School employees target Kline in fight to restore special education cuts

August 15, 2013 by
SEIU Local 284 President Keith Niemi talks to management and security staff in the West St. Paul SuperTarget.

SEIU Local 284 President Keith Niemi talks to management and security staff in the West St. Paul SuperTarget.

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 deliver a letter asking Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel to use his company’s considerable clout with Kline to push for restoration of $9.2 million in education funds Minnesota schools lost as a result of federal sequestration cuts this year.

Kline chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, charged with oversight of federal funding for special education.

“We all know that Target has a very powerful voice and presence in education in Minnesota,” Local 284 President Keith Niemi told store managers at the West St. Paul SuperTarget. “We also know that Target is the biggest contributor to Rep. Kline’s campaign, and that Rep. Kline will listen to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel.”

Target has given $12,500 to Kline’s campaign and his “Freedom and Security PAC” so far during the 2014 election cycle, according to opensecrets.org. Only New York Life Insurance has donated more.

The funds Minnesota schools lost to sequestration were intended to support education for children with disabilities. The $9.2 million cut means about 110 school employees will lose their jobs, according to a White House estimate.

That doesn’t sit well with Melissa Demers, the mother of a child with special needs enrolled in the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan Schools. Demers praised Target for its charitable giving to Minnesota school districts, but she added, “Without people working, the paper and the crayons are not going to do anything for these students.”

Niemi, whose union represents more than 8,000 school employees, added: “Our special education students cannot be expected to succeed with fewer paraprofessionals, fewer teachers and fewer resources that result from cuts in funding for the education of Minnesota’s children.”

Store management and security personnel would not accept the letter to Steinhafel, and union members left the store peaceably.

Outside, Kline’s constituents said they doubted their congressman would get the message.

“With Target being a supporter and advocate of Rep. Kline – and of education – I’m disappointed they would not even deliver a letter for us,” Inver Grove Heights resident Mary deLeon Denton said.

A member of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, Denton has “seen the impact of budget shortfalls on special-education programming and staff” during her 34-year career as an educator.

So, too, has Valorie Rolstad, a Local 284 member who works as a special-education paraprofessional in the Columbia Heights district. When she first took the job, Rolstad was one of 60-plus paraprofessionals in the district. “Now we are just maintaining at 30,” she said.

Local 284 is asking supporters to contact Kline and tell him to stop education cuts due to sequestration. Call Kline at 952-808-1213, or e-mail him at kline.house.gov.

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

August 5, 2013 by
Workers at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries are on strike on St. Paul's East Side.

Workers at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries are on strike on St. Paul’s East Side.

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 restore workers’ paid sick days and drop changes to contract language, including leave of absence provisions, that drew strong objections from union members.

*****

After taking a near-unanimous vote to reject their employer’s “last, best and final” contract proposal, more than 240 workers at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries went on strike at 1 p.m. today, setting up a feisty picket line on St. Paul’s East Side.

Members of Workers United Local 150 have been working without a contract since July 14. Negotiations with the co-op have dragged on since February, with workers objecting to changes in contract language that protect basic workers’ rights, union representative Julie Boots said.

“We’ve bent as far as we can bend, and our members have said enough is enough,” Boots said. “We’ve moved as far as we’re going to move.”

The laundry facility, operated by several Twin Cities hospital chains, is using replacement workers who crossed the striking workers' picket lines.

The laundry facility, operated by several Twin Cities hospital chains, is using replacement workers who crossed the striking workers’ picket lines.

The union has filed charges of unfair labor practices against Health Systems Cooperative, alleging management unilaterally eliminated union members’ paid sick leave – a seemingly bad idea not only for workers, but for the hospital patients whose linens they clean.

Health Systems Cooperative provides linens to nearly every hospital in the Twin Cities. The co-op’s board of directors includes executives from several hospitals.

In a show of solidarity with striking workers, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota distributed leaflets inside and demonstrated outside HealthEast and Fairview hospitals and clinics today.

Workers United Local 150 is asking supporters to call two members of the co-op’s management team and urge them to negotiate a quick end to the strike.

Call Larry Hilton, general manager of Health Systems Cooperative Laundries, at 651-774-8620. Contact Brian Knapp, vice president of operations at Fairview Ridges Hospital and chair of the co-op’s board of directors, at 952-892-2000 or bknapp1@fairview.org.

“Our workers provide a service to all the area hospitals and clinics,” Boots said. “We understand the importance of patients getting clean linens. But it’s been incredibly difficult to negotiate with the stance the company is taking here.”

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Laundry workers picket for fair contract on St. Paul’s East Side

July 18, 2013 by
Workers, picketing outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries today, show they are united behind efforts to win a fair contract.

Workers, picketing outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries today, show they are united behind efforts to win a fair contract.

Workers who clean linens for hospitals across the metro picketed outside Health Systems Cooperative Laundries on St. Paul’s East Side today, giving their employer a taste of what to expect if management continues to drag its feet in negotiations.

About 240 Health Systems Cooperative employees, members of Workers United Local 150, have been working without a contract since March 31. A temporary extension of the previous contract expired Sunday.

Negotiations between Workers United Local 150 and the laundry cooperative have stalled over language regarding work rules and workers' rights, the union says.

Negotiations between Workers United Local 150 and the laundry cooperative have stalled over language regarding work rules and workers’ rights, the union says.

Despite a dozen bargaining sessions since then, the two sides remain far apart on contract provisions protecting basic workers’ rights, Workers United Area Director Julie Boots said, adding that reflects a change from previous rounds of contract negotiations.

“Generally, we’ve been able to bargain decent contracts with no problems, but they hired an anti-union lawyer this time,” Boots said. “They want to basically gut and rewrite our entire contract.

“It’s not really about the money at this point. It’s about workers’ rights, and respect and dignity on the job.”

The informational picket, which began after the laundry facility’s day shift ended, drew more than 125 workers and supporters from the labor community. Workers United is an affiliate of SEIU, and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota helped coordinate the demonstration.

“We’re trying to keep the pressure on Health Systems Cooperative so these folks get a fair contract,” Boots said. “We’re here today so they know what a picket line is going to look like out in front of their establishment, if it comes to that.”

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Union opposes U.S. Bank CEO’s campaign for Minneapolis Institute of Arts board

July 17, 2013 by

11287480Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union announced today it will protest outside the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ annual membership meeting tomorrow, urging members not to elect U.S. Bank CEO Richard Davis to their Board of Trustees.

Davis is the immediate past chair of the Minnesota Orchestra’s board. The orchestra has been locking union musicians out of their jobs since Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2012-13 concert schedule was wiped out as a result.

SEIU Local 26 represents security officers who work for the MIA.

In a letter sent to MIA members today, Local 26 President Javier Morillo urged members to take a good look at Davis’ record before voting in the Board of Trustees election.

“Given Richard Davis’s track record at the Orchestra, we are very concerned about the negative influence he may exert on the MIA board,” Morillo’s letter says. “The Orchestra’s recent actions have shown a callous disregard for its employees, the community, and the quality of the institution itself.

“Richard Davis has inflicted catastrophic damage on the orchestra and left fans disheartened and demoralized. Don’t let this happen to the MIA.”

Morillo called on Davis to remove his name from consideration, as MIA members must vote for or against a slate of candidates, which includes Davis. Members cannot vote against individual nominees.

In a press release, Local 26 announced plans “to greet those attending Thursday evening’s MIA annual membership meeting,” and said their members will be joined by Minnesota Orchestra supporters.

The membership meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. inside Pillsbury Auditorium on the MIA’s campus, 2400 Third Avenue South in Minneapolis.

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Union members join push for immigration reform with path to citizenship

January 30, 2013 by
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother's struggle for U.S. citizenship.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota member Mitch Azarcon talks about her mother’s struggle for U.S. citizenship.

U.S. citizenship isn’t something Mitch Azarcon takes for granted – not after watching her Filipino-born mother wait 25 years to move her family to the U.S.

Now Azarcon, a surgical core technician at Rochester Methodist Hospital, is exercising her rights as a citizen, taking action through her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to change federal law and make it easier for people like her mother to realize their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens.

“America is my home, and I am an active citizen,” Azarcon said. “During this last election I knocked on doors, phone banked, passed out fliers – everything in my power to participate. We helped elect leaders who will do the right thing for immigrants in this country.”

Union members like Azarcon form a critical bloc in a broad-based coalition supporting the immigration-reform effort declared a priority by President Obama earlier this week.

Locally, the coalition includes business, student, religious, civil-rights and labor organizations, and their representatives gathered at the Minnesota Capitol today to demonstrate their shared commitment “to doing what a broad swath of Americans want: to finally, once and for all, win comprehensive immigration reform,” said Javier Morillo, president of SEIU Local 26.

At a press conference, Morillo and other speakers stressed that immigration reform must include one “essential” component: a practical path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Luis Enrique Gomez, holding a picture of his children, talks with Rev. Paul Erickson.

Without a path to citizenship, families like Luis Enrique Gomez’s will continue to be split apart. Gomez, who lives in St. Cloud, has been ordered to return to his native Mexico by March 9. If he complies, he said, he will be forced to leave behind his two U.S.-born children.

“I think we need to keep together families,” Gomez said, gripping a photo of himself with his arm around his children. “It can cause psychological problems, separating kids from their parents.”

Rather than labeling workers like Gomez “illegals,” U.S. policy should “recognize that (immigrants) are simply responding to economic forces on both sides of the border,” said Rev. Paul Erickson, an assistant to the bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Immigration policy is not just about borders and security, Erickson added, “it’s about real human lives.”

It’s also about workers’ rights, which is why Minnesota’s unions, according to Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson, are “fully engaged” in the push for “common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform.”

In addition to SEIU and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which together represent more than 330,000 union members statewide, UNITE HERE Local 17, Local 1189 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and the community-based group Minnesotans for a Fair Economy also have pledged support the immigration-reform effort.

The reason, Knutson said, is simple: A rising tide lifts all boats.

“Empowering immigrant workers is a win for all working families,” Knutson said. “With a well-functioning process in place, immigrant workers will have the voice in the workplace they need to defend their rights, which in turn will improve standards for all workers. That’s because the ability to exploit any worker lowers the standards for all workers.”

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Unions seek organizing rights for Minnesota’s home health care workers

December 13, 2012 by
Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Ziggy Norberg talks about the importance of quality home care, as his mother and personal care attendant, Karen Urman, looks on.

Karen Urman of Mounds View works as a personal care attendant for her adult son, Ziggy Norberg, who has used a wheelchair since he was 3 years old. The work is a full-time job, one Urman gave up her career as a tax preparer and office supervisor to pursue.

For Urman it is rewarding work, even if it doesn’t always draw the attention – or respect – it deserves. “Being a PCA is rarely considered a real job, especially when you’re a PCA for a family member,” she said.

State legislators can count on hearing from home health care workers like Urman during the 2013 legislative session, as they push for changes to a state law that prohibits them from organizing a union – a step many believe is critical to making their voices are heard as the state plots its course for meeting the needs of a rapidly aging population.

The number of Minnesota adults over 65 is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to the Wilder Foundation.

What’s more, workers believe a union would help legitimize the home health care profession and ensure workers are treated with the respect they deserve. Urman pointed to nurses and teachers as “respected career” paths that afford their professionals the right to unionize.

“My job is not necessarily more important than them, but it’s definitely not less important,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I have the right to form a union too?”

Unions push changes to law

The answer stems from a distinction made in state law between workers employed by home health care agencies, many of whom are unionized already, and workers like Urman, who are providing so-called “self-directed” care. Considered more like independent contractors by the state, workers in self-directed programs are denied organizing rights.

That’s a law two of the state’s largest unions will push lawmakers to change when the Legislature convenes next month.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota launched its drive to organize home health care workers with a media event yesterday in St. Paul, where PCAs like Urman, joined by their clients and family members, talked about the challenges they face, including low wages, minimal benefits and limited training opportunities.

Sumer Spika of St. Paul, who provides in-home care for her friend’s daughter, said her take-home pay has fallen over the last four years to the point where she can no longer afford to take days off work.

“I have sacrificed financial stability, I live paycheck to paycheck, I have sacrificed health insurance for my family at times, and I do so because I love what I do,” Spika said at the SEIU event. “I believe as a society and a community … we should not only value the ones that we care for, but also the ones that care for them.”

Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an active campaign to organize workers in self-directed home health care programs, according to Organizing Director Eric Lehto.

AFSCME has represented agency-employed home health care workers in Minnesota for more than 30 years, including 175 workers at Brooklyn Park-based Transition Health Care who won their first contract earlier this year.

“We have been advocating for workers in this industry for decades,” Lehto said. “We believe in collective bargaining rights for all workers, so we’ve been talking to and signing up (self-directed program) workers as well.”

Better Legislature provides hope

The drive to organize self-directed home health care workers parallels recent efforts to win union representation for child-care providers receiving direct subsidies from the state.

Last year, after Council 5 and SEIU Local 284 signed up thousands of child-care providers, Gov. Mark Dayton called for providers to vote in a union election, but a judge ruled Dayton lacked the authority to call an election without legislative approval.

Such approval may be easier to find next year, when labor-endorsed majorities take over both chambers of the Legislature. If they are successful in changing the law, it could pave the way for a union vote among the thousands of home health care workers statewide.

Ziggy Norberg, Urman’s son and client, said a vote to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota is one he hopes his mother gets to take – for her sake and for his own.

“She has given up a lot in order to take care of me,” Norberg said of his mother. “The fact that she does this work for me, on top of caring for my brother and sister as a single parent, all without the benefits and wages of a real career is ridiculous.

“I dread having to get a stranger to come take care of my needs, (but) if the day comes that I do need to find someone else to be my PCA, I should be able to find someone who takes the job seriously like my mom does.”

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

Labor 2012: Minnesota unions eye legislative seats in suburban areas

October 24, 2012 by

Mona Meyer, a volunteer from the Communications Workers of America, picks up her door-knock route from Peter Polga-Hecimovich, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation political organizer.

On a sunny Saturday morning Oct. 20, dozens of union volunteers trickled into a coffee shop downtown Burnsville. They paired up, gathered routes and handbills, and fanned out across the suburb, knocking on fellow union members’ doors and talking about their labor-endorsed candidate for Minnesota House, Will Morgan.

Similar campaign activities have been taking place in Stillwater, Woodbury and other East Metro suburbs this fall, and they reveal a key strategy behind Minnesota unions’ Labor 2012 campaign: Building a better Legislature means winning in the suburbs.

“These are the races that have been tight in recent elections,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, which organized the door-knock in Burnsville last month. “We know they are going to be really tight again this year, and labor-endorsed candidates are going to need every union vote in order to win.”

The St. Paul RLF, working with the Minnesota AFL-CIO and other union federations, has identified eight races critical to rebuilding a pro-middle class majority in the Legislature. Those candidates come from places like Shoreview, Stillwater, Woodbury, Eagan and Burnsville – places where “Tea Party” candidates swept into office two years ago, helping Republicans gain majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate for the first time in decades.

Despite winning by narrow margins in these suburban districts, freshmen lawmakers did not seek out the middle ground at the Capitol. Rather, many of them sought to push their party to new extremes, shutting down the state government, attacking collective bargaining rights and pushing Right to Work legislation that would undermine the middle class.

Volunteers in Burnsville reported hearing a lot of frustration from union members they have talked to during door-knocks and phone banks.

“When you talk to union members out here about what the Legislature has done for middle class families, they say they are fed up with the gridlock, with the attempts to divide people,” said Mark Krey, a rank-and-file member of SEIU Local 284. “We need to get people elected who are running because they want to do good for the community – not people who just want to take the seat for the Republican Party.”

The Burnsville campaign event was the fourth door-knock this fall for Troy Eisenhuth, a member Teamsters Local 120. “I know my livelihood is at stake,” he said. “If these guys pass Right to Work, they take away my union – and they take away everything I’ve got.”

Find a list of labor-endorsed candidate – and sign up for a volunteer shift with your union – at www.middleclassmn.org.

Labor 2012 volunteers gather in a coffee shop downtown Burnsville before a door-knock organized by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.

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Vote No Way: Union members rally against voter restriction, anti-marriage amendments

October 1, 2012 by

Members of AFSCME Council 5 join the “Vote No” rally in Rice Park.

More than 100 people joined a union-backed rally yesterday in Rice Park downtown St. Paul, voicing their support for statewide campaigns to vote “no” on constitutional amendments that would restrict Minnesotans’ freedoms and hurt their quality of life.

The state’s largest labor federation, the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, opposes both constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot. One would limit the right to marry; the other would institute identification requirements limiting Minnesotans’ ability to vote.

Rally emcee Sue Scott, a member of SAG-AFTRA and a performer on public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” called the amendments a calculated attempt to drive a wedge between Minnesotans. She urged union members not just to vote “no,” but to “vote no way!”

Other speakers included St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Vice President Tee McClenty, who said defeating the amendments – particularly voter restriction – will not happen unless unions get the facts out to their members.

The voter restriction amendment, if passed, will require state and local government to implement a costly new system for conducting elections – at a cost to taxpayers of more than $50 million.

“It may seem like common sense,” McClenty said, “but it’s an extreme makeover of a successful voting system.”

Bill Moore, president of the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, called the photo ID requirement an assault on voting rights that would move the state backwards.

“I have a right to be presumed to be the person I say I am,” he said, adding that photo ID requirements “presume I am guilty of voter impersonation until proven innocent. It’s backward.”

Although “Vote No!” was the slogan of the day, some in the Rice Park crowd added a caveat, asking St. Paul voters to vote “yes” on a levy referendum for the St. Paul Public Schools. The levy question will appear on the opposite side of the ballot as the constitutional amendments.

“We’re asking people to vote ‘no’ twice on the front, and vote ‘yes’ on the back,” said Sue Snyder, a member of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

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In Minneapolis, a picket line for striking Houston janitors

July 18, 2012 by

Yesenia Romero, a union janitor from Houston, addresses activists on the picket line outside U.S. Bancorp Center downtown Minneapolis.

The union representing more than 400 striking janitors in Houston is fanning out across the country this week, setting up solidarity picket lines outside buildings cleaned by contractors involved in their dispute back home.

In Minneapolis yesterday, about 40 union members and supporters picketed outside U.S. Bancorp Center, which secures its cleaning services through ABM, one of seven contractors involved in negotiations in Houston. Similar actions took place yesterday in Washington D.C., Seattle, Oakland and Boston. Unions in Los Angeles and Denver planned to follow suit today.

Activists in Minneapolis said it would take nationwide support for workers to win their dispute with a nationwide company like ABM.

“You may be asking yourselves, why does this matter to us here in Minnesota?” said Adam Robinson, an organizer with the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. “The answer is this: Many of the same cleaning companies and building owners in Houston do business here in Minnesota too, like ABM.”

If ABM is successful in squeezing janitors in Houston – who earn as little as $9,000 per year – the company may try to do the same to janitors in Minneapolis, Robinson added.

“It is a moral threat,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves, how long will we allow the richest 1 percent to dominate our politics, wreck our economy and keep our jobs so low-paying that so many of our brothers and sisters are in poverty?”

Wages are at the heart of the work stoppage in Houston, which began July 11, about six weeks after janitors’ previous contract with the cleaning contractors expired.

Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents striking workers, reports that janitors are seeking a gradual increase in their average hourly wage, from $8.35 to $10, to be phased in over four years.

Supporters join the picket line outside U.S. Bancorp Center.

The contractors responded by offering a raise of 50 cents over five years – an offer the union called “an almost certain promise that janitors will continue to live in poverty.”

Yesenia Romero, a Houston janitor who made the trip to Minneapolis for yesterday’s event, accused ABM and other contractors of trying to intimidate and harass janitors into accepting their offer. She suspects contractors are trying to break the janitors’ union.

“What’s happening in Houston right now is that they are actually trying to take the union away from us,” Romero said. “They are giving all sorts of false reports in the buildings.”

Romero said she and her co-workers felt compelled to seek wage increases in negotiations with the cleaning contractors, adding that “it’s just not possible to live” on the wages many janitors currently earn.

Ironically, Houston janitors clean the offices of some of the richest corporations in the world, including Chevron, Hines, Brookfield, Shell Oil and JP Morgan.

More, Houston’s commercial real estate market is among the top in the U.S. in terms of demand. Average commercial rental rates in Houston are higher than rates in Chicago, where janitors are paid more than three times as much as Houston janitors, according to Local 1, which represents union janitors in both cities.

Jolyn Vance, a Local 1 member who traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis for the event yesterday, said the onus is not only on cleaning contractors like ABM, but also on Houston’s profitable companies. Both bear responsibility for keeping the workers who clean Houston’s office buildings out of poverty.

“I think it’s kind of crazy that the companies in Texas, as rich as they are, would fight to keep brothers and sisters who are making $9,000 a year from getting a decent wage,” Vance said.

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Union leaders applaud Supreme Court decision upholding Affordable Care Act

June 28, 2012 by

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson spoke at a rally for supporters of the Affordable Care Act in 2009.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, announced today, keeps the country moving toward a health care system that ensures affordable, high-quality coverage for all Americans, Minnesota’s union leaders said.

The court’s narrow, 5-4 decision to keep intact the landmark 2010 law, known as “Obamacare,” drew cheers from workers, retirees, students and other groups whose access to health care and prescription drugs has increased as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, called it a “great day for working Americans” and said the decision “clears the way for millions of people to have the access to the affordable, high quality health care that had previously been denied.”

Knutson added: “Minnesota’s union members worked hard to make this law a reality, and we are pleased the court affirmed its constitutionality. Now that this issue has been settled, we are hopeful our elected leaders will come together to craft policies that get middle class Americans back to work.”

Knutson and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act pointed to several benefits of the law that Minnesotans will continue to enjoy as a result of the court ruling.

• Seniors with Medicare coverage are saving money on prescription drugs as a result of the new health care law. Minnesota’s seniors already have saved millions since the law passed, according to statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

• Insurance companies may not deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, a provision that has made coverage accessible for hundreds of Minnesotans.

• Thousands of young adults, up to age 26, are able to stay on their parents’ insurance plans as they transition into the workforce. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics show that 35,000 Minnesotans have taken advantage of this provision of the Affordable Care Act.

“Seniors will continue to be spared from having to choose between paying for prescription drugs and putting food on the table,” Knutson said. “Parents can rest easier knowing their children are covered. Bankruptcies due to health care costs will soon become a thing of the past.”

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota President Julie Schnell, whose union represents thousands of workers in hospitals and care centers statewide, said the decision rejects the cynical, partisan idea that “we are all on our own” when it comes to our health.

“SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s nurses, doctors, and caregivers know firsthand there’s no room for such extreme politics in the overall governance of our health care system,” Schnell said. “Justices made a decision that now is not the time to slow down the benefits of the law that is making health care more affordable.”

Health care advocates warned, however, that the ruling will not stop opponents of the Affordable Care Act from seeking to dismantle it in Congress. The House of Representatives, in fact, is scheduled to vote on repealing the law next month.

“Today is a tremendous victory for seniors, their children, and their grandchildren,” said Edward Coyle, director of the 4 million-member Alliance for Retired Americans. “But we cannot rest on our laurels. In the 2012 elections we cannot let politicians roll back the progress we have made.”

Others warned that more work remains in order to achieve a health care system that works for all Americans. Linda Hamilton, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, called the Affordable Care Act “an important first step,” but noted that an estimated 250,000 Minnesotans remain uninsured.

“As nurses, we don’t want to see a single patient suffering because he or she doesn’t have adequate and affordable health care coverage,” Hamilton said. “We need Medicare for all, and it’s our mission as nurses to keep this country moving toward that goal.”

Many unions will join a public celebration of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act tomorrow in Minneapolis. The celebration is set to begin at 11 a.m. in Government Plaza. Click here for details.

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