Flanagan marks first Workplace Rights Week at union laundry in St. Paul

September 25, 2024 by

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry is putting a spotlight on workers’ rights this week, with hundreds of outreach events across the state to educate workers and employers.

It’s the state’s first-ever Workplace Rights Week, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan marked the occasion today at an industrial laundry facility on St. Paul’s East Side, where she and DLI Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach met with union workers and plant managers.

“This is a place where workers can feel supported and know their rights,” Flanagan said. “We can help spread that word to other worksites across the state of Minnesota.”

Health Systems Cooperative Laundries (HSCL) employs 230 people who pick up, clean and deliver linens to 600 clinics and 28 hospitals. The 80,000-square-foot facility, located on the former Hamm’s brewery site, processes up to 1 million pounds of laundry each week.

Members of three unions work at HSCL: the SEIU-affiliated Workers United, Operating Engineers Local 70 and Teamsters Local 471. The workforce is diverse, with 12 different languages spoken at the facility.

Workers United Vice President Kathy Hanshew spoke during an event at Health Systems Cooperative Laundry during Workplace Rights Week.

Workers’ rights on the job are the same no matter what language they use, Flanagan noted, crediting HSCL and its unions for working together to educate all employees about their protections and benefits.

Kathy Hanshew, vice president of Workers United, said union members at HSCL “have no trouble … defending themselves, defending their fellow workers and standing up for what’s right inside the workplace.”

“We understand that a safe, supportive and fair environment to work in is not only essential for our success as a company, but also to the individual employee,” HSCL Director of Operations Tabitha Zieman said. “I’m proud to work alongside these 230 employees who come from various backgrounds.”

DLI rolled out Workplace Rights Week in response to a flurry of new labor laws passed by state lawmakers since 2023, when union-endorsed DFLers took control of the Legislature.

The changes include an earned sick and safe time law, new protections for pregnant and lactating parents, and safety standards specific to the meatpacking and warehouse industries. Other laws crack down on wage theft, ban noncompete clauses and prohibit employers from holding captive-audience meetings about politics, religion or collective bargaining.

Blissenbach said the agency hopes its weeklong push will “reach workers, managers and owners with the message and materials” they need to maintain compliance with the new regulatory landscape – and ensure Minnesota remains “one of the best places for workers and their families.”

“We know that it takes everyone to maintain a safe and healthy work environment, where every worker realizes protections afforded to them in the law,” she said.

Learn more about Workplace Rights Week, which runs through Sept. 28, at https://dli.mn.gov/rights-week.

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Workers encouraged to make sure they see full benefit of Minnesota’s new sick time law

January 30, 2024 by

A member of the Twin Cities worker center CTUL spoke about the importance of having access to earned sick and safe time – and why CTUL was among the leading advocates of expanding the benefit statewide.

Minnesota’s new earned sick and safe time mandate took effect Jan. 1, and state lawmakers and regulators are encouraging workers to check with their employers to make sure they are earning the full benefit provided by the new law.

That means banking a minimum of one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked. Accrual must begin immediately upon employment, and workers may earn up to a 48 hours in a year, at minimum.

The new law applies broadly, covering full-time, part-time and temporary employees, although federal workers, independent contractors and some construction workers covered by collective bargaining agreements are exempt from the law.

“We know that everyone deserves paid time away to heal, to grow and to live,” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said during a press event at a bakery in Minneapolis, where she and other officials sought to raise awareness of the new mandate. “And when you come back your job should still be there.”

Employers must allow workers to access their earned sick and safe time to recover from illness or injury, access preventative care or care for family members. Workers also may access earned benefits to seek assistance for domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

State Sen. Sandy Pappas (D-St. Paul), lead author of the new law, recalled fighting to include earned sick and safe time in the Women’s Economic Security Act of 2014.

Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul was lead author of the ESST bill.

“I couldn’t get it over the goal line at that time, but I was really pleased with my city of St. Paul … that we were the guinea pigs to show that it could work and be successful,” Pappas said. “Now, earned sick and safe time will raise the bar for all Minnesota workers.”

St. Paul was one of four Minnesota cities that put sick-time ordinances on their books before state lawmakers expanded the benefit during the 2023 legislative session. Fourteen other states have passed similar laws too, Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach said.

“This law is providing an important workplace benefit that allows workers – regardless of their income, regardless of their background – the right to take time off to prioritize their health and the health of their families,” she said. “We know that it works.”

Some employers in cities like St. Paul and Minneapolis have cited the benefits of expanding earned sick and safe time benefits. Daniel Swenson-Klatt adopted the policy at Butter Bakery Café seven years ago, as city council members in Minneapolis were debating an ordinance. He called it “an investment that paid off.”

“In the end it provided my staff with safety and security. It reduced turnover,” he said. “There was an associated cost of hiring and turnover that just wasn’t there anymore. Over the years, it has added a little to my payroll costs, but it has brought back rewards far greater.”

Officials also emphasized that earned sick and safe time is not the same as paid family and medical leave, another workplace benefit state lawmakers voted into law last legislative session. The medical leave bill, which provides partial wage replacement for extended absences like the birth of a child, will go into effect in 2026.

Find more information about workers’ rights under the new ordinance on the Labor Department’s website.

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Minnesota unions praise historic legislative session

May 24, 2023 by

Gov. Tim Walz spoke to supporters before signing 12 budget bills into law.

In a historically productive legislative session that ended on time Monday, labor-endorsed lawmakers delivered on nearly all their campaign promises, from investments in public infrastructure and schools to expansion of family-supporting benefits, union rights and workplace protections.

Union activists and leaders were among hundreds who celebrated the session’s accomplishments today on the Capitol grounds, as Gov. Tim Walz held a signing ceremony for 12 budget bills that will fund state government for the next two years.

Walz likened the newly approved budget to the “Minnesota Miracle” of 1971, when the state drew nationwide acclaim for investing in public education.

“If this is ‘Minnesota Miracle 2.0,’ the difference between then and now is … we’re leaving no one behind,” Walz said.

Labor leaders praised Walz and DFL legislators for rising to the occasion created by a projected budget surplus that swelled to $17.5 billion – thanks, in part, to one-time federal stimulus dollars that Republicans blocked the state from allocating one year ago.

After winning all three levers of power – with support from union volunteers – during the 2022 election, DFLers invested the surplus in infrastructure projects and jobs, schools, nursing homes and targeted tax relief for working families, including an expanded child tax credit that will return up to $1,750 per child to lower-income families.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, former director of the Minnesota Children’s Defense Fund, said the budget is “deeply rooted in equity and decades in the making.” She credited organizers and activists who have devoted years to fighting for policies that will soon become law, like earned sick and safe time and paid family leave.

“We have played the long game,” Flanagan said. “And we won.”

Children and families will also benefit from $2.26 billion in new funding for Minnesota’s public schools over the next biennium. The 10.5% increase will help school districts cover rising costs – and recruit and retain educators and other employees. And the budget allocates $600 million to hire and retain child care teachers.

Walz and DFL lawmakers focused on issues that matter to workers and families, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said, noting that their work stands in contrast to Republican-controlled chambers in other states that have sought to ban abortion, weaken child-labor laws and meddle in school curriculum.

“While other states are putting 14- and 15-year-olds to work on assembly lines, Minnesota is making sure parents have the time and resources to care for and sustain their families; while other states ban books in our schools and libraries, Minnesota is making sure no student goes hungry at school; and while other states make it harder to vote, Minnesota is expanding our Democracy to make sure every eligible voter has the freedom to make their voice heard,” Burnham said.

Public works, transportation and other infrastructure will see historic investments as a result of the session, putting members of unions like the Laborers to work for years to come.
Education Minnesota members praised a 10.5% increase in school funding.
SEIU Local 284 celebrated extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees.

Walz is also expected to sign a $2.3 billion infrastructure deal that contains a mix of borrowing – a so-called “bonding” bill – and cash investments. It would be the first bonding bill the state has passed since 2020.

Sen. Sandy Pappas, the lead author, said the measure “will create thousands of well-paying union jobs and ensure businesses have the infrastructure they need to build in Minnesota for years to come.”

On the Capitol grounds today, Walz gave a shout to people in hard hats throughout the crowd. “All of these good union jobs have built the middle class and built Minnesota,” he said. “It is going to continue that way.”

In addition to historic investments approved this session, Minnesota lawmakers took up several policy changes long sought by union members, including an extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees, a ban on private prisons and a new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board with the authority to set standards like pay and benefits.

Lawmakers expanded and strengthened union rights, enshrining public-sector workers’ ability to bargain on non-economic issues like safe staffing and class sizes, giving workers in the newly legalized recreational cannabis industry a path to collective bargaining and banning “captive audience meetings,” in which workers are forced to listen to their bosses’ religious, political or anti-union views.

Funds allocated this session will also bolster the state’s film industry tax credit, raise pay for home care and nursing home workers and strengthen public pensions.

A measure to address hospital staffing shortfalls, however, fell short of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s expectations. The bill established new safety protections and recruitment bonuses for health care workers, but it left out language that would have would have required hospitals to create labor-management committees to determine appropriate staffing in their wards.

Support for a safe staffing law dwindled after Mayo Clinic threatened to withhold investments in its Rochester campus if it passed.

“I hope Minnesotans know how hard nurses fought for your care and safety,” MNA President Mary Turner said. “And I hope corporate executives and our public officials know that our fight is not over to put patients before profits in our health care system.”

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State Capitol dedicates a ‘place and space’ for Nellie Stone Johnson – and all she represents

November 22, 2022 by

Family of Nellie Stone Johnson, who died in 2002, got the first look at a new statue honoring her legacy.

A new statue unveiled in the Capitol yesterday celebrates the legacy of Nellie Stone Johnson, a towering figure in Minnesota’s labor, political and civil rights history. 

After a ceremony that included music, a video remembrance and speeches from the honoree’s colleagues and admirers, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan joined the youngest members of Stone Johnson’s family in pulling a drape off her statue, installed just north of the rotunda.  

It is the Capitol’s first new statue in six decades and the only to honor woman of color. Flanagan boasted that Minnesota is the first state government in the U.S. to authorize the installation of a statue in its Capitol honoring a Black woman. 

“Now when our students are visiting the Capitol, they are going to see and learn about the legacy of Nellie and all she represents,” Flanagan said. “They are going to see themselves reflected in the people’s house in a way they haven’t before.” 

Born in Lakeville in 1905, Stone Johnson herself accomplished many “firsts” during her lifetime, including a successful bid for a seat on the Library Board in 1945 that made her the first Black person elected to citywide office in Minneapolis.  

A powerful figure in the Farmer-Labor movement, Stone Johnson helped lead its eventual merger with the Democratic Party in the 1940s. Candidates often sought her endorsement, including Hubert Humphrey during his mayoral campaigns of 1943 and 1945. She served as a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1980, and joined a delegation to Africa with Vice President Walter Mondale.   

But before becoming a political leader, Stone Johnson was a union organizer, as Workday Minnesota remembered in an obituary published after her death in April 2002:

“In the 1930s, while working as an elevator operator at the Minneapolis Athletic Club, her wages were cut from $15.00 to $12.50 per week. She responded by secretly organizing the workers into a union. Later she was elected the first woman vice president of the Minneapolis Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union.” 

Stone Johnson was the first woman vice-president of the Minnesota Culinary Council, and she pushed a national contract negotiations committee to address issues like pay equity. 

At the same time, Stone Johnson was active in the movement for civil rights and racial equality. She helped lead a fundraising drive, organized by the Civil Rights Congress, to help Black voters in Texas pay poll taxes, which would otherwise have prevented them from voting. Stone Johnson remained active in the NAACP throughout her adult life. 

Many speakers at the ceremony recalled Stone Johnson’s passionate support for education as a gateway to good-paying jobs. She served on both the Minnesota State University Board and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees, and several current Minnesota State administrators were on hand for the unveiling. 

So, too, were past recipients of a scholarship bearing Stone Johnson’s name, awarded each year since 1989 to racial minority union members and their families attending a Minnesota State institution.  

“She had a sense of humanness that could only come out of where she came from,” said Dr. Tamrat Tademe, a professor at St. Cloud  State University who worked with Stone Johnson and serves on the scholarship board. “And with Nellie there was always a call to do better.  

Students from Nellie Stone Johnson School in Minneapolis attended the dedication ceremony.

“I hope we all listen to Nellie’s call. I hope we don’t shelve her statue and leave it there. We have to listen to her call to do better in this state.” 

Minnesota unions and their members played a critical role in creating a space to honor Stone Johnson at the Capitol, from lobbying in support of authorizing the statue to donating funds toward its completion.  

“Thank God for the unions,” said former state Rep. Joe Mullery, who authored the 2014 bill. “They understood how important it is for working people and students to come to the Capitol and be inspired by seeing someone like them.” 

The first students to get a look at the new statue, appropriately, were part of a delegation from the Minneapolis elementary bearing Stone Johnson’s name.  

Thinking of the countless others soon to follow, Flanagan closed her remarks with a note of gratitude: “Thank you for this opportunity for every little girl to know that she has a place and space in this building in whatever role she chooses.” 

Learn more about Nellie Stone Johnson, her legacy and the scholarship bearing her name at nelliestone.org. 

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Trades celebrate Women Build Success awards

February 27, 2020 by

Pictured after the Women Build Success awards ceremony are (L to R) Megan Ringwelski, Nancy Leppink, Peggy Flanagan, Amy Peterson, Clara Schiller, Connie Smallman, Rachel Malmer and Derra Range.

Union tradeswomen celebrated the most badass among them at a spirited awards ceremony in Minneapolis last night.

“Six women, selected from dozens of nominees for apprentice, journey worker and advocate of the year, took home honors at the Women Building Success Awards Ceremony.

Board members for Women Building Success include Jenny Winkelaar, Operating Engineers Local 49; Jennifer Mudge, IBEW Local 292; Carrie Robles, Laborers Local 563; Matt Fairbanks, Sheet Metal Workers Local 10; Tasha Lawrence Plumbers Local 34; Barry Davies, Ironworkers Local 512; Teri Stave, Elevator Constructors Local 9; and Barb Pecks, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters

Two high-profile guests of honor handed out the awards: Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nancy Leppink and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who encouraged tradeswomen in the room to continue building each other up, both on the job site and with events like the awards ceremony.

“Empowered women empower women,” Winkelaar said.

Advocate of the Year

Connie Smallman, a member of Operating Engineers Local 49 in her 33rd year working construction, received Advocate of the Year honors. Smallman co-founded Local 49’s women’s group, the first of its kind among Operating Engineers locals. Since then, she has helped other unions across the country launch women’s groups of their own.

“I used to be the only girl on the job site,” Smallman said. “The last job I worked on, I had the pleasure of working with over 50 tradeswomen. How cool is that?”

Honorable mention in the category went to Amy Peterson, a member of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82. Terry Nelson, the council’s business manager, said Peterson works as an apprenticeship instructor with the Finishing Trades Institute of the Upper Midwest, and has trained hundreds of union apprentices in drywall finishing and thousands in workplace safety.

“She is always there to help other women,” Nelson said. “Amy has worked hard to get where she is, and she is always there for other women to help them make their way in the trade.”

Journey Worker of the Year

St. Paul Steamfitters-Pipefitters Local 455’s Clara Schiller took home Journey Worker of the Year honors. Jim Sloan, a business representative with the local, said Schiller “consistently proves to be one of our local’s most vocal and dedicated members.”

Schiller puts in extra time both with the local, as an apprenticeship instructor, and in the community, exposing underrepresented communities to opportunities in the union trades. “She embodies what it means to be a union tradeswoman,” Sloan said.

Schiller offered words of encouragement to union tradeswomen in the banquet room. “Remember your heart out there on the job,” she said. “Remember who you are.”

Honorable mention in the category went to Derra Range of LIUNA Laborers Local 563. Sixteen years after leaving her job as a hairstylist, Range now works as a foreman on the job site, Local 563 Business Manager Joe Fowler said.

Range told Fowler she earned the respect of her all-male crews the old fashioned way: “by working my ass off five times harder than most everyone else.”

Apprentice of the Year

Megan Ringwelski, in her fourth year of training with Sprinklerfitters Local 417, was named Apprentice of the Year. As an example of the dedication she brings to the craft, Local 417 Business Manager Trinidad Uribe III said Ringwelski recently continued working into the eighth month of her pregnancy.

“They literally had to pull her away from the tools,” Uribe said. “She’s a hard worker and dedicated, to say the least.”

Honorable mention in the category went to Rachel Malmer, a member of Local 110 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Local 110’s business manager, Jamie McNamara, said he nominated Malmer for the award, in part, because she has volunteered in support of the union’s political program – “phone banking, door knocking” – while simultaneously working toward her journey-level certification.

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Enthusiasm high among labor volunteers as Election Day nears

October 29, 2018 by

Labor 2018 volunteers pack UFCW Local 1189’s union hall in South St. Paul for a rally before knocking doors in the East Metro.

With the finish line in sight, national union leaders and labor-endorsed candidates fired up union volunteers Saturday in South St. Paul, urging them to keep working to turn out labor voters for the midterm election Nov. 6.

“We’ve got 10 days until the day that will determine the direction of our nation,” AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride told over 150 people ready to knock doors in St. Paul and nearby suburbs. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

McBride was one of two national labor leaders who traveled to Minnesota for the weekend campaign push. Political strategists are closely watching congressional races here that could be pivotal in determining control of Congress for the next two years.

“The reason we came in from Washington, D.C. is because all eyes are on Minnesota right now,” AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, the nation’s second highest ranking labor leader, said.

Keith Ellison, the labor-endorsed candidate for attorney general in Minnesota, gets backing from AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler.
St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper fired up volunteers during a Labor 2018 door knock in October.
A volunteer captures remarks by labor-endorsed lieutenant governor candidate Peggy Flanagan on video.
Angie Craig, the labor-endorsed candidate in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, speaks at a rally with labor volunteers in South St. Paul.
AFSCME volunteer Sheila Pokorny lets out a cheer.

 

Several candidates running with labor support in key races joined the rally.

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith is running to keep the seat she’s held since being appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to replace Al Franken. Smith thanked union volunteers for getting more voters to the polls.

“We have a job to do in this democracy, and that is to participate,” she said.

Angie Craig is running “to make Jason Lewis a one-term congressman,” she said, in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Craig lost the third-closest U.S. House race in the country two years ago. She scored a standing ovation from volunteers when she said Congress should amend federal labor law to make right to work illegal.

“If you want to make America great again, you make unions great again in this country,” she said.

Both Smith and Craig are getting a boost from the Labor 2018 campaign, which has union volunteers reaching out to working Minnesotans at their front doors, on their phones and on social media. Since August, volunteers with the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation – just one of six regional labor bodies in the state – have attempted over 80,000 direct contacts with union members, retirees or their family members.

Labor 2018 is the most ambitious political push the state’s unions have ever attempted, and it’s tapping into enthusiasm among union activists, women voters and others who have had Nov. 6, 2018, circled on their calendars since Trump took office.

The Labor 2018 campaign’s top priority is electing Tim Walz governor. Walz’s running mate, state Rep. Peggy Flanagan, attended the rally, hosted by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189.

“Let’s be the wave for Walz,” McBride urged volunteers. “Let’s be the workers’ wave, the women’s wave.”

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Labor unites behind Walz for governor

August 16, 2018 by

Tim Walz talks with union members at a Helmets to Hardhats event in Duluth last month.

After emerging as the Minnesota DFL’s nominee for governor on primary-election night, Tim Walz today won the endorsement of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

With the endorsement, Minnesota’s unions join forces to elect one of their own to the state’s highest office. Walz worked as a classroom teacher and coach for 20 years before winning a seat in Congress, and he was a member of Education Minnesota, the statewide educators union.

Because of his experience as a teacher and union member, Walz “understands first-hand the importance of protecting working people’s freedom to join together in union to negotiate a fair return on their work,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said.

Keeping an ally in the governor’s office is the top election-year priority for the federation and its 1,000-plus affiliate unions, which represent more than 300,000 working people statewide.

Union members have much at stake. Since the 2010 election, Minnesota and Gov. Mark Dayton have charted a very different course than most other Midwestern states, where Republican governors have pursued a steady erosion of working people’s freedoms.

Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin passed “right-to-work” laws that weaken unions’ bargaining power. The same three states recently repealed prevailing-wage laws that build fair wages into the bidding process for public construction projects – a direct attack on union tradespeople’s quality of life.

And Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker remains infamous for Act 10, a blunt attack on public workers’ wages, benefits and union rights that served as a model for GOP lawmakers in other Midwest states – and aspiring lawmakers, too. Walz’s opponent in the Nov. 6 election, Jeff Johnson, promised during his failed campaign for governor four years ago that he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected.

Dayton, meanwhile, signed legislation expanding collective bargaining rights to more than 20,000 home care workers, and he used his veto pen to fend off Walker-inspired style attacks on public workers and prevailing wage.

Unions trust Walz to govern similarly.

“Working people can count on Minnesota AFL-CIO endorsed candidates to share our values,” Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto said. “We can count on Tim and Peggy because they value our freedom to negotiate a fair return on our work, so we can provide for our families; workplaces where we are safe and respected; and the freedom to retire with dignity.”

At a union-sponsored debate in February, Walz told activists he would be an “organizer-in-chief” as governor. “This is about us taking a message beyond the four walls that we’re in,” he said.

He also said he would recruit teachers and high-road businesses from Wisconsin, where Walker’s anti-union agenda has driven educators away from the profession and left wages stagnant.

Prior to representing the 1st Congressional District in southern Minnesota, Walz taught and coached football at Mankato West High School for 12 years. He was named Mankato Teacher of the Year and a Minnesota Teacher of Excellence in 2003.

Walz also served 24 years in the Army National Guard, including a deployment overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He retired in 2005 as a command sergeant major, the highest-ranking enlisted National Guard soldier in southern Minnesota.

Flanagan is a state lawmaker from St. Louis Park and former director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe.

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