Rally in Rice Park Saturday to support striking actors

September 25, 2023 by

The Minnesota AFL-CIO declared SAG-AFTRA Solidarity Day at the Labor Pavilion on Labor Day.

Minnesotans will rally in solidarity with striking film and TV actors this Saturday in St. Paul’s Rice Park, supporting their union’s fight for fair compensation and worker protections in the film industry.

The 1 p.m. rally is sponsored by the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local, which is keeping a close eye on contract negotiations the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), in anticipation of Minnesota luring more film production work with a newly expanded tax credit.

“We will not let them take us backwards,” SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local President Casey Lewis said of the contract campaign that covers roughly 160,000 performers nationwide.

Actors and performers began their strike against the large production companies July 13, joining members of the Writers Guild (WGA), who began their strike more than two months earlier. (The WGA reached a tentative agreement on new contracts with the AMPTP earlier this week.)

The two unions had not been on strike at the same time in over 60 years, but writers and performers are looking to address similar issues in contract negotiations this year. Their pay has failed to keep up with inflation, and residual payments are down as more viewers get their content through streaming services.

Lewis said film industry moguls are trying to “erase how the industry has run for decades, with actors and performers sharing in the success of movies and programs” that enjoy extended success with viewers.

“We fought hard for residual payments,” he added. “We rely on them and won’t give them up. You can’t take us backwards because the streaming model has moved our viewing habits forward.”

Artificial intelligence also poses a threat to film industry workers. Their unions are seeking protections that would prevent production companies from substituting computer-generated scripts and images for real writers and actors.

“A fair contract means you don’t get to capture our work and capture our likeness and then replicate performances without consent and compensation,” Lewis said. “AI may be moving forward, but you are not taking us back as if our union protections never existed.”

Members of the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local – (L to R) Matt Roy, Tammara Melloy, Matt Saxe and Laurie Flanigan Hegge – carried their union’s banner in the State Fair’s daily parade on Labor Day.

Polls show a strong majority of Americans want to see striking writers and actors make gains at the bargaining table. A Gallup survey in August found Americans sympathize more with the writers than production studios by a split of 72% to 19%. Support for actors and performers came in at 67% to 24%.

Bethany Winkels, executive director of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, said Americans recognize that actors and writers are standing up to corporate greed.

“At the end of the day, every single union member knows that when we stand together, we can demand a fair return on our work, we can push back against exploitation and we can have an economy and a society where folks can live and work with dignity and respect,” she said. “And that is happening on the front lines, on every picket line that SAG-AFTRA has.

“They are going to keep fighting, and we are going to have their back.”

The strike has not halted production of any films in Minnesota, but local SAG-AFTRA members anticipate more work opportunities as production companies take advantage of the state’s newly expanded tax credit, supported by lawmakers in each of the past two legislative sessions.

“We fought so hard for these improvements, and these are the jobs Twin Cities Local members have been waiting for, for decades,” Lewis said.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Union solidarity key to Delta workers’ organizing campaign

April 19, 2023 by

Sara Nelson, president of the AFA-CWA, led a rally with leaders of the Teamsters and Machinists at the St. Paul Labor Center.

The largest private-sector union organizing campaign in the world came to St. Paul last weekend, as three unions seeking to bring together 45,000 Delta Air Lines ramp workers, mechanics and flight attendants rallied their supporters at the Labor Center.

The April 15 event drew international union leaders from the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), the Machinists (IAM) and the Teamsters, as well as pro-union Delta workers from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Delta outposts in New York, Atlanta and Detroit.

Delta pilots are unionized, but the remaining 80% of its workforce is not. Delta is the only U.S.-based mainline carrier where flight attendants, fleet service workers and mechanics are not represented by a union – for now.

“It is high time that we put a contract in the back pocket of every single Delta Air Lines worker,” said AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson, whose speech drew a thunderous ovation from more than 150 people inside the union hall.

Nelson’s union has supported organizing campaigns at Delta before, as have the Machinists and Teamsters. Sometimes those campaigns overlapped.

But last November the three unions announced an agreement to coordinate their efforts under the “Organize and Fly Together” campaign, with the Machinists supporting Delta fleet workers, the Teamsters supporting mechanics and AFA-CWA supporting flight attendants.

Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson (R) and the Machinists’ Richie Johnsen praised the coordinated union campaign to support Delta workers.

Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson, who serves on International President Sean O’Brien’s Executive Board, said he believes a coordinated campaign – in any industry – offers workers a better chance of making collective gains.

“Coordinated bargaining is not a novel idea,” Erickson said. “Finally, we’re waking up as unions across the company. This coalition should have happened a long time ago. It’s what we used to do back in the 40s and 50s and 60s, and now we’re going to do it again.”

Nelson led the crowd in chanting “I’ve got your back!” as the rally drew to a close.

“We have a lot of differences, and that is what makes us strong,” Nelson said. “But what we have in common is what brings us together. We all need to take care of our families. We all need access to health care. We all need a dignified retirement. We all need to take care of ourselves and our families when we are sick, especially when we get sick on the job.”

Delta is turning massive profits, and its executives are pocketing more of those gains than at other, more unionized airlines. CEO Ed Bastian’s pay was 26% higher last year than his peers.

Delta’s wages are competitive with other large carriers, Machinists Air Transport Territory General Vice President Richie Johnsen said, but it’s only because the airline knows that falling behind would add fuel to workers’ organizing drive.

“We carry that; the union members at other airlines carry that in bargaining,” Johnsen said. “We create that standard, but at Delta it’s a shell that doesn’t offer all the other things that those of us who have a contract enjoy. And that time is done.”

What would a union contract mean for Delta workers?

Nelson said the AFA-CWA contract at United Airlines is worth $100 million more annually than Delta flight attendants’ total compensation, including wages and benefits. The union contract also protects workers from arbitrary firings, establishes safety protocols and gives workers a say in work rules and conditions.

An MSP-based Delta cargo employee, who attended the rally but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said safety standards plummeted after Delta absorbed Northwest Airlines, which was heavily unionized, in 2008.

“When we had a union, they would actually train people to do things safely rather than be forced to work unsafe at Delta,” said the employee, who has 32 years of experience in the cargo department. “We get a lot more pressure now to just get the work done rather than to do it right.”

The safety net for workers who are injured on the job, he said, also disappeared after Delta took over.

“I’ve seen guys get hurt, and they’re forced to leave because they can’t do the work anymore,” he said. “With the union, guys would get rehab for their injuries, or there was a part of the contract where they would … put you into a different job. Now, there’s no such thing.

“They don’t care about us. We’re a number.”

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AFSCME members to rally Saturday at MN History Center

December 12, 2022 by

Newly unionized staff members are in bargaining with the MN Historical Society. (photo from MNHS Staff Union Facebook page)

Over a year after winning their union election, workers at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) are ramping up pressure on their bosses to settle a contract that ensures livable wages, job security, and safety and respect at work.

The newly organized members of AFSCME Council 5 have been in bargaining with MNHS since June, crafting an agreement that will cover the nonprofit’s “wall-to-wall” workforce of between 250 and 300 people located across the state, including archivists, tour guides, maintenance workers, administrative staff and more.

That leaves a lot of ground to cover in a first contract, and the two sides have been meeting weekly. But members of the union’s negotiations team say progress has slowed since talks reached the economic phase.

“We handed management our full proposal back in June at our first session, so they’ve had our economic package for months,” said exhibits researcher Ami Naff, a member of the union’s negotiations committee. “We only recently received management’s counter proposal, and they’ve offered us pretty much the bare minimum. It’s pretty disappointing.”

Naff said the employer’s proposals are not competitive across many MNHS workers’ areas of expertise and fail to account for rising costs. Some MNHS union members, she said, struggle with food and housing insecurity, and staff turnover has increased, threatening the mission of the organization.

“People are staying in this work because we know how important it is and because we’re so dedicated to making history accessible,” she said. “Our employer seems to think that’s something that can be taken for granted, which is really sad because we have lost a lot of people in the last few months. Losing that depth of experience really weakens the experience that our visitors have and that our public will have in the future.”

Union members also want paid parental leave, scheduling guarantees for part-time and seasonal workers and wage rates that recognize workers’ service to the organization.

To show their boss they are serious about standing together for the wages and benefits they deserve, union members plan to rally with labor and community supporters Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, beginning at noon – barring a last-minute agreement, of course.

“If management comes back with good proposals and we have a strong contract in place, we could totally be celebrating that day instead of rallying,” Naff said. “If that doesn’t happen, we’ll be putting urgency behind why we need a fair contract.

“We’re fighting for good lives for all our colleagues, and as for management, we’re having to push them a lot harder than we thought would be needed. It’s pretty reasonable stuff.”

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Drawing closer to union elections, Delta workers plan April 4 rally

March 19, 2018 by

Delta Air Lines is the world’s second-largest carrier and a highly profitable corporation, but its 40,000 baggage handlers and flight attendants do not have a union on the job. Not yet, anyway.

Both groups of Delta employees are organizing with the International Association of Machinists, and the union plans an April 4 rally in St. Paul to show labor and community support for the workers’ organizing drive.

“Delta uses all their friends and allies to defeat unions,” former Delta baggage handler and longtime union activist Kip Hedges said. “We must do the same to win union representation.”

Delta, headquartered in the anti-union South, has a shameful track record of union avoidance going back 80 years. After acquiring Twin Cities-based Northwest Airlines in 2008, Delta management won a series of narrow workplace elections that shed the company of most collective bargaining agreements.

In the fall of 2010, flight attendants voted 51 percent to 49 percent against union representation with the Communications Workers of America. Baggage handlers and passenger service representatives rejected Machinists representation by similarly narrow margins.

Both the CWA and Machinists accused Delta of running an illegal campaign to intimidate and harass its employees into voting “no” – bribing workers, monitoring them with surveillance and meddling in the secret-ballot process. Just weeks before voting began, Delta distributed “bonuses” to non-union staff – a final nail in the coffin for the union drive.

Hedges said the company is up to its old tricks again.

“Workers face a Delta management team that is entrenched in its opposition to unionization and proud of their 80-year record as a non-union carrier,” he said. “Delta regularly tries to narrow the ability of rank and file organizers to reach their coworkers through intimidation and rules that flirt with the edge of federal law.”

Still, Hedges reported a “sharp uptick” in the number of Delta workers signing union cards, a trend driven by “ever-harsher working conditions.” And despite record returns, Delta scaled back its profit-sharing initiative last year, frustrating workers even more.

Organizers hope to file for organizing elections with the National Mediation Board in 2018.

The April 4 rally will feature speakers, food and music beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Paul Labor Center, 353 W. 7th St. Doors will open at 6 p.m.

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Steelworkers plan solidarity rally in Minneapolis for Idaho miners on strike

February 15, 2018 by

Members of United Steelworkers Local 5114 on the picket line in Mullen, Idaho. (Facebook photo)

Striking miners from Idaho will bring their fight for a fair contract to Minneapolis this month, and local activists are making plans to bolster their ranks.

About 250 members of United Steelworkers Local 5114 employed by Hecla Mining went on strike last March, after working a full year without a new contract. The company has demanded – and unilaterally imposed – radical changes to Steelworkers’ working conditions, job security and health benefits.

The strike, a legally protected action in response to charges of unfair labor practices, has driven a wedge through the small town of Mullan, Idaho, site of Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine.

Striking workers will extend their picket line from Mullan to Minneapolis during a national mining trade show Feb. 25 to 28. Hecla is sponsoring the event, staged at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Local Steelworkers plan solidarity actions throughout the trade show, and they are inviting supporters from other unions to join a rally at noon Feb. 26 in front of Lobby Door B at the convention center.

The Lucky Friday mine began operations in 1942, and until the strike began last year, it was producing silver at historic levels, according to reports by the company. Hecla turned a profit of nearly $70 million in 2016, and CEO Phillips S. Baker, Jr. rewarded himself with a robust compensation increase, from $4.7 million to $6.4 million.

But production at Lucky Friday has ground to a near-halt since the work stoppage.

In a letter to Hecla shareholders, union members warned that a “90 percent production drop” at the mine is proof the strike is not benefiting anyone. Stock in Hecla has lost 40 percent of its value over the last year.

“Neither our local union nor our elected international leaders will allow Hecla to silence our voices,” Steelworkers wrote in a letter dated Jan. 5. “The company’s attack on our contract was unprovoked and unnecessary, does nothing to increase production or improve the safety of employees but so far has cost the company and its shareholders millions of dollars.”

Read more about the Lucky Friday strike.

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Workers to rally outside courthouse as AT&T sues to deny their sick pay

July 13, 2015 by
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CWA members walk a picket line outside AT&T offices downtown Minneapolis during a grievance strike in May 2015.

AT&T is challenging a new Minnesota law allowing workers to use paid sick time to care for family members.

But as the Fortune 500 telecommunications company appears before a federal judge in Minneapolis on Friday, members of the Communications Workers of America will rally outside the courthouse with a simple message: AT&T is not above the law.

The rally will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 17, outside the U.S. Courthouse, 300 4th St. S., Minneapolis. [Click here to view the Facebook event page.]

AT&T’s challenge involves only workers with more than 25 years of experience with the company, who have seen their requests for sick pay to cover time spent caring for family members denied. Similar requests from less-tenured workers have been approved by the company.

CWA, the union that represents AT&T workers in Minnesota and across the country, has filed grievances on behalf of employees, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry last year issued a direction to comply with Minnesota Statute 181.9413, which expands sick leave to cover family members.

But AT&T has delayed resolution on both fronts by challenging the law in federal court.

“AT&T is actually spending more money on lawyers to avoid following the law than it would cost them to comply with it,” CWA Local 7250 President Shari Wojtowicz said.

In May, AT&T workers staged a grievance strike in Minneapolis to show solidarity with co-workers who have been denied sick pay.

Debra Derke, an AT&T employee for nearly 30 years, estimated she’s lost eight months’ pay since her husband suffered a string of medical emergencies that began with a heart attack in August 2013.

“They’re basically discriminating against their most senior, most dedicated people, the people who have made this company what it is,” Local 7250 member Susan Anderson said. “It’s shameful, especially with the profits they have, the perks that their CEO gets. Yet they are basically trying to nickel and dime us to death.”

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March planned in Minneapolis against fast track for Trans-Pacific Partnership

August 9, 2013 by
Activists targeted Cargill for its support of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership last summer.

Activists targeted Cargill for its support of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership last summer.

Anticipating attempts to sidestep Congressional oversight of the latest free-trade agreement, activists will rally downtown Minneapolis Aug. 20 against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive, NAFTA-style trade pact being negotiated in secret by representatives of 12 countries with Pacific shorelines.

The noon rally will take place at the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Avenue. Click here to view the event page on Facebook.

Last month at a panel discussion on the TPP, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison issued a call to action, urging constituents to target efforts to approve the TPP via so-called “fast track” authorization, which forces members of Congress to take an up-or-down vote on the agreement without offering amendments.

“When fast track is dropped, we need to have mass rallies all across this country,” Ellison said.

The Aug. 20 rally suggests Twin Cities activists are heeding Ellison’s advice.

“Fast Track creates a situation where negotiators cannot be held accountable by the public, and legislators are denied their constitutional authority to set the terms of trade agreements,” the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s flier announcing the event says (click to download). “This undermines democracy, and inhibits Congress’ and our ability to thoroughly understand the impacts the agreement could have on their constituents.”

A prominent national labor leader will join the rally: Larry Cohen, president of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America.

Together, TPP member countries account for roughly half of the global economy and more than one-third of the world’s trade, meaning the pact will have a major impact on workers, consumers, farmers and small businesses in all 12 countries.

Drafts and proposals used during TPP negotiations are classified, keeping both the media and members of Congress mostly in the dark. About 600 “cleared advisors” have access to TPP drafts, including representatives of multinational corporations like Walmart, Cargill and Monsanto.

Draft proposals leaked to the media show the TPP could have far-reaching impacts on everything from food-safety inspections to buy-local laws. “A lot of the agreement isn’t about trade, it’s about lowering standards so that corporations have more access,” said Jim Harkness of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “This is a very dangerous path to take.”

Union leaders fear the TPP, like NAFTA and other trade agreements before it, will make it easier for multinational corporations to offshore U.S. jobs to countries with lower wages and fewer environmental and safety regulations.

“Thousands of people are about to lose out big time, but not if we can stop this terrible trade policy,” said Josh Wise, director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.

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Rally gives striking Cretex workers a boost

August 7, 2013 by
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk stands with striking members of Laborers Local 563 and their families at the rally outside Cretex's concrete plant in Shakopee.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk stands with striking members of Laborers Local 563 and their families at the rally outside Cretex’s concrete plant in Shakopee.

The picket line outside Cretex’s concrete plant in Shakopee swelled with supporters yesterday, as more than 200 people rallied behind 38 striking members of Laborers Local 536 who are fighting for their retirement security.

The crowd included Laborers International Union President Terry O’Sullivan, state and local labor leaders and the highest-ranking members of the Minnesota Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and Speaker of the House Paul Thissen.

Cretex workers have been on strike since June 19, fighting the company’s attempt to replace their defined-benefit pensions with a 401(k) plan. Workers say the change would amount to a $4-per-hour cut in their wages – and squander pension contributions many have been making for decades.

“We work hard for our pensions. We fund them. We do the right thing,” Laborers Local 563 Business Manager Tim Mackey said. “We’re not going to let someone take them away. That’s what this fight is about.”

Laborers International Union President Terry O'Sullivan fires up the crowd outside Cretex.

Laborers International Union President Terry O’Sullivan fires up the crowd outside Cretex.

Mackey asked supporters to call Cretex CEO Lynn Schuler at 763-441-2121 and “let him know that Minnesota workers deserve better from a Minnesota-based company.”

O’Sullivan, a fiery speaker, noted Cretex had funded workers’ pensions over the years because Local 563 negotiated it into workers’ collective-bargaining agreement with the company, trading wage increases and other benefits in order to remain in the Laborers’ pension plan.

“Where did that money come from?” O’Sullivan asked of the pension contributions. “It came out of your pocket.”

O’Sullivan praised the strikers for taking on a fight playing out across the country.

“This is ground zero,” he said. “Every time you pick up the paper … somebody is trying to destroy defined-benefit pension plans. Today it’s Minnesota; tomorrow it will be somewhere else.

“I get that. You get that. And that’s why losing is not an option. That’s why the next time we’re on that side of the fence, we’ll have a defined-benefit pension plan, brothers and sisters.”

House Speaker Paul Thissen says Cretex's actions show the company has forgotten the important role its workers played in making the company successful.

House Speaker Paul Thissen says Cretex has forgotten the important role its workers played in making the company successful.

Legislative leaders, meanwhile, called on Cretex to do right by the employees who have helped make the Elk River-based company profitable.

“Let’s hash this out,” Bakk said. “Let’s get back to the bargaining table so we can end this.”

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken sent members of their staff to the rally with letters of support, as did Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.

“You need to know that after years of hard work you can count on a secure retirement,” Ellison’s letter said. “I will continue to stand with Local 536 as you push for a secure retirement.”

Although retirement benefits are the sticking point in negotiations between the union and Cretex, Mackey said Local 563 has reached out to management about civil rights charges filed with Equal Employment Opportunities Commission last week by 15 Cretex workers, alleging the company mistreated Latino employees.

“That call has yet to be acknowledged by (Cretex),” Mackey said. “That is a big part of this strike. We will not tolerate that treatment of workers – not in this day and age.”

Follow the striking workers on Facebook for updates on negotiations and ways you can show your support.

The rally drew more than 200 people to the picket line outside Cretex's Shakopee plant.

The rally drew more than 200 people to the picket line outside Cretex’s Shakopee plant.

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UPDATED: Laborers plan Aug. 6 rally in support of striking Cretex workers

July 29, 2013 by
Members of Laborers Local 563 walk the picket line outside Cretex manufacturing in Shakopee.

Members of Laborers Local 563 walk the picket line outside Cretex manufacturing in Shakopee.

The union representing 38 workers on strike at the Cretex concrete plant in Shakopee will stage a public rally Aug. 6 at 10 a.m. on the picket line.

Elected officials from the state and local levels will join supporters from the labor community, putting pressure on the company to reach a settlement that would end the strike, which began June 19.

Laborers Local 563 will announce the “Stand Up for Cretex Workers Rally” in a press release tomorrow. Tim Mackey, the union’s business manager, said the demonstration is part of the local’s continued effort to increase public awareness of management’s “below-the-belt tactics.”

“We aren’t going to quit this fight,” said Mackey. “We are in this until our workers are satisfied with their benefits and the treatment they receive in the workplace.”

In negotiations with Local 563 members, Cretex has refused to budge from its proposal to quit making contributions to the local’s pension fund – a deal-breaker for workers, who say it amounts to a $4-per-hour cut in their wages.

The picket line outside Cretex is located at 7070 Cretex Ave. S, Shakopee. The facility is near Raceway Park.

Click here to follow the striking Cretex workers on Facebook.

UPDATED 08/05/13 – Laborers Local 563 confirmed speakers at the Aug. 6 picket-line rally will include Laborers International Union President Terry O’Sullivan and the two highest-ranking members of the Minnesota Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and House Speaker Paul Thissen.

“These brave men and women, who are risking their jobs to protect the retirements that they have worked for their whole lives, are heroes to middle class families across America,” O’Sullivan said. “Our half million members want Local 563 workers and every working family throughout Minnesota to know we have your backs. Fair pay and a secure retirement for an honest day’s work has made our country great for generations. So I’ll be calling on Cretex to make things right this Tuesday, so that all of us can get back to work.”

Local 563 also unveiled a YouTube video previewing the stories striking workers will share with supporters at the rally. Watch the video below:

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