Kera Peterson: It’s time for bold action, and unions are up to the challenge

January 30, 2020 by

Kera Peterson (L), pictured at a rally to raise the minimum wage, was sworn in as president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation in January 2020.

Happy New Year, union families! We’ve turned the page to welcome 2020 and the opportunities and challenges it promises to bring.

I was proud to have been sworn in as president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation during our January delegate meeting. I am grateful that you’ve entrusted me, as well as the federation’s dynamic board, to carry on the hard work undertaken during the leadership of our previous president, Bobby Kasper, and to build on the progress we’ve made together as a movement.

We all know working people are under pressure, but they are also fighting back in exciting ways. Health care workers are organizing with community allies to prevent the closure of two St. Paul hospitals, so that our neighbors who need medical care will continue to have the access they deserve. Folks working two or even three jobs to provide for their families are declaring together, “One Job Should Be Enough.” And in the construction industry, union and non-union workers are banding together to combat human trafficking in our state.

These are bold actions to take, and it’s a time for bold action. We are experiencing historic inequality in our country. The Trump administration continues to level attacks against workers and their rights to form unions and negotiate fair contracts with their employers. The administration continues to target refugees and immigrants. And it is eroding the rights of our LGBTQ family members, and of our friends and neighbors who worship in mosques and synagogues.

The stakes are high in 2020. Despite everything that appears to be stacked up against us, I am feeling joyful and optimistic because this year we can change things. Minnesota’s trade unionists are powerful changemakers. We get things done by showing up in solidarity, by supporting each other on picket lines and at public meetings, and by inviting union members and community allies to join us in this work. And we can absolutely be changemakers by participating in political processes throughout the coming year.

Precinct caucuses will be held Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. across our state, and anyone who will be eligible to vote in the November general election is able to participate. Union members can start the process of shaping their political party’s platform by bringing resolutions to the precinct caucus. They can also select, or run to be, delegates at future conventions, where party endorsements will occur. Unfamiliar with the caucus or convention process? We will host a training especially for union voters Feb. 18.

Additionally, Minnesotans will have an opportunity to vote in presidential nomination primaries on or before Tuesday, March 3. Registered voters will be able to select a ballot for either the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or the Republican Party, and will be able to vote for one candidate on their ballot. The political parties must use presidential primary results to choose their delegates to the national conventions, where the party’s final candidates are ultimately nominated. We won’t all have the opportunity to attend a presidential nominating convention this year, but every eligible voter in Minnesota has the ability to participate in a meaningful way.

Of course, unions and labor federations at the local, state and national levels will also endorse candidates for public office this year. In the coming months, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation will screen and endorse candidates for local office and will participate in processes to help endorse candidates for state and federal offices.

Once endorsements are made, we’ll get to work. I hope I’ll see you in the streets, on the doors and at the polls in November.

Solidarity!

– Kera Peterson is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, representing more than 100 affiliate unions with over 50,000 members in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , ,

Union volunteers provide Clinton, Sanders with boots on the ground in Minnesota

March 1, 2016 by
Left: Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan rallies a crowd of Hillary Clinton volunteers. Right: Bernie Sanders thanks members of the Minnesota Nurses Association for their support.

Left: Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan rallies a crowd of Hillary Clinton volunteers in Little Canada. Right: Bernie Sanders thanks members of the Minnesota Nurses Association for their support.

 

Energized by the prospect of keeping a pro-labor president in the White House, union volunteers in Minnesota are hitting the streets, working the phones and planning a major presence at tonight’s precinct caucuses, one of 14 Super Tuesday nominating contests nationwide.

[Click here to learn how to participate in the caucus process. Click here to learn where you caucus.]

While their enthusiasm may be shared, not all union activists agree when it comes to the best candidate for the job.

Members of AFSCME, the Carpenters, LIUNA, the Painters, the Pipe Trades, the Service Employees and other unions rallied in support of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in Little Canada on Saturday, with nearly 100 volunteers fanning out to knock on doors across the metro area.

 

Union members rally in support of Hillary Clinton at the IUPAT hall in Little Canada.
Members of IUPAT get a primer in door-knocking.
SEIU volunteers map out a door-knocking route.
AFSCME Council 5 volunteers hit the streets for Hillary Clinton.
LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan
Carpenters cheer a speech by U.S. Rep. Tim Walz at the Clinton rally.

 

Although Clinton has drawn an overwhelming majority of union endorsements, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has garnered support from National Nurses United and the Communication Workers of America, and both unions have mobilized their own network of volunteers in advance of tonight’s caucuses.

CWA members have been holding phone banks for weeks, and members of the Minnesota Nurses Association spent the days running up to tonight’s caucuses riding the “Bernie Bus” across the state, urging people to caucus for Sanders.

Differences in style and substance

Clinton’s union supporters point to their candidate’s extensive resume as a public servant, as well as her results-oriented approach. Sanders’ backers tout the senator’s independence and his fiery, populist message.

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry (R) knocks doors in support of Hillary Clinton with Local 284 member Nate Mathias and SEIU Healthcare MN member Robin Pikala (L).

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry (R) knocks doors in support of Hillary Clinton with Local 284 member Nate Mathias and SEIU Healthcare MN member Robin Pikala (L).

Nate Mathias, a pre-kindergarten teacher from Plymouth and member of SEIU Local 284, said he initially gravitated toward Sanders. But on Saturday, he knocked doors on St. Paul’s east side with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, rounding up support for Clinton.

“I love a lot of the things Bernie is saying, but Hillary Clinton is a bit more of a pragmatist,” Mathias said. “I just think she has more of the experience and political savvy we need in a candidate.”

Henry, the SEIU’s highest-ranking elected officer, said Clinton met with rank-and-file members in seeking the union’s endorsement last year. “Members said, ‘She gets us, she’s tough and she fights,’” Henry said. “She understands the agenda we think matters most to working people.”

Policy differences, too, have steered unions into the Clinton or Sanders camp.

Sanders greets nurses in St. Paul.

Sanders greets nurses in St. Paul.

At a private reception with Sanders in St. Paul Feb. 12, many nurses said Sanders won them over with his support for expanding Medicare to cover everyone – and taxing Wall Street to pay for it.

“From the beginning, Bernie made total sense to me,” said United Hospital nurse Jennifer Michelson, who traveled to Iowa to volunteer for the Sanders campaign earlier this winter. “I like that he’s challenging the power structure of Wall Street, and I like that he wants to get profit out of health care.”

Energy policy, meanwhile, marks a substantive difference for many Building Trades unions, who draw work from pipelines and other energy-infrastructure projects.

Speaking at the rally in Little Canada, LIUNA President Terry O’Sullivan praised Clinton’s commitment to an “all-of-the-above energy strategy that works for us and works for our economy.”

High stakes

Despite their differences, union members on both sides agreed the stakes are high in 2016, and they hoped early enthusiasm among volunteers would carry over into the fall.

“Regardless of who our candidate is, if we don’t win we’re going to see a rollback of help for working families,” Mathias said. “We’re going to go back to policies that foster inequality and don’t do enough to help working people. We can’t afford that.”

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