After years of fighting, janitors celebrate historic agreement with Target

Retail cleaning workers celebrated a hard-fought victory yesterday in their campaign for better wages and working conditions, as the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL announced Target had agreed to hold its cleaning contractors to a new set of standards designed to protect workers’ rights. In a letter to CTUL organizers last week, Target agreed to […]

Bobby Kasper: Super Bowl will showcase union workers

It doesn’t take most people very long to realize I’m not a native Minnesotan. My New York accent is usually a dead giveaway. But after living here for 20-plus years, Minnesota is the place I’m proud to call home. That’s why I was thrilled to learn the Twin Cities will play host to Super Bowl […]

At MSP Airport, workers use heavy travel day to rally for better wages

On one of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s busiest days of the year, the low-wage workers who make holiday travel happen put the public on notice they will no longer settle for poverty-level wages. Airport workers and their supporters – about 100 people total – rallied outside the arrivals area of Terminal 1, showing support for […]

Report shows passenger service workers earn poverty-level wages at MSP Airport

As a military veteran with a college education, Darcy Landau is overqualified for his job as a wheelchair agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Earning wages of $7.25 per hour, Landau struggles to make monthly car payments, pay back his student loans and meet his basic needs. “If it weren’t for the VA,” Landau said, […]

Taxpayers are subsidizing fast-food industry’s low wages, report finds

That extra value meal might seem like a bargain, but a new report shows low prices on the fast-food menu come at a high cost to U.S. taxpayers. How much? Nearly $7 billion a year. That’s the cost of public assistance for fast-food workers and their families, according to “Fast Food, Poverty Wages,” a report […]

Health care local celebrates 80th anniversary, welcomes PCAs into union

The nation’s oldest union of health care workers marked its 80th anniversary Sept. 20 by welcoming a new group of members, home care workers, into the local. For the first time ever, roll call to open SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s convention included a unit of personal care attendants who are hired by their clients and paid […]

Unions honor March on Washington with a renewed call for justice

Fifty years after the March on Washington, the march toward justice continues. That was the tone struck by union members, elected officials and civil rights advocates who gathered on the Capitol grounds in St. Paul today to honor the 50th anniversary of the watershed event in the civil rights movement. Nearly 200 people participated in […]

Riled by Allina’s contract demands, workers picket outside Maplewood clinic

Disappointed with the demands Allina Health is making in negotiations on a new contract, workers at Aspen Medical Group picketed outside the Allina-operated provider’s Maplewood clinic over the lunch hour today. The workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, accused Allina management of seeking to strip their contract of every meaningful benefit they have fought for […]

School employees target Kline in fight to restore special education cuts

John Kline has enough influence in Congress to make reversing federal cuts to education a priority. But who has influence enough to get the 2nd District Congressman’s attention? Target Corporation does, according to members of Service Employees International Union Local 284. In an unannounced visit to Target’s West St. Paul location yesterday, activists attempted to […]

UPDATED: Workers at hospital laundry win tentative agreement, end strike

UPDATED 08/06/13 – Workers United Local 150 reports the strike is over after negotiators reached an agreement on a tentative contract agreement early this morning. Workers will take a ratification vote tomorrow. “The campaign was a complete success for the union,” Workers United representative Julie Boots said in an e-mail, noting the company agreed to […]