moore, Special to The Union Advocate 

COVID-19 is disrupting life as we know it and may do so for a while yet. But Minnesota labor leaders are determined that it will not stop efforts to inform and mobilize union voters for the 2020 election.  

The Minnesota Labor 2020 campaign is alive and well – and ready to adapt to challenges and changing circumstances. 

“Our work this election year is incredibly important,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said. “We have to engage as many union members as possible as voters and volunteers, not only to elect a president who respects and stands up for working families, but to assure worker-friendly majorities in both the Minnesota Senate and the U.S. Senate.”

Work to assure a complete count for the U.S. census is also important, Peterson added: “We need to be doing that now, and also working to make sure union members and retirees are registered to vote.” 

Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Brad Lehto reported that officers, leaders and political organizers from affiliated unions and labor councils around the state already have formulated a Labor 2020 plan. Now, they are working on contingency plans.  

“If things get better,” Lehto said, “we’ll keep moving ahead with the current plan. If things get worse we’ll have options.”  

Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Director Jessica Looman shares Lehto’s determination.  

“During this time of uncertainty, the AFL-CIO is working to adapt their voter education and mobilization plans to address many different contingencies,” she said. “The Minnesota Building Trades will also work to ensure that our members’ voices are heard in 2020.” 

Texting could be key 

As an example of adjustments that may need to be made, Lehto pointed to worksite conversations. They won’t be possible if worksites are shuttered.  

“Our whole worksite program would have to change,” he said. “One option we’re exploring is peer-to-peer texting, where worksite leaders could communicate via text messages with co-workers who are working from home or laid off.”  

The Service Employees (SEIU) developed and implemented this in the last election cycle and it worked well, Lehto added, joking, “We’re all going to become experts in tech.” 

Jamie Gulley, President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the SEIU Minnesota State Council said, “This pandemic has made clear how important it is to have elected officials who care about working people.  

“We know there may be challenges in our usual election plans that focus on person-to-person conversations with possible social distancing still in effect. Luckily, we have experience with texting, online ads, phone calling and relational organizing tools that will help make sure we do everything possible to elect candidates who support working people. 

“No matter what tools we end up using, we are going to have tens of thousands of conversations about electing candidates who see this pandemic not as a chance to divide us and give more to the rich, but as a sign we need to pass laws that put Minnesotans’ health before corporate profits, and to support our Unions for All agenda to make sure every Minnesotan – no matter our job, race, zip code or gender – can live a safe and healthy life.” 

Getting social – at a distance 

Another route Minnesota Labor 2020 planners are exploring to reach union members with relevant information in pandemic times is digital communications and paid media.  

Already in the works are some 15-, 30- and 60-second videos of union members from various unions saying why unions matter to them personally, and how working people need each other and won’t buy attempts to divide us by race, ethnicity or other differences. 

Door-knocking, too, is a traditional election year tactic that wouldn’t work if COVID-19 exposure testing and contact tracing don’t reach necessary levels and stay-at-home policies persist into the fall. Volunteers likely will be reluctant to risk exposure to the virus, and people won’t want to open their door to a stranger.  

Phoning is an option, but has proved less effective in recent years, and traditional phone banks often involve bringing volunteers together in close quarters.   

“If phoners are unable to social-distance, virtual phone banking is a way around that,” Lehto said. “Volunteers can access a list on their home computer or, if they find that difficult, they can get a paper list to phone from home.” 

Regardless of how it gets done, the Labor 2020’s work is critical, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said. 

“While this pandemic may change the methods used to communicate with union members about the election, it underscores why the 2020 election is so important,” he said. “We need to elect leaders who will join with us to make sure no worker is left behind, and we emerge from this crisis stronger than before.” 

Retirees get early start 

Members of at least one Minnesota labor organization are on the phones already. The Minnesota State Retiree Council has launched an effort to make sure retired union members are registered to vote. “Comparing union lists with state voting records finds 6,000 Minnesota union retirees not registered to vote,” State Retiree President Ken McInnis reported.  

Retiree Council Election Work Coordinator Carol Freeman and other volunteers have asked for clearance from Minnesota AFL-CIO affiliated unions to call their retired members who aren’t registered to vote.  

Meanwhile, they’re calling everyone on retiree council mailing and email lists to learn how retirees are staying informed. If they’re not already subscribed to the Retiree Bulletin, Election Work Co-Coordinator Martha Johnson signs them up and also points them to the Retiree Council website, http://www.mnretired.org, and Facebook page, facebook.com/mnaflcioretired. 

Another retiree initiative is advocating for Vote-by-Mail legislation.  

The State Retiree Council passed a resolution urging the State of Minnesota to send a voter registration form, together with an application for an absentee ballot, to every unregistered Minnesotan who is eligible to vote, including pre-paid postage for return. The Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Board adopted the resolution.  

“Given the current majority in the Minnesota Senate, I can’t imagine the measure will pass the Legislature,” McInnis admitted. “But if legislators really believe that voting is what democracy looks like, they’ll support it.” 

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Campaign schools to kick off labor’s 2016 election push

June 20, 2016 by

mnaflcioThe most recent state legislative session was a mess, with lawmakers failing to act to repair Minnesota’s crumbling transportation infrastructure or make jobs-creating investments in transit and public works.

Electing legislators who will put the state’s working families first is a top priority for labor this year, and the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation will kick of Labor 2016 by co-hosting a campaign school July 26 for union members, retirees and other labor supporters.

The free, daylong training, co-hosted by the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, will take place at the Minnesota Nurses Association headquarters, 345 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. Registration is required and open at www.mnaflcio.org.

A focus of the campaign schools this year, Minnesota AFL-CIO Member Development Director Bethany Winkels said, will be preparing labor volunteers for longer, more nuanced conversations with likely voters.

“That’s one thing really special about this year’s program,” Winkels said. “We know we’re really good at having a lot of conversations (with voters), but it’s about digging a little deeper. We’re going to try to have a more long-form conversation so people can have an opportunity to help individuals make up their minds.”

The campaign school also will cover the landscape of the 2016 elections, with a focus on winning back a working-family majority in the Minnesota House and maintaining a majority in the Senate. Trainers also will preview tightly contested congressional races in the 2nd District, where labor-endorsed Angela Craig is seeking an open seat, and in the 8th District, where Rep. Rick Nolan is labor endorsed for re-election.

“We’ll deconstruct how politics really affects people’s lives, how what happens at the Capitol impacts you in St. Paul or in Willmar or in Albert Lea,” Winkels said.

Campaign schools also will take place in Alexandria, Duluth and Rochester.

For more information, contact Winkels at bwinkels@mnaflcio.org or 320-296-5853.

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

Bobby Kasper: Moving our hall, bringing along the spirit of 411 Main

June 25, 2015 by
Bobby Kasper presides over the last St. Paul Regional Labor Federation delegate meeting at 411 Main.

Bobby Kasper presides over the last St. Paul Regional Labor Federation delegate meeting at 411 Main.

A house is more than its walls and windows, more than the foundation and support beams that hold it together. Memories make a house a home. The friends and family members who gathered there – and the accomplishments that took place under its roof – are as much a part of any house as its square footage or architecture.

The same is true of St. Paul’s “House of Labor,” the Labor and Professional Centre, which is better known to union members as “411 Main.” It may not have been much to look at, but 411 Main has been a landmark on the labor landscape in Minnesota for nearly 40 years.

That era is about to come to a bittersweet end. The Labor Centre’s ownership group, which includes the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, has accepted Catholic Charities’ offer to buy the property and expand its St. Paul campus, currently across the street from 411 Main.

The sale is a win-win scenario for everyone involved. It means Catholic Charities will have a new, state-of-the-art facility to serve the area’s most vulnerable population. And it provides the St. Paul RLF and our affiliate unions with an opportunity to build a new hub of operations for a new generation of union members. The architecture will be different, and so will the challenges they have to face. But 411 Main came to represent certain values that we’ve got to pack up and bring with us to our new home:

President Kasper reads a proclamation from the City declaring June 10 "411 Main Day" in St. Paul.

President Kasper reads a proclamation from the City declaring June 10 “411 Main Day” in St. Paul.

• Solidarity first. The union hall at 411 Main was the site of countless debates – many spirited, some heated. But with few exceptions, we haven’t let our minor differences prevent us from working together to advance the common interests we share as union workers.

• Union pride. When we march in the Winter Carnival Parade or through the State Fairgrounds on Labor Day, we wear our union membership on our sleeve. And why shouldn’t we? Hard work is what separates the U.S. from the rest of the world, and the labor movement is about making sure that hard work pays off.

• Win. Whether it was a Saturday door knock or a Midnight Madness rally, 411 Main was a base of campaign activity for labor-endorsed candidates in the East Metro. Phone banks, worksite flyers, getting out the vote – that’s what wins elections. And no one does it better than we do.

• Have fun. What good is a union quality of life if you don’t enjoy it? While the Labor Centre hosted its share of meetings and phone banks, it’s also seen barbecues, weddings, concerts and potlucks. We’ve all met some great people at 411 Main. Those relationships won’t change as we move into a new building, and, hopefully, neither will the culture of fun and camaraderie we’ve created.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, with more than 150 affiliate unions representing more than 50,000 union members in the East Metro. Click here for meeting locations, contact information and more about the RLF’s move.

 

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , ,

Bernard Brommer: In minimum-wage debate, some myths just won’t go away

February 27, 2014 by

mug-brommer-webLegislation has been introduced that would provide a much needed increase in the minimum wage after many years of no action. The principal parties and the arguments have remained essentially the same since the inception of minimum-wage laws many decades ago.

As we have learned over time, there are many myths that surround the debate, including many offered by opponents in an attempt to instill fear among workers and lawmakers. The myths remain essentially unchanged from the very beginning of the fight to establish the minimum wage in our nation. As happens so often in the economic and political arena, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The myths generally involve threatened job losses. Opponents claim that existing jobs will disappear and new jobs will not be created. While there may be a limited number of employers who elect to forgo creating a new job or even abolishing an existing position because of an increase in the minimum wage, there is no empirical evidence to support the claim that loss of actual or potential employment will be significant.

Opponents also claim the minimum wage exists primarily for new entrants into the work force, or for those who seek to gain some insight into the world of work, or those who are only working to gain a little spending money to squander on easy living at the malt shop or trinkets at the mall. This pig doesn’t fly either due to evidence that identifies significant numbers of workers who are attempting to support their families on a minimum wage. Try being the breadwinner and making ends meet at poverty-level income.

There are experts and economists of every stripe who have pontificated on the central ingredients of the minimum-wage debate. There is a voluminous body of work surrounding the minimum wage and its impact on the economy. Much of the evidence debunks the myths and focuses on the positive effects of an increase in the minimum wage.

Referencing the positive effects of the minimum wage requires recognition of the fact that increased wages result in increased spending. There is no denying that members of the workforce who earn the minimum wage will spend any increase on essential consumer items. Why, then, do retailers represented by their Retail Federation scramble to be first in line to oppose the minimum wage? Why wouldn’t they focus on the growing business and revenue generated by an increase in the minimum wage? It’s one of the many ironies of the minimum-wage debate.

In fact, one can come to the conclusion that the debate around increasing the minimum wage isn’t really about wages at all. What is really at the core of this fight is vehement opposition to the idea that our government is taking action on behalf of the working poor. This resentment is not new. Government is OK when it can be used and manipulated to advance the interests of the rich and powerful, but it should remain neutral and stay out of the marketplace when the working poor, the middle class and the labor movement are involved.

The struggle involving the creation of a measure of fairness and economic justice for human labor and the greed so inherent in our world today will continue. Action to increase the minimum wage is a small step in leveling the playing field and adding to the dignity and respect for those workers who labor for a measure of respect, recognition and reward.

– Bernard Brommer is a past president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest federation of labor unions.

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

Legislature will consider expanding union rights to home health care workers

March 4, 2013 by

DFL lawmakers last month introduced a bill that would grant home health care workers the right to form a union, a move advocates say will help the state address a looming workforce crisis in Minnesota’s public home care programs.

Authored by Sen. Chris Eaton and Rep. Michael Nelson, the bill targets workers in so-called “self-directed” home care programs, who are employed directly by their clients. State law currently distinguishes between workers employed by home health care agencies, many of which are unionized already, and workers providing “self-directed” care, considered more like independent contractors and, as a result, denied organizing rights.

The bill would allow home care workers to decide if they want to form a union and negotiate with the state for better wages and working conditions.

Lawmakers said changing the law to allow home-care workers to form a union gives caretakers a seat at the table  as the state plots its course for meeting the needs of a rapidly aging population.

“We are facing a massive shortage of workers to care for seniors and people with disabilities,” Nelson said. “As the Baby Boomers age, there is going to be a strain on our state’s long-term care system. We must ensure there are enough workers to help people retire with dignity.”

Eaton called it a matter of respecting the work home health care workers do.

“Minnesota relies on the thousands of dedicated home care workers who do extremely important work,” Eaton said. “When I worked as a public health nurse, I would do home assessments to decide how much care the state would provide for a senior or person living with a disability. The truth is, the work home care workers do is real and valuable.”

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development projects demand for new home care workers in Minnesota will increase by 50,000 over the next 10 years. However, the core labor pool from which the state’s workers are traditionally drawn – women aged 25-54 – is expected to decline by nearly 2,000 workers.

Forming a union will make the profession more sustainable – and attractive – for workers, Eaton added.

“Increasing wages and benefits will stabilize this workforce, which will allow seniors to age at home rather than in nursing homes or other, more expensive institutions,” Eaton said. “It will also improve the quality of care by reducing worker turnover, which is as high as 50 percent in a single year.”

Many home health care workers already have signed up to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, and they remained hopeful the legislation would reach Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk.

“I’ve been caring for my mother for three years,” said Johnese Abney, a home health care worker from Duluth. “My wages and hours have been cut. With my first check of the month, I pay rent. My second check goes towards utilities and other necessities. That leaves me nothing. My mother is 93 years old and needs my care.

“It’s not about the money, but I can barely make it right now. As home care workers, we need a voice to protect us from further cuts and to make this job into a profession that people can live on.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Eliot Seide: Minnesota’s moment to rebuild the middle class

March 4, 2013 by
Eliot Seide

Eliot Seide

Minnesota is poised to do great things this year, the first time in 22 years that Democrats control the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature. This is Minnesota’s moment to fix the budget, raise fair revenue, and build an economy that grows good jobs and the middle class.

Union members campaigned hard to win this trifecta. But we can’t bet on getting what workers need unless we make our voices heard. Our state Capitol is filled with a crop of new legislators who we need to meet. We need to make sure they understand that Minnesota is at its best when the middle class is strong. That’s why we need a budget focused on improving the lives of middle-class families with investments in education, a strong economy, and a fair tax system.

Gov. Dayton’s “Budget for a Better Minnesota” is a good start. It raises more than $2 billion in new revenue to begin restoring $5 billion of cuts made during the last four years. His budget is honest, responsible, and fair. He’s honest about what he wants to buy with his budget, and he’s courageous about how he wants to pay for it. No more kicking the deficit down the road. No more gimmicks and games that pass the buck to future generations.

Here’s how Gov. Dayton’s budget helps the middle class:

• Property tax relief. The governor’s budget provides a property tax rebate of up to $500 for homeowners. Add on new investments in Local Government Aid ($80 million) and County Program Aid ($40 million), and it will greatly reduce the property tax burden on middle-class families.

• Build a strong economy. The governor’s budget will strengthen our state’s economy by building and maintaining roads, bridges and public transit. Those infrastructure projects will create good jobs and bring new businesses here.

• Reinvest in education. The governor’s budget delivers a significant increase in direct student aid for higher education and makes needed investments in the MnSCU system and the University of Minnesota ($80 million each) to train our workforce for the jobs of the future. His budget also provides quality early learning scholarships for 10,000 children, optional all-day kindergarten for 46,000 kids, and increases K-12 funding by $52 per student.

• Create a fair tax system. Minnesota’s tax system is rigged to favor rich individuals and big corporations, while shifting their burden onto the middle class. No more! The governor’s budget asks the richest 2 percent to pay their fair share. His budget also closes corporate tax loopholes and lowers the state sales tax rate 20 percent, while extending the sales tax to high-priced clothing items over $100.

The governor’s budget is the first word – but not the final word. The governor knows none of us is as smart as all of us. We all need to work together to make the budget better and to move the state forward.

Budgets are not just balance sheets. They’re about our values. As Minnesotans, we expect fairness, responsibility and honesty.  We expect a growing economy and a prosperous middle class. It’s time to show Minnesota what real progress looks like – when everyone pays their fair share.

– Eliot Seide is executive director of AFSCME Council 5, a union of 43,000 Minnesota workers.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , ,

Union members join push for immigration reform with path to citizenship

January 30, 2013 by
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother's struggle for U.S. citizenship.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother’s struggle for U.S. citizenship.

U.S. citizenship isn’t something Mitch Azarcon takes for granted – not after watching her Filipino-born mother wait 25 years to move her family to the U.S.

Now Azarcon, a surgical core technician at Rochester Methodist Hospital, is exercising her rights as a citizen, taking action through her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to change federal law and make it easier for people like her mother to realize their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens.

“America is my home, and I am an active citizen,” Azarcon said. “During this last election I knocked on doors, phone banked, passed out fliers – everything in my power to participate. We helped elect leaders who will do the right thing for immigrants in this country.”

Union members like Azarcon form a critical bloc in a broad-based coalition supporting the immigration-reform effort declared a priority by President Obama earlier this week.

Locally, the coalition includes business, student, religious, civil-rights and labor organizations, and their representatives gathered at the Minnesota Capitol today to demonstrate their shared commitment “to doing what a broad swath of Americans want: to finally, once and for all, win comprehensive immigration reform,” said Javier Morillo, president of SEIU Local 26.

At a press conference, Morillo and other speakers stressed that immigration reform must include one “essential” component: a practical path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Without a path to citizenship, families like Luis Enrique Gomez’s will continue to be split apart. Gomez, who lives in St. Cloud, has been ordered to return to his native Mexico by March 9. If he complies, he said, he will be forced to leave behind his two U.S.-born children.

“I think we need to keep together families,” Gomez said, gripping a photo of himself with his arm around his children. “It can cause psychological problems, separating kids from their parents.”

Rather than labeling workers like Gomez “illegals,” U.S. policy should “recognize that (immigrants) are simply responding to economic forces on both sides of the border,” said Rev. Paul Erickson, an assistant to the bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Immigration policy is not just about borders and security, Erickson added, “it’s about real human lives.”

It’s also about workers’ rights, which is why Minnesota’s unions, according to Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson, are “fully engaged” in the push for “common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform.”

In addition to SEIU and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which together represent more than 330,000 union members statewide, UNITE HERE Local 17, Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and the community-based group Minnesotans for a Fair Economy also have pledged support the immigration-reform effort.

The reason, Knutson said, is simple: A rising tide lifts all boats.

“Empowering immigrant workers is a win for all working families,” Knutson said. “With a well-functioning process in place, immigrant workers will have the voice in the workplace they need to defend their rights, which in turn will improve standards for all workers. That’s because the ability to exploit any worker lowers the standards for all workers.”

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

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.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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.

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

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.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
Next Page»