Staff at St. Paul AIDS service organization vote to unionize

April 4, 2022 by

Rainbow Health workers (L to R) Andrea Hampel, Mikhail Koha Dei-Anang, Arabella Childers, Zoe Geisen and Aamina Mohamed, await results of the vote tally in their union election.

Workers at Rainbow Health have unionized after an overwhelming majority of the St. Paul-based nonprofit’s 60-person staff voted to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa last month.

The new union includes workers who provide HIV education and outreach, housing-access support, case management, behavioral-health services, benefits counseling and other support to clients, advancing Rainbow Health’s goal of ending HIV in Minnesota.

The National Labor Relations Board counted votes in the mail-in election March 30, and 95% of workers who cast ballots voted in favor of the union.

Like other nonprofit workers who have driven an uptick in union organizing in that sector over the last three years, Rainbow Health workers said they want their employer to be more transparent when it comes to decisions that affect their jobs.

“Most of our demands don’t have to do with our wages, but transparency overall,” said Tommy Lavelle, a community health advocate at Rainbow Health since May 2021. “There needs to be some kind of accountability, some kind of responsibility taken for how people have been treated.”

Zoe Geisen, a benefits counselor, said one of workers’ top demands is for at least two staff members to serve as liaisons to Rainbow Health’s board of directors.

“We have not always been included in or had timely information about important decisions that affect our programs,” said Geisen, in her fourth year with the organization. “By having our staff represented on the board of directors, we can more effectively advocate for our programs and clients.”

Other priorities workers hope to bring into contract negotiations include greater safety and stability for both staff and clients, and safeguards ensuring equity and respect. Nikki LeClaire, a medical case manager, said the union’s goals “are grounded in our dedication and responsibility to our clients and the communities we serve.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for frontline staff at the AIDS service organization, at a time when HIV cases are on the rise in Minnesota, according to the state Department of Health.

But Rainbow Health management has made it “more difficult for us to do the work,” said Naomi Kyndberg, a care linkage specialist with 6 years of experience in the organization. She cited recent decisions that, she believes, “harm our communities, especially our BIPOC communities.”

“I am fighting for our union so our leaders that work with the communities that we serve have a say in the work that we do,” Kyndberg said. “I am fighting for our union so that we can heal the harm caused to us and to our communities through the decisions our CEO and board members have made. I am fighting for our union to have a voice.”

Racial equity was a key driver of the organizing effort, Lavelle agreed.

“It’s been a really hard time for people of color at Rainbow Health, and we’re trying to turn that around,” he said. “It goes back to transparency. When we started talking about what we were getting paid, that was healing for people, and that’s a big part of why we formed this union – to get transparency for our programs, our funding, our own wages.”

After early discussions about forming a union last year, Rainbow Health workers moved to speed up the process, fearing retaliation from CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis, Lavelle said.

In February, after gathering signed union cards from a majority of staff members, workers delivered a letter to Willis and the board of directors asking for voluntary recognition of their union. After their request was denied, workers petitioned the NLRB for a union election.

Lavelle said board members would be better served if frontline staff had an opportunity to participate in the process of hiring senior managers.

“Rainbow Health has a history of having short-term CEOs that are not good, so we’re trying to figure out how we can get power over that process and stop the cycle of what’s been going on,” Lavelle said. “There’s an HIV outbreak in Minneapolis and Duluth right now. There’s real work to do. We don’t have time to be messing around.”

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Twin Cities Starbucks workers join union wave

February 11, 2022 by

Starbucks workers supporting the union drive at the Snelling and Stanford location include (L to R) Max Chang, Colton Johnson, Sohyeon Yun, Graciela Nira, Asusena Barragan, Lola Rubens and Sitra Abdulkadir.

Workers at two Starbucks locations in the Twin Cities today announced they are forming unions, becoming the first Minnesotans to join a nationwide surge of worker organizing at the world’s largest coffeehouse chain.

In letters emailed to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson and hand-delivered to their store managers this morning, baristas at 300 Snelling Avenue in St. Paul and 4712 Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis demanded recognition of their bargaining units.

“We are organizing a union at the Snelling and Stanford store in Saint Paul to improve our workplace for ourselves, for members of our community, and for Starbucks as a whole,” St. Paul workers wrote.

An “overwhelming majority” of employees at each location signed cards requesting union representation, according to the union behind the Starbucks organizing campaign, Workers United. It petitioned the National Labor Relations Board today for union elections at the two Twin Cities stores.

Workers United has filed for elections at over 70 Starbucks locations nationwide in recent months. That includes the Elmwood Village café in Buffalo, N.Y., where workers succeeded in forming the first union at a corporate-owned Starbucks in the U.S.

Organizing efforts moved quickly in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Starbucks, which employ about 50 workers combined.

Lola Rubens, a barista at the Snelling location, said she and her co-workers pulled together enough signatures to file for an election in just one week. They pushed the pace, she said, in part to show solidarity with seven union supporters fired by Starbucks in Memphis Tuesday.

“The message we’re trying to send, in general, to other Starbucks workers in Memphis and Buffalo is that we’re behind them, that we support them,” Rubens said. “Nobody is in this alone anymore.”

Rubens and other Twin Cities baristas said they want to bargain for higher wages, better training opportunities and more support for employees from marginalized communities.

Most of all, Starbucks workers want a seat at the table in decisions that affect their working conditions, said Kasey Copeland, a barista at the Cedar Avenue coffeehouse. For many baristas, she added, the company’s approach during the pandemic did not seem to prioritize their health and safety.

“We really feel like a lot of the policies and procedures in place, they don’t take our perspective into account,” said Copeland, who has three years of experience with the company. “We really want to make Starbucks the best possible place it can be. We want it to live up to the mission and values they put forward, but it’s impossible for them to do that without our eyes on the ground.”

Starbucks’ values have come under scrutiny since workers in Buffalo took their union drive public last fall.

Despite its reputation as a progressive corporation, Starbucks executives unleashed an aggressive campaign to pressure Buffalo workers into voting down union representation. And the firings in Memphis suggest the company’s tactics are escalating as the union wave spreads.

“It’s just so disappointing,” Copeland said of Starbucks’ union busting. “While I didn’t necessarily expect better, I did hope for better. It’s going to be very interesting to see how long they can get away with that without losing support from their customers.”

Still, workers in the Twin Cities have the benefit of knowing what to expect in the coming weeks.

Copeland said she anticipates a parade of “district and regional managers coming into our stores and looking over our shoulders.” Rubens said she and her co-workers have already begun preparing a response, with support from Workers United, to the pressure tactics and talking points executives are likely to use in captive-audience meetings.

“We are very fortunate that there have been workers at many stores who have paved the way for us,” Rubens said. “Starbucks still believes they can throw more money and lawyers at this to make it go away. The amount of money they’re willing to put behind this is shocking.”

The anti-union campaign may be coming, but today workers were intent on celebrating some history in the making. They hope it’s just the start of bigger things to come.

“I think what we did will really get the ball rolling in Minneapolis,” Copeland said. “This is becoming a significant movement, and it will mean a lot not just for Starbucks employees, but for baristas and essential workers everywhere.”

“It’s going to be hard, but I hope no one is letting it get in the way of their joy and excitement,” Rubens added. “This is a joyous time for us, a time to speak our minds and advocate for ourselves, and Starbucks can’t take that away from us, no matter how hard they might try.”

Workers United is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Starbucks workers in the Twin Cities are organizing with support from the union’s Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board.

Workers United representative Esau Chavez urged other Starbucks workers interested forming a union to email sbworkersunited@gmail.com, and to follow the campaign on social media, including @SBWorkersUnited on Twitter.

As for members of the community, placing an order at the Cedar or Snelling stores under the name “Union Yes” is a “great way to show support for these workers,” Chavez said.

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Strike vote nets Minneapolis laundry workers a better deal

November 3, 2021 by

Ehler Moo joins a union rally outside the Aramark laundry facility in Minneapolis.

After voting 97-1 to authorize a strike last week, laundry workers at Aramark’s northeast Minneapolis facility today accepted an improved offer from their employer, roughly doubling the wage increase included in the contract.

The laundry workers, members of CMRJB Workers United, had planned a rally this afternoon to alert the company they were ready to strike if negotiations over a new contract did not progress before Friday, when the previous agreement expires.

Instead, workers found themselves voting on a new offer, one that included annual wage increases of 75 cents – up from around 35 cents in previous offers, according to a representative of the union.

That’s a 5% raise for workers like Ehler Moo, who makes $15 per hour loading and offloading trucks at the facility, a job he has had for over five years. Moo, who lives in St. Paul, said he and other workers needed to see more money in their next contract to keep up with the rising cost of living.

“I live with my parents, and I have to take care of my parents,” Moo said. “I pay the electricity bill, other bills. We need more money.”

Aramark is a Fortune 500 food and facilities-service company that reported over $14 billion in revenues in 2018. Workers at its northeast Minneapolis site clean linens, towels and clothing for facilities in the area.

Aramark worker Rita Yee speaks to a TV reporter during the rally.

Starting pay at the laundry is between $14 and $15, workers said.

Rita Yee, who sorts towels and uniforms after they are laundered, said she still makes an hourly wage of $15 after nearly 14 years with the company. Some workers with more than 25 years of service make around $17 per hour, she added.

The work is hard, Yee said as she pointed to her back, which hurts as a result of lifting 50-pound hangers throughout the workday. She said she approached management about a raise after being moved into the position from a less taxing one, but her request was denied.

She will get that raise soon.

“Gas, groceries, everything is going up,” the St. Louis Park resident said. “Everyone is sticking together because we want more money.”

CMRJB Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), represents thousands of workers across the Midwest in laundries, hotels, hospitals, distribution centers, food service, apparel, textile factories, light manufacturing and other industries.

“You absolutely deserve a fair union contract,” Phillip Cryan, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, told Aramark workers. “You deserve raises, and you deserve respect.”

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Home care workers, clients push Congress to act on ‘jobs, care, justice’

July 13, 2021 by

In St. Paul, home care workers, clients and allies march in support of federal investments in home- and community-based care.

With a march, rally and celebration near the Capitol in St. Paul today, Minnesotans of all ages joined activists nationwide in lifting up the call for a $400 billion federal investment in essential home care jobs.

“The future of work is service and care jobs,” said LaTanya Hughes, a home care worker and vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, which organized the event locally. “It’s time we finally, really value the jobs that we all call essential.”

President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan, includes $400 billion for home- and community-based care, enough to create over 1 million living-wage jobs in the industry.

The proposal also includes jobs-creating investments in roads, bridges, transit, schools, housing, research and manufacturing. Home care workers and clients across the U.S. are organizing, with support from SEIU, to make sure their industry – the so-called “caring infrastructure” – isn’t left behind as the legislative process plays out.

More than 90,000 people work as home health aides and personal care assistants in Minnesota, and home care workers here already have formed a union to improve their wages, benefits and training opportunities.

But advocates say the federal government must do more to stabilize and professionalize the industry’s workforce, which is marked by high rates of turnover.

“The home care industry has been ignored for too long,” said Lauren Thompson, a disability rights advocate who has cerebral palsy. “The workers are underpaid and overworked. This causes a dangerous domino effect that trickles down to me and clients like me.”

Lack of stable care, she said, limits opportunities for many Americans with disabilities to live independently. Thompson called it a choice “between our freedom and our safety” that results in a “loss of our humanity.”

“Stable home care means stable client lives,” she added.

Jillian Nelson, an autistic adult who works as a policy advocate for the Autism Society of Minnesota, attended the march and rally with two members of her home care team. Their work, she said, makes it possible for Nelson to pursue her own career, and the result is a net gain for the economy as a whole.

“Far too long, we have been framed as a burden on society,” Nelson said. “We don’t just use resources, but create jobs and community… It is time that that economic framework be valued and strengthened like every other sector of our country’s economy.”

Jillian Nelson (center), a policy advocate for the Autism Society of Minnesota, is joined by two members of her home care team.
LaTanya Hughes has 15-plus years of experience as a home care worker.

Investing in the care economy is also a matter of racial and economic justice, advocates said.

The home care workforce is overwhelmingly made up of women and people of color. That makes the Biden plan, which includes “neutrality” language requiring projects funded through the legislation to offer workers a fair opportunity to form a union, an opportunity to create the foundation of a more diverse, resilient middle class.

“It would be a jobs act, it would be a racial justice act and it would be a care act,” Hughes said.

Home care workers and clients also took time at the event to celebrate gains made during the recently concluded legislative session, including approval of workers’ union contract with the state. That agreement will raise minimum pay to $15.25 in July 2022 and expand workers’ access to paid time off and holiday pay.

The St. Paul event was part of a 24-city day of action organized by SEIU, kicking off a major campaign centered around jobs, care and justice for the 2.3 million home care workers nationwide.

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To assess care crisis, Walz ‘walks a day’ in PCA’s shoes

November 22, 2019 by

Gov. Tim Walz applies deodorant to St. Paul resident Jay Spika, who has multiple sclerosis.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz walked in a home health care worker’s shoes today in St. Paul.

The governor helped 41-year-old Jay Spika, who has primary progressive multiple sclerosis, bathe, dress and depart his St. Paul home. Walz worked alongside one of Spika’s home health aides, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Deb Howze.

The “walk-a-day” event offered Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who participated in a similar event in Minneapolis, a unique perspective on the state’s home health industry.

Federal and state subsidies allow thousands of Minnesota seniors and people with disabilities to stay in their homes, saving taxpayers the cost of providing institutional care.

But workers and clients warn of a labor shortage in their field, caused by low wages and lack of benefits. As the state’s population ages, they fear the crisis will only worsen.

As they worked together to get Spika’s socks and shoes on, Howze told Walz it’s difficult to retain good workers in such a demanding job at $13.25 per hour, the minimum wage in SEIU’s most recent union contract with the state.

“This job is exhausting,” she said. “We have so much turnover. I feel the pay is not enough. You should be able to get a PCA job and be able to live on it without working two extra jobs.”

Earlier this year, Walz and other lawmakers approved raising the minimum wage by 10.4% as part of a two-year union contract covering 25,000 home care workers statewide.

That’s “a starting point,” the governor acknowledged, to addressing the industry’s labor shortage. Walz noted the state has a backlog of thousands of qualified individuals and families who want a home care attendant but can’t get one.

“That means spouses leaving their work, giving up their careers to make sure the care is there,” he said.

Later in the event, Walz turned to Spika and asked what elected officials can do better from his standpoint.

“I think we need to invest in the PCA program,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if you’re going to need these services; it’s a matter of when… And you need a professional.”

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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.”

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Jesse Paggen: We can emerge stronger after Janus – and we must

March 1, 2018 by

Jesse Paggen is lead custodian in the Sartell schools.

As a union member with SEIU Local 284 in the Sartell schools, being in a union means having a voice to be heard as a group – even a family – so we can get what we so rightfully deserve. We all just want a piece of the American dream: a well-paying job with benefits for our families. We work hard and deserve to get the best pay and benefits possible.

With our union, we can stick together to not let big business run over the little guys like us.

I’m the lead custodian in the Sartell schools, where I’ve been for 22 years, and I am a proud union steward in Local 284. We all live in our community and care deeply about our public schools. My team and I work hard every day to make sure our buildings are safe and clean for our students.

We’ve had some issues over the last few years, and we voted to authorize a strike in December 2017 in order to make the district understand that it needed to do better. We reached a fair deal in the end and didn’t have to strike, but by sticking together we were able to get better results for our families and our schools than we ever would have alone. That is the power of being in a union.

But now, because of that power, a well-organized group of billionaires and corporate special interests have a case before the U.S. Supreme Court called Janus v. AFSCME, and it could undermine our unions. Basically, these special interests want to make every public sector union into “right to work,” which we all know really is just a fancy way of saying they are trying to destroy our ability to come together and make gains for our families.

The nine Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in Janus on Feb. 26, and they will rule sometime this spring. Most people assume they will rule for the anti-union plaintiff.

In anticipation, many unions have been making sure working people understand what it means to be a union member – and what we can accomplish together. My union, which brings together over 9,000 school employees across the state, has been working hard to make certain we don’t let any divide-and-conquer techniques rip us apart. We can, and must, come out stronger from this attack.

The groups attacking us think that making it harder for unions to survive will mean that we won’t be strong enough to fight for the things we deserve. They think they can divide us so we won’t have a unified voice, something everyone knows working people need to win a better future for our families.

I think they are wrong. I think no matter what this court case says, our unions are stronger than the divide-and-conquer techniques our opponents are using. More and more people are realizing that our system is rigged in favor of those at the top. They want regular families to be able to make ends meet and have a chance to get ahead. In the richest country in the history of the world, this doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

When we stick together with our unions (and work to get more people the chance to join unions), we can tip the scales back towards working families. If we let them split us apart, I’m scared to see where things will go.

As the Janus case rolls along, let’s prove our opponents wrong and use this moment to build a strong labor movement that sticks together and wins a better future for working families across Minnesota.

– Jesse Paggen is a member of SEIU Local 284 and lead custodian in Independent School District 748.

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Appeals court sides with home care workers’ union – again

January 18, 2018 by

Minnesota PCAs who worked Monday – on MLK Day – received holiday pay for the first time, thanks to a new provision in their union contract with the state.

A day later, home care workers received more good news. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled against a group seeking to roll back holiday pay and other gains workers and their clients have made through collective bargaining by decertifying their union.

Corey Van Denburgh, a home care worker from Anoka, said he was relieved the court decision would preserve advances made since workers organized in 2014.

“We’ve won sick pay for the first time, raised the wage floor by $3 per hour, won free access to trainings, won over $150,000 in back-pay awards for workers who were underpaid, built an online matching registry to help home clients find the workers they need and established time-and-a-half pay for holidays, among other gains,” Van Denburgh said. “Through these accomplishments, we are finally beginning to address the severe care crisis in our state, which has only been getting worse for years because of the low pay and lack of benefits provided for this important work.”

It was the latest legal setback for MNPCA, an anti-union group that petitioned the state Bureau of Mediation Services in December 2016 for a decertification election. But MNPCA fell far short of collecting signatures from 30 percent of home care workers represented by the union – the threshold necessary to trigger a vote, according to state law.

When the BMS rejected its decertification petition, MNPCA sued. In Tuesday’s ruling, a panel of three Appeals Court judges upheld the BMS’s decision.

Still, it’s unlikely to be the last legal Hail Mary for the well-funded MNPCA, which has ties to right-wing legal funds and shadowy think tanks like the Center of the American Experiment. MNPCA has been pestering home care workers’ union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, with lawsuits since before workers voted to organize.

Van Denburgh, a vice president of his union, called MNPCA’s efforts a “tragic misuse of time and energy.”

“As home care workers and people who receive home care services, we resolved to never let these extremist attacks stop us from making progress for the people of Minnesota, nearly every one of which will need home care services at some point in our lives,” he said.

“Whether Democrat or Republican, we all have been or will be impacted by the shortage of caregivers because of low pay and lack of benefits, so I hope we can put these divisive court cases and anti-union attack campaigns behind us. Let’s come together to make sure every Minnesotan can get safe, quality care and stay in their home with their loved ones.”

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Ruling deals blow to faculty union drive at U’s Twin Cities campus

September 6, 2017 by

A Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling issued yesterday dealt a setback to faculty members organizing a union at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, who are now weighing an appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

The ruling overturned a decision by the Bureau of Mediation Services, which oversees public employee labor disputes in Minnesota, to allow contingent and tenure-track faculty members to form a united front in bargaining with the U of M, should they vote to form a union.

The faculty union, Minnesota Academics United, released a statement from its steering committee in response to the decision:

“We are disappointed that the Court of Appeals overruled the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS). We believe that the Commissioner’s decision was the more accurate assessment of faculty labor on our campus, a decision reached based on a thorough and thoughtful process including meetings of the parties, lengthy hearings, and extensive legal arguments. We stand firm in our belief that contingent faculty and tenure-track faculty necessarily share a community of interest.

“The university administration’s position is driven by backwards priorities that value administrative prerogatives over intellectual excellence and student learning. The University’s position is a deliberate misinterpretation of what campus faculty do, explicitly intended to divide us in order to limit our power to protect and improve our working conditions, which are also our students’ learning conditions.

“Further, it relies on a fundamental disavowal of the value of our contingent colleagues’ teaching, research, and service to our campus community. This approach to university education is anachronistic and unacceptable. In spite of this unfavorable outcome in the Court of Appeals, we will continue to advocate for our students and colleagues through a variety of channels including a possible appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.”

Faculty members at the U of M filed their petition for a union election in January 2016.

Minnesota Academics United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, has 30 days to appeal the Court of Appeals ruling.

 

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

Organizing drive pays off for big-box janitors with landmark first contract

February 22, 2017 by
Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

What’s the value of a union contract? For nearly 500 retail janitors in the Twin Cities, who made history last year by forming the industry’s first metro-wide union, it’s a cool $4.5 million in wage increases and paid time off over the course of their new, three-year contract.

Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, which represented the janitors who clean big-box stores like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and others in negotiations with cleaning subcontractors, announced the landmark agreement in a press release today, calling it a “path forward for working families” to combat rising income inequality.

“While working people are under attack right now from the billionaires in charge of our country, we are showing that we can win if we stick together and fight,” said Maricela Flores, an employee of Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans the Target in Shakopee.

The “vast majority” of janitors in the bargaining unit are people of color, according to Local 26, so the contract’s gains will help combat Minnesota’s yawning disparities between white workers and workers of color.

The contract goes into effect immediately, and many union members will see their hourly wages jump from $9.50 to $11. They include Lizbet Vega Lopez, a Carlson employee who has cleaned the Cub Foods in Brooklyn Park for 12 years.

“This was not an easy fight, but I am so glad we stuck together and now have a union contract that moves us forward,” Lopez said. “I hope others will see our fight and realize that no matter how difficult the challenge may be, you can win positive changes if you are willing to stand up to those in power.”

In addition to wage increases and PTO, workers won up to three weeks of vacation time, stronger workplace protections and job security, and guidelines for workload conditions when covering absences.

Retail janitors’ new union grew out of a six-year campaign facilitated by CTUL, a Twin Cities worker center. Workers and community allies pressured corporations like Target and Best Buy to take responsibility for low wages and unsafe working conditions inside their Twin Cities stores by signing onto a “Responsible Contractor Policy.”

The campaign continues at Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big-box stores.

“We are contracted to clean the stores of some of the biggest corporations in the world, so it was a big win just to get to the negotiation table with our employers, and now we have won gains that cannot be taken away,” Lopez said. “We weren’t waiting on Trump’s empty promises and scapegoating. We decided to fight back and win changes for ourselves, and hope others do too!”

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