The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
Calling it an investment critical to the union’s survival, Ironworkers Local 512 Business Manager Charlie Roberts cut the ribbon on a new $3.1 million apprenticeship training center in St. Paul yesterday. A large crowd of journey-level, apprentice and retired Ironworkers attended the ceremony, which marked the completion of Local 512’s 18,000-square-foot facility on Pierce […]
The Supreme Court today announced it would hear arguments in a case challenging unions’ ability to collect fees from public-sector workers who choose not to join a union but, as members of the bargaining unit, enjoy equal access to benefits provided by the union contract. Eliminating so-called “fair share fees,” ruled constitutional by the Supreme […]
Our union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, organized a new group of workers in Luck, Wis., the day Gov. Scott Walker signed a Right to Work for Less bill. The workers at Pioneer Care Center, a nursing home in Luck, voted overwhelmingly for a union. The worker win was the bright spot on […]
More bad news for working families came out of Wisconsin yesterday, when Gov. Scott Walker approved so-called “Right to Work” legislation. But there was good news, too. Nursing home workers in the small town of Luck, Wis., about 70 miles northeast of the Twin Cities, voted to form a union in election results certified by […]
Although a federal appeals court last month temporarily blocked a Minnesota law allowing in-home child-care providers to vote on whether they want a union, AFSCME Council 5, the union seeking the election, dismissed the injunction as temporary. “This one-sentence ruling has nothing to do with the merits of the case,” said union spokesperson Jennifer Munt. […]
Fifty years ago, to the surprise of Minnesota’s labor community, Republican Gov. Elmer Anderson offered his opposition to a lethal brand of anti-union legislation unions are still fighting today. The Feb. 14, 1963, issue of The Union Advocate reported Anderson had issued a statement saying he would veto any “compulsory open shop legislation, which usually […]
When the Minnesota Legislature convened at noon Jan. 8, everything changed – and nothing changed. What has changed? For the first time in a generation, the DFL holds majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate, while also holding the governor’s office. What hasn’t changed? The state still faces structural budget deficits that the last […]
A report released today by the St. Paul-based think tank Minnesota 2020 backs up what unions have been saying about “right to work” laws like the one Michigan Republicans scurried to pass this week: They are bad for workers’ wages and benefits, as well as the economy as a whole. Titled “A Losing Bet,” the […]
[Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, wrote this Labor Voices column with Kera Peterson and Peter Polga-Hecimovich, political organizers for the Federation.] The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has a lot to be proud of from the November elections. With our union brothers and sisters from across the state […]
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 […]
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