Locked-out musicians reject SPCO’s contract proposal

October 31, 2012 by

Musicians locked out of their jobs by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra voted unanimously today to reject a contract offer from management, prolonging a work stoppage that began Oct. 21.

Management’s proposed reductions to current musicians’ salaries and benefits are unacceptable, union members said. They warned even bigger proposed cuts to future musicians’ compensation would undermine the orchestra’s quality and artistry.

Lynn Erickson, SPCO member and spokesperson for the musicians’ Negotiating Committee, said the SPCO would be “unable to identify any qualified artistic consultant who would support the proposed reductions.”

Kyu-Young Kim, an SPCO violinist and member of the musicians’ Negotiating Committee, called the contract proposal an attempt by management to divide current and future orchestra members.

“Management again fails to realize that an orchestra functions as a team, and that none of us in the SPCO have any interest in selling our present or future colleagues down the river,” Kim said.

Kim pointed to a letter made public Oct. 25 in which SPCO management said it planned to reduce the pay of highly paid “principal players” significantly less than those who receive the base pay.

SPCO management has said it is looking to cut $1.5 million from its annual budget in contract negotiations. Musicians have presented management with a counter-proposal that, they say, would save the SPCO more than $700,000 over the course of three years – while continuing to live up to the orchestra’s high artistic standards.

“Our goal is to preserve the artistic excellence of the SPCO in a fiscally responsible way, for our supporters and for this community,” Erickson said. “We want to resume negotiations as soon as possible and hope that a mutually agreeable solution can be quickly achieved.”

The proposal rejected today also would give management the ability to terminate musicians at any time with no recourse, the musicians said.

Click here for more information on the Musicians of the SPCO and their lockout.

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With contract set to expire Sunday, SPCO musicians ask supporters to take action

September 28, 2012 by

Musicians of the SPCO give a free concert as part of their commitment to the long-term financial stability of the orchestra.

With their contract set to expire Sunday, the Musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are encouraging supporters to show their appreciation for the quality and artistry union members bring to the SPCO by attending one of two concerts this weekend – and by calling SPCO management.

The SPCO will give performances of “American Romantics and Maria Schneider” at 8 p.m. tonight at Wayzata Community Church, 125 E. Wayzata Blvd., and at 8 p.m. tomorrow at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 900 Summit Ave., St. Paul.

The musicians, members of Twin Cities Musicians Union Local 30-73, are also encouraging fans to contact SPCO management with an appeal to reconsider a counterproposal the union offered during contract talks Sept. 25.

Rejected by management a day later, the counteroffer would have cut musicians’ salaries by 10.5 percent across the board over the next two years and by 4 percent in the third year – in exchange for “shared sacrifice” from SPCO management.

According to the union, it would save the SPCO more than $700,000 over the course of the three-year pact.

Management has said it is seeking $1.5 million in cost savings from the musicians’ contract – a figure musicians say is impossible to reach without compromising the SPCO’s artistic quality.

“It is disheartening that management isn’t interested in preserving this historic ensemble,” said Carole Smith, a bassoonist and chair of the union’s Negotiations Committee. “We need the public now more than ever to contact management and ask them to reconsider – time is running out.”

The counterproposal includes other concessions designed to help the SPCO raise revenue, including free musician performances eight times each year and performances at small gatherings of SPCO donors.

Musicians say the SPCO has the money in hand to maintain operations without drastic cuts. The union’s counteroffer, Smith said, would provide management with the savings it needs in the short run in order “to finally put together an effective endowment drive.”

For more on the negotiations, go to the Musicians of the SPCO website.

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Lex-Ham Community Theater presents ‘Days to Come’

September 20, 2012 by

The Lex-Ham Community Theater will present Lillian Hellman’s drama “Days to Come” in six performances this month at the Wellstone Center on St. Paul’s West Side.

The play, directed by John Townsend, is set in 1930s Ohio, and it tells the story of a strike – and the discord it creates within a family-owned business, as family members try to break the strike to preserve their business and their family.

Hellman combines political themes with tales of personal struggle in “Days to Come,” as the play explores union busting, social class and questionable business practices – issues still timely today.

Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27; and 2 p.m. Oct. 21. A discussion about the state of organized labor in the Twin Cities during the 1930s will follow the Oct. 25 show.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for children, students and seniors 65 and older. See www.DaysToCome.org for more information.

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September 2012: CIO sympathizers routed at statewide AFL convention in ‘37

September 12, 2012 by

Delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 51st Constitutional Convention will gather in Rochester Sept. 16-18. It is certain to be a much more harmonious affair than the statewide labor convention held in Hibbing 75 years ago, when AFL delegates snuffed out an attempt by “CIO sympathizers” to gain a foothold in the organization.

“Minnesota Labor took a definite stand on the side of the American Federation of Labor” at the statewide convention in September 1937, the Minnesota Union Advocate reported in its Sept. 30 edition.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

Over accusations of “steamroller tactics,” four delegations “known to be either affiliated or openly partisan to the CIO” were denied credentials via a voice vote from the convention floor. Delegates proceeded to elect an executive council “that is 100 percent loyal to the A. F. of L.,” and they voted to prevent U.S. Rep. John Bernard, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party representing the Iron Range, from addressing the convention because of his work as an organizer for the CIO.

The upstart Committee for Industrial Organization had been founded from within the AFL two years earlier by unionists who favored increased organizing among industrial workers. At the 1937 state convention, CIO supporters called themselves “progressives,” but the AFL establishment branded them “sympathizers.”

“Every effort of those sympathetic to the CIO to get at least a luke-warm reception for their proposals was met by a united front that left no question as to the temper of the majority,” The Advocate reported.

Gov. Elmer Benson “made an eloquent plea for harmony” in his address to the convention, broadcast over several radio stations statewide.

“Divide and rule was the slogan of the Roman emperors. A division within the ranks of labor is the hope of those who seek the destruction of labor,” Benson said.

“The dark cloud on labor’s horizon today is the division which has developed within the ranks of the American labor movement. It is a division which comes from the top and not from the bottom – not from the rank and file. The rank and file will never permit a permanently divided labor movement.”

The CIO formalized its break with the AFL in 1938, holding its first convention and renaming itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The two bodies merged as the AFL-CIO in 1955.

• 100 Years Ago. A union member looking to wet his whistle probably avoided the Schwabel Bros. saloons downtown St. Paul. According to the report of a delegate to the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly during the body’s September 1912 meeting, Schwabel Bros had employed non-union bartenders.

That wasn’t the only tavern-related issue to come before the Assembly during the meeting. The Cabinet Makers’ delegate “reported three saloons in the city which were fitted up with non-union fixtures.” The matter was referred to the executive board for consideration.

• 50 Years Ago. Martin J. O’Donnell, president of St. Paul-based Building Laborers Local 132, urged the city’s unions to send a representative to the St. Paul Housing Clinic at St. Thomas College in September 1962. The clinic tackled the issue of affordable and safe housing for residents of St. Paul.

The interest of Building Trades unions in such a project “can be taken for granted,” O’Donnell said. “But it would be short-sighted indeed for officers and members of unions engaged in other lines of business or industry to take the position that they don’t have an equally important stake in this matter.”

Working families, he said, should be concerned about the quality of housing facilities a community offers its citizens, particularly for young families and the elderly.

• 25 Years Ago. With President Ronald Reagan seeking approval from Congress to funnel more aid to rebels in war-torn Nicaragua, delegates to the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention in September 1987 approved a resolution urging peace in Central America – and calling on the national AFL-CIO to lobby Congress to reject Reagan’s request.

The resolution passed after delegates challenged the ruling of the convention chair, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Dan Gustafson, that the resolution ran contrary to national AFL-CIO policy, Union Advocate Editor Barb Kucera reported.

“The AFL-CIO does not support an end to U.S. aid to the Contras unless the Soviet Union and Cuba end their aid to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Gustafson said.

“After the ruling of the chair was challenged, Secretary-Treasurer Bernard Brommer took the gavel. The challenge to the chair was upheld on a voice vote of the delegates, and the resolution was passed on a voice vote.”

• 10 Years Ago. Two years after workers at Dakota Premium Foods voted to form a union, the workers’ bargaining committee finally reached a tentative agreement with the South St. Paul meatpacking plant Sept. 30, 2002.

The contract included pay raises ranging from $2 to $4.50 an hour, raising hourly wages at the plant to between $10 and $13.50. It also included a $1,000 signing bonus, a grievance and arbitration process and seniority rights.

But the difficult process Dakota Premium workers endured to get their first contract provided an “example of what is wrong with U.S. labor law,” Advocate Editor Michael Kuchta wrote.

“The company tried to overturn election results, then continually delayed bargaining by filing multiple legal appeals of rulings that went against the company. Company negotiators finally began bargaining with workers on Aug. 15.”

St. Paul’s newest union went into action at “A Fair of the Heart” Sept. 13, 1987. Members of International Cornhuskers of America Local 1987 shucked thousands of ears of corn for the crowd of 45,000 at the annual United Way event. Pictured above are Steelworker Nyals Kittel (left) and Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Bernard Brommer. At right, AFSCME member Lucille Robinson and Minnesota AFL-CIO Community Service and Education Director Christine Matuzek.

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Two labor-endorsed candidates to watch in the Aug. 14 primary election

August 2, 2012 by

Peter Fischer (left) and Robert Humphrey

East Metro unions will be watching two labor-endorsed candidates for Minnesota Legislature who face competitive challenges in the Aug. 14 primary: Robert Humphrey in Senate District 67 and Peter Fischer in House District 43A.

[Click here for more information on the Aug. 14 Primary Election, including how to identify your electoral district and find your polling location.]

Humphrey, a longtime political activist on St. Paul’s East Side, has made jobs, economic development and neighborhood livability the focus of his campaign.

“We’ve lost some good union employers while I’ve lived on the East Side,” he said, pointing to 3M, Whirlpool, Stroh’s and others. “I’m familiar with the city and the economic-development process, and I’m effective at getting things done.”

Humphrey is seeking the DFL nomination for the seat held by Sen. John Harrington, who is not running for re-election. District 67, which covers the East Side of St. Paul, leans heavily Democratic, and Humphrey has the endorsement of both Harrington and Rep. Tim Mahoney, a member of Pipefitters Local 455 who represents House District 67A.

Now a manager in the City of St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections, Humphrey cut his teeth at the Capitol as a legislative assistant from 1993 to 2001. He worked for six years as an aide to Rep. Tom Rukavina, the Iron Range DFLer known for his commitment to trade unionism.

Since leaving his job at the Capitol in 2001, Humphrey has stayed active in East Side politics, developing connections in the community that, he says, will serve him well in the Legislature, particularly when it comes to spurring economic development.

“We need the state to partner with St. Paul and the St. Paul Port Authority, which has done a good job of creating living-wage jobs,” Humphrey said. “We need to give them the tools they need and work with them at the state level to attract good employers.”

Like Humphrey, Fischer is a longtime DFL activist in the area he’s seeking to represent, a new district that covers parts of Maplewood, White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi.

Fischer works as director of finance and operations at a shelter for homeless youth in Minneapolis. He’s seen firsthand the effect state budget cuts have had on the most vulnerable members of the state’s communities – experience he thinks will benefit his work at the Capitol.

“I’ve got a very good understanding of people who are at a disadvantage, of what they face on a daily basis and knowing what we have to do to help these hard-working people move forward in life,” Fischer said. “If we as a society aren’t able to provide those basics … then when any of us run into a tough time, those services are not going to be there for us either.”

His values, Fischer said, earned his campaign for House District 43A the support of organized labor.

“It’s about respect, fairness and basic human dignity,” he said. “I’ve always been fond of the labor movement because those are their core values too.”

Click here for a complete list of labor-endorsed candidates on the Aug. 14 primary ballot.

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On Workers Memorial Day, unions remember the fallen

May 1, 2012 by

Building Trades union members hold crosses bearing the names workers who died on the job in the previous year.

In Workers Memorial Day ceremonies held across the country April 27 to 30, union members paused to remember the men and women who died on the job or as a result of work-related injury or disease in the previous year.

In St. Paul, Building Trades unions from the Twin Cities metro area held a ceremony April 27 in the Workers Memorial Garden on the State Capitol grounds, honoring 11 men who died as a result of workplace accidents or work-related diseases. The ceremony also honored a Laborer, John Biersach, who fell to his death Oct. 20, 1898, during construction of the Capitol building.

Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, presided over the noon ceremony. About 50 people watched as, one by one, crosses bearing the names of all 12 fallen workers were draped with black sashes.

“In our industry we like to say, ‘Let’s make sure we get to work on time, and let’s make sure we all leave together,’” Melander said. “These are Minnesotans who didn’t make it home.”

Workers Memorial Day serves as a reminder for union members to continue the fight for safer workplaces, Melander added. “In that building behind us, the Capitol, Minnesotans are bringing closure to another legislative session. We need to remind our elected officials that workplace regulations regarding safety save Minnesotans’ lives.”

Workers honored at the memorial service were:

• Ake Larsson, 82, of Pipefitters Local 455, who died Dec. 12, 2011, as a result of lung disease.

• John R. Slagle, 60, of Pipefitters Local 455, who died March 18 as a result of mesothelioma.

• Denny White, 60, of Cement Masons 633, who died Dec. 3, 2011, as a result of mesothelioma.

• David B. Eckstrom, 72, of Heat & Frost Insulators Local 34, who died July 15, 2011, as a result of asbestosis.

• Gary B. Benson, 71, of Heat & Frost Insulators Local 34, who died Jan. 19 as a result of asbestosis.

• William H. Stille, 93, of Sheet Metal Workers Local 10, who died March 3 as a result of asbestosis.

• Thomas Gamboni, 47, of Operating Engineers Local 49, who died Oct. 12, 2011, as a result of electrocution.

• Douglas Stoffel, 51, of Operating Engineers Local 49, who died April 21, 2011, as a result of electrocution.

• Craig D. Carlson, 47, and Ronald J. Raikowski, 44, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292, who died Oct. 13, 2011, in an accident during road construction on Interstate 35W.

• Tom Stich, 50, of Laborers Local 132, who died Aug. 12, 2011, in an accident on the job.

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper remembered signing Stich up for the union during his days as an organizer with Local 132.

“We honor the memory of workers like my brother Tom Stitch, who died on the job, and we remember the men and women lost as a result of unsafe working conditions,” Kasper said.

“But those of us gathered here today know that workplace safety is not just important on Workers Memorial Day. Many of us here today are working every day of the year to make our jobs safer for workers.”

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