Dreaming big on Labor Day: What if union membership tripled nationwide?

September 2, 2026 by

Baristas at Starbucks have organized at over 700 locations nationwide, including in St. Anthony.

About 15 million American workers are union members, but polling shows that some 50 million more would join a union today if they could.

What if that happened?

That’s the question researchers at the Economic Policy Institute sought to answer in a first-of-its-kind report, “The Case for Tripling Union Membership,” published in July.

Tripling union membership, from roughly 10% of the workforce to 30%, would restore union density to levels not seen since the 1950s, when union power delivered rising wages for working people, helped narrow racial wage gaps and built a thriving middle class.

In their new report, EPI researchers argue that similar benefits are possible today: higher wages across the board, lower inequality, stronger communities and a healthier democracy. The report also shares a policy roadmap to boost union membership and expand the benefits of collective bargaining.

“Tripling union membership is not a nostalgic pipe dream,” EPI President Heidi Shierholz said. “It is exactly what workers want, and federal and state policymakers have a clear roadmap to make it happen.

“Collective bargaining is the most effective tool for workers to raise their wages and secure a fair share of economic growth. If policymakers are serious about tackling affordability problems, expanding union membership and collective bargaining should be at the center of their agenda.”

The report estimates that tripling union membership would:

  • Deliver a 14.5% raise for the median worker, amounting to more than $7,700 annually – or nearly $270,000 over a 35-year career. Increases would apply union and nonunion workers alike.
  • Shift $1.2 trillion to workers annually. This would reverse one-third of the increase in inequality experienced since 1979.
  • Raise worker earnings in every state, including by an estimated $6,500 annually in Minnesota and $9,200 in Wisconsin.
  • Significantly narrow racial wage gaps. Because unions tend to boost wages more for Black and Hispanic workers than for white workers, tripling union membership would close racial wage gaps by more than one-third.
  • Increase the number of people covered by health insurance. Greater collective bargaining power would reduce the number of nonelderly people going without health insurance by about 25%.
  • Strengthen communities. States with high union density invest more in public education, have higher unemployment insurance recipiency rates and have all adopted Medicaid expansion.
  • Protect democracy. Unions boost voter turnout, equip workers with civic skills and actively defend voting rights. States with high union density have passed far fewer voter restriction bills than low-density states.

Of course, tripling union membership won’t actually happen overnight. Organizing is deliberate work that requires the investment of energy and resources – a commitment the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, made at its constitutional convention in June, pledging to organize 2 million new members over the next five years.

Unions have also pushed policymakers to modernize federal labor law and even the playing field in workplace organizing drives.

The report unveils two new policy proposals designed to grow collective bargaining and union density – proposals that, authors say, are “built to work alongside” organized labor’s top policy priorities, the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.

One proposal would guarantee annual raises for newly unionized workers. A mandatory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would provide a meaningful guardrail for workers whose first contract bargaining ends up in arbitration – and undercut the employer’s ability to drag out the process.

The other ambitious proposal: require collective bargaining as the default option when CEO-to-worker pay ratios exceed 100-to-1. “Declining unionization and the stratospheric rise in CEO pay are deeply connected,” EPI’s researchers said. “Strengthening the bargaining power of workers in severely imbalanced companies would enable them to capture a larger share of the wealth their work creates.”

The report also calls on states to repeal so-called “right-to-work” laws and ensure collective bargaining rights for all public-sector workers, which alone would increase union density nationally from 9.9% to 14.4%.

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‘Shared passion for community’ drives union campaign at Twin Cities climbing gyms

August 28, 2026 by

Bouldering Project workers formed a union with Workers United, an SEIU affiliate.

After a meeting with the CEO left more questions than answers, workers at two Bouldering Project gyms in the Twin Cities moved quickly to organize a union.

Workers voted to 79-7 to form a bargaining unit with Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees (SEIU), in a landslide election Aug. 6 overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

The new unit brings together 117 workers at the St. Paul and Minneapolis climbing gyms, from climbing supervisors and youth programming staff to front-desk and maintenance workers.

The climbing industry has expanded steadily over the past decade, and with projections to continue growing, the industry is attracting outside investment, including from private equity.

Climbing workers, in turn, have been forming unions to protect their voice as the industry changes. Vertical Endeavors workers in the Twin Cities unionized in 2023 with the United Food and Commercial Workers. Bouldering Project gyms in Brooklyn and Boston saw successful union drives over the last year, and Workers United represents staff at over 30 climbing gyms nationwide.

The organizing bug reached Bouldering Project’s Twin Cities gym via an unlikely source: a gym member who traveled to Brooklyn and, by coincidence, met Bouldering Project workers there who had recently unionized. The member connected the Brooklyn worker with a Minneapolis worker after returning home.

From there, the campaign took shape, tapping into a growing sense that the culture at Bouldering Project was changing, according to Arrow Shipp, a supervisor in the St. Paul gym entering their fourth year on the Bouldering Project staff. Shipp said some workers trace the shift to a round of private-equity investment after the COVID pandemic.

“Part of the reason people want to be at the Minneapolis Bouldering Project is the community they’ve built – the vibes, the inclusivity, being local at the core,” Shipp said. “I think a lot of people were feeling like we’re pushing promos for new members more than we are building community with current members. We’re losing those core values that the company claims, and I think people were getting tired of the energy.”

Soon after organizing began, Bouldering Project CEO Trever Ackerman announced plans to hold town-hall meetings with workers across the U.S. When Ackerman came to the Twin Cities, workers – some involved in the not-yet-public union drive and some not – were ready with direct questions, expecting a give-and-take dialogue, Shipp said.

That wasn’t what they got.

“It felt very performative,” Shipp said. “We asked Trever questions directly, and he kind of danced around the answers.”

Ackerman asked for more time to process workers’ concerns and pledged to respond. That response came June 1 with a letter announcing wage rates would increase by 1% to 5% for nine Twin Cities positions, including six non-management roles.

But Front-desk workers like Shipp were excluded from the raises. Some workers Shipp talked to reported seeing raises of 13 to 25 cents per hour.

“Those raises felt kind of like a slap in the face,” Shipp said. “They weren’t hearing us; they were trying to appease us.”

Now that they’ve unionized, Twin Cities workers will look to address their issues with a seat at the bargaining table.

Priorities for a first contract, according to the union, will likely include job security and pay. The wages of some full-time workers are low enough that they could qualify for public assistance.

Shipp, 27, said the organizing process has deepened connections between co-workers, many of whom have never been members of a union before.

“We learned that we have a shared passion for community and the fight for workers’ rights,” Shipp said. “Spending time talking about that and getting together to work toward this common goal was really incredible.

“Sometimes society feels like it’s in a really tough spot right now. It’s so cool to have people come together and support each other.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Thoemke: Responsible contracting, union organizing are good for business – just ask this local printer

November 24, 2025 by

Zach Thoemke (R), celebrates a victory at the NLRB with former Seven Corners employees William Cushman (L) and Noah Johnson. (submitted photo)

As a union organizer, I meet a lot of workers who’ve been treated unfairly – and plenty of employers who want nothing to do with fixing it. So when I got a call about Seven Corners, a local printing shop, I expected another long, uphill battle. Workers there were fighting to dissolve their sham ‘union’ and establish real representation with IUPAT District Council 82.

At first, that’s exactly what it was: a fight. The shop’s employees, Noah and Will, stood up for themselves even as the previous owner refused to recognize their right to organize. Together, we filed to dissolve the fake union through the National Labor Relations Board. It took research, persistence and countless hours of paperwork. But without a lawyer, we went toe-to-toe with the company’s attorney and won.

After the NLRB ruled in our favor, the shop changed hands and became CE Print & Promo under new owners, Steve and Brian. When I reached out to explain the situation, they were stunned to learn that the previous owner had been operating under a phony union agreement. Within 24 hours, they met with us in person to make things right. I could tell right away that this was going to be different.

Steve and Brian brought documentation from their legitimate union shop in Des Moines to show how they take care of their workers. When we brought forward a contract to negotiate, they came back with an even better offer than we’d proposed. They didn’t just want to fix the problem; they wanted to set a new standard for what being a responsible, union-friendly employer looks like. Even though they’re the kind of employer who doesn’t need a contract to know how to treat people, they were ready and willing to work with our union and establish a good relationship.

In all my years of organizing, I’ve never seen a contractor move so quickly to remedy a grievance. They didn’t hide behind lawyers or make excuses. They just moved to make it right. Noah and Will got their back benefits corrected, and even though they’ve since moved on to new jobs, they still have a good relationship with CE Print & Promo. Will even came back and helped train new employees.

Today, CE Print & Promo is a proud partner of DC 82 Local 880. They’re working with us on new training programs for sign and display work – something no one else in the area is doing. And they’re not just in it for themselves. Their goal is to improve the sign and display industry overall, establish good relationships with other contractors, and raise standards across the board.

In a time when so many employers are fighting unions, CE Print & Promo chose a different path. They showed that accountability and compassion can go hand in hand – and that doing right by your people is just good business.

To other workers out there: speak up. You deserve fairness, respect, and a voice on the job. It may be daunting, but you are more powerful than you know, especially when you unite with other workers. We were able to hold our own at the NLRB hearing without legal representation and come out on top. If you need help organizing or fighting unfair labor practices, contact your local union. Organizers like me are here to help; you don’t have to go it alone.

And to other employers: look to CE Print & Promo as an example. When you listen to your workers and work in partnership with their union, everyone wins.

I’m proud of what we accomplished together, and I’m even prouder to see this shop leading by example. CE Print & Promo didn’t just clean up someone else’s mess. They set a new gold standard for what a responsible contractor can be.

– Zach Thoemke is an organizer with Local 880 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), an affiliate of District Council 82.

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State AFL-CIO convention spotlights worker power, political goals

September 20, 2022 by

A panel brings together worker-organizers from Planned Parenthood, MN United, Activision Blizzard and Trader Joe’s.

Labor leaders and activists from across the state gathered in St. Paul this week for the Minnesota AFL-CIO‘s 56th constitutional convention, looking to tap into the energy of a recent wave of union-organizing victories as they make a united political push this fall.

Several of the federation’s endorsed candidates, including Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, addressed the delegation of nearly 300 union members. Walz said labor backing was less “a pat on the back” and more of a “kick in the butt” to win a second term, strengthen Minesota’s labor laws and carry forward the state’s economic recovery.

“The one thing I want union members in Minnesota to know is, as long as I am governor, you do not have to spend one second worrying about a piece of anti-union legislation crossing my desk,” Walz told delegates Sept. 20 as the three-day convention came to a close. “We have to get re-elected to make sure workers’ rights are protected, to make sure women’s rights are protected, to make sure voting rights are protected.”

“This November, labor is on the ballot,” Flanagan added. “Our opponent has made it very clear that he will gut labor protections and turn Minnesota into a right-to-work state. That will not happen on our watch.”

MN AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham chairs her first state fed convention.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham, chairing a constitutional convention for the first time, said Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen would “take Minnesota backwards” if elected. Unions, she said, have begun a robust member-to-member outreach campaign to get out the labor vote for Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Dean Phillips and other endorsed candidates.

“While the opposition might be able to outspend us, they will never out-organize us,” Burnham said. “We’re going to deliver the union vote in November not only for the governor’s race but to increase the working families’ majority in the state House and flip the state Senate so we can continue building a more just and fair Minnesota.”

Burnham, sworn in Feb. 1 as president of the statewide federation of over 1,000 local unions, won re-election on the convention’s final day, running without opposition. Brad Lehto, secretary-treasurer since 2018, also won re-election, fending off a challenge from Southeast Area Labor Council President Pommella Wegmann.

Burnham and Lehto pledged to continue making progress on the state AFL-CIO’s strategic priorities, to welcome new affiliates into the fold and to build solidarity across the labor movement to support legislative, organizing and collective bargaining campaigns.

“We have only just begun,” Burnham said. “Your state federation is there to assist you as we expand our labor movement and build our power.”

Union membership has increased in Minnesota in each of the last three years, and it’s likely to do so again in 2022, as a wave of union organizing has brought workers in coffee shops, bookstores, craft breweries, nonprofits and health care facilities into the labor movement, both locally and across the U.S.

“We need Minnesota’s labor movement now more than ever,” AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond tells delegates. “So keep organizing, keep mobilizing, keep being a force for working people.”

Organizing took center stage on Day 1 of the convention, when a panel discussion brought together four young workers who have organized or are currently organizing unions: a quality assurance tester at a video game company, a video board technician with Minnesota United, a Planned Parenthood employee and a Trader Joe’s clerk.

“This wave of workplace organizing has been hugely inspirational to all of us,” said Josiah Wollan, a video-board technician organizing with IATSE. “We’ve realized what power workers have, and knowing that has really started this process. We knew there was nothing coming down the line for us – we weren’t going to get anything until we unionized.”

Organizing growth strengthens and diversifies the labor movement, Burnham said. She also credited Minnesota Building Trades unions for their intentional efforts “to recruit workers and young people from underserved communities into their apprenticeship programs.”

“It’s this work that shows the people of Minnesota, no matter where you come from or what you look like, we want you in the labor movement,” Burnham added.

Recent polling shows people want to be in the labor movement, too. Attorney General Ellison was among several convention speakers who pointed to a Gallup survey, taken in August, that found 71% of Americans approve of unions, the highest mark since 1965.

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson welcomes delegates to the capital city. “Workers are building power in new and innovative ways, and they’re calling on us to join them in solidarity in that fight,” she said.

“Americans would not know that a union would improve people’s lives unless they saw you improving people’s lives with a union,” Ellison said.

Ellison, Walz and other guests also thanked delegates from the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) for fighting to put patients over profits in their current contract campaign. Some 15,000 hospital nurses in Duluth and the Twin Cities staged a three-day strike last week, the largest private-sector nursing strike in U.S. history.

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, said Minnesota nurses are turning heads across the labor movement.

“These are heroes, and they’re exhausted,” Redmond said. “They’re underappreciated, and yet corporations keep making cuts, keep squeezing, keep trying to get blood from a stone and keep putting profits before people. But those nurses here in Minnesota said enough is enough.”

MNA President Mary Turner said the strike was a lesson for many members of her union who had never been on a picket line that labor’s power stems from solidarity, which was, appropriately, the theme of the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention.

“We had community members, family and friends, elected officials and our labor allies on the line with us,” Turner said. “To see all the other unions there, this was a part of being a union a lot of younger nurses had no idea existed.

“We know the problems we are facing are not unique. We’re all fighting our own unique battles, but we’re all workers.”

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Kera Peterson: Organizing surge shows what’s possible at the polls

August 30, 2022 by

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at a union rally in the Chisago Lakes School District, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation.

We’ve all seen the headlines: From Amazon warehouses to hospitals and clinics, from bookstores to coffee shops, we are in the midst of a historic upswing of labor organizing. Working people in Minnesota and across the country are coming together to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. And they are looking to our unions for solidarity and support in that fight.

Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in the past 50 years. We have seen a surge in U.S. workers looking to exercise their freedom to stand together in unions, driving up the number of petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board by 69% compared to last year.

And more often than not, those NLRB elections are going workers’ way here in Minnesota. Our state’s union density – the share of union members in the total workforce – has increased in each of the last two years, bucking a national trend. More than 16% of Minnesota workers are union members. We are 416,000 members strong and growing!

This momentum is exciting and inspiring. It is also the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by low wages, unsafe workplaces, unaffordable health care, and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. When we join together in union as workers, we have the opportunity to make better lives for ourselves and our families. Our unions help ensure safer workplaces, and our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers, whether they are union members or not.

But working people are also looking to the labor movement to restore balance to our economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy.

Corporate special interests have lobbied successfully for massive tax breaks and deregulation, while financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections. Companies like Amazon pit states and municipalities against each other for public subsidies and incentives, while avoiding billions in federal taxes. Meanwhile, working families paying their fair share in taxes have seen the cost of health care, child care and energy cut deeper into their paychecks. Sometimes it feels like the deck has been stacked against us, and in many ways it has.

As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we take the same momentum driving this surge in workplace organizing and use it to mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our General Election on or before Nov. 8. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall. Only the power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests and the billionaire CEOs who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.

We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.

We’ll never outspend the corporations and billionaires, but we can always outwork them. Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful, both at work and at the ballot box. Together, we can help elect pro-worker candidates who support our freedoms to join a union, to earn a good living, to access affordable health care and to vote for our representatives in free and fair elections. I hope you’ll join me in this work.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. The SPRLF unites over 50,000 union members who live and work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. Learn more about the federation, its endorsed candidates and how to volunteer with the Labor 2022 campaign at stpaulunions.org.

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General counsel will urge NLRB to deem captive audience meetings illegal

April 25, 2022 by

After learning its booksellers were forming a union, management at Half Price Books in St. Louis Park called Lindsey Dorsey and her co-workers into a meeting, hoping to snuff out the organizing drive.

“When you’re scheduled to do it, you do it,” Dorsey said. “But it was really clear why they were there and what they were doing and what they were talking about.”

Such mandatory meetings – known by union organizers as “captive audience meetings” – could soon become a violation of federal labor law, after the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel announced April 7 that she will ask board members to overturn a longstanding precedent allowing the practice.

Jennifer Abruzzo, appointed general counsel by President Joe Biden last summer, said employees organizing a union on the job have a right to listen to – or refrain from listening to – employer speech concerning their rights to act collectively to improve their workplace. And it falls on the NLRB to protect that right.

For over 70 years the NLRB has allowed employers to use captive audience meetings to stifle organizing drives and take disciplinary action against any employee who refuses to attend. Abruzzo said that’s inconsistent with the National Labor Relations Act, which the board is charged with upholding.

“This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the Act’s protection of employees’ free choice,” Abruzzo wrote. “It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of employers’ speech rights.

“I believe that the NLRB case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, our statutory language and our congressional mandate. Because of this, I plan to urge the board to reconsider such precedent and find mandatory meetings of this sort unlawful.”

That’s good news for working people looking to gain a say over their wages, benefits and working conditions, union organizers said.

“Ending captive audience meetings puts decisions about organizing back in workers’ hands,” Minnesota AFL-CIO Organizing and Growth Director Todd Dahlstrom said. “Working people need the freedom to decide whether to join together in union without a boss putting their finger on the scale with threats or misinformation.”

Captive audience meetings are a mainstay of the anti-union playbook, utilized by human resources departments and the high-priced, union-busting consultants they call on to squelch organizing drives. In a 2009 study, the Economic Policy Institute found that 89% of employers held captive audience meetings in advance of union elections between 1999 and 2003.

In Abruzzo’s opinion, those meetings should have been voluntary and, moving forward, employers should be held responsible for making it clear that attendance is optional. “Such an approach will appropriately protect employers’ free-speech rights to express views, arguments, or opinions concerning the employees’ exercise of their protected labor rights without unduly infringing on the rights of employees to refrain, or not, from listening to such expressions,” her statement said.

“This is a big step in returning power back to working people,” Dahlstrom said.

Whether workers at the Half Price Books in St. Louis Park could have opted out of their meeting with management without facing discipline is unclear. No one thought to ask, Dorsey said.

Either way, the move backfired, as workers later voted nearly unanimously to form a union with Local 663 of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Several workers, Dorsey said, signed union cards shortly after the meeting with management.

“We knew when they were being misleading because we had been communicating with workers at other stores,” Dorsey said. “So when we were talking about our staffing issues and we were told that it’s our store’s problem and no other store has that problem, we knew it was a lie.

“That’s the best defense against anything, just communicating and knowing the truth.”

Half Price Books unions in St. Louis Park and three other metro stores – Arden Hills, Roseville and St. Paul – are currently bargaining first contracts with the bookseller.

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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.”

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Minnesota organizing drive puts the ‘union’ back in ACLU

July 19, 2021 by

Minnesota employees are part of a wave of organizing activity across the U.S. that is putting the “union” back in the American Civil Liberties Union.

After a speedy organizing drive that took just two months, eligible staff at the ACLU of Minnesota won voluntary recognition from the 70-year-old civil rights organization July 2, five days after the union announced it had support from a “supermajority” of 11 eligible employees.

The same week, employees at two other state affiliates of the ACLU, Arizona and Illinois, announced union drives of their own. In all, employees of 12 state ACLUs have gone public with their unions.

“We’re the ACLU; we’re built for this,” staff attorney Isabella Nascimento said with a laugh. “We have community organizers who do this work on a day-to-day basis. So it was very easy to have conversations with our colleagues about organizing a union.”

Locally, ACLU-MN Staff United is affiliated with the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002. Negotiations with the ACLU of Minnesota on a first contract have yet to begin.

In a statement, union members said they hope collective bargaining will “create organizational stability and transparency; promote pay equity; develop stronger support systems for staff; increase equity and inclusion within the organization and its leadership; and hold management accountable for implementing the organization’s external principles – including its commitment to organized labor – within the walls of their workplace.”

They also expressed solidarity with “the growing movement of non-profit workers” organizing for more stable, inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Since 2019, workers at no less than 17 nonprofit and advocacy organizations in the Twin Cities have organized new unions – a trend that picked up steam in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide reckoning on racial justice following the murder of George Floyd.

“Throughout these several months of uncertainty, the mission of the staff at the ACLU of Minnesota has remained unchanged: to hold government accountable when it harms people and bulldozes their civil rights and liberties,” ACLU-MN Staff United said. “The staff expects that the face the organization projects to the public will match its internal ethos. Our decision to unionize represents an internal accountability mechanism and the staff’s unwavering commitment toward the organization’s success.”

The bargaining unit is likely to grow as the ACLU of Minnesota fills multiple open positions, Nascimento said. She said the organization has roughly tripled in size in recent years, resulting in some “growing pains that it was becoming increasingly difficult to fix internally without speaking with a collective voice.”

The successful organizing drive also puts employees in a better position to influence the process of hiring a new executive director. The ACLU of Minnesota’s previous executive director resigned, as planned, June 30.

“We think it’s really important staff has a voice in choosing the successor,” Nascimento said. “We know what makes for a successful organization for us and for the personalities we have in the office.”

In the meantime, leadership’s decision to recognize and respect its employees’ choice to form a union is having a positive effect on workplace morale. Nascimento said union members were pleased to see the organization live up to its stated position that collective bargaining is fundamental to workers’ ability to exercise their rights of speech, assembly and petition.

“It went very quickly, very seamlessly and non-contentiously,” she said. “It’s very collegial, and the atmosphere at the office is really energetic. It’s a huge show from leadership that they really are pro-union.”

Follow ACLU-MN Staff United on Twitter @aclumn_united.

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ILSR staff seek union to ‘internally reflect what we are externally organizing for’

July 19, 2021 by

[Update 7/21/21: Management has agreed to recognize the union, according to the ILSR Staff Union.]

Staff members at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance announced last week that they have formed a union, but leaders of the Minneapolis-based nonprofit have yet to act on workers’ request for voluntary recognition of their new bargaining unit.

Members of the ILSR Staff Union, an affiliate of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 12, sent a letter to the ILSR’s co-directors last Tuesday formally requesting voluntary recognition, which bypasses the lengthy union-election process governed by the National Labor Relations Board and, instead, allows workers to collect signed cards requesting union representation.

While the co-directors have acknowledged receiving the request, their only response as of last Friday was to say they are doing “their due diligence,” according to Jess Del Fiacco, a union activist who works as ILSR’s communications manager.

“We’re pretty disappointed,” Del Fiacco said. “Our organization is publicly very supportive of organized labor. I personally expected them to voluntarily recognize our union. But we’re still hopeful that we’ll get there.”

Workers have set up an online form for supporters to sign a letter calling on the co-directors, John Farrell and Stacy Mitchell, to move forward with voluntary recognition. Sign it here.

With offices in Washington, D.C., and Portland, Maine, as well as Minneapolis, the ILSR’s mission is to strengthen local economies and communities by fighting corporate control, making the organization a natural ally of organized labor.

The bargaining unit at ILSR would include 14 workers. They began discussing the idea of forming a union last summer, Del Fiacco said, with the organizing drive entering full swing by fall.

Since then, an overwhelming majority of eligible staff members have signed onto the union drive, according to organizers.

ILSR union members said they believe collective bargaining will give them more power to promote equity and transparency at the organization – and to advocate for their own well-being.

Del Fiacco said ILSR staff members face issues common in nonprofit workplaces, like pay disparities, unwritten rules and responsibilities stretching beyond employees’ job descriptions.

But she added: “We don’t see this as any kind of response to a terrible workplace or anything like that. I have nothing but respect for the leadership of the organization and the work we do. We’re excited to help build an organization that’s even stronger together.”

Union members are hopeful the ILSR co-directors – sooner or later – will see things the same way.

“We really want our workplace to reflect the values our organization has,” Del Fiacco said. “ILSR works for democratic institutions, and we think there’s no reason we shouldn’t internally reflect what we are externally organizing for.”

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Staff announce union drives at two Twin Cities charter schools

May 4, 2021 by

Teachers from Great River and Hiawatha announce their union campaigns during a video conference with Education Minnesota.

Staff at two Twin Cities charter schools kicked off Teacher Appreciation Week earlier this month by filing for recognition of their unions.

Teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff from Great River School in St. Paul and Hiawatha Academies in Minneapolis went public with their campaigns after filing signed authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), triggering the union-election process.

“We are all incredibly proud and honored to be working with the amazing staff, families and students who really make our school run,” said Janiru Herath, a teacher at Hiawatha College Prep – Kingfield. “Through unionizing, we can have a seat at the table in which the decision-making process includes all voices.”

About 70% of workers eligible for the bargaining units signed authorization cards, according to Education Minnesota, the union of 89,000 education workers statewide, which is supporting both organizing drives.

The bargaining units would bring together as many as 122 school employees at Great River and 202 at Hiawatha.

Employees at both schools pushed administrators and board members to recognize their unions voluntarily, hoping to bypass the NLRB and get to work on first collective bargaining agreements that will strengthen their learning communities – but to no avail.

Instead, Great River staff members are scheduled to vote June 3 in person. Voting at Hiawatha will take place by mail, with ballots set to be counted June 8.

A bridge to support students

In a discussion streamed live on Education Minnesota’s Facebook page during Teacher Appreciation Week, Herath and other union supporters laid out their reasons for pursuing a collective voice at their schools. Each of the speakers said a union would increase staff members’ power to advocate for themselves and their students.

Great River’s Sarah Garton likened forming a union to building a bridge between staff and the school’s administration, so the two groups work together better. That would only benefit students, Hiawatha’s Tory Waggoner agreed.

“Students are the center of every- thing we do,” Waggoner said. “By prioritizing the voice of the people who work most closely with them, we can improve student outcomes and increase the satisfaction of workers as well.”

Growth at the schools has factored into workers’ decision to organize, too. Since the school’s founding in 2007, Hiawatha has expanded from a

single elementary campus into a net- work of one elementary school, two middle schools and one high school. Great River, a first- through 12th-grade Montessori school on Energy Park Drive, also has grown in recent years.

Great River teacher Nadine McNiff said growth is an opportunity “to expand what is working and improve what isn’t,” and a having a union will ensure staff members are part of that process.

“One thing that’s really important is continuity and foundation,” McNiff said. “Especially through a time of growth and changes at Great River, a union offers support for those things.”

Staff members at Great River, McNiff added, strive to create “space and structures that give students agency and voice.” And what better way to model that work than by forming a union?

“Our hopes are that unionizing and having that consistency in place, having that stability in place, can really help with maintaining working conditions that can feel supportive to workers, so they can focus and really invest their energies and thoughts on connections with students,” McNiff said.

Unions gaining favor

Charter schools are publicly funded but exempt from some state laws in order to increase flexibility, autonomy and innovation.

Minnesota is considered the birth- place of charter schools, having passed a first-in-the-nation law establishing their framework in 1991. Now, 168 charter schools serve about 68,000 pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students statewide.

Teachers at the Twin Cities German Immersion School in St. Paul formed the state’s first charter-school union in 2014. Currently, Education Minnesota represents four bargaining units at three charter schools.

– Updated May 5, 2021, with reporting on NLRB election dates.

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