Remembering Shar Knutson: ‘Her presence will be missed, but her legacy lives on’

February 22, 2022 by

Shar Knutson ascended the ranks of Minnesota’s labor movement, starting as a member of AFSCME Local 1842 in St. Paul and retiring after six years in the state’s highest union office. Remembered by colleagues and friends as a bridge-builder, trailblazer and mentor, Knutson died Feb. 2 at the age of 72.

A native of Fridley who made St. Paul her home, Knutson made history in 2009 as the first woman elected president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the federation of over 1,000 affiliate unions representing 300,000 working people statewide.

Knutson held the office until 2015, during a tumultuous time for American unions. Efforts to weaken workers’ bargaining power and roll back labor standards succeeded in other states, but not in Minnesota. Under Knutson’s leadership, Minnesota unions not only kept “right to work” and other anti-union measures at bay, but they lobbied to expand collective bargaining rights and pass the first statewide minimum-wage increase in a decade.

“Shar played an active role in the successful campaign to increase labor’s voice in national, state and local issues, including raising awareness and promoting community debate about social and economic justice,” U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum said. “This shift laid the groundwork for important progress being made today that benefits all Minnesotans.”

Labor leaders who worked with Knutson recalled her attention to detail, quiet resolve and ambition.

“She got her facts, and she moved forward,” said Ray Waldron, Knutson’s predecessor as president of the state AFL-CIO. “She was very decisive.”

It showed, Waldron remembered, when he approached Knutson in 2009 with the news that he planned to retire. Knutson had been serving as president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and, previously, the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly for more than a decade.

“I walked into her office and said, ‘How would you like to run for president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO?’” Waldron said. “Shar didn’t hesitate. She just said yes, reached across her desk, shook my hand, and I walked out.”

Though self-assured, Knutson “was never a bully,” said Harry Melander, former head of the St. Paul and statewide Building Trades councils. Rather, she built her career on a knack for bringing people into the decision-making process and working in coalition.

“We all love each other, we’re family,” Melander said. “But families have fights. Shar made a point to make sure everyone, whether you got along within the labor family or not, was at the table when we had a big item to discuss, so we could figure this out together.”

Knutson grew up in a union household, but her ties to the labor and political communities deepened after leaving a public-health job with the City of St. Paul in 1990 to work for Mayor Jim Scheibel. At City Hall, she shared an office and a budding friendship with Molly O’Rourke, who said the two “bonded over that experience of working in a very fast-paced and energized office.”

Knutson was the mayor’s liaison to organized labor and other constituent groups, including the emerging immigrant and refugee communities. It was a good fit, O’Rourke said, given Knutson’s “belief that everyone, no matter their station in life, needed to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Scheibel declined to run for re-election in 1993, and Knutson went to work for the Trades and Labor Assembly. Delegates elected her president in 1998, and within weeks of taking office, St. Paul’s new mayor, Norm Coleman, stunned the city’s unions with a proposal to privatize a swath of city services, from golf courses to the water department.

Coleman’s “Compete St. Paul” plan threatened hundreds of city jobs, and union leaders looked to the Assembly to fight back, said Barb Kucera, then editor of The Union Advocate newspaper. Knutson worked quickly to convene the St. Paul Works Alliance, a coalition of groups that would oppose the privatization scheme.

“Right away, Shar brought in as many stakeholders as possible to be part of the discussion, leading with the unions but inviting other organizations too,” Kucera said. “She really decided to mount a public campaign, and that’s what eventually stopped the whole idea in the fall of 1999.

“Shar really pushed the organization to focus and get a clear message across, and she did a lot of media appearances and events and public speaking. They talked about jobs, but they didn’t make it about jobs only. They very wisely chose to make it clear this was going to be a real threat to public services in the city, particularly the water service.”

Defeating Coleman’s plan drew national attention, and Knutson was among a handful of local labor council presidents invited to serve on an advisory committee to the AFL-CIO Executive Board. “She was willing to try to do some things differently, and she projected a different image, being the first woman and first public employee in that job,” Kucera said.

“She surprised a lot of people in Washington, D.C.,” Waldron added. “She was courageous.”

Knutson’s profile continued to grow after another successful, coalition-based campaign in 2006, this time to save 500 jobs at a paper recycling plant in the Midway. The plant, then owned by Rock-Tenn, needed a new power source after Xcel Energy stopped burning coal at its High Bridge plant. But opposition from neighborhood groups put Rock-Tenn’s future – and the jobs of Steelworkers like Bob Ryan – in doubt.

Ryan, who now works as the rapid response coordinator for his union, called Knutson “instrumental” in keeping USW Local 264 members working in St. Paul.

“It was a lot of public meetings, and Shar was at a lot of them with us, speaking on our behalf,” he said. Both Knutson and her father had worked at the facility, he said, “so Shar could talk to people with true emotion about how long the plant had been there and its connection to the city. She just delivered.”

Knutson introduced former Gov. Mark Dayton at a union event in 2013.

By then, the Assembly had merged with surrounding labor councils to form the Regional Labor Federation, with Knutson as president. She won a three-way race for president of the state AFL-CIO in August 2009, and guided the union campaign to elect Minnesota’s first labor-endorsed governor in 20 years, Mark Dayton, a year later.

As her list of accomplishments grew, Knutson continued to prioritize her work to mentor women and young workers pursuing leadership roles in the labor movement and in politics.

Those fields were even more male-dominated 22 years ago, when McCollum became just the second Minnesota woman elected to federal office, than they are today. The 4th District congresswoman remembered Knutson and longtime friend Robin Madsen, an AFSCME leader who died in 2017, teaming up to host a “Working Women for Betty” campaign-kickoff event after McCollum announced her first run for Congress.

Knutson and McCollum remained friends as their careers progressed. Knutson attended President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address as McCollum’s guest, and the congresswoman presented her friend with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol upon her retirement from the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

“I am thankful I had the opportunity to know and work with Shar Knutson,” McCollum said. “Her presence will be missed, but her legacy lives on.”

Jennifer Guertin, president of AFSCME Local 2508, called Knutson a source of “quiet support” going back to the days when delegates to the Trades and Labor Assembly were “75 to 80% men.”

“There were times when I was so frustrated by the guys that I was like, ‘I’m done, I can’t do this anymore,’” said Guertin, now the federation’s sergeant at arms. “Shar would take me aside and say, ‘You have to learn how to deal with people that don’t know what you’re capable of. You can’t let them win.’”

Current Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson counts herself among the countless other union members Knutson took time to mentor.

“President Knutson helped us grow as people, advocates and leaders, and she fostered connections among us,” Peterson said. “I don’t know that many of us realized it at the time, but Shar was building a network of union and community activists with an eye towards our future.

“I’m grateful that she took a long view on what our labor movement can accomplish together, and for the investments she made in all of us.”

Knutson was also quick to remind young activists about the importance of work-life balance. “A lot of times during campaigns, when I was pretty much living at the Labor Centre because that’s what we did, she was the one to tell me that I needed to go home sometimes, too,” Guertin said.

Knutson, who raised two daughters as a single working mother, “was really dedicated to her family,” O’Rourke said. “I think they gave her a lot of strength.”

Although Knutson spent more time with family and friends after retiring in 2015, Alzheimer’s disease progressively limited her independence.

“It was hard to see such a strong and powerful and articulate woman not really know the amazing impact she had on people around her,” O’Rourke said.

“She was a friend of mine, a good friend to me and to a lot of people,” Melander added. “It’s hard because she didn’t have enough time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.”

Knutson’s family has published an obituary at BradshawFuneral.com. They plan to hold her memorial service later this spring.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , ,

Shar Knutson: Thank you for everything

October 2, 2015 by

mug-knutsonAs autumn begins, my time as Minnesota AFL-CIO President will come to a close. As I head into retirement, I wanted to thank you and everyone in Minnesota’s labor movement for the opportunity to serve as your president. I especially want to thank everyone at the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, both past and present.

Growing up in a union family and working a union job as a single parent showed me how much of an impact the labor movement has in improving peoples’ lives. It has been a humbling experience to lead a movement that was there for me and my family. However, I would not have had the opportunity to lead if not for the support of the working people of the St. Paul federation.

Nearly 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to serve as the St. Paul Trades and Labor political director. Soon thereafter, you placed your trust in me to serve as president. Together we fought back privatization of city services, passed a living wage ordinance, saved union jobs at RockTenn and formed the St. Paul RLF.

I took what I learned to the Minnesota AFL-CIO when I was elected President in 2009. Working together, we fought back attacks and made gains for Minnesota’s working people.

Together, we elected Mark Dayton, our first DFL governor in over 20 years, and fought a well-funded Right to Work initiative – and won! We successfully advocated for state construction projects that are putting thousands of Minnesotans to work and improving our infrastructure.

We bucked the national race to the bottom, and helped lead a large coalition that convinced the Minnesota Legislature raise Minnesota’s minimum wage for the first time in a decade.

We successfully passed legislation extending unemployment benefits for locked-out workers in Minnesota, and helped secure historic improvements in the state’s worker’s compensation system that increased benefits to injured workers.

We increased union member political participation and opened up new avenues for women and young workers to be involved in the Labor movement, and we built an infrastructure to support affiliate unions in their organizing efforts.

We defied the critics who said our initiatives would weaken the state’s economy. Instead, Minnesota’s economy is vibrant, its unions are intact and lower-wage working people are now earning more. This is especially true when contrasted with other states, like Wisconsin, that went down a very different path and are paying the economic price.

While we certainly have much more work ahead of us, I am confident that we can continue to raise wages and improve the lives of working people in Minnesota.

Earlier this summer, the Minnesota AFL-CIO General Board elected Bill McCarthy as our next president. Bill currently serves as President of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. He is a leader who has already worked for policies to ensure that all working people earn wages that can sustain a family, receive health and retirement benefits and, most importantly, are treated with dignity and respect. Bill will be a great president and I look forward to seeing Minnesota’s labor movement continue to flourish under his leadership.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to lead and serve.

– Shar Knutson, a resident of St. Paul, will retire from her post as president of the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, this month. Six years ago, she became the first woman elected to the state AFL-CIO’s highest office. Knutson joined AFSCME Local 1842 after taking a job as a public health worker with the City of St. Paul in the early 1980s. She later worked as an aide to former St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibel and as political director for the St. Paul Trades & Labor Assembly, a forerunner of today’s St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

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

Minnesota AFL-CIO calls on Bloomington to drop charges against MOA protesters

March 10, 2015 by

mnaflcioMinnesota’s largest labor federation today added its voice to the chorus of community, faith and progressive groups calling on Bloomington City Attorney Sandra Johnson to drop criminal charges against 11 Black Lives Matter members arrested at the Mall of America in December.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents more than 1,000 local unions with 300,000 members statewide, made the stance official after members of its executive board voted to pass a resolution against prosecution.

Two of the defendants, Todd Dahlstrom and Kandace Montgomery, are members of the Communications Workers of America, an AFL-CIO affiliate. Dahlstrom is organizing director at the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and Montgomery is an organizer for the progressive group TakeAction Minnesota.

Both are members of the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002.

Meanwhile, in Hennepin County Court this morning, the 11 defendants pleaded not guilty to unlawful assembly, trespassing and other crimes that, Bloomington authorities allege, occurred during a peaceful demonstration against police brutality and racism that drew thousands to the mall Dec. 20.

As the activists appeared inside the courtroom, a vigil and rally outside drew supporters from the labor movement:

https://twitter.com/danmcgrath1/status/575300569331433472

Although Johnson, the city attorney responsible for prosecuting the MOA protesters, is an appointed official, Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead and several members of the City Council, including Cynthia Bemis Abrams, Tim Busse and Dwayne Lowman, have sought and received labor endorsement in their most recent campaigns, according to the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation website.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson released the following statement regarding the executive board’s resolution:

“Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of social change in our democracy. From the Labor movement, to the Women’s movement, and the Civil Rights movement; major change in this country has always included peaceful demonstrations.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is pointing out the structural racial inequalities that persist in our society. Much like other social movements, #BlackLivesMatter is engaging in non-violent protest to help point out these inequalities.

By prosecuting protest organizers, local authorities are sending a message that a minor inconvenience trumps the right to peacefully assemble. Minnesota’s Labor movement is urging Sandra Johnson to correct this wrong by choosing not to prosecute these peaceful activists.”

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

Shar Knutson: 2015 legislative session presents challenges, opportunities

January 30, 2015 by
web.MNAFLCIO-Conv-knutson

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson

The 2015 legislative session is nearly one month old, and Minnesotans are presented with a very different situation than we were in 2013 and 2014. While Gov. Dayton was reelected and a DFL majority remains in the Senate, Republicans now control the Minnesota House.

With a DFL-controlled state government, Minnesota’s labor movement successfully advocated for a minimum wage increase, fair taxes, education investments and expanding collective bargaining rights. While the Republican House majority might not be interested in helping empower working people, that’s no reason for labor to sit on the sidelines.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO is going to continue being a strong advocate for working people this year. We are advocating for a Shared Prosperity and Job Creation agenda. These are issues that matter to all workers, regardless of whether or not they have a union card.

Ending wage theft. A shocking number of workers are denied the wages they are owed for the work they perform. Unscrupulous employers often pay less than what was agreed, force workers to perform duties off the clock, cheat state and local governments out of legally required taxes and insurance contributions and sometimes withhold pay altogether.

Workers deserve the wages they earn. The Legislature can fight wage theft by passing legislation that:

  • Establishes formal procedures to enable victims of wage theft to recover unpaid wages and damages.
  • Increases the penalties for those responsible for committing wage theft.
  • Provides greater protection for workers who stand up for their rights – protecting them from employer retaliation.
  • Makes it easier for wage-theft victims to get legal representation.

Paid family leave and earned sick days. We all get sick. But not all of us can stay home when we are contagious. In cities and states without earned sick days standards, two of every five workers don’t earn a single day of earned sick leave. Many of them work on the front lines of public health and food safety – in restaurants, retail and even health care.

We support the passage of two types of leave this session:

  • Earned sick and safe leave, usable by employees with little or no advance notice, to recuperate from illness, seek medical care, care for family members or deal with the consequences of domestic violence.
  • Longer-term leave such as paid family leave.

Fair scheduling. The retail, service and health care sectors are now the fastest growing industries in our state. The increase in the minimum wage has and continues to be a great boost for these workers, but it’s just one step in developing secure, family-wage jobs. Full-time positions with stable schedules are also vitally important. Minnesota workers need scheduling standards that support families and help make their lives predictable.

Reforms should include requiring employers to provide adequate notice of schedule changes, maintain consistent and agreed-upon hours and offer full-time opportunities.

Comprehensive, long-term multi-modal transportation funding. Minnesota cannot grow and attract good jobs when our infrastructure is wearing out and transit options are woefully inadequate. Too many of our roads and bridges have exceeded their lifespans and are in desperate need of repair.

Workers need safer roads and better public transportation to get to jobs. Our seniors and people with disabilities need options to live independently.

We are also working with our affiliates and allies on:

  • Investing in quality learning environments, engaging students and improving educational outcomes.
  • Keeping Minnesota on strong fiscal footing by protecting progressive revenue sources.
  • Funding Child Care Assistance Programs (CCAP).
  • Ensuring retirement security.
  • Strengthening long-term care funding.

In addition to this Shared Prosperity and Job Creation agenda, the Minnesota AFL-CIO will support a range of issues that address income inequality, economic opportunity and tax fairness, as well as legislation championed by our affiliated unions.

– Shar Knutson is president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest federation of labor unions.

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

A governor who will ‘go all Scott Walker’ on Minnesota? No thanks, unions say

October 31, 2014 by

UA layout_UA layoutJeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, doesn’t have much executive experience, but the former state legislator provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected.

“I don’t know exactly what that means,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson responded, “but I know it isn’t good.”

Since being sworn into office in January 2011, Walker and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton have taken their states in wholly different directions.

Dayton, a DFLer whose re-election campaign has broad union support, never wavered from his vision for a better Minnesota. He pledged to reverse a trend of dwindling support for public education, balance the state’s budget responsibly by raising taxes on the rich and grow the economy from the middle class out.

Dayton delivered on those promises, with help from pro-worker majorities elected to the Legislature two years ago.

“Gov. Dayton and the DFL majority have created an economy that works better for everyone,” said Eliot Seide, director of the state’s largest union of public employees, AFSCME Council 5. “More Minnesotans are working than ever before. We are the third-best state to make a living. Our economy is the fifth fastest-growing in the nation.”

So what does Johnson see in Walker’s Wisconsin worth replicating here?

To get a sense of what a Johnson administration might mean for union families, we’ll analyze the different approaches taken by Minnesota and Wisconsin on four key issues over the last four years:

• Collective Bargaining. One of Walker’s first moves as governor was to strip most public employees of their bargaining rights. Walker’s so-called “Budget Repair Bill” passed a Republican Legislature despite a series of pro-union protests that drew more than 100,000 to the Capitol in Madison.

“Imagine waking up one day without a contract, without collective bargaining rights, without a voice on the job,” said Eliot Seide, director of the state’s largest union of public employees, AFSCME Council 5. “That’s what happened to AFSCME members in Walker’s Wisconsin, and it could happen here if union members don’t vote.”

Dayton and DFL legislators, by contrast, expanded collective bargaining rights to more Minnesota workers, passing legislation last year that removed barriers to organizing for child-care providers and home-health workers who are paid with public funds.

Already, the new law has extended the benefit of a union to more than 20,000 home-care workers. After voting to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota in August, they currently are negotiating their first union contract with state regulators, marking the first time workers in the low-wage, female-dominated field have had a real voice in the terms of their employment.

“We can’t let Jeff Johnson and his Tea Party extremists take us down Walker’s road to ruin,” Seide warned.

• Education. In addition to slashing teachers’ benefits and bargaining rights, Walker cut state funding for public school districts in Wisconsin by $834 million in his first year in office. That’s roughly the amount of new funding the state has funneled into public schools during Dayton’s four years in office.

Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, called Walker’s first education budget “the largest cut to schools in state history.” With 73 percent school districts in Wisconsin cutting staff or programming as a result of the budget cuts, she added, “our children are paying the price.”

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht, who leads the state’s largest union of school employees, warned that Johnson would lead Minnesota down a similar path.

“Walker has been a disaster for Wisconsin students, so it’s baffling why someone running for office in Minnesota would choose him as a role model,” she said. “Wisconsin is now investing $1,000 less per student than in 2008, which means the Wisconsin workforce will be at a competitive disadvantage for decades.”

Walker also has expanded Wisconsin’s private-school voucher program, which Specht called “out of control.” According to published reports, the voucher program has funneled $139 million from state coffers into failing private schools over the last 10 years – funds that could otherwise have supported public school districts.

Minnesota, meanwhile, is on the opposite track.

As a candidate, Dayton pledged to reverse a decade-long trend of dwindling support for Minnesota’s public schools. With help from pro-worker majorities elected to the Legislature two years ago, he signed bills to repay more than $2 billion borrowed from school districts, reduce class sizes and guarantee statewide access to all-day kindergarten.

That progress is at risk if Johnson is elected governor, Specht said

“If you’re in a working family that cares about the education of your children, there’s something you should know when you hear someone say he wants ‘go all Scott Walker’ on your state,” Specht said. “You should know that is a threat you can’t ignore.”

RLF-GE_Layout 1• Wages and Economic Security. Dayton and DFL legislators earlier this year raised Minnesota’s minimum wage for the first time in a decade, and they passed the Women’s Economic Security Act, a nation-leading initiative to eliminate the gap between what women and men earn for doing comparable work.

Johnson has sent mixed messages about whether, if elected, he would move to block scheduled increases in Minnesota’s minimum wage in 2015 and 2016. But he has pledged to roll back a provision of the law that would trigger automatic increases, tied to the rate of inflation, beginning in 2018.

That stance puts Johnson in line with Walker’s Wisconsin, where median household income has fallen in each of the last four years – and by 5.1 percent since 2009, according to the American Community Survey. Data released last month by the Census Bureau shows Wisconsin’s median household income fell by 0.4 percent between 2012 and 2013, to $51,467.

Minnesota, meanwhile, saw a 1.6 percent increase in household income between 2012 and 2013, to $60,702. It marked the state’s second consecutive year of significant income growth.

Given the growing disparities between the two states, it’s no surprise workers in Wisconsin are looking west with envy.

“Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in job growth,” Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt said. “Wisconsin is missing out on economic opportunities and growth because Gov. Walker refuses to raise the minimum wage for workers or accept federal funds to expand health care access. Wisconsin workers make $5,000 less a year than Minnesota workers. Wisconsin workers can’t afford four more years of Gov. Walker.”

• Taxes and Economic Growth. Walker’s approach to economic growth is narrow: lure businesses to Wisconsin with tax cuts, incentives and “Open for Business” signs along the border. But as Bloomingdale notes, “tax cuts for the rich and rewarding out-of-state donors has gotten Wisconsin nowhere.”

Indeed, Wisconsin has been slower to recover from the Great Recession than Minnesota. Wisconsin’s per-capita Gross Domestic Product has increased just 3.4 percent since 2010, compared to 5.1 percent growth in Minnesota.

Why? Dayton and DFL legislators have taken a broad, long-range approach to job creation, investing in education, job training and infrastructure, and backing public-private ventures like the Mall of America expansion, the Vikings stadium and Rochester’s Destination Medical Center.

Walker declined federal funding to build a high-speed rail line through his state. And Wisconsin continues to fall behind in infrastructure investments, with 71 percent of the state’s roads in poor or mediocre condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, compared to 52 percent of Minnesota roads.

“Gov. Dayton and House DFLers have Minnesota on the right path,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “We can’t afford to let Jeff Johnson turn us around.”

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

Workers call out Johnson for opposing minimum-wage increases

October 7, 2014 by
Darcy Landau, a wheelchair agent at MSP International Airport, questioned Jeff Johnson's opposition to minimum wage increases as Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson looked on.

Darcy Landau, a wheelchair agent at MSP International Airport, questioned Jeff Johnson’s opposition to scheduled minimum wage increases.

How do minimum-wage workers feel about Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson’s opposition to wage increases scheduled for 2015 and 2016, and cost-of-living increases scheduled to begin in 2018?

Ask Darcy Landau, one of tens of thousands of workers statewide who saw their wages climb to $8 per hour Aug. 1.

“Does Mr. Johnson realize the pain he would cause people like me and working people across the state?” Landau asked. “Does he have any clue what it’s like to live on minimum wage?”

A wheelchair agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Landau said his job offers no affordable health insurance or career advancement. Many of his co-workers juggle two or three minimum- or low-wage jobs just to make ends meet for themselves and their families.

The Aug. 1 wage increase was the first Landau had received in years, and it came thanks to legislation signed into law by labor-endorsed Gov. Mark Dayton. Landau said future increases included in the new law are necessary to keep up with the rising cost of food, rent and transportation.

Landau spoke at a press conference called by the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest federation of labor unions, representing more than 300,000 union workers.

The federation was part of a coalition of labor, faith and non-profit groups that lobbied successfully to pass the minimum wage bill last spring, and Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson warned that Johnson, if elected governor, would put the coalition’s accomplishments in jeopardy.

Knutson pointed to three examples of Johnson’s “consistent record” of opposition to increasing the minimum wage:

  • Johnson voted against a modest increase to $6.15 per hour – a measure that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty eventually signed into law – as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2006.
  • In an interview with the Bemidji Pioneer, Johnson said he would sign legislation repealing the minimum wage increase passed earlier this year.
  • He is committed to blocking annual cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage in 2018 and beyond.

That record is unlikely to sit well with the 325,000 Minnesotans who will see their wages go up as a result of the new minimum-wage law. To appeal to those voters, Knutson said, Johnson recently attempted to flip-flop his position on minimum wage.

“In last week’s debate, Jeff Johnson tried to run away from it, but he has a clear record of opposing wage increases for the lowest-paid people in Minnesota,” Knutson said. “Whether it was his time in the Legislature or during his campaign, Jeff Johnson has shown time and again that he sides with billionaires and big corporations over working Minnesotans.”

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

At convention, Trades build momentum for 2014 election push

August 1, 2014 by
Jessica Looman, an assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, addresses Building Trades delegates.

Jessica Looman, an assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, addresses Building Trades delegates.

ROCHESTER – With two new stadiums in the works and $1 billion in new state infrastructure investments – as well as jobs-creating regional improvements like the Destination Medical Center here – the Building Trades unions in Minnesota are riding a wave of momentum.

That momentum is at stake in elections up and down the Nov. 4 ballot, speakers warned delegates to the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council’s annual convention at the Kahler Hotel this week.

“With less than 100 days before the election, it becomes an anxious time,” Council President Harry Melander said. “We have made great progress, and to go backwards would be a shame.”

At the top of Building Trades unions’ agenda this year, Melander said, is re-electing Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. In an address to delegates yesterday, the labor-endorsed DFLer listed his credentials for re-election, including new investments in education and infrastructure, 159,000 new jobs statewide and the first increase in Minnesota’s minimum wage in a decade.

But those accomplishments, the governor acknowledged, would not have been possible without DFL majorities in the Legislature. He noted the change in atmosphere at the Capitol since voters ousted Republican majorities in the House and Senate two years into his first term as governor.

“I hope to come back, obviously, but I don’t want to come back with a Republican House of Representatives,” Dayton said, adding that it would mean “gridlock, deadlock and other budget showdown.”

“We need to keep moving ahead, and that’s going to mean a DFL house and a DFL governor because everything we’ve accomplished can be reversed.”

Gov. Mark Dayton greets Building Trades delegates at their annual convention.

Gov. Mark Dayton greets Building Trades delegates at their annual convention.

Challenges remain

As successful as Dayton and DFL lawmakers have been in bringing Minnesota’s economy back, Dayton noted that only half of the construction-industry jobs lost during the Great Recession have been recovered. Making needed investments in transportation and transit, he said, will keep the industry on the right path.

“There’s no avoiding the responsibility we have for deciding whether we want a better transportation system, the same one or something that’s going to continue to get worse,” Dayton said. “It’s going to take $6 billion just to keep things where they are now.”

The governor also reminded delegates that he was the last line of defense against efforts to undermine prevailing wage, which ensures fair pay for workers on public construction projects. That effort died in the Legislature, as did efforts to undermine collective bargaining via a Right to Work constitutional amendment. But both remain alive among Dayton’s challengers, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson warned.

Knutson gave a glimpse of Republican candidates vying to take Dayton’s place. All four major candidates said in a radio debate yesterday that they support “unsafe, unfair and unnecessary” Right to Work legislation, she noted.

“Jeff Johnson goes even farther,” Knutson added. “In a debate a couple days ago he said he wants to change prevailing wage laws. And a few months ago he told a group of activists he wants to ‘go all Scott Walker’ on Minnesota. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know it’s not good.”

Hearing from both sides

Although the lineup of speakers was heavy on DFLers, two Republican state senators, Dave Senjem and Carla Nelson, whose district includes Rochester, made a pitch to Building Trades delegates as well.

“Your jobs cannot be – they should not be – a partisan issue,” Nelson said. “Construction jobs lead our economic recovery. Your industry is one of the largest growth segments in the Minnesota workforce, and we anticipate that will continue.”

In a show of bipartisan support for the Trades, the Senate voted 59-0 last spring to pass a new law that ensures firms working on public construction projects have a track record of obeying prevailing-wage, overtime and other labor laws.

“Minnesota is the only place in America where a responsible contracting law exists statewide,” Melander said.

Senjem also noted bipartisan support for bonding bills, the Minnesota Vikings stadium and the Destination Medical Center, a $6 billion investment, backed by public and private funds, that will transform the Mayo Clinic and downtown Rochester – and create thousands of construction jobs.

Senjem also recalled that as a majority leader in the Senate two years ago, he “took that Right To Work bill, and we put it in the drawer.”

“We didn’t need that kind of Minnesota,” he said. “We can work together. We don’t need that kind of conflict. It doesn’t get you anywhere.”

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

Minnesota AFL-CIO adds to staff

July 16, 2014 by

mnaflcioThe state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, hired Todd Dahlstrom as director of organizing and growth and Bill Breon as coordinator of the Path to Power program this month.

Path to Power is the state federation’s new effort to support union members running for public office, ensuring that working Minnesotans have more voice in local government affairs.

“Local governments make decisions that affect union members every day,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said. “That’s why Minnesotans need more union members to running for and serving in public office.”

Prior to joining the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Breon did issue-based organizing for affordable housing, renewable energy, and marriage equality. He has worked for the city of Minneapolis and taken part in well over a dozen municipal elections in the last ten years.

Dahlstrom, a St. Paul resident, will assist the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s affiliate unions in extending union membership to more working Minnesotans.

“Minnesota’s unions are increasingly hearing from workers who want a voice at work and have asked their state federation to provide support in organizing efforts,” Knutson said.

Dahlstrom worked for 10 years as lead organizer of Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union.

“Minnesota unions are stepping up in their organizing efforts to improve the lives of working Minnesotans, and I’m excited to support their work,” Dahlstrom said.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO is the state’s largest labor federation, representing more than 300,000 members of 1,000-plus local unions across the state.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , ,

Unions: Dayton, DFL legislators delivered for working families

May 23, 2014 by
Surrounded by legislative supporters and members of the Raise the Wage Coalition, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016 – and indexing it to inflation.

Surrounded by legislative supporters and members of the Raise the Wage Coalition, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016 – and indexing it to inflation.

Progress is what Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton promised he’d deliver if given pro-worker majorities in the Legislature.

Progress on job creation, better schools, economic justice and budget stability is what Dayton and House DFLers will point to when they campaign for re-election this fall.

In the 2014 session, Dayton and legislators picked up where they left off last year, adding to their already-lengthy list of accomplishments for Minnesota’s working families, union leaders said.

“Minnesotans expected results when they put the DFL in charge of state government, and our elected leaders have delivered,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said. “Jobs are increasing, wages are going up, we’re investing in schools and our taxes are fairer.”

Before adjourning the session ahead of schedule May 16, lawmakers passed the first increase to the state’s minimum wage in a decade, and they agreed to invest $1 billion in job-creating infrastructure projects – both top priorities for the state’s unions heading into the 2014 session.

But those accomplishments represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the full list of gains for working families.

“This biennium has been the greatest session for middle class and working Minnesotans since the Minnesota Miracle of the 1970s,” said Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, a union of 43,000 public-service workers. “We showed working people that state government can improve their lives.”

• Wages going up

The minimum-wage increase – to $9.50 per hour by 2016, with indexing to ensure it keeps up with inflation – means more than 350,000 Minnesotans will see a raise. But Dayton and the DFL Legislature also passed wage increases targeted at workers in the health care industry.

Nursing home workers will see their first wage increase in four years. Lawmakers also approved a 5 percent rate increase for community-based providers of in-home health care, stipulating that 80 percent of the increase must go to workers.

The rate hike drew praise from members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, the union that, thanks to legislation passed in 2013, is working to organize home care workers into a statewide bargaining unit.

The Legislature’s failure to raise the provider rate for in-home health services – it increased by just 3.4 percent from 2003 to 2012 – has been a rallying cry for home health workers looking to organize and gain a stronger voice at the Capitol.

“I’ve seen firsthand how recent funding levels have made life harder for health care workers and the people we serve,” Brooklyn Park home-care worker Shaquonica Johnson said. “This increase is only a beginning, but starting to make up for years of low funding will help to cut back on staff turnover and bring stability to the field.”

capitol• Better schools, safer schools

In 2013 lawmakers made a $525 million investment in the state’s public school districts, guaranteeing statewide access to all-day kindergarten. They also paid back more than $2 billion borrowed from districts in a gimmick to balance the state budget during the previous biennium, when Republicans controlled the Legislature.

With funding stabilized, lawmakers moved in 2014 to make schools safer, passing the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act. It strengthens the state’s anti-bullying laws, which had been among the nation’s weakest, and provides more training to prepare school employees for dealing with bullying.

The statewide educators’ union, Education Minnesota, lobbied legislators to pass the law, as did Local 284 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents school employees.

“Come fall, more educators will have a clear understanding of how to help their students when bullying occurs,” Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said. “They will have access to the resources and training they need to help students feel safe. And that means fewer students will come to school in fear and instead feel valued and ready to learn.”

• Leveling the playing field for women

Signed into law on Mother’s Day, the labor-backed Women’s Economic Security Act expands unpaid leave under the Minnesota Parental Leave Act from six to 12 weeks, and it makes it easier for mothers to stay in the workforce by providing new accommodations for pregnant and nursing workers.

The new law also takes measures to close the pay gap between women and men, including a provision requiring large employers seeking state contracts over $500,000 to prove they are paying men and women equally for doing the same job.

• What didn’t lawmakers accomplish?

Transportation is the most pressing issue left unaddressed by Dayton and the DFL majorities, union leaders acknowledged. Needed investments and the state’s roads, bridges and transit systems stayed on the back burner at the Capitol in 2013 and 2014.

“That’s the next deal,” Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, said. “How do we provide a funding mechanism for transportation and transit that take us through the middle part of the 21st century? That’s going to be our next big challenge.”

Will Dayton and DFL House members have an opportunity to take up that challenge in 2015? Knutson pledged an all-out effort to see them re-elected.

“Union members will be working hard in the coming months to ensure that Gov. Dayton and a DFL legislative majority return to continue the work of building a better Minnesota,” she said.

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

Minimum-wage victory showcases potential of labor-community partnerships

April 29, 2014 by
Surrounded by legislative supporters and members of the Raise the Wage Coalition, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016 – and indexing it to inflation.

Surrounded by legislative supporters and members of the Raise the Wage Coalition, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016 – and indexing it to inflation.

On April 14, Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill gradually raising Minnesota’s minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2016 and indexing the wage so that it keeps pace with inflation beginning in 2018.

The bill signing was a victory for more than 350,000 workers statewide who are expected to see a raise as a result of the bill. But it also marked a victory for the coalition of unions, religious groups and other non-profits that united to push the minimum-wage hike across the finish line.

“We’ve seen what an impact we can make when we come together,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said after the bill-signing ceremony in the Capitol rotunda. “It felt good.”

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor federation, was one of several union groups that took a leadership role in the Raise the Wage Coalition, which united more than 70 diverse organizations behind a minimum-wage increase.

After DFL majorities in the House and Senate failed to agree on a minimum-wage bill last spring, unions and labor federations pledged to invest energy, resources and political capital into seeing a meaningful increase pass before the 2014 session gaveled to a close. They made the commitment despite the fact, as Knutson pointed out, “the vast majority of Minnesota’s union workforce makes well above the minimum wage.”

“The labor movement is committed to improving the lives of all working people,” Knutson said. “Like Paul Wellstone said, ‘We all do better when we all do better.’”

RaisetheWageWeb_0A step toward ‘enduring partnerships’

Unions’ leadership role in the Raise the Wage Coalition reflected local action on a nationwide directive put forth at the AFL-CIO Convention in Los Angeles last year. Known as “Resolution 16,” the directive calls on state and local labor federations to build “enduring partnerships” with community groups that share values and goals with the labor movement.

With the minimum-wage campaign, Minnesota unions backed up the AFL-CIO’s talk with action, said St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper, whose office coordinated 96 volunteer shifts on behalf of the minimum-wage push this year.

“Building a movement for economic justice isn’t possible unless we look beyond our own unions and reach out to our allies in that struggle,” Kasper said. “Whether it’s fighting Right to Work or defending prevailing wage, our position will only be stronger if we have members of the broader community behind us, but we can’t expect their support if we don’t step up when they need us.”

‘Speaking with a collective voice’

Labor’s role in the minimum-wage victory was not lost on the non-profit and faith-based organizations that joined the Capitol celebration April 14.

“It’s really inspiring seeing labor behind a broad, social justice issue like the minimum wage of concern to the community, not just their own members,” said Doran Schrantz, executive director of ISAIAH, a faith-based member of the Raise the Wage Coalition. “Seeing labor really throw everything, all their political might and muscle, behind this was really inspiring.”

The non-profit group A Minnesota Without Poverty had been organizing in support of a minimum-wage increase since 2008, coordinating events like one last year in which activists handed out ketchup bottles at the Capitol, urging lawmakers to “catch up to the cost of living.”

“We were doing our own thing,” Executive Director Nancy Maeker said. “We knew there were others working on the issue, and we were appreciative. But it didn’t seem like there was a lot of coordination among those groups.”

That changed last fall, when A Minnesota Without Poverty accepted an invitation to join the Raise the Wage Coalition. Maeker said she quickly realized the power of “speaking with a collective voice,” and she appreciated the “organizational wherewithal” union groups lent to the campaign.

“I was pretty positive toward labor to begin with, but I didn’t know labor would be interested in collaborating on an issue like minimum wage,” Maeker said. “That’s the part I was most appreciative of.”

Organizers of the Raise the Wage Coalition held a press conference before delivering thousands of postcards to state senators from supporters of a $9.50 minimum wage.

The Raise the Wage Coalition held a press conference before delivering thousands of postcards to state senators from supporters of a $9.50 minimum wage earlier this year.

Doing what labor does best

After lawmakers failed to pass a wage hike in 2013, Raise the Wage Coalition members realized they needed to engage the public to make their campaign successful in 2014. “It wasn’t just a campaign that could happen here under the (Capitol) dome,” Schrantz said. “We really needed to engage the wider community.”

Grassroots campaigning – knocking on doors, phone banking – is labor’s strong suit, and labor federations like the St. Paul RLF joined Working America, the AFL-CIO’s outreach initiative to non-union workers, in a leading role.

“We came out of last session knowing we needed to mobilize and mobilize big,” Working America State Director Bree Halverson said. “At Working America in Minnesota, we kept the conversation going all year-round.”

Working America began door-to-door canvasses across the state around the minimum wage June 1, 2013, Halverson said. By April 4, canvassers had knocked on 100,239 doors, engaged 43,172 Minnesotans in conversations about the issue and generated 4,000 letters or phone calls to lawmakers asking them to support the coalition’s bill.

As it turned out, Halverson said, it wasn’t a tough sell for most Minnesotans.

“People got it,” she said. “Even if minimum wage didn’t affect them directly, it was important to their kids who were struggling to find good employment after college, or it was important for their community because if people were making better wages, then their whole community would be stronger.”

Working America and other coalition members, like Jewish Community Action, proved critical in generating support in areas where unions don’t have a lot of membership or haven’t been traditionally active politically.

“Some of the senators that needed to be moved, that needed to hear a strong voice for social justice were from areas that Jewish Community Action had a base,” JCA organizer Rachel English said. “JCA played an important role in making sure more of the suburban senators heard from their constituents that this is an important social justice issue to them.”

Toward a economic justice for all

While lawmakers, union leaders and other coalition members celebrated the minimum-wage victory, they were also quick to point out that work remains in building a more economically just Minnesota.

“Our work is not done,” Speaker of the House Paul Thissen said. “There are still lots and lots of Minnesotans struggling to remain in or get into the middle class.”

Are there initiatives members of the Raise the Wage Coalition can unite around in the future? Some members think so.

“I would love for this coalition to keep working,” English said. “You can see the kind of impact it had up on Capitol Hill.”

English pointed to provisions left out of the minimum-wage bill – language to strengthen the 40-hour workweek and protect guest workers – and the inclusion of a “training wage” that, she fears, could incentivize employing teenagers at a lower wage than adult workers.

Halverson agreed: “Minimum wage is just the first step, I feel, to some really great stuff going forward,” she said. “It’s exciting.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to work on issues together in the future that are going to help workers in Minnesota. It may not be the Raise the Wage Coalition, but there are relationships we’ve as a labor movement made that we’re going to have for a very long time.”

“I’m proud of the work we did to pass minimum wage,” St. Paul RLF President Kasper said. “I’m even more excited about the prospect of continuing to build a better Minnesota with the new friends and allies we gained during the campaign.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Next Page»