Essential workers call bonus pay holdup ‘a slap in the face’

December 6, 2021 by

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis, advocates call on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

What do nurses, janitors, educators and other essential workers want from state lawmakers this holiday season? They spelled it out last week during a rally and march through downtown Minneapolis.

“Quit playing politics and get the job done,” Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner said, standing alongside a chain of essential workers holding large, block letters spelling out “ESSENTIAL PAY.”

In July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in state funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But workers have yet to receive a penny from that fund, and it appears unlikely they will before the 2022 legislative session convenes Jan. 31.

That’s because legislators on a bipartisan working group failed to reach agreement on who should be eligible for payments.

Republicans refused to budge from their position that a smaller pool of workers – including health care workers, long-term-care staff and first responders – should be compensated, while DFLers insisted on including grocery clerks, cleaning workers and child care providers like Tamara Greene, who directed her comments at the rally to GOP legislators.

“Tell us your justification for excluding us from this bill,” said Greene, director of All Ages & Faces Academy in St. Paul. “We want to know. We find it an insult and an absolute slap in the face.”

DFLers on the committee accused Republicans of rejecting their compromise proposal, which would have cast a wider net while compensating some workers more than others.

Turner, a nurse in the North Memorial hospital intensive care unit, said the GOP wouldn’t succeed in its attempt to divide essential workers.

“That’s not going to fly,” she said. “It never has, and it never will.

“The reason is because I have been at the bedside, along with our other nurses. People from security and cleaning and teaching and the food industry and every other industry represented here – we have been at their deathbeds. We have seen the number of essential workers that have died.”

Lawmakers could supplement the fund with additional dollars, but it would require Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session, giving Republican Senators an opportunity to act on threats from some in the caucus to remove Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, an architect of the state’s pandemic response.

As the political fight drags on, workers like Angie Halseth, a caseworker at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility, are left wondering if the compensation they were promised will ever come. A member of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Halseth described the additional duties tacked onto her workload during the pandemic, like administering temperature checks to inmates in quarantine.

“But like so many, extra work is just the start of the hardships,” she added. “We’ve all worried that our jobs will make us or our families sick. I’ve had several colleagues become ill from COVID-19 outbreaks at our facilities, including one who gave COVID to their pregnant wife and elderly in-laws.”

Activists were also keen to point out that CEOs in Minnesota have taken exorbitant bonuses and pay raises during the pandemic, while workers in their companies’ warehouses, on their shop floors and elsewhere on the front lines see their “hero pay” held up at the Capitol.

The event began on the sidewalk outside the Ameriprise Financial building, where workers hoisted a large photo of CEO James Caracchiolo with the tagline, “This guy got a 283% raise last year!”

“We are a state that is lucky to have more resources available,” Halseth said. “I am asking the state to spend those resources helping our frontline workers try to be whole again.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pandemic likely to alter unions’ political push, but how? 

May 7, 2020 by

By Bill Moore, Special to The Union Advocate 

COVID-19 is disrupting life as we know it and may do so for a while yet. But Minnesota labor leaders are determined that it will not stop efforts to inform and mobilize union voters for the 2020 election.  

The Minnesota Labor 2020 campaign is alive and well – and ready to adapt to challenges and changing circumstances. 

“Our work this election year is incredibly important,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said. “We have to engage as many union members as possible as voters and volunteers, not only to elect a president who respects and stands up for working families, but to assure worker-friendly majorities in both the Minnesota Senate and the U.S. Senate.”

Work to assure a complete count for the U.S. census is also important, Peterson added: “We need to be doing that now, and also working to make sure union members and retirees are registered to vote.” 

Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Brad Lehto reported that officers, leaders and political organizers from affiliated unions and labor councils around the state already have formulated a Labor 2020 plan. Now, they are working on contingency plans.  

“If things get better,” Lehto said, “we’ll keep moving ahead with the current plan. If things get worse we’ll have options.”  

Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Director Jessica Looman shares Lehto’s determination.  

“During this time of uncertainty, the AFL-CIO is working to adapt their voter education and mobilization plans to address many different contingencies,” she said. “The Minnesota Building Trades will also work to ensure that our members’ voices are heard in 2020.” 

Texting could be key 

As an example of adjustments that may need to be made, Lehto pointed to worksite conversations. They won’t be possible if worksites are shuttered.  

“Our whole worksite program would have to change,” he said. “One option we’re exploring is peer-to-peer texting, where worksite leaders could communicate via text messages with co-workers who are working from home or laid off.”  

The Service Employees (SEIU) developed and implemented this in the last election cycle and it worked well, Lehto added, joking, “We’re all going to become experts in tech.” 

Jamie Gulley, President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the SEIU Minnesota State Council said, “This pandemic has made clear how important it is to have elected officials who care about working people.  

“We know there may be challenges in our usual election plans that focus on person-to-person conversations with possible social distancing still in effect. Luckily, we have experience with texting, online ads, phone calling and relational organizing tools that will help make sure we do everything possible to elect candidates who support working people. 

“No matter what tools we end up using, we are going to have tens of thousands of conversations about electing candidates who see this pandemic not as a chance to divide us and give more to the rich, but as a sign we need to pass laws that put Minnesotans’ health before corporate profits, and to support our Unions for All agenda to make sure every Minnesotan – no matter our job, race, zip code or gender – can live a safe and healthy life.” 

Getting social – at a distance 

Another route Minnesota Labor 2020 planners are exploring to reach union members with relevant information in pandemic times is digital communications and paid media.  

Already in the works are some 15-, 30- and 60-second videos of union members from various unions saying why unions matter to them personally, and how working people need each other and won’t buy attempts to divide us by race, ethnicity or other differences. 

Door-knocking, too, is a traditional election year tactic that wouldn’t work if COVID-19 exposure testing and contact tracing don’t reach necessary levels and stay-at-home policies persist into the fall. Volunteers likely will be reluctant to risk exposure to the virus, and people won’t want to open their door to a stranger.  

Phoning is an option, but has proved less effective in recent years, and traditional phone banks often involve bringing volunteers together in close quarters.   

“If phoners are unable to social-distance, virtual phone banking is a way around that,” Lehto said. “Volunteers can access a list on their home computer or, if they find that difficult, they can get a paper list to phone from home.” 

Regardless of how it gets done, the Labor 2020’s work is critical, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said. 

“While this pandemic may change the methods used to communicate with union members about the election, it underscores why the 2020 election is so important,” he said. “We need to elect leaders who will join with us to make sure no worker is left behind, and we emerge from this crisis stronger than before.” 

Retirees get early start 

Members of at least one Minnesota labor organization are on the phones already. The Minnesota State Retiree Council has launched an effort to make sure retired union members are registered to vote. “Comparing union lists with state voting records finds 6,000 Minnesota union retirees not registered to vote,” State Retiree President Ken McInnis reported.  

Retiree Council Election Work Coordinator Carol Freeman and other volunteers have asked for clearance from Minnesota AFL-CIO affiliated unions to call their retired members who aren’t registered to vote.  

Meanwhile, they’re calling everyone on retiree council mailing and email lists to learn how retirees are staying informed. If they’re not already subscribed to the Retiree Bulletin, Election Work Co-Coordinator Martha Johnson signs them up and also points them to the Retiree Council website, http://www.mnretired.org, and Facebook page, facebook.com/mnaflcioretired. 

Another retiree initiative is advocating for Vote-by-Mail legislation.  

The State Retiree Council passed a resolution urging the State of Minnesota to send a voter registration form, together with an application for an absentee ballot, to every unregistered Minnesotan who is eligible to vote, including pre-paid postage for return. The Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Board adopted the resolution.  

“Given the current majority in the Minnesota Senate, I can’t imagine the measure will pass the Legislature,” McInnis admitted. “But if legislators really believe that voting is what democracy looks like, they’ll support it.” 

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Fight for $15’s next target: MSP Airport

November 26, 2018 by

MSP Airport workers and supporters march for $15 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Emboldened by minimum wage victories in St. Paul and Minneapolis, workers seeking a raise at MSP Airport used the busiest travel day of the year to inject new energy into their fight for $15 and union rights.

The rally outside Terminal 1 last Wednesday brought together the people who make MSP work: unionized janitors, servers, cooks, cart drivers, bag runners and other frontline staff. They marched outside the ticketing area, carrying signs and joining chants calling on the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all airport workers.

Glen Brown, a wheelchair assistant and member of Service Employees International Union Local 26, earns just $10.65 per hour working for airline contractor G2. At the rally, the St. Paul resident recalled watching his city council and mayor pass a minimum wage ordinance earlier this month – and resolving to fight for the same at MSP.

“We deserve the same pay and respect as workers in cities that border the airport,” Brown said, noting that U.S. airlines raked in $15.5 billion in profits last year – profits that “our work helped make possible.”

“There are thousands of us making around what I make, while Delta CEO Ed Bastian makes $6,300 per hour,” Brown added. “A $15 wage floor at MSP would mean stability and security for so many families.”

 

Although workers like Brown are pushing the MAC to follow Minneapolis and St. Paul on the path to $15, it was initially Minneapolis and St. Paul that followed the MAC’s lead in setting higher labor standards than the state requires.

In June 2015, airport commissioners approved a measure raising the minimum wage to $10 for most workers at MSP, which does not fall under the legal jurisdiction of either Minneapolis or St. Paul. That raise came on the heels of a measure passed in December 2014 requiring airport employers to offer earned sick and safe time benefits.

But historic $15 minimum wage ordinances on the books in neighboring St. Paul and Minneapolis are poised to erode airport workers’ minimum-wage advantage. That could lead to under-staffing, workers at the rally warned.

Advocates say nearly 3,000 workers would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 at the airport, a boost of close to $13 million into the Twin Cities economy for the people and families who need it most.

Feben Ghilagaber, a UNITE HERE Local 17 member who has worked in food service at MSP for 13 years, said she supports a $15 minimum wage because one job at the airport should be enough for workers to support themselves.

“When I see my co-workers working 16-hour days, I always wonder who’s watching their families?” Ghilagaber said. “Who’s raising their kids?”

Other unions that supported the rally included Teamsters Local 120 and the Machinists, which is supporting Delta Air Lines ramp workers organizing for a voice on the job at MSP and airports around the U.S.

“Delta Workers helped to start the movement for $15 here at the airport four years ago,” ramp worker Marty Knaeble said. “We will be there at the finish.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Proposal to slash special ed stuns Cambridge-Isanti parents, staff

March 21, 2018 by

(SEIU Local 284 photo)

Paraprofessionals in the Cambridge-Isanti Schools are mounting a last-ditch fight for their jobs and the special education students they serve after the district unexpectedly revealed plans Friday to slash staffing by 25 percent.

“It was shocking,” Melanie Custer, in her fifth year as a special-ed paraprofessional in District 911, said of learning her job is on the chopping block. “It was basically a slap in the face to us, that we don’t mean anything.”

The proposal, outlined in the school board’s Thursday meeting agenda, would reduce special-ed staffing at seven schools next year by roughly 230 hours per day. That adds up to between 50 and 60 jobs, according to the union that represents Cambridge-Isanti paraprofessionals, SEIU Local 284.

Union members plan to speak against the proposed cuts at the board meeting tomorrow, and they anticipate strong backing from parents and community members. [View the Facebook event.]

“I’ve seen Facebook posts, and I’ve talked to a couple of (special-ed students’) parents,” Custer said. “It stresses them out, and it makes them worried about what kind of care their children are going to be getting.”

The district did not respond to a request for comment, but the agenda item cites “changes in enrollment and staffing needs” as reason for the cuts. A separate budget document estimates savings of $770,000 next year from an “adjustment to special education staffing.”

But Custer, who provides one-on-one support to students with special needs, warned that any savings would come at a steep price for students, their families and teachers in the district.

“Our students will suffer,” she said. “These are students with emotional and behavioral disorders, autistic students and students with learning disabilities. If you cut out the people who give them help, they’re going to get lost in the system.”

Already, special-ed paras and the teachers they work alongside feel shorthanded, Custer added. Any time a para calls in sick, “it generally results in the teacher having to do a lot more than anyone’s capable of doing,” she said.

Custer, whose husband works in the construction industry and struggles for hours in the winter months, would have to find another job if she’s laid off by the district. But she doubts she could find anything as rewarding as her work with students.

It’s a message she hopes will resonate with board members tomorrow.

“We give day in and day out helping these kids,” she said. “We’ll never get rich doing this job; we’re all there for the kids. It seems like the district doesn’t care about us, they don’t care about the kids.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Unions see ‘a generational opportunity’ as state lawmakers begin work at Capitol

January 14, 2013 by

capitolWhen 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 several legislative sessions have failed to address.

For the state’s labor movement, winning back labor-endorsed majorities in both houses of the Legislature means 2013 won’t bring a cascade of extreme, anti-worker legislative proposals, as the last two sessions under Republican control produced.

Instead of playing defense against “right to work” and other anti-worker bills, labor will focus instead on urging lawmakers to pass bills that create jobs, fix the state’s broken tax system, support union organizing and collective bargaining and reinvest in public education.

In short, union leaders are looking forward to playing a little offense at the Capitol.

“With this Legislature we have a generational opportunity here,” said Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council.

Jobs, revenue top list

The top priorities for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor federation, will be legislation to increase revenue and to create jobs, said Jennifer Schaubach, the federation’s legislative director.

“This past election was a scream loud and clear,” she said. Minnesotans voted for legislative candidates who promised an end to budget shifts and gimmicks, and to raise revenues fairly to invest in the state’s future.

That means supporting services that make Minnesota great by increasing taxes on those who can afford to pay a little more, said Julie Bleyhl, legislative director for Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“We have a backlog of funding problems that past Legislatures haven’t dealt with and have put off,” Bleyhl said. “We have a structural deficit. We need to fix that. We also want to make sure that revenue is raised in a fair way and those that can afford to – the millionaires – pay their fair share as well.”

As the state’s economy climbs out of the recession, “we still desperately need jobs,” Schaubach said, which is why the Minnesota AFL-CIO will support a significant bonding bill to invest in state infrastructure and create jobs. Unions also will push to facilitate expansion of the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Job-creating investments will be a top priority for the Building Trades, Melander said. “We hope to see that there are measures to provide a long-term solution to transportation funding, including transit,” he added.

Schools, organizing, equality

Although jobs and revenue top the list of labor’s legislative priorities this year, union leaders say they plan to organize around several other issues, including:

• School funding. Many DFLers campaigned on paying back funds shifted away from schools and urged making new investments in education.

“The November elections have given us a chance to catch up on a decade of underfunding our schools,” said Tom Dooher, president of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union.

• Safe hospital staffing. The Minnesota Nurses Association has been pushing for legislation ensuring minimum staffing levels at the state’s hospitals since 2007 – an effort that will continue in 2013, Political Director Andrea Ledger said.

Several studies show a link between adequate nurse staffing and positive patient outcomes. Still, many of the state’s hospitals have been unwilling to commit to minimum staffing levels in contract negotiations, prompting union nurses to look to their lawmakers for action on the issue.

“Nurses believe every patient in the state is entitled to nursing care that allows them to be treated safely,” Ledger said. “We know that when there are the right number of registered nurses at the bedside, errors are reduced and accidents are prevented.”

• Organizing and collective bargaining. As always, the state’s unions will stand up for workers’ rights, including the right to organize.

The Legislature is likely to take up the question of whether home health care workers and child care providers subsidized by the state are allowed to form a union. And graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota, whose drive to join the United Auto Workers fell short last year, will seek to change the makeup of their potential bargaining unit, making it more focused on teaching assistants rather than research and lab assistants.

The Service Employees International Union plans to support graduate assistants at the Capitol, said Jamie Gulley, president of the SEIU Minnesota State Council. “We have the capacity to help, so we’re going to do that as solidarity on the organizing side,” Gulley said. “The SEIU is going to be supporting any bill for any union that will help grow the labor movement.”

– The Union Advocate contributed reporting to this article by Minneapolis Labor Review Editor Steve Share.

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