Kera Peterson: To build back better, pass the PRO Act

February 4, 2021 by

Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

Millions of working people and their families are hurting in America right now. We’ve seen it firsthand at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, as our nonprofit Labor Studies and Resource Center has begun coordinating free food-distribution events with local unions. At four events so far, union volunteers have distributed thousands of packages of fresh food to families in need. During events at the Labor Center, the line of vehicles often spilled out of our parking lot and into West 7th Street.

These were families bearing the brunt of multiple crises facing our country right now: the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic collapse, chronic income inequality and systemic racism. While working Americans worry about eviction notices, job losses and exhausting their paid time off, U.S. billionaires are amassing even more wealth – over $1 trillion, combined, during the pandemic so far.

From Day 1 our federal government’s pandemic response has been bungled. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned on a promise that we, as one nation, will build back even better than before.

At a time when working people are holding our country together, we have to do better than building back an economy where the rules are still rigged against us. The new administration understands that. The American people, who voted decisively and in record numbers to reject the politics of darkness and division, understand that too.

So what does building back better look like? It starts with direct and significant economic relief for workers and small businesses on Main Street, not Wall Street. Our local governments need aid too, as revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic could force many to make steep cuts to services more essential than ever right now, like public health and public safety. And job losses resulting from cuts to public services would only deepen our economic crisis.

Building back better also means restoring fairness to our economy. It means leveling the playing field and giving working people more power to join together and bargain better wages, benefits and working conditions. Congress can do that by sending the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to President-elect Biden’s desk in the coming months.

The most significant labor legislation in 80 years, the PRO Act would address several weaknesses in our federal labor laws, giving workers more bargaining power on the job. It would put teeth into rules prohibiting employers from retaliating against workers who try to form a union. It would require employers to disclose payments they make to union-busting law firms and consultants brought in to stifle workers’ voices. It would speed up the organizing-election process and establish a mechanism for workers and employers to arrive at a first contract quickly after an organizing drive.

House Democrats passed the PRO Act last February, but it never stood a chance in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. Today, members of Congress introduced the PRO Act again, and President Biden, who has said he wants his to be “the most significant pro-labor, pro-worker administration” ever, has pledged support for the measure. It’s encouraging to see that two congresswomen from our area, Reps. Betty McCollum and Angie Craig, are co-sponsors of the bill.

But the ideals behind the PRO Act – collective bargaining, a voice on the job, the belief that all work has dignity – are not Democratic or Republican. They are American ideals. It’s time for our leaders to put politics aside, to think big and to act boldly. Click here to tell your representatives to make the PRO Act a reality.

Our labor movement stands ready to build back better, together.

– Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

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

Marker honoring fallen Minneapolis Teamsters to be dedicated July 18

July 8, 2015 by
Linda Leighton, a descendent of one of the leaders of the 1934 Teamsters strike, is enlisted support for a historic monument in Minneapolis at the Minnesota State Fair last year.

Linda Leighton, a descendent of one of the leaders of the strike, enlisted support for the plaque during the State Fair last year.

After a lengthy fundraising campaign, the Remember 1934 Committee will unveil a permanent plaque July 18 in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis commemorating the historic Teamsters strikes that echoed across the U.S. – and made Minneapolis a union town.

The committee will host an unveiling and celebration at 11 a.m. July 18 at the site of “Bloody Friday,” the intersection of 7th Ave. and 3rd St. N., Minneapolis.

The free, public event will feature food, speakers and a ceremony honoring descendants of the strikers.

The Remember 1934 Committee announced plans for the dedication ceremony in a press release today:

Minneapolis — The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes are one of the great watershed moments in the history of the American labor movement and now a group of labor activists, historians and sympathizers are planning to erect a permanent marker to commemorate the events of that year and to honor those who fell in the struggle for collective bargaining and the right to organize.

The marker will be unveiled on Saturday, July 18, in a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. at 701 N. Third St., in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis.

“There are virtually no memorials in the Twin Cities related to historical moments in the local labor movement,” said Dave Riehle, who chairs the Remember 1934 Committee. “The ’34 Teamsters Strikes were a critical moment in the American labor movement and we believe the time is long overdue for a memorial.”

The 1934 strikes really stemmed from the winter of 1933-34 when socialist militants such as the Dunne brothers (V.R. (Ray), Miles and Grant) and Swedish immigrant Carl Skoglund had effectively shut down delivery of coal during the coldest part of the year. This victory lifted their status as organizers among the area’s truck drivers. By the spring of 1934, anger among the drivers over wages and working conditions had reached such a level that a powerful strike was possible.

The strike began on May 16. It was successful in that it stopped most commercial transportation in the city. Certain farmers were allowed to bring their produce into town, but delivering was directly to grocers rather than to the food wholesale outlets in the market area, which the union had shut down.

The union, Local 574 (today Teamsters Local 120) was up against the Citizens Alliance, a group of powerful and influential business leaders in Minneapolis vehemently opposed to unions. The Alliance hired goons to augment the police. These people were deputized, provided with clubs made by a local woodworking shop and during the May strike physically clashed numerous times with strikers and pickets in the streets of the Market District.

In the latter part of May, a truce was reached and a tentative agreement signed. But by mid-July, the Citizens Alliance and the trucking owners reneged on the agreement and the strike resumed. On July 20, what has become known as “Bloody Friday,” unarmed strikers were confronted by police, who opened fire with handguns and shotguns. When the confrontation ended, 67 strikers were shot and two, Henry Ness and John Belor, died of their wounds.

By this point, support for the Teamsters had grown, not only among other trade unions but by the public as well. The strikers held strong and remained unified. Victory finally came on Aug. 21.

On that date, federal mediators were notified by the Citizens Alliance of their acceptance of a settlement proposal agreeing to the union’s major demands.

Riehle, a retired locomotive engineer and local labor historian, said the idea for a memorial has been discussed for a couple of decades. Finally, after the observation last year of the 80th anniversary of the strike, a committee was formed with the sole purpose of raising funds, commissioning an artist and making sure the memorial would become reality.

Keith Christensen, an award-winning professor of art and graphic design at St. Cloud State University, has designed the memorial. It will be erected at street level on the iconic 1913 Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. building. It was in front of this building on Bloody Friday that striker Ness was shot and killed by Minneapolis police.

The plaque will be 30 by 22-inches, comprised of porcelain enamel in a steel frame and will have text and visuals about the strike and its historical importance.

“Anything which memorializes our fallen brothers and sisters in the struggle for union representation and collective bargaining is a good thing and this memorial is a good thing,” said Paul Slattery, organizer and political director for Teamsters Local 120.

Speakers at the ceremony will include Tom Keegel, general secretary-treasurer emeritus of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, whose grandfather was a 1934 striker; and Linda Leighton, a shop steward in Service Employees Local 284 and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Leighton is a granddaughter of strike leader VR Dunne, an early member of the IWW.

Further information on the project is available by visiting http://www.gamechange.ampstudio.org. Persons or groups wishing to make a contribution to the project can send their donation to: Remember 1934, P.O. Box 8115, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, Minn. 55408.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fight for $15 strikes: Legal, protected, effective

December 16, 2014 by
Striking janitors marched to Target in St. Paul on Black Friday 2013.

Striking janitors marched to Target in St. Paul during Black Friday protests last year. The campaign is an example of how short-term strikes can lead to improved conditions for low-wage workers.

 

From fast food to retail, workers in low-wage jobs around the country, including Minnesota, are increasingly staging short-term, high-profile strikes to advance their movements for higher wages and a voice on the job.

Walking off the job in protest is a costly, risky tactic to employ – even for one day. In addition to foregoing wages, workers who join a strike make themselves a target for retaliation from management, and they take a leap of faith that their jobs will be waiting when the strike is over.

Still, more than 50 fast-food and retail workers from Minnesota joined a string of walkouts that began on Black Friday, and they got a double dose of encouraging news last week.

First, a judge’s ruling against Walmart confirmed workers cannot be fired or punished for exercising their legally protected right to strike. Meanwhile, retail cleaning workers, who have been staging short-term strikes in the Twin Cities for nearly two years, announced a major victory in their campaign to improve working conditions at Target stores – proof the strategy can yield results.

Targeting workers who stand up

Four Walmart workers from Apple Valley joined Black Friday strikes this year.

Four Walmart workers from Apple Valley joined Black Friday strikes this year.

The Walmart ruling upholds employees’ right to engage in “protected group activity,” as defined in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, to improve their pay and working conditions. Withholding labor is among those activities, and employers may not fire or discipline workers for striking.

The strategy is most often used by union members – from bus drivers to professional athletes – looking to pressure their employer during contract negotiations. But Justin Cummins, an employment law specialist with the Twin Cities firm Cummins & Cummins, said the right to strike applies to non-union workers as well.

“Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who act together to address their working conditions,” Cummins said. “That protection applies to workers whether they are in a union or not.

“The NLRA also gives all workers the right to strike, again regardless of whether the workers are in a union.”

Walmart violated the law, according to last week’s ruling, when it disciplined six workers at a Northern California store for “abandoning work” or “refusing to return to work” during a strike in 2012. It was among the first in a wave of Walmart strikes across the U.S. over the last two-plus years, coordinated by workers fighting for higher wages, more stable scheduling and union rights.

The judge ordered all “coachings” – Walmart’s term for disciplinary actions – removed from the striking workers’ records.

Walmart is likely to appeal the decision, but more rulings against the company are expected in the coming months. The National Labor Relations Board is in the process of prosecuting Walmart on charges of illegal firings and disciplinary actions involving more than 70 members of the worker-led, pro-union group OUR Walmart nationwide, including in Minnesota.

“The judge’s decision confirms what Walmart workers have known for a long time – the company is illegally trying to silence and intimidate employees who speak out for better jobs,” said Sarita Gupta, executive director of the workers’ rights watchdog Jobs With Justice. “Walmart is facing increasing outrage from customers, community members and clergy who are standing with Walmart workers bravely calling for an end to abuse of power and for a stronger economy that supports all working families.”

A demonstration in support of striking fast-food workers shut down traffic on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

Striking fast-food workers, part of the nationwide “Fight for $15,” picketed in  Minneapolis earlier this month.

An effective tool?

Like members of OUR Walmart and fast-food workers engaged in the Fight for $15, retail janitors in the Twin Cities have employed the short-term strike as a tactic in their fight against sub-poverty wages, lack of benefits and unsafe working conditions at cleaning contractors that service chains like Target, Kohl’s and Home Depot.

For the second straight year, members of the local worker center CTUL, a Spanish acronym for “Center for Workers United in the Struggle,” called a strike on Black Friday, and janitors from over 50 stores across the Metro participated.

But days before the Black Friday strike, one subcontractor, Kellermeyer Bergeson’s Services (KBS), struck an agreement to keep picket lines away from stores it services. In exchange, KBS agreed to respect the rights of its workers to organize with the Service Employees International Union.

The agreement puts KBS on the path to compliance with Target’s new Responsible Contractor Policy. Implemented in June, the policy was a landmark victory for CTUL’s retail cleaning campaign, which used short-term strikes, starting in early 2013, to pressure Target into taking responsibility for working conditions inside its stores.

CTUL members like Bonifacio Salinas, a janitor who works for Prestige Maintenance USA, say the strikes will continue until other contractors follow KBS’s example.

“Despite Target’s leadership role in the industry, one of the companies that cleans Target stores in the Twin Cities, Prestige Maintenance USA, has not taken the policy seriously,” said Salinas, who works inside a Target store. “Many workers are still forced to work seven days a week, and the company has not engaged in sincere dialogue to address issues of poverty wages and poor working conditions.”

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