In Forest Lake, Electrical Workers picket City Hall construction site

May 22, 2014 by
Members of IBEW Local 110 picket the non-union entrance to the construction site of Forest Lake's new City Hall. Picketing, from L to R, are Gary Kispert, Mike Finamore and John Vejtruba.

Members of IBEW Local 110 picket the non-union entrance to the construction site of Forest Lake’s new City Hall. Picketing, from L to R, are Gary Kispert, Mike Finamore and John Vejtruba.

FOREST LAKE – Construction of a new City Hall in this northeast suburb slowed to a snail’s pace yesterday, as members of Local 110 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers erected a picket line to protest the city’s use of an electrical contractor that, members say, undermines area standards for wages and benefits.

Efforts to reach an agreement with Vinco Inc. to pay wages and benefits on par with area standards have been unsuccessful, Local 110 organizer Bill Malecha said. Union members have greeted the contractor with “Shame On You” banners at its job sites more than a dozen times in recent months.

But when the City of Forest Lake awarded the electrical work on the City Hall project to Vinco, it was the final straw.

“We decided to step up the pressure with a three-day picket,” Malecha said, adding that the action had been sanctioned by the St. Paul Building & Construction Trades Council. “We can’t tell our union brothers and sisters not cross the line, but you can see pretty much the only people on the jobsite are the non-union electrical workers.”

Laborers Local 563 was among the unions who honored Local 110’s picket line yesterday, business agent Chris Peltier said. He and a handful of other Laborers bolstered the IBEW members’ ranks on the picket line today.

“When there’s a dispute on a job, we try to do whatever we can to support the other Trades,” Peltier said. “Yesterday we were able to keep all our people out, along with the other Trades.”

Before work began this morning, the general contractor on the construction site, Kraus-Anderson, established a “double-gate system.” It allows union contractors to access the construction site through a picket-free entrance. Work has picked up somewhat as a result.

It’s not the first time in recent months that the City of Forest Lake, under City Administrator Aaron Parrish, has found itself the target of a union protest. In fact, the IBEW’s three-day picket isn’t even the only demonstration taking place on the City Hall construction site.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 has put up a banner protesting R.J. Mechanical for subcontracting insulation work on the site to O’Leary Insulation, a non-union contractor that fails to pay the industry-standard wages and benefits established by Local 34.

Last fall members of Local 517 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees pushed back against Parrish’s drastic plan to reorganize city staff. Most notoriously, Parrish made firefighting a part of five workers’ job descriptions, despite the fact most were older than 50 with no previous firefighting experience.

“We’ve heard it many, many times from people who stop to ask us what we’re doing. They say, ‘It’s about time somebody does something in this town,’” Malecha said. “I would only hope the city would understand the reason this project is being held up is because they hired a non-union contractor who doesn’t pay area-standard wages and benefits.”

Local 110 plans to keep the picket line up through Friday.

“Our goal is to have Vinco sign a letter of assent with Local 110,” Malecha said.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 protested alongside IBEW members on the Forest Lake City Hall construction site, targeting a non-union insulating contractor. Holding the banner, from L to R, are Brandon Sebesta, Robin Carlen and Angela Sheehan.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 protested alongside IBEW members on the Forest Lake City Hall construction site, targeting a non-union insulating contractor. Holding the banner, from L to R, are Brandon Sebesta, Robin Carlen and Angela Sheehan.

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Crystal Care workers: ‘We’re not going to stop fighting until we get our money’

October 18, 2013 by
SEIU organizer Brandon Nessen talks with a Crystal Care worker seeking unpaid wages from the company.

SEIU organizer Brandon Nessen talks with a Crystal Care worker seeking unpaid wages from the company.

The union working to organize home-care workers statewide is lending its support to employees who accuse Richfield-based Crystal Care Home Health of failing to pay their wages. Some claim they worked up to three months for the company without pay.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota helped organize a picket Wednesday morning outside Crystal Care, and more than a dozen workers, including nurses, personal-care attendants and home-health aides, demanded the company pay them the wages they’re owed and stand accountable for state funding the company received.

“Any workers would want their wages,” said Annette Ilgen, a licensed practical nurse who claims the company owes her more than $1,000 in back wages. “You depend on a paycheck to live. We all have to pay bills. As a worker, I’m owed my wages, and I want my wages.”

Crystal Care, which received more than $20 million in state reimbursements over the last three years, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sept. 16. The company continues to pay a reduced staff.

“I want to know: what happened to the money?” asked PCA Kimberly Berguhl. “I have struggled to make ends meet for months, but Crystal Care continues to make money while hundreds of us to go without pay and wait for a bankruptcy hearing.”

That hearing is scheduled to take place Oct. 28 at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. With the support of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, workers have requested documents from Crystal Care that would ensure their claims for unpaid wages come before the bankruptcy court.

“Three workers came here last week and asked for documents to fill out bankruptcy claims,” said union organizer Brandon Nessen. “Crystal Care called the police on them.”

Nessen said the local union learned what was happening at Crystal Care in the course of organizing home-care workers for a statewide union election. The trouble at Crystal Care, he added, shines light on a complex labyrinth of funding streams for home health care, one in which workers’ concerns sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

“If these workers had a union, we’d have had a much better chance of stopping this from happening in the first place,” Nessen said. “These workers would have a seat at the table.”

“If I wrote a bunch of bad checks that bounced, I’d be in jail,” Ilgen said. “Why isn’t Crystal Care’s Owner, Sally Knutsen, being held to the same standard?”

There is strength in numbers, Ilgen added, urging other Crystal Care workers who believe they are owed unpaid wages to join the fight by calling Nessen at 651-236-0919.

“We’re not going to stop fighting until we get our money,” she said.

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UPDATED: Drivers end strike at Minneapolis metal manufacturer

September 19, 2013 by
Teamsters walk the picket line outside Metal-Matic in Minneapolis.

Teamsters walk the picket line outside Metal-Matic in Minneapolis. (submitted photo)

After voting unanimously to reject management’s final contract offer, seven members of Teamsters Local 120 who work at Minneapolis-based Metal-Matic, Inc. went on strike Tuesday morning. They remained on the picket line this afternoon.

The workers, drivers for the steel-tubing manufacturer, rejected what Local 120 representative Bill Wedebrand called “extreme concessions” regarding their pension benefits. Not only does Metal-Matic want to get out of the workers’ pension plan, it wants workers to foot the bill – at a cost of $10,000 to $12,000 per employee, Wedebrand said.

“They have to cover the unfunded liability to get out of the pension, and they want to do it on the backs of the employees,” Wedebrand said. “There was a 100 percent vote to reject that proposal. People wanted something in return.”

What Metal-Matic offered, according to the union, was a small 401(k) match and annual raises of less than 2 percent.

The two sides have not met since the strike began. Negotiations opened last spring, and members of Local 120 had been working under the terms of a temporary extension to their previous contract.

Metal-Matic has two facilities in Minneapolis, but Local 120 has focused on establishing a 24-hour picket line at the company’s headquarters, 629 2nd St. SE.

Maintaining a round-the-clock presence is a challenge for a bargaining unit of seven employees. To volunteer your support for striking Metal-Matic workers, drop by the picket line or call Wedebrand at 651-343-1719.

“Fortunately, a lot of our members from other bargaining units have stepped up to the plate, and they’re helping picket,” Wedebrand said. “We’ll take any help we can get.”

UPDATE 9/20/13 – Teamsters Local 120 announced on its Facebook page this afternoon that the Metal-Matic strike ended earlier in the day.

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Machinists picket United Airlines for outsourcing middle class jobs

August 27, 2013 by
Machinists Local 1833 members picketing outside Terminal 1 today include (L to R) Derrick Bollea, A.J. Lindell and Greg Durand.

Machinists Local 1833 members picketing outside Terminal 1 today include (L to R) Derrick Bollea, A.J. Lindell and Greg Durand.

United Airlines’ union employees greeted travelers approaching Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport today, raising public awareness of the airline’s plan to outsource more customer-service jobs to non-union, low-wage contractors – a plan that could impact jobs based in the Twin Cities.

At its peak, the daylong informational picket line outside Terminal 1 drew 25 members of International Association of Machinists Local 1833. Holding “Outsourcing Is Wrong” signs, they attracted horn honks and waves of support from passing drivers.

United laid off about 240 Machinists union members earlier this year, shifting their work to low-cost vendors – like subcontractors – at six U.S. airports where the airline has a minimal presence.

Another round of outsourcing is in the works, union members say, and it is likely to hit airports where United employs between 50 and 150 workers. The Machinists represent about 200 MSP-based United workers.

“We’re within that realm,” Local 1833 President A.J. Lindell said of the next round of layoffs. “If it happens, all these good-paying, middle-class jobs are gone. United replaces them with minimum-wage work and minimal customer service.”

Similar actions have taken place at airports across the country this summer – including one today at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, a hub of operations for United.

The MSP action, Lindell said, was the first staged at one of United’s “line stations,” or non-hub operations.

“We think good corporate profits come from good middle-class jobs,” Lindell said. “United made $469 million in the second quarter alone last year. “Their financial justification for outsourcing 200 jobs is that it will save them $1 million annually. It seems a bit unnecessary, to say the least.”

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Riled by Allina’s contract demands, workers picket outside Maplewood clinic

August 15, 2013 by
Workers picket outside the Aspen Clinic in Maplewood, protesting the company's most recent contract demands.

Workers picket outside the Aspen Clinic in Maplewood, protesting the company’s most recent contract demands.

Disappointed with the demands Allina Health is making in negotiations on a new contract, workers at Aspen Medical Group picketed outside the Allina-operated provider’s Maplewood clinic over the lunch hour today.

Uniform allowances are among the givebacks Allina management is seeking in negotiations with Aspen workers.

Uniform allowances are among the givebacks Allina management is seeking in negotiations with Aspen workers.

The workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, accused Allina management of seeking to strip their contract of every meaningful benefit they have fought for over the last decade – from uniform allowances to guaranteed health insurance.

“I want Allina to know we’re not going to be kicked to the side,” Aspen nurse Bridget Lundquist said. “If they want to be adults and sit down with us to negotiate, we’re ready.”

SEIU members working at nine Aspen Clinics have been in contract negotiations with Allina Health since May. Their previous contract with the employer expired June 30.

Negotiations on that contract were not nearly as contentious as they have been this year. Aspen phlebotomist Amy Root, a member of the union’s bargaining team, believes that’s because the last round of contract talks took place shortly after Aspen folded into Allina’s network.

“Aspen worked with us then, and they still had mostly Aspen management in negotiations,” Root said. “Now the big Allina management is just coming in and cutting everything, forcing (Aspen) to shove this down our throats.”

Among management’s demands, according to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, is a plan to base health insurance benefits on biometric screening results, which could force participants to pay higher insurance premiums based on genetic factors outside a person’s control. Workers voted on whether they wanted to participate in the program last year – and rejected it by 99 percent.

The picket line outside Aspen Clinic draws more than 50 supporters.

The picket line outside Aspen Clinic draws more than 50 supporters.

The union says Allina also is demanding the right to eliminate life insurance and long-term disability insurance, eliminate overtime pay and eliminate all shift differentials.

The drawn-out negotiations are taking a toll on employee morale, according to Root.

“They want us to give up everything we’ve worked for in the contract,” she said. “There are a lot of long-term employees here. They like it here. Now because of all the things Allina wants to take back, people are getting upset.”

About 350 SEIU members are covered by the contract. They work in nine Aspen clinics as LPNs, radiology technologists, medical assistants, lab technicians, phlebotomists and patient registration receptions.

The two sides will return to the bargaining table Monday.

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Laundry workers picket for fair contract on St. Paul’s East Side

July 18, 2013 by
Workers, picketing outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries today, show they are united behind efforts to win a fair contract.

Workers, picketing outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries today, show they are united behind efforts to win a fair contract.

Workers who clean linens for hospitals across the metro picketed outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries on St. Paul’s East Side today, giving their employer a taste of what to expect if management continues to drag its feet in negotiations.

About 240 Health Systems Cooperative employees, members of Workers United Local 150, have been working without a contract since March 31. A temporary extension of the previous contract expired Sunday.

Negotiations between Workers United Local 150 and the laundry cooperative have stalled over language regarding work rules and workers' rights, the union says.

Negotiations between Workers United Local 150 and the laundry cooperative have stalled over language regarding work rules and workers’ rights, the union says.

Despite a dozen bargaining sessions since then, the two sides remain far apart on contract provisions protecting basic workers’ rights, Workers United Area Director Julie Boots said, adding that reflects a change from previous rounds of contract negotiations.

“Generally, we’ve been able to bargain decent contracts with no problems, but they hired an anti-union lawyer this time,” Boots said. “They want to basically gut and rewrite our entire contract.

“It’s not really about the money at this point. It’s about workers’ rights, and respect and dignity on the job.”

The informational picket, which began after the laundry facility’s day shift ended, drew more than 125 workers and supporters from the labor community. Workers United is an affiliate of SEIU, and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota helped coordinate the demonstration.

“We’re trying to keep the pressure on Health Systems Cooperative so these folks get a fair contract,” Boots said. “We’re here today so they know what a picket line is going to look like out in front of their establishment, if it comes to that.”

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Workers stand up to union busting at Lakeville rail company

January 15, 2013 by
Corey Plath, president of UTU Local 911, representing workers at Progressive Rail, talks to workers on the informational picket line.

Corey Plath, president of UTU Local 911, representing workers at Progressive Rail, talks to workers on the informational picket line.

Progressive Rail is harassing, intimidating and firing its workers in an attempt to supplant their union, leaders and members of the United Transportation Union said during informational picketing outside the company this morning.

Eight workers at the Lakeville-based railway have been fired or harassed into resignation since February 2012, when a union contract covering 12 employees went into effect at company.

Their replacements, fired workers say, have been hand picked by management to support a company-backed “sham union” over the UTU in an upcoming decertification election.

Phil Qualy, UTU state legislative director, said enough union supporters remain eligible to vote down the decertification drive. The informational picket, which drew more than 40 UTU members from across the state, was designed to show Progressive Rail workers their union is behind them.

“We show up and support our guys,” Qualy said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 1,000 members or it’s one member, we’re going to stand as the UTU for our brothers and sisters.”

Union supporters targeted

Stewart Howe (left) and Mike Bargmann are appealing Progressive Rail's grounds for firing them last year.

Stewart Howe (left) and Mike Bargmann are appealing Progressive Rail’s grounds for firing them last year.

In addition to challenging the decertification drive, the union has appealed the firings of Progressive Rail workers like Stewart Howe and Mike Bargmann, who say they were targeted by management because of their support for the UTU.

Howe, a locomotive engineer active in efforts to organize a union at Progressive Rail three years ago, was fired for exceeding the maximum speed on a locomotive – even though the conductor with him during the alleged incident received no disciplinary action at all.

Bargmann, a conductor fired for “insubordination that never occurred,” wasn’t with the company when workers voted 11-1 in favor of joining UTU in 2009. Still, he refused to join the decertification drive – and claims he lost his job as a result.

“About a month before (being fired), I was asked by a fellow conductor to sign a sheet of paper saying that I wanted the UTU out of here,” Bargmann said. “I didn’t want to sign it because I know the UTU is a good thing to have in place here.

“Without the UTU, the working conditions and pay would be atrocious.”

Indeed, some UTU members at Progressive Rail gained a $14,000 raise in one year after implementation of the collective bargaining agreement. UTU members also gained access to representation during disputes with the company over safety and working conditions.

Workers’ rights don’t depend on railroad size

Several so-called “short-line” railroads like Progressive Rail have taken over operations from large carriers like Canadian Pacific in recent decades. Unions say the “short-lines” are designed to avoid union contracts and lower wage and benefits for rail workers.

But Phil Craig, a member of the UTU Executive Board who traveled from Mankato to attend the Progressive Rail picket, said workers at railroads big and small deserve the right to form unions freely, without intimidation or harassment from their employers.

“We want these guys to understand everybody’s standing behind them,” Craig said. “They’ve got 190,000 brothers and sisters that are supporting them to maintain the UTU on this property.”

The UTU is a division of SMART (Sheet Metal Air, Rail Transit) union, which has 190,000 members nationwide, including 1,200 in Minnesota.

Progressive Rail’s decertification vote is scheduled to begin by mail Jan. 29, Qualy said.

The union is planning to stage another informational picket, with support from the broader labor community, the same day.

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In Minneapolis, a picket line for striking Houston janitors

July 18, 2012 by

Yesenia Romero, a union janitor from Houston, addresses activists on the picket line outside U.S. Bancorp Center downtown Minneapolis.

The union representing more than 400 striking janitors in Houston is fanning out across the country this week, setting up solidarity picket lines outside buildings cleaned by contractors involved in their dispute back home.

In Minneapolis yesterday, about 40 union members and supporters picketed outside U.S. Bancorp Center, which secures its cleaning services through ABM, one of seven contractors involved in negotiations in Houston. Similar actions took place yesterday in Washington D.C., Seattle, Oakland and Boston. Unions in Los Angeles and Denver planned to follow suit today.

Activists in Minneapolis said it would take nationwide support for workers to win their dispute with a nationwide company like ABM.

“You may be asking yourselves, why does this matter to us here in Minnesota?” said Adam Robinson, an organizer with the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. “The answer is this: Many of the same cleaning companies and building owners in Houston do business here in Minnesota too, like ABM.”

If ABM is successful in squeezing janitors in Houston – who earn as little as $9,000 per year – the company may try to do the same to janitors in Minneapolis, Robinson added.

“It is a moral threat,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves, how long will we allow the richest 1 percent to dominate our politics, wreck our economy and keep our jobs so low-paying that so many of our brothers and sisters are in poverty?”

Wages are at the heart of the work stoppage in Houston, which began July 11, about six weeks after janitors’ previous contract with the cleaning contractors expired.

Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents striking workers, reports that janitors are seeking a gradual increase in their average hourly wage, from $8.35 to $10, to be phased in over four years.

Supporters join the picket line outside U.S. Bancorp Center.

The contractors responded by offering a raise of 50 cents over five years – an offer the union called “an almost certain promise that janitors will continue to live in poverty.”

Yesenia Romero, a Houston janitor who made the trip to Minneapolis for yesterday’s event, accused ABM and other contractors of trying to intimidate and harass janitors into accepting their offer. She suspects contractors are trying to break the janitors’ union.

“What’s happening in Houston right now is that they are actually trying to take the union away from us,” Romero said. “They are giving all sorts of false reports in the buildings.”

Romero said she and her co-workers felt compelled to seek wage increases in negotiations with the cleaning contractors, adding that “it’s just not possible to live” on the wages many janitors currently earn.

Ironically, Houston janitors clean the offices of some of the richest corporations in the world, including Chevron, Hines, Brookfield, Shell Oil and JP Morgan.

More, Houston’s commercial real estate market is among the top in the U.S. in terms of demand. Average commercial rental rates in Houston are higher than rates in Chicago, where janitors are paid more than three times as much as Houston janitors, according to Local 1, which represents union janitors in both cities.

Jolyn Vance, a Local 1 member who traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis for the event yesterday, said the onus is not only on cleaning contractors like ABM, but also on Houston’s profitable companies. Both bear responsibility for keeping the workers who clean Houston’s office buildings out of poverty.

“I think it’s kind of crazy that the companies in Texas, as rich as they are, would fight to keep brothers and sisters who are making $9,000 a year from getting a decent wage,” Vance said.

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