Photos: Labor, faith, community activists stand up for sick time, resist corporate interference

March 3, 2017 by

web-preemption-house-3The Minnesota House passed a bill last night that would strip 150,000 Minnesotans of newly won earned-sick-and-safe-time benefits and block local governments from raising labor standards in their communities.

As debate raged inside the Republican-controlled House, opponents from labor, faith and community groups rallied outside the chamber, calling the bill a corporate power grab and a step backwards in addressing the state’s yawning disparities between white workers and workers of color.

Rosheeda Credit, a McDonald’s worker and who has been a leader for paid sick time and a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis, shared her frustration with the preemption bill in a press conference before the House session, staged by Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.

“I recently became homeless with my five children because my rent in north Minneapolis more than doubled,” Credit said. “We need to be able to pass laws in Minneapolis that will help people in Minneapolis. We have been fighting for paid sick time and a $15 minimum wage for a long time and now corporate lobbyists are trying to take it away. What are they so afraid of? Why are they trying to silence our voices?”

More than 100 people answered the call to pack the House chamber with opponents to the corporate-interference bill, which could come before the Senate as early as next week. Click here to tell your state senator you oppose the measure, Senate File 580.

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‘End run’ around local sick-pay victories advances at Capitol

February 3, 2017 by

web-localcontrol-buttonsCorporate special interests clashed with working people during a Capitol hearing last night on legislation that would roll back ordinances extending earned sick and safe time to an estimated 150,000 workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The local preemption bill, authored by Rep. Pat Garafalo (R-Farmington), passed its first committee hearing after a lengthy round of public testimony. A companion bill in the Senate will receive its first committee hearing Monday.

The measure would restrict local governments from establishing higher employment standards – like earned sick time, fair scheduling and minimum wage – within their boundaries. Additionally, it would strike down any such ordinances passed after Jan. 1, 2016, nulling historic victories on earned sick time in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minnesota Nurses Association director Rose Roach, who co-chaired a citizen task force that helped draft St. Paul’s sick time ordinance, called Garafalo’s bill “an end run around the will of the people” in her city.

Roach was among dozens of people who lined up to testify on the measure before the House jobs committee. An overflow crowd spilled into two additional hearing rooms, and the committee’s decision to take a dinner break – passed by a party-line, roll-call vote – drew groans from those still waiting for their chance to speak.

A diverse group of working people, religious leaders and small business owners voiced concerns with the bill, which they called a corporate power grab.

“We see what’s going on here,” Javen Swanson, pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, told committee members. “Businesses don’t want to expand worker benefits or increase wages. And with vast resources and an army of lobbyists in Washington and here in St. Paul, they usually get their way.”

Indeed, lobbyists for several industry associations and trade groups – representing restaurants, banks, temp agencies and others – spoke in favor of stripping local governments of their power to set higher workplace standards. A “patchwork” approach to workplace regulations, they warned, creates bookkeeping headaches for firms doing business across the state.

Doug Sams, owner of D. Brian’s catering, said his employees are like family, and he worried that different wage-and-benefit standards would drive a wedge between employees in different municipalities. “I’m looking at this as a challenge for me to keep my family together,” he said.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee's unexpected dinner break.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee’s unexpected dinner break.

But one after the other, working people at the hearing came forward to express fear and outrage that state lawmakers would seek to undermine their efforts to secure the sick time necessary to care for themselves and their families.

“My whole working life I have been a number, and an easily replaceable number,” retail worker Katie Drahos, a member of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, told committee members. “I have no say in the corporate world. My only saving grace is that I am able to lobby for my interests at a city level.”

“We get sick because we are human beings, so we need sick time,” SEIU Local 26 member Kadra Ali of St. Paul said. “If I miss one day at my job because I’m sick, I miss my check, or if I stay with my children when they get sick.”

Several small business owners joined workers in opposition, including Todd Mikkelson, a small business owner from Orono. While corporations and industry associations might have the ear of state and national lawmakers, he said, Main Street businesses have the ear of their local officials.

“To take away our local control of things is nothing more than an intrusion,” Mikkelson said. “City councils are listening to us constantly. We have much easier access to them, and they are our neighbors. To stifle them is to stifle us.”

If it’s uniformity corporate interests want, Swanson offered a proposal: “Let’s use St. Paul’s sick time ordinance as a model for statewide legislation that protects the most vulnerable members of our communities,” he said.

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Council vote gives St. Paul nation’s strongest earned sick time ordinance

September 7, 2016 by
St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan speaks in support of a citywide earned sick time policy at a press conference before a public hearing on the issue.

St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan speaks in support of a citywide earned sick time policy at a press conference before a public hearing on the issue.

Members of the St. Paul City Council today voted 7-0 to pass an ordinance hailed by working people, small business owners, clergy members and other advocates as the strongest earned sick and safe time law on the books nationwide.

Mayor Chris Coleman immediately indicated he would support the ordinance, making St. Paul the 35th U.S. location to pass sick-pay legislation, according to Family Values at Work.

“We are experiencing tremendous momentum as a city,” Coleman said in a statement. “We need to do everything we can to ensure even the most vulnerable among us are experiencing that same momentum. This ordinance brings us one step closer to doing so, and I support it for that reason.”

Set to take effect July 1, 2017, the ordinance will extend ESST benefits to an estimated 72,000 working people in St. Paul.

It requires all employers – regardless of size, unlike the ordinance passed in Minneapolis earlier this year – to provide one hour of sick time for every 30 hours an employee works, with sick-time earnings capped at 48 hours per year. Employees will begin accruing sick time after working 80 hours, and they become eligible to use the benefit after 90 calendar days of employment.

Supporters like Nuurto Mohamed, a janitor for 3M in St. Paul, said the new ordinance will give healthier choices to working families like hers.

“I am so excited that we won paid sick days for families like mine in St. Paul,” Mohamed said. “We work hard, and having more paid sick days will mean we no longer have to choose between our health and our paycheck when someone in our family is sick.”

The ordinance also gives employees the right to sue if they face retaliation for using their paid sick time. Michelle Parker, a member of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change who works at Papa John’s in St. Paul, welcomed the enforcement provision.

Pastor Bradley Schmeling explains his support for a citywide earned-sick-time ordinance during a press conference at St. Paul City Hall.

Pastor Bradley Schmeling explains his support for a citywide earned-sick-time ordinance during a press conference at St. Paul City Hall.

“When I have to call in sick, my employer cuts my hours for the next week,” she said. “My family needs this safeguard.”

The ordinance closely follows the recommendations of a task force established earlier this year by Mayor Coleman and council members to study the issue. It included labor, faith and community leaders, as well as representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and small business owners.

“The benefits to providing sick time outweigh the costs a hundred fold,” said Workhorse Coffee’s Shannon Forney, one of more than 50 business owners citywide to back the ordinance publicly. “If we, a scrappy small business not supported by capital investments, can do it, certainly other businesses can too.”

Supporters celebrated the council vote as the culmination of a yearlong campaign that included congregational meetings, forums, door-knocks, phone banks, strikes, rallies and meetings with elected officials.

“This vote is a big step toward improving the quality of life for all working people in Saint Paul,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and a member of the ESST task force. “We’re grateful to the elected officials who showed courage on Earned Sick and Safe Time, and proud to be part of a coalition of community groups that, by working together, made history today.”

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After successful petition drive, Minneapolis workers call for vote on $15 minimum wage

June 28, 2016 by
15Now Minnesota supporters rally outside the Hilton in Minneapolis during the DNC's meetings.

15Now Minnesota supporters rallied in Minneapolis last year.

Activists will deliver a petition to City Hall tomorrow with signatures from about 20,000 registered voters who support amending the city’s charter to guarantee workers a $15 minimum wage.

The move, organizers with 15 Now Minnesota said, puts the amendment on track to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved, Minneapolis would join more than 30 cities nationwide with strong minimum-wage ordinances, including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

“If they get it, why can’t we get it?” McDonald’s worker Steven Suffridge, a member of the low-wage worker center CTUL, said during a conference call with reporters yesterday. The outpouring of support for the petition drive, he added, shows “people are coming to the realization that yes, we are worth $15 an hour.”

Indeed, 15 Now volunteers collected nearly three times the number of signatures required to compel a vote. Several unions supported the petition drive, including the Communications Workers, the Machinists, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Letter Carriers and Teamsters Local 320.

[15 Now supporters, led by fast-food workers who are organizing with CTUL, plan a rally tomorrow at the McDonald’s at 210 E. Lake St., before marching to City Hall to deliver the petitions.]

Anticipating pushback from corporations and other special interests, 15 Now Minnesota released a legal memo yesterday detailing the legal basis for their ballot initiative.

Laura Huizar, an attorney with the National Employment Law Project who analyzed the legal landscape in Minneapolis, said a minimum-wage ordinance would fall under the city’s “broad powers to address the health, safety and well being of its citizens,” similar to ordinances regulating liquor sales or the number of hours workers can log at a job in one day.

Karen Marty, a former city attorney in Minneapolis, said the city is required to put a proposed charter amendment on the ballot as long as it meets the signature threshold and does not include language in conflict with state or local law.

“The charter doesn’t limit what citizens can offer as amendments,” Marty said. “Minneapolis can adopt a law or a charter provision on any topic that’s not prohibited, which would include a $15 minimum wage.”

When courts around the country have considered whether a city can enact a local minimum wage, the attorneys added, most have upheld those local laws – as long as they don’t conflict with state law. Minnesota law does not currently preclude a local minimum wage, although Republican lawmakers are plotting ways to roll back local control over employment standards.

“We determined that the city has the power to enact a local wage, and we also concluded that this can, in fact, be done by a charter amendment proposed by voters on the November ballot,” Huizar said.

For the city’s low-wage workers, who include a disproportionate number of women and people of color, the pay raise can’t come too soon. It’s estimated 38 percent of people who work in Minneapolis would see their wages increase with a $15 minimum wage, and supporters say it would mark a big step forward in efforts to address racial inequities in the Twin Cities that are among the worst in the U.S.

“Currently, more and more people have to work ridiculous hours at multiple jobs which in many cases leaves no guarantee they will even have enough to get by,” said Marcellina Reis, a restaurant server and member of the community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change. “It also doesn’t allow them time to function like human beings. Having little to no time to build family, community and find happiness creates physical and mental health damage and brings our society down, not only affecting those struggling to live but everyone in Minneapolis.”

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Want a healthier Minnesota? Pass paid sick, family leave policies

March 17, 2015 by
Sen. Katie Sieben (DFL-Newport), a lead offer on legislation to expand access to paid family leave, speaks at a press conference at the Capitol.

Sen. Katie Sieben (DFL-Newport), a lead offer on paid family leave legislation, joins a coalition of workers, faith leaders and business owners working on the issue.

 

Workers shouldn’t have to choose between earning a paycheck and getting medical care, or caring for a newborn child. That’s the essence of labor’s support for legislation that would expand access to earned sick time and paid family leave among Minnesota workers.

But officials with the Minnesota Department of Health today offered another reason for expanding paid leave: a healthier Minnesota.

“Paid sick and family leave is an economic issue, but it is also a public health issue,” MDH Commissioner Edward Ehlinger said at a Capitol press conference, where the department issued a white paper touting the public health benefits of public policies that expand access to sick and family leave.

DFL lawmakers have included such measures in their proposed Working Parents Act, which would mandate the state’s employers offer workers, at minimum, one hour of sick time for every 30 hours on the clock. The bill would also create an insurance program to increase the availability of paid family leave.

Four of 10 workers in Minnesota do not have access to even one paid sick day, according to an analysis released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research last fall. Just 13 percent of Minnesotans enjoy paid family leave.

Earned sick time and family leave fall even more out of reach for Minnesota’s low-income and part-time workers. The MDH found “significant inequities” that create a “cascading effect on families and entire communities, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities.”

Peggy Flanagan, director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota, said the report shows communities of color and the state’s American Indian population are hardest hit.

Parents in these communities, already struggling with cyclical poverty, are less likely to take time off to care for a newborn and more likely to send a sick child to school. That creates “an even steeper ladder to success later in life,” Flanagan said.

MNA President Linda Hamilton urges common-sense legislation to guarantee access to earned sick and safe time.

MNA President Linda Hamilton urges common-sense legislation to guarantee access to earned sick and safe time.

It also makes other people sick – another point driven home by the MDH paper.

Minnesotans who lack sick-time benefits often work in jobs that require contact with the public, like food service and health care. The MDH linked at least 208 outbreaks of foodborne illness between 2004 and 2013 to people working while sick, and it attributed 579 disease outbreaks from 2004 to 2011 to “person-to-person transmission in public settings.”

“People who are sick belong home in bed, not in the workplace,” Linda Hamilton, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said.

What’s more, workers with access to paid sick leave are more likely to get preventative health care, recover from illnesses faster and reduce the spread of disease. That boosts workers’ productivity in the long-run, Eden Prairie small business owner Verne Severson said.

“I need my employees to be at their best, and employees are at their best when they stay home when sick and they take care of their families,” he said.

Unfortunately, not all employers take the long view, as Minneapolis resident Octancia Adams knows too well.

Commissioner Ehlinger, state lawmakers and others at the press conference listened as Adams recalled being pregnant with her second child eight years ago, when she was working at McDonald’s. The job did not offer paid-sick benefits or paid family leave, and Adams faced a difficult decision when told she would need four to six weeks of rest to recover from a cesarean-section delivery.

Octancia Adams, who returned to work at McDonald's 10 days after having a cesarean section, is now helping lobby for a bill that would expand access to paid family leave.

Octancia Adams, who returned to work at McDonald’s 10 days after having a cesarean section, is now helping lobby for a bill that would expand access to paid family leave.

“I had a choice between returning to work and losing my job,” she said.

Adams chose her job, returning after only 10 days. She’s been paying the price ever since. Adams continues to suffer from a herniated disc and scar tissue that could hemorrhage if she has another child.

“I feel pain every time I ovulate,” she said. “I go back to the doctor, and they tell me there’s nothing more they can do for me.”

Lawmakers can do something to create better options for working mothers, Adams said, so they don’t face the impossible choice she faced eight years ago.

“It shouldn’t be a ‘nice-to-have,’” Flanagan said of paid family leave and earned-sick time. “It should be a must-have.”

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Picketers: Walmart’s raising wages, so why won’t Target?

March 4, 2015 by
Demonstrators march outside Target's headquarters on Nicollet Mall.

Demonstrators march outside Target’s headquarters on Nicollet Mall.

Activists picketed outside Target Corp.’s headquarters downtown Minneapolis yesterday, calling on CEO Brian Cornell to make raising wages for frontline workers a part of the company’s massive restructuring effort.

Organizers of 15 Now, a grassroots movement working to raise the minimum wage in Minneapolis, looked to pressure Target into following the lead of its primary competitor, Walmart, which announced plans last month to raise its workers’ wages to a $10 minimum by next year.

“If Target wants to do what’s right, they’ll set themselves apart from Walmart” by increasing wages even further, Walmart associate and 15 Now supporter Cantare Davunt said. “We are not going away until they do.”

web.Target-wages2The picket began at 4:30 p.m. and lasted about an hour. It drew more than 25 supporters, including members of the Minneapolis-based community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, which is backing 15 Now’s campaign to raise wages.

“It cannot wait,” NOC organizer Octancia Adams said, “because the rent cannot wait.”

Activists also used the event to respond to Mayor Betsy Hodges’ statement that she would not support an ordinance to raise the minimum wage in Minneapolis, favoring a regional or statewide solution instead.

Kip Hedges, the former Delta Air Lines baggage handler fired for his support of 15 Now, found himself in unfamiliar territory, urging the mayor to be more like Walmart.

The retailer’s decision to raise wages prompted several others, including Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, to follow suit. If Minneapolis raises its minimum wage, Hedges said, other cities will do the same.

“When one big player takes a big step and raises wages, the other big players follow,” he said. “Help us lead the fight, Mayor Hodges.”

15 Now plans a major action to ramp up its campaign in Minneapolis April 15. Monitor 15 Now Minnesota’s Facebook page for details.

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Workers: Fair scheduling measure would restore work-life balance

February 20, 2015 by
Hourly workers listen as Rep. Rena Moran (second from left) describes her bill to bring balance to the state's work scheduling laws.

Hourly workers listen as Rep. Rena Moran (second from left) explains her bill to bring balance to the state’s work scheduling laws.

Pushing back against an upswing in reports of Minnesota workers struggling to meet their employers’ increasingly irregular scheduling demands, a coalition of worker-advocacy groups today unveiled legislation to bring fairness to the state’s workplace scheduling laws.

The House bill, authored by DFL Rep. Rena Moran of St. Paul, would require employers to provide hourly employees with their work schedules 21 days in advance, compensate workers whose shifts are cancelled within a 24-hour window and guarantee workers have access to adequate rest between shifts.

“This bill would make sure that employees who are forced to make themselves available to an employer’s scheduling needs are compensated accordingly and able to count on at least a minimum income every payday,” Moran said at a press conference in St. Paul earlier this week.

[Click here to take action in support the fair scheduling bill by e-mailing your state lawmaker.]

Several low-wage, hourly workers who stand to benefit from the legislation joined Moran, including members of the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL, Minneapolis-based Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and Working America, the AFL-CIO’s outreach initiative to non-union workers with more than 280,000 members in Minnesota.

Andy Barno-Iversen, a member of Working America, explains the toll "clopening" – working consecutive closing and opening shifts – takes on workers and their families.

Andy Barno-Iversen describes the toll “clopening” – working consecutive closing and opening shifts – takes on workers and their families.

Scrambling to get hours

Workers took turns at the podium venting their frustrations with practices gaining popularity among fast-food, retail and other service-sector employers, from “just-in-time” scheduling that allows managers to call in staff on a moment’s notice to “clopening,” Andy Barno-Iversen’s term for back-to-back shifts that ended late and began early the next morning.

Barno-Iversen described working full-time at a Minneapolis co-op grocery while also studying at the University of Minnesota. Twice each week, he would get home from work at 10 p.m. after closing the store, then go back to work by 4:30 a.m. the next day to open.

“I was exhausted,” the Working America member said. “I ended up dropping out of class because my academic performance suffered so badly. My work performance suffered.”

His department has since eliminated “clopening,” Barno-Iversen said, “but thousands of Minnesota retail workers, students and families do have to deal with those scheduling issues… To amend that is just a simple act of consideration.”

Other hourly workers recalled watching their paychecks shrink after their employers switched from conventional scheduling to on-call, “flex,” or “just-in-time” scheduling.

CTUL member Bobby Brown said his hours at a McDonald’s in Bloomington have dried up to the point where his last paycheck was $14. Ronda Jama, a wheelchair agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, used to work four days per week; now she works two – and waits “on call” in case AirServ, her employer, makes more hours available.

“It changed the cycle of our life,” Jama said. “It’s hard because we are on call right now. They call you whenever they want you.”

Bobby Brown's last paycheck from McDonald's amounted to $14.

Bobby Brown’s last paycheck from McDonald’s amounted to $14.

Both Jama and Brown earn minimum wage, $8 per hour. The employers most likely to utilize aggressive scheduling practices, Working America State Director Bree Halverson said, are also most likely to pay low wages.

“Unpredictable hours make economic mobility and achieving the American Dream even harder, especially if you’re already struggling to get by,” Halverson said. “Minnesota families need 21st-century scheduling policies that keep up with the changing nature of today’s workplace.”

‘Freedom and stability’

Moran’s proposal to bring fairness to workers’ schedules is another variation on an encouraging theme at the Capitol this session, with lawmakers looking to provide workers – and their families – with the stability and security they need to ensure a healthy work-life balance.

The day after advocates unveiled the scheduling bill, House DFLers rolled out their Working Parents Act, pulling together earned sick and safe time, wage theft, paid family leave and scheduling bills into an all-inclusive measure.

Moran called scheduling fairness “one brick in a road to a better life.”

“This bill is an important first step toward bringing more freedom and stability to employees who work hard, who want to receive hourly wages and who need to plan for their future and the future of (their) families,” Moran said.

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A $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis? Backers look to Seattle for blueprint

February 16, 2015 by
Kip Hedges, a former baggage handler fired by Delta for publicly supporting 15 Now, addressed a meeting in Minneapolis Sunday night.

Kip Hedges, a baggage handler fired by Delta for publicly supporting 15 Now, spoke during the coalition’s meeting in Minneapolis Sunday night.

More than 100 activists gathered in a Minneapolis union hall last night to begin the work of raising the minimum wage within city limits to $15 per hour.

Lest anyone suggest tempering expectations, 15 Now organizers invited Kshama Sawant, the city council member who spearheaded Seattle’s successful fight for $15 just over a year ago, to recount how labor, faith and community activists there turned an improbable goal into a reality for working people.

“Minneapolis is one of the cities that is poised to win $15 this year,” Sawant told activists. “Let the fight for $15 in Seattle be your guide, that with only one member of the City Council (initially supportive), we were able to get this done.”

Indeed, Seattle’s minimum wage will jump from $9.47 an hour to $11 an hour April 1, and it’s slated to reach $15 by 2021 at the latest. Sawant, an economics professor who upset a four-term incumbent on the Council, said the minimum-wage hike could lift as many as 100,000 workers out of poverty.

“Ultimately, what we are talking about are real people,” she said. “These are the people who make this city run. Just imagine if all of them decided not to go to work on one day. The city would shut down.”

Seattle City Council Member Ksharma Sawant addressed 15 Now supporters in Minneapolis.

Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant addressed 15 Now supporters in Minneapolis.

How did Seattle do it?

Success in Minneapolis – as it did in Seattle – will depend on 15 Now’s ability to build a broad coalition of support, Sawant said. That means faith groups, community organizations and, of course, labor unions.

A delegate to Seattle’s central labor council, Sawant said local unions in her city supported 15 Now out of a shared belief that a rising tide lifts all boats.

Most union members in Seattle earn much more than $15 per hour, she said. “They have pensions, they have health care,” Sawant said. “But they were there in solidarity with their sisters and brothers anyway.”

Ubah Aden was among them. A member of the Service Employees International Union and a leader in her neighborhood, Aden wanted to “walk the walk” when it came to advocating for a higher minimum wage. So she quit a higher-paying job and took one in health care that paid $10.95 per hour.

With two children monthly rent of $1,200, Aden found it impossible to make ends meet. “I couldn’t do it,” she said, adding that she quit the lower-paying job and went back to her previous field.

Aden, who also traveled to Minneapolis last week, acknowledged she was lucky to have a career path to resume. “Many low-wage workers don’t have that opportunity,” she said. “It’s just sad that they don’t have enough money to meet their basic needs.”

Expect a fight

No matter how broad a coalition 15 Now builds in Minneapolis, opposition will be fierce and well-financed, Sawant warned.

In Seattle opponents lamented the impact of a $15 minimum wage on small businesses – a public-relations campaign underwritten, covertly and ironically, by the city’s biggest corporations. “Suddenly, you found Starbucks lamenting the fate of local coffee shops,” Sawant said.

In response, 15 Now tapped into popular frustration with a global economy and political structures that seem rigged in favor of corporations and the very wealthy. In that sense, Sawant said, 15 Now builds on the message of Occupy Wall Street and the resistance of fast-food and retail strikers, offering a plan of political action to combat the growth of income inequality.

“We have been on the retreat, on the defensive,” she said. “That’s the beautiful thing about 15 Now – it’s the beginning of an offense… When we organize collectively around concrete political demands, we can absolutely win.”

Guillermo Lindsey, a McDonald’s worker, member of CTUL, said he usually works 55 hours per week with just one day off to spend with his family.

Guillermo Lindsey, a McDonald’s worker, member of CTUL, said he usually works 55 hours per week with just one day off to spend with his family.

Moving the Council

If turnout for Sawant’s appearance is any indication, 15 Now already has a strong base of support from which to draw in Minneapolis.

Two members of the Minneapolis City Council who attended the rally said they supported raising the city’s minimum wage. Alondra Cano of Ward 9 pledged to support $15 per hour; Ward 3’s Jacob Frey said he would support an increase, but needed more time to research how much.

Several community organizations had a presence at the event as well, including the low-wage worker center CTUL and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, a grassroots organizing effort for racial and economic justice in Minneapolis.

“It’s time for us to stop settling for a minimum wage and start reaching for a living wage,” NOC Field Director Mike Griffin said.

Ty Moore, a national organizer for 15 Now, pointed to an already-successful 15 Now campaign at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – where a worker-led rally briefly shut down traffic on a roadway to Terminal 1 in December – as helping “boost the credibility” of 15 Now locally.

“The debate is alive, and big campaigns are moving to help raise up working people’s wages and working conditions,” Moore said. “We need (Minneapolis) city leaders to play the kind of role of … Kshama Sawant, to stand steadfastly in the interest of working-class policies.”

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