Peterson: Support candidates who will listen to workers, not billionaires

October 30, 2026 by Leave a Comment

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

Things are too expensive. That’s not breaking news to anyone who’s shopped for groceries or filled their gas tank lately. This economy is putting the squeeze on working people. Too many of us are living on the edge, working longer and harder for less in return and stressing over every bill, every purchase, every paycheck.

It shouldn’t be this way. The U.S. economy is growing. Corpo-rate earnings are up and so is the stock market. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high last month. American workers are more productive than ever, but our share in the economic growth that labor creates is at historic low point. An NBC News report found that the share of economic output going to workers’ pay and benefits has sunk to its lowest level since the Department of Labor started tracking it in 1947. The pie is getting bigger, but our slice is getting smaller.

None of this is happening by accident. It’s the direct result of policy choices – tariffs, healthcare cuts, foreign wars, attacks on collective bargaining – made by politicians who answer to billionaires and CEOs instead of working people. That’s why our federation of local unions is working to elect labor-endorsed candidates Nov. 3 who will put us first and hold corporations and billionaires accountable.

Here in Minnesota, we know firsthand what’s at stake in this election. We’re less than a year removed from the federal government’s shockingly violent and lawless occupation of our state in the name of immigration enforcement. Operation Metro Surge trampled on our rights, tore families apart and disrupted life in our neighborhoods, schools and workplaces. The occupation dealt an economic blow, too, costing our state 32,000 jobs, reducing economic activity – especially in the hospitality sector – and increasing security costs for local communities by an estimated $700 million.

The tragic failures of Metro Surge reflect a pattern that has repeated itself throughout Trump’s second administration. Bad ideas go unchecked by enfeebled congressional majorities and a compliant Supreme Court, and the American people pay the price – literally. Trump’s tariffs raised our cost of living, and his war in Iran has only made it worse. Minnesotans’ real wages, adjusted for inflation, fell 1.4% in the first seven months of this year. And as predicted, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” has forced more Minnesotans to go without healthcare coverage and increased premiums for those who remain insured.

This election is our opportunity to begin putting an end to the chaos, and union members are, unsurprisingly, stepping up to the challenge. Internal poling by the AFL-CIO shows that 83% of union members are “extremely motivated” to vote in the midterms – a 10-point increase from 2022. In Minnesota, union volunteers are talking with their neighbors and co-workers, encouraging them to make their plan to vote. (You don’t have to wait until Nov. 3 if you vote early; go to mnvotes.org to learn how!) Others are signing up as election judges or training to serve as election protection volunteers.

If the challenges ahead feel overwhelming, I empathize. Instead of becoming demoralized, though, let’s focus on what is possible when after Election Day if we make our voices heard. Together, we can help deliver majorities for pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot who will support our right to bargain for better pay and benefits, fight for affordable healthcare and stop the squeeze on working families.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. 

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Kera Peterson: On this Labor Day, let’s commit to stopping the billionaire takeover

September 4, 2026 by

Kera Peterson, shown speaking at the 2026 AFL-CIO Convention, is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. (Photo courtesy Jay Mallin)

You might think of Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer or the last day before school starts. Maybe it’s just a welcome three-day weekend. But in the labor movement, Labor Day is a celebration of the power that we, as workers, have when we join together in unions – the power of solidarity. When working people come together and fight for each other, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. We can stand up to the wealthiest CEOs and the most powerful politicians. We can topple corporate greed and rewrite the rules.

Of course, Labor Day also brings us closer to Election Day, and our unions are already working hard, both here in Minnesota and across the country, to power a campaign that takes back our country for working people. We’re mobilizing to elect pro-worker candidates who will be on our side, not for the elites.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen what a billionaire-first government looks like ever since President Trump and his allies in Congress took power last year. Their “big, beautiful bill” gave record tax cuts to billionaires and corporations – paid for with cuts to healthcare, food assistance and other services that working families rely on. Before the bill passed, unions joined a chorus of voices warning that the measure would leave more Americans uninsured, increase costs for local providers and raise premiums for the rest of us. Now it’s happening, making it harder than ever for working families just to make ends meet.

Healthcare isn’t the only thing more expensive in Trump’s economy. From gas and groceries to rent, families’ costs are skyrocketing. Too many of us feel like we’re falling behind or just barely getting by, whether we’re working longer and harder than ever for less in return or attempting to retire. Too many working people are living on the edge, stressing over every bill, every purchase, every paycheck.

It doesn’t have to be this way. And it shouldn’t. Working people built this country, yet every day we seem to matter less to the wealthy elites in power.

It’s past time that elected officials, from the Capitol in Washington to our city halls, prioritize working people by creating good jobs with better pay and affordable health care, and by protecting the programs we all depend on like Social Security and Medicare. We also need leaders who will fight to remove barriers workers face when they try to organize a union and bargain a first contract. More than 70% of Americans and nearly 9 in 10 people younger than 30 support unions, and polls show that millions of workers would join a union tomorrow if they could. Yet less than 12% of the workforce enjoys union representation on the job.

So on this Labor Day weekend, let’s take a moment to celebrate our solidarity, and then let’s recommit ourselves to fighting for worker power. Because the stakes have never been higher. Our labor movement is ready to fight for an economy, a government and a country for the people, not the billionaires. We’ll knock on doors, we’ll make phone calls and send texts, we’ll rally and we’ll fight to elect the candidates who share our vision for the future. We’ll share volunteer events on our website and social media. We hope you’ll help us win for working people on Election Day!

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Her column appeared in the September 2026 issue of The Saint Paul Union Advocate, which is the SPRLF’s official publication.

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Educators, families, students unite behind St. Paul levy campaign

October 24, 2025 by

Victor Xiong, a student at Central Senior High, speaks to volunteers at the Yes for SPPS campaign’s kickoff doorknock.

Voters will decide the fate of a $37.2 million levy request from the St. Paul Public Schools this fall, and the stakes are too high – for students, families and the community – to tune out during this quiet election year.

That’s the message educators, students and school board members delivered during a rally to kick off the Vote Yes for SPPS campaign last month. And volunteers have been delivering it to voters across the district, door by door, in the weeks since then.

“We know that our public schools are the heart of our democracy and our community,” St. Paul Federation of Educators President Leah VanDassor said. “This is the work we need to do, and we’re all in it together.”

The levy referendum is a fork in the road for SPPS. District leaders covered most of a $51.1 million budget shortfall this school year by pulling about $35 million from reserves, but SPPS faces another projected shortfall in 2026-27.

The district is seeking voter approval to increase its operating levy by $1,073 per student for the next 10 years. If it passes, the levy would position SPPS to stabilize its budget, retain and attract quality educators and preserve programming inside and outside the classroom, district leaders say.

But if it fails, the district will need to cut programming and services by $37.2 million before school starts next fall.

Carlo Franco, a member of the district’s Board of Education, said many programs that give students opportunities to “find their passion” – arts, languages, cultural enrichment, athletics and after-school opportunities – will not survive without the new operating levy.

“We have done our best to keep cuts away from the classroom as best we can,” Franco told volunteers at the kickoff rally Sept. 20. “Without an additional $37 million, the reality is we’re going to be looking at some of those programs that are the motivators, the college and career readiness, that we need to make sure our students thrive. That is what’s on the ballot right now.”

Horace Mann science specialist Sarah Bosch, a member of the St. Paul Federation of Educators, offers support for the $37.2 million operating levy request during a “Vote Yes for SPPS” kickoff event.

Cuts leave students ‘heartbroken’

Educators, students and families in the district – and across Minnesota – have dealt with budget cuts before, of course.

Victor Xiong, a Central High School student, remembered learning that his teacher in freshman world history class had lost her job in a round of budget cuts. “I was basically heartbroken,” he said during the rally.

“We can’t cut any more without harming students,” added Sarah Bosch, a science teacher at Horace Mann Elementary, where students lost a reading support specialist this school year.

Staring down a ‘triple financial threat’

Inflation has steadily chipped away at the buying power of school districts like SPPS over the last two decades. SPPS estimates it would have an extra $50 million this school year if state-aid increases had matched inflation rates.

An influx of federal funds during the COVID-19 pandemic helped SPPS cover its budget shortfalls temporarily. Not only have those funding streams dried up, but in July the Trump administration threatened to rescind nearly $7 billion in support for public school districts nationwide, before backing away from the plan in August.

Lagging state aid, loss of COVID relief and federal uncertainty represent a “triple financial threat” to school districts, according to Teresa Mozur, campaign manager for the Vote Yes committee and a SPPS parent.

“Now more than ever, with support eroding at the federal level, we need to protect the things that make Saint Paul Public Schools strong,” Mozur said. “Local funding is the only way we can prevent devastating cuts that will have a direct impact on families, our community and our local economy.”

Labor backs school levies across East Metro

St. Paul isn’t the only school district asking local voters for more funding.

In the Nov. 4 election, school districts in Minnesota have authorized 44 ballot questions seeking additional operating revenue. Another 80 ballot questions ask voters to approve money for construction, renovations, technology and other capital projects.

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, which brings together over 100 affiliated local unions with over 50,000 members, has endorsed the SPPS levy referendum, as well as levy requests in the following east-metro districts:

Find a full list of labor endorsements in the Nov. 4 election at stpaulunions.org.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Labor groups applaud St. Paul’s move to allow administrative fines

February 6, 2025 by

New civil fines will allow the City of St. Paul to enforce labor standards more effectively. That includes the city’s $15 minimum wage, which workers fought to pass in 2018.

In a move praised by worker advocates, St. Paul City Council members voted unanimously Jan. 22 to allow the city to issue administrative citations.

The vote to amend the city charter, supporters said, will allow St. Paul to enforce its labor standards and other ordinances more effectively and equitably by issuing civil fines, rather than getting entangled in costly, sometimes lengthy legal battles.

It’s a tool other large cities in Minnesota have at their disposal – and for good reason, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson told council members during a public hearing on the amendment Jan. 15.

“It would allow the city to avoid burdening people with criminal convictions, and it would absolutely make a difference for low wage workers who are not being paid fairly in our city,” Peterson said. “The City of St. Paul should add it to their toolkit.”

In recent years the city has passed an ordinance establishing its own minimum wage, as well as wage-theft and sick-time ordinances, with enforcement falling on the Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO).

But until now, the only enforcement option available to HREEO staff who identified a violation was criminal charges.

With administrative citations, the process will play out without going to court.

“The current system rewards people who are wealthy and can afford to fight the city and drag things out,” SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa’s Rick Varco told council members.

That creates an incentive, SEIU member Tavona Johnson added, for “wealthy corporations to break the law and force low-wage workers to do something about it.”

“Under the current system, employers can threaten to clog the courts and run out the clock,” Johnson, who lives in St. Paul, added. “I have lived paycheck to paycheck, and these delays and lost wages hurt.”

“If you’re a low-wage worker, any delay in getting the wages that you’ve earned can be devastating,” UNITE HERE Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer Sheigh Freeberg said.

St. Paul renters, small business owners and community members joined labor activists at the public hearing, where the overwhelming majority of speakers voiced support for administrative citations.

The fines could also make it easier for the city to enforce its housing codes and compel owners of vacant or blighted properties to make improvements. Tonette Clardy, a homeowner in Ward 4, complained to council members about a vacant building in her neighborhood that was recently condemned.

“As a Black homeowner, I’m afraid this building will bring down my property values, which hurts my ability to build wealth for my family,” Clardy said. “I want to make sure the building owner is held accountable, and at the same time, I don’t think they should go to jail.”

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Worker advocates welcome St. Paul’s new wage theft law

December 10, 2024 by

Supporters of a measure to crack down on wage theft were pictured during a rally at the Minnesota Capitol in 2019.

St. Paul will have a new wage theft ordinance on the books Jan. 1.

The measure, pushed by Mayor Melvin Carter and co-authored by all seven members of the City Council, drew praise from labor leaders and worker advocates as a step toward more robust, efficient protections for people working in the capital city.

Construction and service-industry unions, in particular, pushed city officials to add wage theft to the scope of its labor enforcement work.

At a public hearing on the ordinance in October, Carpenters Local 322 member Saben De Smet called wage theft a “competing business model” for too many developers and non-union contractors in his industry.

“Here in Minnesota, a construction contractor using a wage-theft model can underbid other contractors – whether union or non-union – by up to 20%,” De Smet told council members. “This is because they avoid paying worker compensation, unemployment insurance and other costs associated with being above board.

“This is both a leveling of the playing field and a human-rights issue for us.”

Wage theft has come under increased public scrutiny in recent years, after a 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that it costs U.S. workers more than $50 billion annually. In Ramsey and Hennepin counties alone, construction workers lose $3 million to wage theft each year, according to a 2022 report authorized by the county attorneys offices.

“If someone was to shoplift or steal a car, you’d expect them to get arrested or get in trouble,” Ironworkers Local 512 member Nick Petrucelle, a co-chair of Minnesota’s Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, told council members. “But employers, they can rip off their employees, they can steal their wages, and it’s really hard to do anything about it.”

St. Paul’s new ordinance largely aligns with state legislation passed in Minnesota five years ago. Hailed at the time as the nation’s toughest wage theft law, it gave state regulators and the Attorney General new powers to investigate wage theft and created stiffer penalties, both civil and criminal.

While St. Paul’s ordinance does not create new requirements for employers, it does complement the city’s unique minimum wage and earned-sick-and-safe-time laws, advocates on the city’s Labor Standards Advisory Committee (LSAC) said.

“City staff should be able to resolve all of these issues together in one package,” LSAC member Rick Varco, political director for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, told council members.

Varco noted that city investigators pursuing a minimum-wage complaint are well positioned to identify other forms of wage theft, too. But without an ordinance on the books, the city must turn the matter over to state regulators.

“This is better for workers who don’t have to navigate one more bureaucratic maze,” he said. “It is better for employers, especially those who fail through ignorance or capacity issues, to have one stop that can get them back on the right track.”

The city’s Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO) will begin handling wage theft complaints when the new ordinance takes effect Jan. 1.

Wage theft occurs any time employers fail to pay wages employees are legally entitled to, including paying below minimum wage, not paying overtime, requiring work without pay, denying legal breaks, misclassification, withholding tips, failing to pay fringe benefits and making illegal payroll deductions.

“Wage theft is one of the largest types of theft in our country and is a pervasive and systemic problem throughout Minnesota,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said. “It affects workers in all sectors of our economy. This ordinance helps to make workers in Saint Paul more secure and helps level the playing field for employers who are following our state laws and local ordinances.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Peterson: Let’s re-commit to keeping unions strong

September 3, 2024 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

Unions are more popular this Labor Day than they have been in almost 60 years, and we’re seeing exciting labor organizing across Minnesota and the United States. Workers in both the public and private sector are coming together in union to fight for better wages, safer workspaces, and dignity and respect on the job. Union organizing has swept across the U.S. in recent years, as workers in every sector of our economy continue to exercise their freedom to join together in unions – at auto manufacturing plants, health care facilities, bars and restaurants, white-collar offices and beyond. Here in Minnesota, we are 356,000 union members strong and growing!

This momentum is the product of decades of worker frustration, driven by unsafe workplaces and a lack of respect and dignity on the job. It’s also driven by wages that are outpaced by the increased costs of food and housing, child care and health care. Union members know that collective action can improve things for ourselves and our families, and that our union contracts help build a stronger and more fair economy by raising standards for all workers. More than half a million U.S. workers went on strike last year, and recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements have secured large wage increases for workers in industries including construction, education, health care, manufacturing, and transit and transportation, as well as meaningful breakthroughs on non-wage issues.

Working people are actively trying to unrig the economy, which for too long has been stacked in favor of corporations and the wealthy. Meanwhile, corporate special interests are lobbying for massive tax breaks and deregulation, financing legal attacks on workers’ rights and protections, and financing candidates who will help them maintain the status quo by restricting our freedoms.

We’ve seen Project 2025, what these lobbyists are referring to as their 180-day playbook. Project 2025 includes proposals to make it easier for employers to get rid of workers’ unions mid-contract and to ban all public employee unions. It would allow states to ban labor unions, eliminate overtime protections and choose not to follow the national minimum wage. And it calls for the elimination of child labor rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants and other dangerous worksites.

They’ve shown us what they want to do to workers, and we should believe them. As a labor movement, it’s imperative that we mobilize union members to get to the polls and vote in our general election on or before Nov. 5. The progress that we’ve fought for and our future and freedom as workers are on the ballot this fall, and we should get out and vote for our labor-endorsed candidates up and down the ticket. The power of organized labor can combat the power of organized money, corporate special interests, the billionaire CEOs and anti-worker politicians who aggressively attack our fundamental freedom to have a voice on the job.

We’re excited to take on that work here at the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation. Between now and Election Day, union volunteers will be reaching out to fellow union members on the phone and at the doorstep to connect about what’s at stake in this election and which candidates share our values. Our federation will coordinate dozens of phone banks and door knocks – opportunities for union members and retirees to make a real difference this election cycle.

Organizing gives us a chance to have our voices heard and to call out the powerful both at work and at the ballot box through our free and fair elections. This Labor Day, I hope you’ll re-commit yourself to showing up for our freedoms and democracy, and that you’ll join me in this work.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which publishes The Union Advocate newspaper. The SPRLF brings together nearly 150 local unions representing over 50,000 union members who live or work in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties.

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Kera Peterson: Unions are having a resurgence, and every member can be part of it

May 1, 2023 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

At the AFL-CIO Convention last summer, the nation’s largest labor federation set an ambitious goal to bring 1 million new members into our unions over the next 10 years. Since then, the federation has made a strategic investment in creating the Center for Transformational Organizing (CTO), which will bring together a broad coalition of union members to work on movement-wide campaigns related to growing our movement.

The CTO is a key part of a renewed push by our labor federations – at both the national and the local level – to prioritize organizing in all our work. It’s never a bad time to organize in the workplace, but this is an opportunity unlike any we’ve seen in decades. Gallup polling last year found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest mark since 1965. A separate survey found 70% of “skilled and hourly workers” would join a union if given the opportunity. And broad majorities agree that the decline in union participation has been bad for working people. That’s a big reason why we recently saw Michigan become the first state ever to repeal its ‘right-to-work’ law.

Momentum is on our side. It’s critical that we, as a labor movement, take advantage of this moment and build worker power at scale. That means passing the PRO Act, which will restore workers’ right to join together and form a union – free from harassment and intimidation – and to bargain better wages, benefits and working conditions. The PRO Act would finally put teeth into our nation’s labor laws, stiffening penalties on bosses who threaten, retaliate against or fire workers who exercise their right to collective action. We’re taking action here in Minnesota, too, by lobbying in support of legislation that would ban captive audience meetings, in which bosses force their workers to listen to anti-union speech, intimidation and, too often, outright lies.

Even with the deck stacked against them, many Americans have succeeded in organizing their workplace in recent years, seizing this moment of labor resurgence to lock down a more powerful voice over their working conditions. Last month, baristas at a Starbucks in Sacramento became the 300th store to unionize with Workers United, and ice-cream scoopers at Ben & Jerry’s flagship store in Vermont announced their plans to form a union, “Scoopers United.” Bookstore clerks, craft beverage workers, and museum staff are also successfully organizing in sectors of the economy where unions have not traditionally had a presence.

Elsewhere, unions are organizing to increase workers’ representation and raise standards in industries like health care, construction and arts and entertainment. Over 2,000 Twin Cities health care workers have joined unions since 2001. Building Trades unions continue to shine a light on wage theft and other labor abuses that happen too frequently on local multifamily residential construction sites. And 45,000 workers at Delta Air Lines, which maintains a hub of operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, are engaged in the world’s largest private-sector union drive at any single company. That campaign held a rally here last month, which the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation was proud to host at our union hall.

Our union family is positioned well for historic growth, but it won’t happen without all of us pulling together in solidarity. It won’t happen unless those of us doing our movement’s work on the local level take on the AFL-CIO’s challenge to put organizing at the center of all our work. That could mean talking to friends and family about the union advantage – higher wages, job security and better health and retirement benefits – or talking to your elected officials about the importance of strengthening labor laws. It also could mean showing up in solidarity with workers in an organizing or contract campaign. We’re posting updates and opportunities regularly on the Regional Labor Federation’s Facebook page. We all can play a part in this historic union resurgence. Together, we can meet the moment and revitalize our movement.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Learn more about the SPRLF and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Union Advocate recognized in international Labor Media contest

March 1, 2023 by

Members of Teamsters Local 120 picketed the main gate at Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery on Day 2 of their ULP strike.

The International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) announced winners of its annual Labor Media Awards last month, recognizing outstanding work published in 2021. The Saint Paul Union Advocate received a first-place award for photography and a third-place award for analysis.

ILCA’s awards contest is the largest competition exclusively for labor journalists, drawing thousands of entries that are judged by experts across the industry.

Union Advocate Editor Michael Moore’s photo won first place among entries from local, state and regional publications in the Visual Communications: Best Photograph category. The photo captures daybreak on the picket line outside St. Paul Park’s Marathon refinery on Day 2 of a five-month lockout.

The Advocate won third place among local, state and regional publications in the Writing: Best Analysis category for Moore’s article “Report: Union construction sites draw fewer safety violations,” published in December 2021.

The Union Advocate is the official publication of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

The Minneapolis Labor Review, official publication of the Minneapolis Labor Federation, won three awards in the contest: second place for Best Photo Gallery, second place for Best Photograph and an honorable mention for Best News Writing.

“In this moment, the labor movement has seized the world’s attention through inspiring organizing campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon, REI, Delta, and more,” said ILCA President Chelsea Connor, director of communications for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “The stories that labor journalists and unions are telling are key components of this newly revitalized movement, and the ILCA Labor Media Awards recognize the important work our members are doing.”

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Kera Peterson: Our shared agenda is advancing at the Capitol

February 3, 2023 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

The Minnesota Legislature convened Jan. 3 with working family majorities in the House and Senate who are working in partnership with our labor-endorsed Minnesota Executive Council. The last time we had a pro-worker trifecta in Minnesota was in 2013-14. That Legislature voted to raise the state’s minimum wage, expanded collective bargaining rights and made investments in all-day kindergarten.

Union volunteers worked hard to help elect pro-worker candidates across our state. Those elected officials have been hard at work since taking their oaths of office in January, and union members and community allies are engaging with them in meaningful ways to advance our shared legislative priorities.

We have cause to be optimistic about the 2023 legislative session. Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic are working together closely. Gov. Tim Walz has signaled his support of many bills that our unions are supporting at the Capitol. And the projected $17 billion-dollar surplus means that legislators have the financial resources needed to make historic investments in Minnesota’s families, its workers and their jobs.

Several bills that our unions have advocated for during previous legislative cycles are quickly progressing through the committee process. Workers are delivering powerful testimony in support of Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) and Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST), bills that will improve working Minnesotans’ quality of life, ensuring that they are able to take paid time off from work to care for themselves or a family member.

Union members and community allies are weighing in on the Skilled and Safe Workers Act, which will improve labor standards in Minnesota’s petroleum refineries, and the Warehouse Worker Safety Act. We are also advancing a measure to extend unemployment insurance to occupations that have been historically excluded from the system.

Our unions are making the most of this opportunity to address systemic racism and improve safety for immigrant workers too. We know undocumented workers in Minnesota are vulnerable to exploitation on the job. That’s why unions are working in coalition at the Capitol to address loopholes in the state’s human trafficking laws. We’re also advocating for the Driver’s Licenses for All bill, so that undocumented people can legally drive to work and get their children to school.

And because our shared values include protecting our democracy and expanding voting rights, union members are showing up to support bills like the Restore the Vote Act, which will allow Minnesotans who have completed a felony sentence and are living in the community on probation or parole to exercise their freedom to vote.

Union members have important stories to tell about the issues mentioned here, and because we’re powerful advocates, many of our unions will encourage members to contact our legislators in the coming months. We might be asked to send an email, make a phone call, attend a committee hearing or have a conversation with our representative at the Capitol on lobby day.

Since 2022 was a year when legislative redistricting occurred and elections were held, you may have a new state senator or state representative. Now is a great time to visit the Legislature’s website and find out who represents you and what type of bills they are working on. Many lawmakers send out email updates that include information about their work at the Capitol and town hall meetings, so visit your legislators’ webpages and get signed up today!

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. The federation brings together more than 100 affiliate unions representing over 50,000 members who live and work in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties. Learn more about the SPRLF and its work at stpaulunions.org.

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Kera Peterson: Labor-endorsed candidates have earned our support

October 20, 2022 by

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is shown speaking at the 2022 Minnesota AFL-CIO convention.

It’s autumn in Minnesota, and trade unionists across our great state are taking action together every day though the Labor 2022 program. We started earlier this spring with a rigorous screening process that helped determine which candidates had done the work to earn the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s endorsement. In August, we kicked-off our grassroots member education efforts across the state. Since then, volunteers have been talking with union voters on the phones and at the doors about the ways our endorsed candidates, including Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, have fought for our jobs and our freedoms – and about what it will take for them to continue that work on behalf of Minnesotans for years to come.

Union members in other states have seen their freedoms come under attack in recent years. Politicians backed by corporate special interests and billionaire CEOs have assailed workers’ fundamental freedom to earn a livable wage and have a voice on the job. Here in Minnesota, Gov. Walz’s veto pen and the pro-working family majority in the state House have kept anti-union legislation, like right to work and repeal of prevailing wage, from becoming law.

Instead, legislators in Minnesota have taken a high-road approach to economic growth and invested in middle class workers. Gov. Walz signed the largest infrastructure bill in state history and the nation’s toughest wage theft law. He acted quickly after the pandemic hit to prioritize frontline workers’ health, safety and voice on the job. And frontline workers have started to receive long-overdue payments in recognition of their service to the state. We can see Gov. Walz’s leadership working in other ways, too. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is at a historic low, wages are rising and the state has a $9 billion budget surplus.

Other incumbents, including members of the state Legislature who never gave up the fight for frontline worker payments, have earned union members’ support. And so have members of the House majority in Congress, including two of our local representatives, Betty McCollum and Angie Craig.

Rep. Craig’s race in the 2nd Congressional District is among the most tightly contested in the country this year. That means every vote counts, and with a 100% pro-union voting record, according to the AFL-CIO, union members can’t afford to lose Rep. Craig’s voice in Washington, D.C. Since winning re-election two years ago, she’s helped break the gridlock and deliver on issues that matter to working people, fighting to deliver pension relief and pass the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. She also partnered with our unions in the effort to include buy-American and prevailing-wage standards in the Inflation Reduction Act, ensuring investments to combat climate change won’t come at the expense of union jobs. And if we send Rep. Craig back to Congress, she’ll continue working to lower prescription drug prices and pass the PRO Act, which would strengthen the nation’s labor laws and stiffen penalties against union-busting employers.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has earned union members’ support for re-election, too. Few elected officials bring more energy to the fight for justice than Keith does, and since starting his service in the state Attorney General’s Office in 2019, he has been a fierce advocate for workers and consumers.  He has capitalized on the state’s new wage theft law, which gives the office more power to go after employers who misclassify workers or short them on wages they’re owed, returning hundreds of thousands of dollars to working Minnesotans. He sued two dozen drug companies over a price-fixing scheme that drove up prescription drug costs. And he took fast-food restaurants to court for colluding to hold wages down for some of the lowest-paid workers in our community.

So much of the progress we’ve made in recent years hangs in the balance this election cycle, and so much work remains to be done to make Minnesota a state where all of us, no matter what we look like or where we come from, have an opportunity to thrive. Safe and family-sustaining jobs, high-quality schools, and health care that is affordable and accessible are things that we care about. But too often over the last four years, legislation that would make our workplaces safer, or would invest in our public schools and infrastructure, has died in the Minnesota Senate. Just this summer, members of the Republican majority walked away from a bipartisan agreement to deliver funding for schools, public safety and roads and bridges – sacrificing good public policy to score political points.

Between now and Election Day, we need to do everything we can to help elect candidates who share our values, including talking with family members, friends and co-workers about what’s at stake in this election and why their vote matters. By supporting our labor-endorsed candidates, including those for the state House and Senate, we can help ensure that Gov. Walz will be able to work with a Legislature that will put working families first.

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

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