As session begins, Minnesota unions see opportunity for investments in infrastructure, frontline workers

January 31, 2022 by

Essential workers marched outside the Capitol during a union rally last summer.

With a projected $7.7 billion budget surplus, state lawmakers have an historic opportunity, union leaders said, to fully invest in public services, infrastructure and frontline workers during the 2022 legislative session, which began today.

Lawmakers traditionally take up capital investments – the so-called “bonding bill” – in even-numbered years, but the record surplus, coupled with unspent federal pandemic relief funds, could allow for more broad spending measures this year, including long-delayed compensation for frontline workers.

Unions also plan to lobby for pro-worker policy changes like paid family leave, and to remain vigilant in preventing attacks on existing worker rights and protections from gaining traction.

While Gov. Tim Walz and a labor friendly DFL majority in the House have expressed an appetite for robust investments and pro-worker policies, the outlook is less rosy in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

“The Senate has proven to be an obstacle – if not a roadblock – for years to paid family and medical leave, as well as more recently frontline worker pay,” said Melissa Hysing, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s legislative and strategic research director. “The challenge is always going to be the Senate.”

Minnesota unions are sure to advance their own priorities to the Capitol with solidarity from the labor community. But here’s a look at the agenda unions crafted together as part of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which unites over 1,000 affiliate unions and 300,000 working people.

Union tradespeople called on lawmakers to pass a bonding bill outside the Capitol in 2020.

• Infrastructure jobs

Not only is it a bonding year, but the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden last November, gives Minnesota an opportunity to leverage additional funds for capital investment and create tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs.

The Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, the voice of the state’s construction unions, praised Walz’s Local Jobs and Projects Plan, unveiled earlier this month. In a statement, Executive Director Tom Dicklich said the $2.7 billion infrastructure bill would leverage funding to support “statewide projects for years to come.”

“The passage of the Local Jobs and Projects act will provide an opportunity to create a solid pipeline of projects that can sustain the construction industry and the jobs it provides,” Dicklich said. “We thank Governor Walz and his team for putting forward this plan and urge all lawmakers to work together to make these needed investments in the jobs and infrastructure that Minnesota deserves.”

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis in December 2021, advocates called on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

• Frontline worker pay

Last July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. But workers never received a penny, as lawmakers on a bipartisan working failed to agree on who should be eligible.

Republicans on the working group blocked any plan that did not direct the payments to a narrow pool of health care workers, first responders and long-term-care workers. But unions, including the Minnesota Nurses Association, argued against excluding any frontline worker.

Hysing said the Minnesota AFL-CIOwill support Walz’s proposal to give each of the state’s estimated 667,000 frontline workers a $1,500 bonus, calling it “unfinished business.”

Julie Bleyhl, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 5, called Senate Republicans “disrespectful” for seeking to exclude retail workers, bus drivers, janitors and others from the payments. Many Minnesotans have churned through their paid time off – or gone without pay – to quarantine or provide care for themselves and their families.

“While the need for public services has increased dramatically for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on our workforce, through forced overtime and COVID-19 exposure,” Bleyhl said. “That is why our union remains steadfast in our commitment to fighting for frontline worker bonus pay for all frontline worker heroes.”

• Paid family leave

In more unfinished business, the Minnesota AFL-CIO will continue to co-chair a statewide coalition of labor, faith and community organizations lobbying to extend paid family and medical leave benefits to all workers in the state.

The coalition supports creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

The program is included in Walz’s proposed spending package, and House DFL leaders have proposed using part of the budget surplus to pre-fund benefits for two years.

“Working people should never be forced to choose between a paycheck and taking care of themselves and the people they love, and lawmakers can take action so we never have to make that choice again,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said.

• Workers’ Compensation eligibility

Unions will encourage lawmakers to extend the law, passed in 2020, creating a presumption that first responders and health care workers who contract COVID-19 did so on the job, making them eligible for Workers Compensation benefits.

• Wage theft

Despite passing with bipartisan support in 2019, Minnesota’s new wage theft law – the strongest in the nation – has been a target of attempts to weaken its protections and soften penalties on offending employers. Hysing pointed to Republican proposals last year that would have stripped language requiring employers to notify new workers of their wages before their first shift.

“So workers wouldn’t know until after they’ve received their first paycheck what they’re supposed to receive,” she said. “One of the first defenses against wage theft is workers knowing what they’re supposed to be paid – that shared understanding between the worker and employer about what the wage is for work performed.

“We will continue to work to maintain these hard-won protections and make sure workers get paid for the work they’ve done.”

For updates on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s work at the Capitol and alerts about how to take action, follow the federation on Facebook and Twitter, sign up for text and e-mail alerts.

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Kera Peterson: Political action critical to defending our basic freedoms

April 27, 2018 by

Kera Peterson

There are just a few weeks left in Minnesota’s legislative session. During this session Republican members voted for a bill that would allow employers to pay less than minimum wage to tipped employees. They supported bills that would weaken teacher licensure, criminalize protest and prohibit teachers from introducing controversial material in their classrooms. They even supported bills in the Minnesota House and Senate to prohibit unions from collecting fair share fees from nonmembers which would be enforceable the day after the U.S. Supreme Court announces a decision to that effect, enshrining a possible ruling on the Janus v. AFSCME case into state law before the ruling is delivered.

Last week the Senate and House Finance Committees put together their omnibus bills, and most of these anti-union provisions are moving forward in one chamber or the other. This is happening despite Gov. Dayton clearly stating that he will not sign budget bills that contain controversial policy provisions into law. At the same time, issues like bonding, tax conformity and pension reform remain unresolved.

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation wanted to keep union members informed about what was happening at the State Capitol during the legislative session and asked local unions and union activists to join us in the work. Because folks understand the importance of educating members about public policy, union activists volunteered for more than 110 phone bank shifts and attempted conversations with more than 6,600 union members in the East Metro. This work will be expanded on with a series of member-to-member door knocks scheduled April 28, May 5 and May 19.

Many union members have come to think of Gov. Dayton as a hockey goalie defending against a power play. We know he would prefer that his team play offense, and we know that Minnesota’s governor doesn’t have the ability to make laws on his or her own. Because of that, the Regional Labor Federation is planning its electoral work now so that we are in the best position to help elect pro-worker candidates up and down the ticket this fall. The best way for us to do this is by talking with union members about issues they care about, and by getting them to take action on those issues by voting.

We are strongest when we come together in union. This November, Minnesota voters will be asked to choose between candidates who support this basic freedom and those who oppose it.

The Regional Labor Federation is committed to running a robust member-to-member field program that will educate union members about labor-endorsed candidates who support our freedom to join together in union. Our program will include door knocks, phone banks and support for worksite organizing. There will be opportunities for individuals to volunteer and for local unions to mobilize groups of volunteers by adopting a day or night of phoning or co-hosting door knocks. President Bobby Kasper and I invite you and your local union to join us in this work.

– Kera Peterson is political director of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Learn more about the federation and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Ken Peterson: Safety legislation offers lesson in policy over party

April 26, 2018 by

Minnesota Labor Commissioner Ken Peterson

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, meant to remember those who were killed at work and to advocate for improved worker safety and health. The day is also a useful reminder that elected representatives don’t need to be locked in acrimony and positional politics and that they can help.

Though the pain is great with each on-the-job death, we can take consolation in the fact that there are a lot fewer workplace deaths today than in 1970, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created after long Congressional negotiations.

Deaths due to workplace injuries and illnesses have dropped from 14,000 in 1970 to 4,831 in 2015, despite a doubling in the size of the U.S. workforce. When you consider workforce size, 3.4 workers per 100,000 died in 2015 compared to 18 per 100,000 in 1970. Statistically, that 530 percent decline in workplace death rates is one of the greatest public health stories of the past half-century. For comparison, during the same time period, deaths from heart disease dropped 68 percent, while the death rates from cancer dropped 18 percent.

Of course, OSHA is not the only cause of fewer workplace deaths and injuries. Improved technology has made work in industries such as manufacturing, logging and construction much safer and healthier today than in the past. Many employers are also more aware of the emotional and financial costs of unsafe workplaces. Consequently, they emphasize safety and health, even sometimes at the cost of decreased production.

Still, enactment of the Williams-Steiger Act in 1970 creating OSHA marks the turning point for safer and healthier workplaces. Since then, through regulatory enforcement and safety training and advice, OSHA has led in driving down the number of on-the-job injuries and fatalities. However, winning passage of the Act was not easy, taking three years of fighting for and then compromising on the best way for government to help reduce injuries and death.

Almost 400,000 American workers lost their lives from 1945 to 1970. In response to a national outcry, Republican President Richard Nixon proposed a workplace safety bill in 1969 backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Senate in 1970, led by veteran Labor Committee chair Harrison Williams of New Jersey, passed a version favored by labor unions; it was based on a proposal by Nixon’s predecessor, Democrat Lyndon Johnson. Williams was assisted by a fellow Democratic committee member, Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Though the House of Representatives, like the Senate, was nominally controlled by Democrats, real power was in a coalition of mostly southern conservative Democrats and Republicans. Their leader on workplace safety was a talented, young, conservative Republican Rep. William Steiger from Wisconsin.

Steiger was no RINO (or Republican in name only). He was the first to propose cutting taxes to promote prosperity in the form of what later came to be called the Laffer curve; his best friend in Congress was another young member, Rep. Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois; and he had a young intern named Dick Cheney on his staff.

Steiger’s bill, similar to Nixon’s, was backed by the Chamber and passed the House. The two differing bills were sent to a conference committee. Though they disagreed on exactly how to do so, the conservative Steiger and the liberal Williams went into the conference believing action needed to be taken to reduce workplace accidents and illnesses. They talked, argued, wrangled and, most importantly, listened to each other and their bills’ respective backers. Finally, a compromise was worked out, acceptable to both business and labor, led by the AFL-CIO.

When President Nixon signed the compromise measure a few days later, he said that despite disagreeing with some provisions, he believed the Williams-Steiger bill reached “the goal we all want to achieve, the protection of Americans on the job.” Since then, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have supported OSHA, as have all of Minnesota’s governors.

In 1970, Williams, Steiger, other members of Congress and the president could have refused to negotiate and hoped the next election would give their side more votes so they could get their way. Instead, they created OSHA and helped save hundreds of thousands of lives and avoid millions of injuries. They deserve our respect and thanks.

– Ken Peterson is commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

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Candidates for governor vie for labor support at state AFL-CIO forum

February 16, 2018 by

The four leading DFL candidates for governor made their pitch to union activists from across Minnesota today at a forum in St. Paul, promising to support working people and their organizations if elected.

State Reps. Erin Murphy and Tina Liebling, U.S. Rep. Tim Walz and State Auditor Rebecca Otto were united in their opposition to right-to-work legislation and support for union organizing and collective bargaining.

[Watch the full debate on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Facebook page.]

Bargaining rights and professional standards would be off the table in Capitol negotiations with Republicans under her administration, Murphy said. Otto pledged to be the “most pro-labor governor since Floyd B. Olson.” Walz cast himself as an “organizer in chief.” Liebling spoke of finding inspiration in the iconic photos of Memphis sanitation workers carrying “I am a man” signs.

Unions, Liebling added, are “about human dignity and freedom, about being able to stand together and fight to have a decent life.”

The candidates also brandished their union credentials. Murphy is a member and past executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, Otto and Walz are former members of Education Minnesota, and Liebling was a steward in her union when she worked as a public defender. All four said they had walked a picket line in the last year – “in heels,” Murphy quipped.

When it came to issues, the candidates frequently agreed. They supported raising the minimum wage, expanding free access to higher education and protecting public pensions. Minnesota’s next governor, they agreed, should get the state on track to a single-payer health care system, crack down on wage theft and make needed investments in infrastructure and public schools.

The candidates differed, of course, over who among them could best sell a bold, progressive vision for shared prosperity to Minnesota voters.

Otto, the only candidate on stage who has won a statewide election, said her focus on “bread and butter issues” would resonate best. “The DFL should never be afraid to run on an economic populism message,” she added.

Walz and Liebling touted their success winning in traditionally conservative areas, flipping red districts to blue. Voters are anxious about their economic security, Walz said, but in 2016 they didn’t hear a message from labor-endorsed candidates that spoke to their concerns.

“This is about us taking a message beyond the four walls that we’re in,” he said. “As much as having the right idea, it’s being able to articulate it to those very people who are casting votes and are going to be impacted by it.”

Instead of taking shots at each other, the candidates targeted their criticism at President Trump, likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin’s anti-worker governor, Scott Walker.

Murphy said her administration would take action where the federal government is failing to lead, on issues like immigration and rising student debt loads, which are “inhibiting young people’s ability to participate fully in our economy,” she said.

Otto said she would “clean Pawlenty’s clock” in a general election matchup. Walz said he would aggressively 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.

“If the states are the laboratories of democracies … that laboratory’s on fire right now,” Walz said of Wisconsin.

The debate capped the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 2018 Campaigns Conference, two days of workshops, panel discussions and trainings for political activists and organizers.

The event kicked off labor’s statewide political campaign, Labor 2018. Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy, the state’s highest-ranking labor leader, said electing a labor-endorsed governor will be labor’s No. 1 goal in a busy election season. The state House of Representatives is up for election, as are both of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seats.

“It’s going to be up to all of us to get the word out to fellow union members why this election is so important,” McCarthy said. “I think you heard (why) from the candidates here today.”

Marcia Avner, a nonprofit leader and longtime progressive voice, moderated the forum. She did not mince words about the stakes for 2018.

“We need to elect a governor whose values and actions serve the working people of Minnesota,” Avner said. “We cannot afford to lose.”

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Richard Trumka: The choice we face Nov. 4

October 23, 2014 by
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (right) will speak in Minneapolis Feb. 20.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (right).

Almost no one in America is satisfied with the imbalance of our economy. We’re working harder and harder for less and less.

This isn’t a partisan opinion. All across this country, in poll after poll after poll, we hear self-described Democrats, independents and Republicans say, “We want an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.” Three out of every four voters think we should raise the minimum wage. Nearly 70 percent of working-class Republicans say, “It shouldn’t be this hard to support a family.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. The economy is not the weather. It doesn’t simply happen to us, nor does it change in two days – or two hours, depending on where you live.

Here’s the good news. A growing number of people have begun to realize that our economy is shaped by rules created in Washington by elected officials, rules that pick winners and losers, rules that have picked working people to lose again and again and again for a long time.

[Click here to join other East Metro union members who are helping get out the vote for labor-endorsed candidates.]

Yet those who keep rigging the American economy for the rich and powerful have noticed the changing American electorate, too, and they have turned up the pressure to divide working people and to go after the things we hold most dear.

Working families face politicians backed by right-wing billionaires who want in the name of “free markets” to gut Social Security, prevailing wages, Medicare and Medicaid, job safety, gender equity, decent public education funding, public lands and practically everything else working families rely on.

These politicians think nothing should blunt the cold, hard edge of the marketplace. If you’re too young, too old, too poor, too sick, too anything, it’s just tough luck.

Here’s the really bad news. These far-right politicians know their values are not majority values, and that’s why they scheme to shrink our democracy, to cut back our ability to exercise our rights as Americans. That’s what voter ID laws do. That’s what restrictions on absentee ballots and early voting do. That’s what gerrymandering does.

These politicians use division to win elections. Sometimes they say public workers are the problem. Or they claim immigrants are the problem. Or skilled construction workers. Or welfare recipients. Or retirees. Or union workers. Everyone except the millionaires and billionaires, whose compensation has tripled over the past 30 years, while the rest of us are lucky if we’ve broken even.

Here’s the choice we face. We can decide not to be pushed to the bottom. We can choose to elect leaders who will restore fairness to our economy and invest in the things that matter to us, things like education, jobs, infrastructure and our future. Better yet, those investments can be made by doing away with tax cuts for people who don’t need our generosity, like the billionaires and CEOs who routinely avoid contributing to our country’s bottom line.

Don’t misunderstand me. This is not about political parties. Not every Democratic politician is a champion of working families. Nor is every Republican an enemy. But these days, too many Republicans are right-wing extremists.

All across Minnesota, and as we’ve seen from fast food workers and Walmart workers and even some self-described Tea Partiers, a new kind of populism is on the rise. It’s not an easy thing to define, but it is very real, and it is reshaping and will reshape America. As working people, the election this fall is an excellent opportunity for us to shape this change.

Working people want raising wages. It’s a popular idea. Imagine a world where the gap between the rich and the rest of us starts to shrink. Imagine the boost to manufacturing when millions of working people have the money – not the credit but the money – to purchase the things we want and need.

Imagine it, but don’t dream it’ll pick up like a fresh breeze. We’ve got to make it happen.

So what will you do? It is up to each of us to help bridge the gap for those who share our values but who don’t yet see how our interests coincide, who don’t yet see that jobs and rainfall are fundamentally different. We can create jobs, and, together, we can register and educate more working-class voters. We can turn frustration into stubborn action.

We’ve already started. Let’s keep doing it. All of us together.

– Richard Trumka, who comes from a small town in Southwest Pennsylvania, is the president of the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, the AFL-CIO.

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Bobby Kasper: A successful session – with room for improvement

May 30, 2013 by
Bobby Kasper

Bobby Kasper

We here at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation entered this session with high hopes. Having claimed the state-government trifecta – pro-worker majorities the House and Senate, as well as a pro-labor governor – for the first time in more than two decades, we believed that with some hard work lobbying and some help from our endorsed legislators, we could make great strides for our unions and for all Minnesotans. Ultimately, our high hopes were not dashed and, though suffering some disappointments, we finished strong and accomplished many of the extraordinary goals we originally put forth in January.

We in labor laid out the successes we reached this session, including historic investments in E-12 education, a two-year tuition freeze at public colleges and universities, tax reform that ensures the richest Minnesotans pay their fair share, property-tax relief for middle-class homeowners, job-creating investments in construction projects like the Mall of America expansion, and an opportunity for child-care providers and home health care workers to vote on whether to form a union. And none of it would have been possible without Gov. Mark Dayton’s courageous leadership on the state budget.

With all those successes, of course, some legislation was apt to be left for next session. The AFL-CIO’s minimum wage push to between $9 and $9.50 per hour, while adjusting for inflation every year, was dropped late in the session. We will make this a priority when lawmakers return next year. Additionally, the metro-wide sales tax, which would have funded the creation of a modern mass transit system in the Twin Cities, was put aside a later time. And the infrastructure-jobs bill – the bonding bill – was a rather small sum of $156 million, a disappointing number for our Building Trades brothers and sisters who would like nothing more than to be put to work helping sustain critical infrastructure projects statewide.

Disappointments will come with every session, of course. But the historic investments in our state made by this pro-worker Legislature far outweigh the inaction on those bills left on the table. Next legislative session our unions and the people of Minnesota have plenty more to fight for and, as this year, we will do so tooth-and-nail. And of course, it all starts with electing friends to the Legislature. We have to acknowledge that in the end it is up to every one of us to keep fighting and get involved with our future elections – work that will begin, believe it or not, this summer! Click here to find out how you can get involved.

We have good reason to celebrate our victories. We won better schools and safer workplaces, new rights for child-care providers and home health care workers, and much-needed progress toward tax fairness. We should all be proud of both the hard work we put into helping elect these legislators and our governor, but also in the countless hours we all put into lobbying at the Capitol. Together, we helped ensure that the promise of a better tomorrow – and a better Minnesota – would be fulfilled.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, and a member of Laborers Local 132.

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State’s transportation needs can’t wait, coalition warns

April 24, 2013 by
Brian Beedle (left), a member of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, checks out a map detailing potential job-creating investments in the Metro Area transit system.

Brian Beedle (left), a member of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, checks out a map detailing potential job-creating investments in the Metro Area transit system.

Support for transportation and transit investments among state lawmakers this session appears lukewarm at best, and that baffles Rep. Alice Hausman.

“With all the grumbling and complaining about roads and potholes, you wouldn’t think funding transportation would be this hard,” the DFLer from St. Paul said.

Hausman, who chairs the House Capital Investment Committee, joined a rally with other transportation advocates at the Capitol on April 17. She urged “resiliency” in an uphill battle to pass a comprehensive transportation finance bill that makes new, needed investments in roads, bridges and public transit.

Minnesota Building & Construction Trades Council President Harry Melander addresses the rally.

Minnesota Building & Construction Trades Council President Harry Melander addresses the rally.

The rally, organized by the Transportation for a Stronger Economy coalition, drew support from labor unions, business groups, environmental activists and local government officials. Speakers urged supporters to tell their lawmakers that transportation investments can’t wait.

“Transportation problems don’t go away; they just get more expensive,” said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis.

“Transportation jobs unite this state,” Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak added. “We have underinvested in our transportation infrastructure. It puts our lives at risk, it puts our jobs at risk and it puts our lifestyles at risk.”

The coalition of transportation supporters got some good news a day after the rally, when the Senate Transportation Committee passed a comprehensive transportation finance  bill with bipartisan support.

The bill includes a small sales-tax hike in the seven-county Metro area, dedicated to transit, as well as some support for walking and biking paths. The bill also includes more than $20 million per year in new funding for transit in Greater Minnesota.

Transportation investments have the potential to create thousands of jobs and boost the state’s economy – a point of agreement for both Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council, and Will Schroeer, representing Minneapolis and St. Paul’s chambers of commerce.

“We have an investment opportunity in front of us today,” Schroeer said. “And if we don’t make it, that money will go someplace else.”

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Union agenda includes minimum-wage hike, privacy protections for Minnesota workers

January 29, 2013 by
Meslissa Tesora, a physical therapist and member of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, supports raising the state minimum wage to $10.55 to make the middle class more accessible to people in low-skilled jobs. “People want to work, but the current minimum wage makes it prohibitive for less-skilled workers to support their families and attend school – and ultimately attain higher-skilled jobs," the St. Paul resident said.

Meslissa Tesoro, a physical therapist and member of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, supports raising the state minimum wage to $10.55. “People want to work, but the current minimum wage makes it prohibitive for less-skilled workers to support their families and attend school,” the St. Paul resident said.

Emboldened by victories won at the polls in November, the state’s largest labor federation will push an ambitious legislative agenda that calls for hiking the state’s minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits for locked-out workers and expanding the freedoms and protections Minnesotans enjoy in the workplace.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents more than 1,000 affiliate unions and more than 300,000 members statewide, unveiled its “Agenda for Middle Class Dignity and Fairness” at a Capitol press conference today.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said the agenda’s “common-sense proposals” – along with the proposed state budget outlined by Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this month – represent a positive alternative to the attacks on workers that marked the previous 2011-12 legislative sessions.

Dayton’s budget “puts middle class families first by recognizing the need for new investments, but also raising revenue fairly to pay for those investments,” Knutson said. But, she added, there are other steps lawmakers should take to “level the playing field” for middle class workers. Those steps include:

• Raising the minimum wage to $10.55 per hour and “indexing” it, so that the rate is adjusted for inflation in the future.

Minnesota has the “unfortunate distinction,” Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Steve Hunter said, of being one of four states with minimum wage rates lower than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. (Five southern states have no minimum wage laws at all.)

Workers in Minnesota can be paid as little as $5.25 per hour, according to the Department of Labor.

Raising minimum wage to $10.55 per hour would restore the buying power it had in 1968.

“Hard work should be supported with a wage that can support a family, and it’s ridiculous to think that someone can support a family at $7.25 an hour,” Hunter said.

• Extending workers’ unemployment benefits for the duration of a lockout – and adding a penalty to the unemployment tax paid by employers who lock out their workers.

“As long as the clock ticks, an employer has an incentive to lock workers out, while also putting a strain on the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund,” Knutson said. “This is what’s happened to the 1,300 employees of American Crystal Sugar.”

Becki Jacobson, who has been locked out of her job by the Moorhead-based sugar beet cooperative since Aug. 1, 2011, said many of her fellow union members opted to leave the region or take early retirement after their unemployment benefits ran out last year.

Knutson said the Minnesota AFL-CIO is working with lawmakers on a bill to hold accountable employers, like Crystal Sugar, that choose to force workers onto unemployment rather than engage in contract negotiations – and also “give employers pause” before they engage in such a war of attrition.

• Protecting Minnesota workers’ credit privacy and workplace freedoms.

Knutson and Hunter said they hope to see two bills introduced in the coming weeks: the Worker Freedom Act, which would give employees the right to walk out of workplace meetings aimed at changing their vote, religion or union affiliation; and the Credit Privacy in Employment Act, which would ban the use of credit checks in employment-related decisions.

“This is really a fundamental workplace protection that all Minnesotans should have,” Knutson said.

Several examples of bosses telling their employees how to vote emerged during the 2012 presidential campaign, most notably the case of a Florida timeshare company CEO, who warned his 7,000 workers via e-mail that layoffs would be the result of a victory for President Obama.

The use of credit checks in employment decisions – from hirings and firings to promotions – is also on the rise. A July 2012 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 47 percent of U.S. employers run credit checks on their job candidates.

The practice creates a catch 22 for job seekers who have faced financial crisis.

“This recession forced many people into financial situations that have impacted their credit scores,” Hunter said. “That credit score can sometimes be the only reason somebody is not a hired for a job that would return him or her back to the middle class.”

Click here to read the full Agenda for Middle Class Dignity and Fairness.

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Letter to the Editor: Bachmann isn’t invincible

November 29, 2012 by

Election night was a great night for Democrats across Minnesota, with the exception of three congressional races. Three Republican incumbents won re-election to the U.S.  House, including Michele Bachmann in the 6th District.

To say that Congresswoman Bachmann is a polarizing figure in American politics is an understatement. Bachmann is so extreme that the GOP leadership in the House has denied her a leadership position. If Bachmann is too extreme for somebody like Eric Cantor, that really reveals where her priorities lie. Her views certainly aren’t representative of mainstream America, and they are far from being representative of her constituents.

The only reason Bachmann won a fourth term Nov. 6 is because Republican-controlled Legislature redistricted (gerrymandered) Minnesota congressional districts, making the 6th even more advantageous for Republicans. If the 6th had been the same geographic area it was in 2010, Bachmann’s opponent, Jim Graves, would have been elected.

Graves has demonstrated Bachmann isn’t invincible. So how do you put a Democratic candidate over the top in the 6th District? There are four areas a candidate should concentrate on.

First, let the constituents know that you will represent them. Michele Bachmann represents herself.

Next, remind voters that Michelle Bachmann voted against increasing the federal minimum wage in 2007 – George W. Bush signed the bill into law – and that she is staunchly opposed to raising the minimum wage in the future. Ask Bachmann why she is so opposed to workers being guaranteed to make a paltry $7.25 per hour.

A Democratic candidate should focus on improving the economy of the 6th District, and promote tax breaks for businesses that move into the district and offer employees competitive wages and salaries above the federal minimum wage. Graves did a superb job promoting business growth in this campaign and it is one of the reasons why he almost won the district.

The last thing a Democratic candidate needs to do is to reassure voters in the 6th District that sanity will be restored to the congressional seat. Let the voters know that you will bring a common sense approach to Washington and will reach across the aisle.

Jim Graves did a great job in three of these areas. He was clearly the sane choice (he certainly implied it), but in the 6th District it is necessary for a candidate to be explicit that they are, in fact, the sane alternative to Bachmann. If a candidate would also point out that Bachmann is against the federal minimum wage law and hold her to account for it, the tide would turn. Exposing Bachmann’s views on fair wages and more grassroots support than in 2012 for the Democratic candidate would seal Bachmann’s fate.

That will be a great day for America.

– Jeffrey Couillard, AFSCME #844

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Labor 2012: Minnesota unions celebrate clean sweep of top priorities

November 7, 2012 by

Volunteers take turf assignments during Midnight Madness, a get-out-the-vote event on the eve of Election Day.

Minnesota unions achieved a clean sweep of their top priorities for the Nov. 6 election, as voters elected pro-labor majorities to the Legislature, tossed a Tea Party incumbent out of office in the 8th Congressional District and rejected a pair of constitutional amendments opposed by labor.

It was a resounding victory for the Labor 2012 political campaign, coordinated by the state’s unions and labor federations.

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, said the state’s voters “firmly rejected the politics of division, restriction and corporate greed,” and she applauded the work thousands of union volunteers did to educate voters on the issues – and get them to the polls.

The Labor 2012 campaign set five priorities heading into the election cycle. Here’s a breakdown of how the campaign fared on each of them, with a focus on the East Metro:

• Priority No. 1: Winning legislative majorities

After Republicans took control of the House in Senate two years ago, they pushed several attacks on workers, including Right to Work. Unions sought to rebuild pro-labor majorities in the Legislature, targeting endorsed candidates in competitive districts across the state, particularly in suburban areas.

The strategy worked. DFL Party candidates won a 39-28 majority in the Senate and a 73-61 majority in the House. Knutson called it a “pro-middle class majority,” adding that voters “rejected the extremism and gridlock that plagued the 2011-12 session.”

Several labor-endorsed candidates in East Metro suburbs were among the wave of DFLers elected Nov. 6, including seven of eight candidates in districts where the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation targeted its efforts.

The campaign was particularly successful in Eagan, where Jim Carlson, Sandra Masin and Laurie Halverson swept all three legislative seats in Senate District 51. Halverson’s victory was particularly sweet for union members, as her incumbent opponent, Doug Wardlow, had been a leading proponent of Right to Work in the House.

Greg Clausen (right), the labor-endorsed winner in Senate District 57, talks with Rep. John Lesch at Midnight Madness.

Other winners in the East Metro included Greg Clausen in Senate District 57, Susan Kent in Senate District 53, Barb Yarusso in House District 42A and Will Morgan, who won by 170 votes in House District 56B.

• Priority No. 2: Defeating Chip Cravaack

Rick Nolan, the labor-endorsed candidate, won a decisive victory in the 8th District, which stretches from the Iron Range south into Chisago County. Cravaack shocked longtime Rep. Jim Oberstar two years ago, but he fell out of favor with his DFL-leaning district after aligning himself with the Tea Party in Congress.

• Priority No. 3: Defeating the constitutional amendments

With money and manpower, Minnesota unions supported successful efforts to defeat two amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot: one that would have limited the definition of marriage to one man and one woman, and another that would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Jamie Gulley, an officer of the 30,000-member SEIU Minnesota State Council, said unions opposed the amendments out of “the basic principles of fairness.”

“We believe that both of these amendments would strike a blow to justice and humanity for a significant number of Minnesotans,” Gulley said. “Because of this, we made a decision stand with a broad coalition of organizations insisting that Minnesotans ‘Vote No.’”

Voters rejected two constitutional amendments opposed by the state’s unions.

• Priority No. 4: Win local elections

In St. Paul, voters overwhelmingly passed a labor-backed school levy referendum. And candidates for county commissioner endorsed by the St. Paul RLF swept races in Chisago and Ramsey counties.

• Priority No. 5: Re-elect Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar and DFL members of Congress

Obama and Klobuchar won by large margins, as did U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum in a redrawn 4th Congressional District. Voters also returned Rep. Tim Walz in the 1st District and Rep. Keith Ellison in the 5th District.

Unions’ political work isn’t over, however.

“It is now time to begin the work of completing Minnesota’s economic recovery and help build a state that can be a national leader for decades to come,” Knutson said.

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