Solidarity in the skies: In St. Paul, Delta workers rally together for a union

February 3, 2025 by

MSP-based Delta flight attendants Jarrod Anderson and Becca Mertes sing “Solidarity Forever” with AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson (R).

One of the largest organizing drives in the country got a boost in St. Paul last month, as Delta Air Lines flight attendants and ramp, cargo and tower workers pushed closer to a union election at the world’s most profitable carrier.

Supporters spilled out of a crowded union hall at the St. Paul Labor Center on Jan. 25 during a fiery rally organized by two unions, the Machinists (IAM) and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Together, they are working to organize a combined 48,000 Delta workers.

Speakers included elected officials, union leaders, community allies and Delta workers, who said their campaign is gaining ground despite fierce pushback – and alleged union-busting – from management.

Rob Lavigne, a baggage handler with 14 years of experience at the airline, called Delta’s attempts to intimidate its own workers shameful, noting that 80% of workers in the airline industry – including Delta’s own pilots – enjoy the security of a union contract.

“Delta, you made $4.6 billion,” Lavigne said, a reference to the company’s 2023 earnings. “You can afford to make us the industry leaders the way that we made you the industry leaders.”

In addition to locking down pay raises and union benefits, many Delta workers at the rally said they hope to bargain for better work rules and procedures, especially around absences.

Right now, Delta’s sick-time policy is that it doesn’t have a sick-time policy, according to both flight attendants and ramp workers who attended the rally.

“It’s a gray area right now because it’s up to your manager’s discretion how many times you can call out before being penalized,” Minneapolis-based flight attendant Hunter Lipinski said. “I’ve known people who have provided a doctor’s note and have still been penalized.”

“I’ve watched a good amount of favoritism over the years,” baggage handler Pat Gores, a nine-year Delta veteran, said. “It’s like, if you’re an old drinking buddy of your manager’s, you’re OK? No way, I want fairness and equal treatment for all workers.”

Adding insult to injury, Delta is part of an industry group bankrolling a lawsuit to prevent Minnesota-based employees from accessing benefits under the state’s new earned sick and safe time law. The company joined nine other airlines in a lawsuit seeking an exemption from the law in December.

Another gray area that Delta flight attendants hope to clarify in a union contract is scheduling. Becca Mertes, who works out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said Delta flight attendants lag behind their peers at other carriers when it comes to compensation when cancelations and delays wreak havoc on their work schedules.

Delta management can extend a flight attendant’s one-day shift by multiple days, Mertes said, “and all you brought with was a pair of underwear.” It’s particularly difficult for flight attendants with children or pets.

Delta flight attendants and ramp, cargo and tower workers rallied with community supporters, including U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, at the St. Paul Labor Center on Jan. 25.

“That can happen at any other airline too, but in two and a half years at WestJet Airlines, I never got worked into my days off, not once,” she said. “It’s happened several times at Delta, too many to count.”

Community supporters at the rally, including U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District, praised workers in the room for joining together to improve conditions at Delta – and across the airline industry.

McCollum told union supporters that her mother once worked as a flight attendant, before the airline moved her to the ticket counter when she announced she was getting married. Even that job was no longer an option after she got pregnant, McCollum said.

“I fly two times a week, and I always feel safe in a Delta plane,” she said. “I see you. I see my mother in you when you walk down the aisle… You deserve respect and fair compensation for the work you do.”

McCollum said she brings that message into her frequent meetings with Delta lobbyists in Washington, D.C., too.

Mertes, Lavigne and other Delta workers active in the organizing drives said they hope to vote on union representation by the summer. For that to happen, the unions will need to demonstrate to the National Mediation Board that they have collected signed authorization cards from a majority of eligible workers.

In a quirk of federal labor law, the cards expire after one year, which creates an administrative headache for organizers.

“For two and a half years we’ve been at this, and I believe if union cards were good for two years, I wouldn’t be speaking here today,” Lavigne said. “We would have had a union on the property last May.”

Workers like Lipinski left the rally feeling more confident that day would come.

“Seeing all this support, it gives the feeling of, ‘we can do this,’” Lipinski said. “It’s our turn to have a seat at the table.”

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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

Unions push pandemic response leaving no worker behind

March 19, 2020 by

(CDC image)

State and local officials are taking unprecedented steps to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading in Minnesota. While the effectiveness of those measures remains to be seen, it’s already clear the COVID-19 pandemic is not just a public health crisis, but an economic one as well. 

The state’s highest-ranking labor leaders today sent Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders a to-do list of policy changes necessary, they say, to protect working people on the front lines of the pandemic response and those likely to suffer most from its impact on Minnesota’s economy. 

In the letter, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s executive officers, President Bill McCarthy and Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto, back higher standards to ensure hospitals and fire departments provide adequate personal-protective equipment to nurses and first responders. They urge an extension of unemployment-insurance benefits and paid time off. And they call on lawmakers to pass bills guaranteeing school districts’ hourly employees get paid during closures and putting tradespeople to work. 

The letter also includes a warning: “Emergencies shouldn’t be an excuse to relax labor standards. Do not allow rollback of any labor rights or protections.” 

The dizzying number of demands included in the letter reflects the all-encompassing nature of the pandemic and efforts to combat it. Unions from all industries, from the public and private sectors, were bracing for the fallout – and scrambling to address members’ economic and health concerns. 

Kelly Gibbons, president of Service Employees International Union Local 284, called the last week “quite the nightmare.” 

Local 284 represents about 10,000 workers in 140 school districts statewide. Although Walz has ordered all schools to close through March 27, some Local 284 members are still reporting to work, helping provide care for elementary-age children of health care workers and first responders. Other members are furloughed with pay – for the time being. 

“There’s been a lot of confusion, but we’ll get through this,” Gibbons said. “We know this will pass.” 

In the days after he declared a statewide emergency last week, Walz ordered schools, restaurants, museums and other public spaces to close, hoping to limit community spread of the virus and prevent a surge of hospital visits due to COVID-19. But the governor also moved to ease the financial strain on working people impacted by those measures. 

In an executive order Monday, Walz made the state’s unemployment insurance program more robust, waiving certain restrictions and waiting periods so that anyone whose paycheck takes a hit from the pandemic – from layoffs, furloughs or schedule cuts – has swift access to relief. 

Walz also called on businesses that remain open during the pandemic to do their part to prevent its spread by making it easier for employees to work from home and, critically, stay home with pay when feeling sick. Leading by example, Walz granted emergency paid leave to any state employee impacted by the pandemic, and he suspended the waiting period typically required of new hires before they can enroll in health insurance coverage. 

That’s good news for many members of AFSCME Council 5, which counts state employees among its 43,000 members statewide. But Executive Director Julie Bleyhl said all Minnesota employees deserve the same guarantees. 

“AFSCME Council 5 is demanding that all employers in the state of Minnesota pay their workers in full during this time of crisis,” she said. “We must all be united and work together to ensure that no worker has to choose between their lives and a paycheck.” 

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, in its letter to Walz and legislative leaders, called on the state to mandate that employers provide 15 days of emergency paid time off to all employees, and that school districts continue to pay furloughed employees, who are not eligible for unemployment insurance, for all scheduled days.  

“To avoid impacting small businesses for 15 days off, we are calling on the state to implement a separate tax on the largest businesses in the state including Amazon, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Target, Ecolab and others, and small to medium sized businesses can apply for a tax credit equal to 100% of the paid sick leave benefit they have paid out,” the letter reads. 

Other union demands – like a robust infrastructure jobs bill and extending unemployment benefits to a full year – look to soften the blow to Minnesota’s economy in the long term.  

A statement issued by the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council argues a strong bonding bill, with investments in roads, bridges, transit and public buildings, would “be the economic stimulus needed to jump start the economy, and especially the construction industry, after the worst of the coronavirus impacts have passed.”  

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Teamsters say U of M policy punishes dining workers who use earned sick time

November 3, 2016 by
Brian Aldes, Local 320's principal officer, leads a rally at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Brian Aldes, Local 320’s principal officer, leads a rally at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

 

On the steps of Morrill Hall Tuesday, front-line staff at the University of Minnesota rallied with other U of M workers, including faculty members seeking a union vote, to protest an attendance policy that, workers say, unfairly disciplines them for getting sick.

Teamsters Local 320, which organized the rally, represents food-service workers at the university who, according to the union, face automatic discipline for exceeding a threshold of three unscheduled “occurrences,” the university’s term for unforeseen uses of sick leave.

The local has filed 30 grievances seeking to rescind disciplinary actions, including one against a dining-hall worker sent home after vomiting.

Brian Aldes, Local 320’s principal officer, said no worker should face discipline for using their earned sick time. “We’re not going away,” he said at the rally. “We’re going to keep the heat up on the U of M.”

Students, researchers and members of other unions joined the rally in solidarity with Local 320 members. Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner called food-service workers’ access to sick leave “a public health issue,” and Geoffrey Rojas, president of the U’s Postdoctoral Association, said sick time is essential for workers with disabilities or chronic health issues “in order to be productive at work.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Debra Hillstrom (DFL-Brooklyn Center), a U of M graduate, took the opportunity to show her support for another of Local 320’s campaigns. “I would be proud to have a university that paid everyone a $15 minimum wage,” she said.

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Task force recommends extending sick pay to 70,000 workers in St. Paul

June 17, 2016 by
St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan speaks in support of a citywide earned sick time policy at a press conference before a public hearing on the issue.

St. Paul business owner Diane Brennan spoke in support of a citywide earned sick time policy before a public hearing on the issue.

 

St. Paul’s task force on earned sick and safe time has issued its recommendations, and they include requiring employers to provide workers with one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they work, with sick-time earnings capped at 48 hours per year.

If adopted by the city’s elected officials, the policy would extend ESST benefits to an estimated 70,000 workers in St. Paul.

The task force, appointed by Mayor Chris Coleman and members of the City Council, included business owners, workers and representatives of several labor organizations, including St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper.

“These recommendations reflect three months of work by members of our task force,” Kasper said. “We heard testimony from public health experts, working people and business owners. After careful consideration and respectful dialogue, we reached a set of recommendations that, I believe, reflect St. Paul’s values.”

The city’s Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Commission received the official recommendations and heard public comments on the issue June 21. Workers, religious leaders, small business owners and community leaders expressed support for the task force’s recommendations.

Community organizers read statements from low-wage workers about the times they’ve had to come into work sick.

Sara Leanio, a nurse at Children's Hospital in St. Paul and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said an earned-sick time policy would benefit public health.

Sara Leanio, a nurse at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said an earned-sick time policy would benefit public health.

“We all have stories from our day-to-day lives of noticing someone working in retail or food service who we can tell came to work sick – and we wish would have just stayed home,” Children’s Hospital nurse Sara Leanio said. “It’s gross, and it’s time we have a policy that supports workers to do so.”

Fusion Salon owner Diane Brennan explained why she began offering sick time to employees at her Snelling Avenue business earlier this year.

“My values insist that I take care of my staff and their families because I care about them on a personal level,” she said. “It was the right thing to do.”

The HREEO Commission will make final recommendations regarding a potential ordinance to the City Council and mayor in July, but will continue to accept public input on the issue via the city’s website.

In May the Minneapolis City Council passed the state’s first ordinance requiring employers to provide earned sick and safe time, joining 26 other cities nationwide with ESST ordinances on the books.

Some of the St. Paul task force’s recommendations, including the accrual formula and 48-hour cap, mirror the Minneapolis ordinance, scheduled to take effect in July 2017.

But the Minneapolis ordinance guarantees sick pay only to workers at businesses with six or more employees. At businesses with five or fewer employees, the leave will be unpaid.

The St. Paul task force recommended any ordinance benefit all working people, regardless of the size of their employer. The task force did note that employers with existing arrangements like paid-time off or collective bargaining agreements, as long as they meet minimum recommended standards, would be “deemed compliant.”

The task force recommended employees begin accruing sick time after working 80 hours, and that they become eligible to use their sick time after 90 calendar days of employment.

Although workers’ sick pay would be capped at 48 hours per year, they would be able to bank up to 80 hours.

Sick time, according to the recommendation, could be used to recover from or address a mental or physical illness, as well as time needed for medical diagnosis or preventative care. “Safe time” would apply when an employee or an employee’s family member is a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking.

Supporters of the earned sick and safe time policy argue that when people show up to work sick, it spreads disease, slows their recovery and forces people to choose between not getting paid and working while sick.

“It’s a choice no one should have to make,” Kasper said. “I applaud Mayor Coleman and the council for moving forward on this critical issue.”

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

Hospital workers take a stand for paid sick time

May 3, 2016 by
Madeline Gardner, a member of the MN Nurses Association, spoke in favor of a citywide ordinance making paid sick time mandatory.

Madeline Gardner, a member of the MN Nurses Association, spoke in favor of a citywide ordinance making paid sick time mandatory.

Nurses and hospital workers today added their voices to the call for guaranteed access to earned sick and safe time for all workers, urging members of the Minneapolis City Council to take up a robust citywide ordinance when they meet Thursday.

It’s estimated 42 percent of Twin Cities workers don’t receive earned sick and safe time benefits. They are forced to make choices no one should have to make, health care workers said at a press conference outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patient appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said he’s “witnessed several patients have to choose between their appointments and feeding their families.”

Madeline Gardner, a labor and delivery nurse, said working parents shouldn’t be forced to choose “between staying home with a child who’s too sick to go to school or being able to pay the rent that month. Life just doesn’t need to be that stressful.”

And Christina Cortez, who has worked at the McDonald’s restaurant inside Abbott Northwestern for 10 years, said she still doesn’t get earned sick time – even though she works in a health care facility.

The press conference was organized by the Minnesota Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL to highlight support for the policy recommendations of the Workplace Partnership Group, a task force set up by Minneapolis’ mayor and city council.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patients' appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said it's not uncommon to hear people say they can't take time off work to get well.

Jeff Sarro, who schedules patients’ appointments at Abbott Northwestern, said it’s not uncommon to hear people say they can’t take time off work to get well.

At a news conference yesterday, workers and business owners of color gave their support to the WPG’s recommendations.

The WPG included representatives of large and small businesses, as well as workers, and it hosted listening sessions across the city over the last four months before voting 13-1 in favor of its recommendations.

If turned into a citywide ordinance, Gardner said, the WPG recommendations would make for “breath-of-fresh-air public policy.”

A group similar to the WPG is considering earned sick and safe time recommendations to the St. Paul City Council. The advisory committee is expected to finish its work by this summer.

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Faith leaders on earned sick time: ‘Something’s got to happen’

October 22, 2015 by
Rev. Laurie Eaton of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, calls for a policy guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time at a press conference outside Minneapolis City Hall.

Rev. Laurie Eaton calls for a policy guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time at a press conference outside Minneapolis City Hall.

 

Faith leaders from Minneapolis today called on elected officials to begin addressing Minnesota’s alarming racial disparities by guaranteeing all workers access to earned sick and safe time.

“This is exactly what systemic racism looks like: reasonable people who say, ‘Our hands are tied … because it’s just too costly to change our system,’” Rev. Laurie Eaton of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church said. “Minneapolis, we are better than that.”

The Twin Cities and Minnesota as a whole have ranked poorly in terms of the economic gaps between whites and minorities, with a recent study naming Minneapolis the third-worst place to live for African Americans.

Similar disparities play out in the numbers regarding who enjoys earned sick time. More than half of the estimated 245,000 Minneapolis workers without access to the benefit are non-white, including 62 percent of Latino workers and 51 percent of black workers in the city.

“People are suffering, trying to decide whether to buy medicine or buy groceries,” Rev. Billy G. Russel of Greater Friendship Baptist Church said. “Something’s got to happen.”

Earned sick time remains a plank in the embattled Working Families Agenda that Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and several allies on the City Council still support. But corporations are stepping up the pressure on officials to back off, and the state’s largest newspaper recently dismissed the measure as “anti-business” and “naïve.”

Rabbi Michael Latz of Shir Tikvah Synagogue called on elected officials, editorial writers and business leaders – “people who shower before work, not after,” he said – to “exercise your moral courage” on earned sick time, which he called “a great moral issue of our generation.”

web.SickTime-scene“Sickness and disease are not reasons to … withhold pay from anyone,” Bishop Richard D. Howell Jr. of Shiloh Temple added. “It is a person’s right to seek good health.”

Rev. Paul Slack, pastor at New Creation Church and president of the faith-based social justice organization ISAIAH, urged city council members to listen to the concerns of their constituents, not just corporations.

“We have protected companies, corporations by giving them community benefits,” Slack said. “Now let’s give a benefit to people who work in those jobs. Let’s protect our low-wage earners. Let’s protect their children and their families.”

The clergy members spoke at a press conference on the steps of Minneapolis City Hall before visiting council members individually to urge action on the issue.

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Workers to rally outside courthouse as AT&T sues to deny their sick pay

July 13, 2015 by
web.CWAstrike-picket1

CWA members walk a picket line outside AT&T offices downtown Minneapolis during a grievance strike in May 2015.

AT&T is challenging a new Minnesota law allowing workers to use paid sick time to care for family members.

But as the Fortune 500 telecommunications company appears before a federal judge in Minneapolis on Friday, members of the Communications Workers of America will rally outside the courthouse with a simple message: AT&T is not above the law.

The rally will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 17, outside the U.S. Courthouse, 300 4th St. S., Minneapolis. [Click here to view the Facebook event page.]

AT&T’s challenge involves only workers with more than 25 years of experience with the company, who have seen their requests for sick pay to cover time spent caring for family members denied. Similar requests from less-tenured workers have been approved by the company.

CWA, the union that represents AT&T workers in Minnesota and across the country, has filed grievances on behalf of employees, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry last year issued a direction to comply with Minnesota Statute 181.9413, which expands sick leave to cover family members.

But AT&T has delayed resolution on both fronts by challenging the law in federal court.

“AT&T is actually spending more money on lawyers to avoid following the law than it would cost them to comply with it,” CWA Local 7250 President Shari Wojtowicz said.

In May, AT&T workers staged a grievance strike in Minneapolis to show solidarity with co-workers who have been denied sick pay.

Debra Derke, an AT&T employee for nearly 30 years, estimated she’s lost eight months’ pay since her husband suffered a string of medical emergencies that began with a heart attack in August 2013.

“They’re basically discriminating against their most senior, most dedicated people, the people who have made this company what it is,” Local 7250 member Susan Anderson said. “It’s shameful, especially with the profits they have, the perks that their CEO gets. Yet they are basically trying to nickel and dime us to death.”

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Protesters to Best Buy: ‘Get out of the way so we can have justice’

June 9, 2015 by
Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy's annual shareholder meeting.

Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting.

 

RICHFIELD – Inside and outside of Best Buy’s annual shareholders meeting today, Minnesotans called on the corporation to stop using its political clout to block policies that improve working families’ lives.

That includes proposed legislation in Minnesota that would provide workers and their families with the stability and security they need to ensure a healthy work-life balance – policies opposed by lobbying groups Best Buy helps fund.

Best Buy plays “an important role in the Chamber of Commerce and other business associations that have been opposing legislation that supports workers’ rights to take care of their families,” Veronica Mendez Moore, an organizer with the Twin Cities worker Center CTUL, told about 100 demonstrators at a rally outside the shareholders meeting.

CTUL, which has been supporting janitors’ campaign to improve wages and working conditions maintained by cleaning contractors that service big-box retailers, organized the protest with faith groups, labor unions and progressive organizations working to build support at the Capitol for basic worker benefits and protections.

The Working Parents Act, introduced by House DFLers last session and backed by labor, stalled after drawing swift opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Retailer’s Association, another Best Buy-led lobbying outfit. The bill pulled together initiatives seeking to crack down on employers who commit wage theft, require fairness in employee scheduling and guarantee workers access to earned sick time and paid family leave.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Too many of the jobs created during the current economic recovery don’t provide those benefits, janitor Hilario DeLeon told the crowd through a translator.

“Where I work we have no benefits at all,” DeLeon said. “We want to be able to have vacation. We want to be able to have paid sick days.”

DeLeon has cleaned the Target in downtown Minneapolis for seven years, and he said conditions deteriorate as contractors, looking to offer big-box retailers the lowest bid, seek new ways to cut costs. If Best Buy won’t agree to hold contractors to higher standards, he said, the company should at least stop using its clout at the Capitol to oppose raising the floor for everyone.

“We know that Best Buy has been getting in the way of our efforts,” DeLeon said. “We want Best Buy to get out of the way so we … can have justice.”

As protesters rallied outside, a delegation of activists gained access to Best Buy’s shareholder meeting by holding stock in the company or acting as a supportive shareholder’s proxy. Leticia Zuniga, a janitor and CTUL member who cleans Herberger’s, said a three Best Buy executives met with the delegation privately as well.

“We talked a lot about the problems there are in this industry: the rampant wage theft, workers not getting paid on time or with pay stubs, not knowing what hours they’re getting paid for,” Zuniga said. “We asked Best Buy to sign a responsible contractor policy, and they said they’d get back to us in a month.”

Ironically, the janitors who will clean up after today’s shareholders meeting are union members who enjoy many of the benefits workers inside Best Buy’s stores are fighting to win.

Ricardo Chavez, a member of the Service Employees International Union who works inside the corporate headquarters, joined the protest. He earns a fair wage with good benefits, predictable scheduling and access to paid sick days.

“But I know my brothers and sisters that work cleaning Best Buy’s stores right next door don’t have access to any of these benefits,” Chavez said. “Thousands of workers all over the state do not have access to these benefits, and all of us deserve them.”

Indeed, about 1 million workers in Minnesota do not have access to paid sick and safe time to care for themselves or their family members, TakeAction Minnesota Director Dan McGrath said, yet policies requiring employers to provide sick days are generally popular among voters.

“These corporations are created for people to make money,” Pastor Doug Mork of Cross of Glory Lutheran Church said. “They shouldn’t be cutting back our democratic voice.”

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Gold watch? Fountain pen? For 25th anniversary, AT&T guts MN workers’ sick leave

May 13, 2015 by
CWA Local 7250 members impacted by AT&T's sick-pay policy include Susan Anderson,

CWA Local 7250 members impacted by AT&T’s sick-pay policy include Susan Anderson (green coat), Dan Waalen-Radzevicius (black coat) and Deb Derke (red shirt).

Members of Local 7250 of the Communications Workers of America called a grievance strike yesterday. About 200 workers picketed outside AT&T’s offices downtown Minneapolis in support of their longest-tenured co-workers, who have seen requests for sick pay denied by the company.

AT&T claims it’s not required to allow workers with 25 or more years of experience to use their paid-sick time to care for family members – even though workers with less than 25 years experience can.

It’s an interpretation of a new state law that AT&T is defending in federal court. But in the meantime, where does that leave employees who have given a quarter-century or more to the Fortune 500 telecommunications company?

On the picket line yesterday, Debra Derke estimated she’s lost about eight months’ pay since her husband suffered a heart attack in August 2013 – the first in a string of major health crises. Derke’s husband suffered a second heart attack in March and is now paralyzed.

“We have a lot of doctor’s appointments that I need to attend. There are a lot of times when the PCA’s don’t show up. I’ve got to take care of him,” Derke said. “That’s my new normal. Every day I wake up to find out whether I can or can’t come to work.”

And though her contract says she has access to paid sick time, AT&T won’t let Derke use it to care for her husband, in effect, because she’s been with the company too long.

“It will be 30 years on Oct. 28, 30 years of my life supporting this company,” Derke said. “(AT&T CEO) Randall Stephenson hasn’t been there that long.”

Derke’s case is the most extreme, but other Minnesotans have filed grievances related to AT&T’s sick-pay policy as well.

Dan Waalen-Radzevicius requested four paid-sick days to care for his husband, whose injuries resulting from a stray-cat attack became seriously infected and left him drifting in and out of consciousness. Susan Anderson requested one paid-sick day to care for her husband as he began his battle against prostate cancer.

Waalen-Radzevicius has 29 years’ experience at AT&T; Anderson has 34. AT&T denied both workers’ requests.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Waalen-Radzevicius said. “Our CEO made $20 million-plus last year, plus bonuses, plus trips – everything. And he can’t afford to pay us this minimal amount?”

CWA estimates only about 100 workers statewide fall into the gap created by AT&T’s sick-pay policy, but workers of all ages and experience levels walked alongside Derke, Waalen-Radzevicius and Anderson on the picket line yesterday. Divide-and-conquer tactics won’t work with this group, they said.

“Someday they’re going to be in our shoes,” Anderson said of less experienced workers. “It’s great they’re supporting us. It’s what unions are all about.”

Union members look out for each other, Derke added, just like family members take care of each other.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s so heartwarming to know I’m not alone here. We all work here, and we are family.”

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