Two years after Thanksgiving shock, Teamsters aren’t letting FLE off the hook

November 1, 2018 by

Teamsters who lost their jobs when Lakeville Motor Express abruptly closed shop two years ago raise their hand at a picket-line rally.

Nearly two years after Lakeville Motor Express abruptly closed shop, 90 members of Teamsters Local 120 are still fighting for the wages, vacation pay and other benefits the Roseville-based trucking company owes them.

To show they aren’t giving up, former LME employees rallied Tuesday with fellow union members and supportive politicians on a picket line outside the Finish Line Express terminal in New Brighton.

“We’re out here every single day, Monday through Friday,” Local 120 President Tom Erickson said from the picket line. “We’re not going away.”

Finish Line, Local 120 officers claim, absorbed LME’s business after the company shuttered without warning Nov. 20, 2016 – three days before Thanksgiving – and refused to pay union members for the previous two weeks of work.

Finish Line and LME have ties that predate LME’s closing, including executives who worked for both companies. Local 120 alleges those executives gradually shifted work from LME to Finish Line until LME’s payroll dipped below 100 – the legal threshold at which companies must provide 60 days’ notice of plant closings under the WARN Act.

The bosses’ objective, Local 120 alleges, was to shed the Teamsters contract and escape all ties with the severely underfunded Central States Pension Fund, a liability of $90 million, according to the company’s bankruptcy filings.

“It was a company that was profitable, and they did this for one reason: to make more money,” Erickson said. “FLE is LME. Everybody here knows that.”

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the labor-endorsed candidate for attorney general, tells Teamsters he’s running for a new job because “the best any member of Congress can do is write the right law… An attorney general can take their ass to court.”
Teamsters and their supporters outside Finish LIne Express.
Julie Blaha, former Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and labor-endorsed candidate for state auditor, tells Teamsters Blaha remembers walking the FLE picket line two years ago as “one of the first picket lines I got to be on.”
Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson spoke at a rally against wage theft at Finish Line Express in 2018.

Now, LME and Finish Line face legal challenges on a number of fronts: from the pension fund, from the National Labor Relations Board and from the state Department of Labor and Industry, which last year levied an $87,000 civil penalty against the firms.

A hearing on NLRB charges of unfair labor practices was postponed Monday after the employer expressed interest in negotiating a settlement. The two sides have since entered mediation, but it’s not the first time management has expressed interest in settling.

“They’ve asked what we want,” Erickson said. “What we want is these jobs restored. These should be good Teamster jobs.”

All 90 workers locked out of Lakeville Motor Express two years ago have since found other work or retired. But as the rally yesterday made clear, none has forgotten the debt LME still owes.

Local 120 invites supporters to join picketing any weekday between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., at 50 14th St. NW, New Brighton.

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Teamsters Local 120 raises $125,000 for veterans charity

October 1, 2018 by

Congressman Tim Walz, the labor-endorsed candidate for governor, joined Teamsters Local 120’s member appreciation picnic, one of several events last month at which the local raised funds for Homes for Our Troops. Walz is a former officer in the Minnesota National Guard.

Teamsters Local 120’s annual fundraising drive raised over $125,000 for Homes For Our Troops last month, thanks to support from union members, employers and friends of labor at several Local 120 events, including the union’s member appreciation picnic and inaugural charity golf tournament.

“It was inspiring to see union members and employers come together to achieve a common goal,” Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson said.

“We don’t always see eye to eye with management,” he added. “But this past week our members and employers put their differences aside and came together to show their gratitude to the brave men and women who have served our great nation, and they knocked it out of the park.”

Homes For Our Troops is a nationwide organization that designs, builds and donates specially adapted homes for military veterans who were severely injured after Sept. 11, 2001. A top rated veteran and military charity, the organization has built 261 homes throughout the country since 2004 and has 94 more projects underway.

The partnership between Local 120 and Homes For Our Troops began three years ago, and it has grown quickly since then. This year’s fundraising total, Local 120 reported, is more than twice the amount raised in 2017.

Soon, Erickson said, Local 120 hopes to sponsor the complete construction of a home for a veteran.

Local 120 represents over 12,500 members in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota who work in a wide range of occupations and sectors.

Learn more about HFOT and ways to show support at hfotusa.org.

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Union strong, Metro Mobility drivers fight to save their jobs

April 12, 2018 by

In a 2015 survey, Metro Mobility customers were asked to name their favorite thing about riding the transportation service for people with disabilities and health issues. The most common response: their drivers.

About 100 of those drivers are now fighting for their jobs, as the Met Council, which oversees Metro Mobility, considers moving one of its core services to a new, non-union contractor.

Drivers and clients will raise concerns about the proposed change when it comes before the council’s Transportation Committee April 23, according to Teamsters Local 120, the union that represents drivers.

“Every day our members are picking up the same people, and now they could potentially lose that continuity,” Local 120 Secretary-Treasurer Bill Wedebrand said. “We feel as though there should be some more discussion on this.”

The drivers, employees of First Transit, shuttle people to and from employment, training and rehabilitation centers and other programs. Known as “agency service,” it’s mandated by federal and state laws.

But increasing demand for Metro Mobility rides is straining the Met Council’s finances. Metro Transit hiked bus and light-rail fares last year, and the council still projects a shortfall of $86 million in its 2020-21 transportation budget.

Under pressure to cut costs, the Met Council appears poised to move forward with Maple Grove-based Transit Team’s $31.8 million, five-year proposal covering agency services after the current contract with First Transit expires Sept. 30.

Transit Team delivered a cheaper proposal than First Transit, but Wedebrand warned that disrupting the relationship between Metro Mobility drivers and the vulnerable adults they serve will come at a cost.

“Most of these drivers have being doing this job for many years, and they do it for the right reasons,” Wedebrand said. “They don’t make a lot of money, but they do it to help people who are vulnerable. And these vulnerable adults know them, trust them.”

Wedebrand said Local 120 intends to push hard for current drivers to keep their jobs – and their union contract – if the agency service contract moves to Transit Team. It’s a courtesy Metro Mobility drivers, who received a 95-percent satisfaction rating in the 2015 customer survey, have earned.

Show support for Metro Mobility agency drivers by turning out for the April 23 Transportation Committee meeting, which begins at 4 p.m. at 390 Robert St. N., St. Paul.

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Smith hits the ground running in fight to save pensions

March 15, 2018 by

U.S. Senator Tina Smith met with retirees in St. Paul about her recent appointment to a congressional super-committee on pension reform.

When a Twin Cities-based trucking company abruptly closed three days before Thanksgiving 2016, Tina Smith, then Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, was among the first elected officials to respond.

Owners of Lakeville Motor Express, a union employer, had allegedly siphoned off the firm’s resources into a separate, non-union firm. LME drew public ire for failing to pay many of the 95 Teamsters left jobless.

But Smith also saw signs of what appeared to be a long game. Lakeville Motor Express’ “ability to go out of business on the one hand and start a new business on the other hand,” she said, “allowed it to evade its responsibilities around pensions.”

In fact, LME had followed “a roadmap for escaping pension liabilities,” Teamsters Local 120’s Paul Slattery said, that is “bankrupting” multi-employer pension funds nationwide.

Nearly 18 months later, Lakeville Motor Express’ owners face a state lawsuit alleging fraud, and Smith, who played a critical role in the Dayton administration’s LME investigation, is taking on the fight to protect working people’s hard-earned pension benefits in the U.S. Senate.

The newly appointed senator landed one of eight seats on a congressional “super-committee” formed last month to address the looming pension crisis, as underfunded multi-employer funds providing benefits to over 1 million retirees spiral further toward bankruptcy.

The newly formed committee has until Nov. 30 to agree on a plan to address the crisis. Any legislation that advances from the committee is guaranteed a vote on the Senate floor.

“This is like getting the rug pulled out from underneath you,” Local 120 retiree Chuck Justice (L) told Smith.

‘I’m terrified’

Before digging into the committee’s work, Smith met last week in St. Paul with some of the 22,000 Minnesota retirees covered by the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund. It’s the fund Lakeville Motor Express weaseled out of, and it’s on track to run out of money within 10 years.

Andrea Hovdestad of Andover attended the meeting with her father, Verlyn, who retired after 35 years as a Teamster driver. She listed the sacrifices her father made to keep contributing to his pension: missing birthday parties, working holidays, sometimes standing on picket lines in the freezing cold.

“This feels like an attack on labor, an attack on the working class,” Hovdestad told Smith, adding that her husband is vested the Central States fund as well. “I’m worried. I’m terrified.”

Smith stressed her opposition to cutting current retirees’ benefits as a part of a pension fix.

“These are people who did everything right,” Smith said. “They paid in, they sacrificed, they worked long hours and they worked many, many years for the promise that when they were done there was going to be a pension there so that they could take care of themselves.”

Smith’s preference: the Butch Lewis Act, legislation introduced last year and backed by the Teamsters. The bill would lend cash to Central States and other troubled funds, helping them meet their obligations to current retirees and regain the financial footing necessary to survive over the long haul.

Local retiree organization Save Our Pensions-Minnesota mobilized hundreds of people to rally in support of the Butch Lewis Act last December, and Smith’s support for the measure was met with a round of applause from retirees around the table in St. Paul.

“If we can figure out a way to bail out Wall Street when they need help, I just can’t believe that we can’t figure out a way to do this,” Smith said, adding that the Butch Lewis Act would be “way less expensive” than the bank bailout.

Too big to fail

The cost of federal inaction, retirees warned, would be far greater than the cost of shoring up their pension funds.

For starters, pension benefits are a major driver of consumer spending. A 2016 report by the nonpartisan National Institute on Retirement Security found that every dollar paid out in benefits supported $2.21 in total economic output nationwide.

Many retirees told Smith said they have no “Plan B” if their pension benefits disappear. Dave Erickson, a retired truck driver from Isanti, said 15 percent of his wages – sometimes more – went into the Central States fund, with little left over for individual retirement savings.

“I stayed in a job I didn’t always like because I had that carrot,” he said. “I wanted my pension… That was a promise.”

Without their pensions, many retirees would be left to rely on Social Security retirement benefits, which currently average $1,362 per month – or just over $16,300 annually. Not only would it severely undercut retirees’ standard of living, Central States pensioner Chuck Justice said, it would force many to access public assistance for food, housing and other needs.

“I take pride in the fact I am able to take care of myself,” Justice, a retired truck driver from Woodbury, told Smith. “This is like someone pulling the rug out from underneath you. It’s just not right.”

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Longtime union mailing house in Roseville closes shop

February 12, 2018 by

Accurate Mailing’s longtime operator John Vermeer prepared the Union Advocate’s February edition for mailing with help from April O’Keeffe (L) and Andrea Adair.

Accurate Mailing closed shop for good last week after more than 25 years in business. It was one of the few Twin Cities mailing houses with a union bug.

Accurate’s last job: labeling, sorting and preparing 30,000 copies of The Saint Paul Union Advocate for delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.

Owner-operator John Vermeer and two crewmembers, Andrea Adair and April O’Keeffe, handled the job Feb. 1, their work interrupted occasionally by people hauling equipment and machinery out of the Roseville shop.

Vermeer, a longtime member of Teamsters Local 120, opened Accurate Mailing as a union shop in 1992, after quitting his job at Midwest Printing. Accurate specialized in folding, inserting, addressing, tabbing and other mail-related tasks, but among longtime clients and Postal Service employees, Accurate was best known for its friendly and reliable service.

“We know what we do, and we tried to give the customer as good of service as we could because without that, you don’t have anything,” Vermeer said.

Vermeer’s decision to close shop came after Accurate’s parent company was purchased by multinational printing giant Quebecor, a company that buys shops “for the work, but not the employees,” Vermeer said. “They shut us down.”

Upon learning Accurate was closing, Vermeer’s connections at the Postal Service surprised him with a bottle of Remy Martin as a token of their appreciation for his patience and professionalism over the years.

“I never gave them a hard time, and I always enjoyed working with them,” he said. “They were all pleasant people.”

Now, Vermeer heads into “total retirement,” he said. His only plans? Travel, enjoy life and try cognac for the first time.

“It was enjoyable working with different people, different unions,” he said. “I’m going to miss all the people I’d see and work with.”

Find a list of union printing and mailing shops at http://www.mnaflcio.org.

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Minnesota union members marched against Trump in droves. Here’s why

January 27, 2017 by
web-womensmarch-trades1

D Rojas, a member of Carpenters Local 322, attended the Women’s March in Minnesota a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration with several other Minnesota union tradeswomen.

 

Dressed in hard hats and union colors, union members were among the estimated 100,000 people who joined the Women’s March in Minnesota one day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, capping three days of protests – locally and nationally – that put the new administration on notice of popular opposition to his policy objectives and governing approach.

Stretched from the cathedral to the Capitol in St. Paul, the historic crowd represented, for union members who participated, a stirring display of the solidarity it will take to fend off attacks on working people’s rights, women’s rights, immigrant families and others feeling vulnerable as the former reality-TV boss – with a track record of not paying his employees and joking about sexual assault – assumes the highest office in the land.

“We’re in the majority,” Sprinklerfitters Local 417 member Kimberly Brinkman said from the steps of the Capitol, overlooking a sea of anti-Trump demonstrators. “We want common decency to prevail.”

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Home Depot janitors staged a strike on Trump’s first day in office.

Trump’s inauguration inspired a flurry of events locally planned by unions and progressive groups, who offered hopeful counterprogramming to offset the president’s message of “American carnage.” Union teachers in St. Paul rallied around the district’s immigrant students. Janitors from 12 area Home Depot stores went on strike. And U of M students and workers led a massive march into downtown Minneapolis.

Working people who joined the protests spoke of a need to find strength in numbers at the dawn of uncertain times.

“There’s an immediate need to be together with people, to link arms and to have it be about love and inclusiveness,” Mona Meyer, president of the Communications Workers of America’s statewide council, said. “Right now all of that feels like it’s being threatened.”

For Samantha Kaneaukua, a member of Carpenters Local 322, the threat posed by Trump and congressional Republicans feels uniquely personal. “As a union carpenter, as a person of color and as a lesbian, it’s pretty much everything I stand for, everything I am, that he is opposed to,” she said. “There’s no reason not to be here fighting.”

Why don’t working people get over it and give Trump a chance? After all, he did win fair and square (albeit with an assist from some Russian friends).

“I respect the office,” Meyer said. “I don’t respect the policies and ideas of division and hatred. I don’t like personal attacks on union leaders, civil rights leaders – all of this childish, outlandish behavior. It isn’t becoming of a president.”

If there were any doubts about Trump’s anti-labor intentions, other union members said, his cabinet picks removed them.

Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has donated millions to political campaigns aimed at defunding public schools. His nominee for Labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, is a fast-food executive who opposes raising the minimum wage.

“This is going to be an all-out assault on working families,” St. Paul Federation of Teachers Vice President Nick Faber said.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, called it a “cruel” bait and switch: “A campaign that promised to lift up working people is transitioning into an administration designed to tear all of us down.”

Marching against Trump’s agenda were (L to R) Debra DeBruzzi, Operating Engineers 49; Casey Hudek and Karlan Bean, Teamsters 120; Megan Bean, Christina Nelson and Kiya Caturia of Gustavus Adolphus College; and Rod Olson of Local 120.

Marching against Trump’s agenda were (L to R) Debra DeBruzzi, Operating Engineers 49; Casey Hudek and Karlan Bean, Teamsters 120; Megan Bean, Christina Nelson and Kiya Caturia of Gustavus Adolphus College; and Rod Olson of Local 120.

It’s true that many working people supported Trump, and he did better among union members than recent Republican presidential nominees. Karlan Bean, who drove Teamsters Local 120’s semi-truck to the Jan. 21 march, said he knows “too many union members” who backed Trump.

“I’m hopeful that it doesn’t turn out as bad as in the back of my head I fear it will, especially for unions,” Bean added.

“We already know he’s been sued so many times for not paying his labor, and we know he supports Right to Work,” Brinkman said. “A lot of union guys were talking about Trump. It’s going to be one eye-opener for them to see what he does to working families.”

Maybe it was the intoxicating hopefulness of a mass march. Or maybe living in hope is an easier choice than wallowing in despair. But many union members insisted that, by standing together and remaining vigilant, they could fight Trump’s agenda and hold onto their rights.

“The union is kind of reflective of how we need to be,” Carpenters Local 322 apprentice Michelle Rousseau said. “If we stand together and stay united, we’ll be OK.”

Faber said his union would increase its efforts to connect “with other groups and other causes in town” that share teachers’ values. Hager and Brinkman said women in the Trades plan to push locally and nationally to increase hiring goals within the industry for women. Meyer said CWA members have been “thinking not just defensively, but how to move forward based on what workers need, what people need, what families, women, immigrants and LGBT people need.”

Union tradeswomen stood together at the Women’s March, saying they will push for increased hiring goals to bring women into the industry both locally and nationally.

Union tradeswomen stood together at the Women’s March, saying they will push for increased hiring goals to bring women into the industry both locally and nationally.

Kaneaukua, meanwhile, plans to fight for her rights one person at a time by engaging people with different perspectives than her own. And opportunities abound on the job site.

“We need to speak up against discrimination in all of its forms,” she said. “We don’t know each other well enough. I feel like being able to have those conversations and talk about things that maybe my co-workers aren’t used to, that makes a big difference.

“That’s going to be my day-to-day approach.”

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Teamsters cite ‘shady business practices’ at Finish Line Express

December 2, 2016 by
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Former Lakeville Motor Express employees and supporters rally outside Maple Grove-based Finish Line Express, which workers say absorbed LME’s business.

MAPLE GROVE – Heartbreaking, gutless and dishonest were among the ways workers, union leaders and high-ranking elected officials described a Roseville trucking firm’s decision to withhold pay from 90 members of Teamsters Local 120 after abruptly closing the week of Thanksgiving.

Out-of-work Teamsters staged a rally last night outside Finish Line Express, a Maple Grove-based trucking company that, workers allege, has absorbed Lakeville Motor Express’ business since it abruptly closed shop Nov. 20. Local 120 President Tom Erickson said the closure was “surgically done” to shake off the union’s contract more than a year before it is set to expire.

“The same management team that was over in Roseville is exactly the same management team that is in that place,” Erickson said, pointing to Finish Line Express.

Local 120’s officers pledged a campaign to raise awareness of Finish Line’s “shady business practices,” particularly among the company’s clients. They include John Deere, 3M, Land ‘o Lakes and Toro – which, not coincidentally, are many of the same clients Lakeville Motor Express served.

“Every day we’re going up and down this street, trying to find these customers and divert them in a different direction,” Erickson said. “That’s the only way we’re going to win this thing.”

Meanwhile, state officials are pursuing wages owed to workers locked out of their jobs by LME. Lieutenant Gov. Tina Smith, who likened the company’s behavior to “stealing,” said the Department of Labor and Industry has filed six claims on behalf of former LME employees already.

“And I suspect there will be more,” Smith said.

Teamsters Local 120 “passed the hat” to support out-of-work LME drivers.
Steve Satterlee said he doesn’t know how he’ll afford medication for his wife, Wanda, who is disabled.
Lisa and Shane Thompson, pictured with their two sons, are both looking for work since Shane found himself out of a job three days before Thanksgiving.

Several former LME workers described having their lives turned upside down by the company’s sudden decision to pick up and, allegedly, move to Maple Grove without them.

“I spent 14 years here, and now I’m left with no insurance for my family, no paychecks,” Shane Thompson of Braham said, standing next to his wife, Lisa, and their two sons. “It kind of hurt. It’s been kind of a struggle.”

For both Roger Nelson of White Bear Lake and Steve Satterlee of Cottage Grove, there could not have been a worse time to lose their family health insurance coverage. Nelson’s wife faces surgery, and Satterlee’s relies on expensive medication to live a “normal life” with a disability.

“These people don’t (care) about your hardships or my hardships,” Satterlee said of Finish Line management. “They don’t (care) about anybody but themselves. That’s why they’re going this to us.”

Smith pledged assistance for workers navigating the state’s unemployment insurance system, and she said LME could face penalties if it refuses to comply with orders to pay back wages.

“I want the people in these buildings to understand that they cannot just get away with this,” she said.

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In tough talks with Allina, Teamsters win wage increases, avoid strike

April 11, 2016 by
Allina Home Oxygen and Medical Equipment workers prepared for a strike just days before ratifying a last-minute contract Saturday. (Local 120 photo)

Allina Home Oxygen and Medical Equipment workers prepared for a strike just days before ratifying a last-minute contract Saturday. (Local 120 photo)

Members of Teamsters Local 120 who provide home-delivery of oxygen and medical equipment for Allina Health ratified a new contract Saturday, narrowly avoiding a work stoppage.

Frustrated by management’s refusal to consider meaningful wage increases in negotiating sessions last month, the 42 members of Local 120 unanimously authorized their bargaining team to call a strike as early as today.

As workers gathered at union headquarters to assemble picket signs last week, Allina reached out with an improved offer, staving off a strike in the 11th hour.

Throughout bargaining, according to Local 120, workers held firm to their stance that they deserve a raise – especially after agreeing to take no wage increases in four of the last six years, helping Allina ride out a change in Medicare reimbursement rates.

But Allina’s negotiators refused to budge from wage proposals that would hardly have kept pace with inflation, and they even proposed language to make it easier for Allina to contract out Teamsters’ work. Local 120 President Tom Erickson called the health system’s initial offers shameful.

“This is a company that makes profits around $300 million a year and calls themselves a ‘non-profit’ to avoid paying taxes,” Erickson said. “This local is behind our members at Allina 100 percent.”

The 42 Teamsters deliver and set up oxygen tanks, CPAP masks and other medical equipment for Allina’s home-care and hospice patients. Allina Health Home Oxygen and Medical Equipment is headquartered in St. Paul.

Teamsters aren’t the only ones who’ve been feeling squeezed in contract negotiations with Allina. About 5,000 nurses remain in bargaining with Allina on a contract covering the system’s metro-area hospitals.

According to the Minnesota Nurses Association, management wants to eliminate nurses’ union-sponsored health insurance plans and replace them with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. Allina also is resisting nurses’ efforts to ensure safe staffing levels in its hospitals.

Click here to sign a petition in support of union nurses at Allina.

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Marker honoring fallen Minneapolis Teamsters to be dedicated July 18

July 8, 2015 by
Linda Leighton, a descendent of one of the leaders of the 1934 Teamsters strike, is enlisted support for a historic monument in Minneapolis at the Minnesota State Fair last year.

Linda Leighton, a descendent of one of the leaders of the strike, enlisted support for the plaque during the State Fair last year.

After a lengthy fundraising campaign, the Remember 1934 Committee will unveil a permanent plaque July 18 in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis commemorating the historic Teamsters strikes that echoed across the U.S. – and made Minneapolis a union town.

The committee will host an unveiling and celebration at 11 a.m. July 18 at the site of “Bloody Friday,” the intersection of 7th Ave. and 3rd St. N., Minneapolis.

The free, public event will feature food, speakers and a ceremony honoring descendants of the strikers.

The Remember 1934 Committee announced plans for the dedication ceremony in a press release today:

Minneapolis — The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes are one of the great watershed moments in the history of the American labor movement and now a group of labor activists, historians and sympathizers are planning to erect a permanent marker to commemorate the events of that year and to honor those who fell in the struggle for collective bargaining and the right to organize.

The marker will be unveiled on Saturday, July 18, in a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. at 701 N. Third St., in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis.

“There are virtually no memorials in the Twin Cities related to historical moments in the local labor movement,” said Dave Riehle, who chairs the Remember 1934 Committee. “The ’34 Teamsters Strikes were a critical moment in the American labor movement and we believe the time is long overdue for a memorial.”

The 1934 strikes really stemmed from the winter of 1933-34 when socialist militants such as the Dunne brothers (V.R. (Ray), Miles and Grant) and Swedish immigrant Carl Skoglund had effectively shut down delivery of coal during the coldest part of the year. This victory lifted their status as organizers among the area’s truck drivers. By the spring of 1934, anger among the drivers over wages and working conditions had reached such a level that a powerful strike was possible.

The strike began on May 16. It was successful in that it stopped most commercial transportation in the city. Certain farmers were allowed to bring their produce into town, but delivering was directly to grocers rather than to the food wholesale outlets in the market area, which the union had shut down.

The union, Local 574 (today Teamsters Local 120) was up against the Citizens Alliance, a group of powerful and influential business leaders in Minneapolis vehemently opposed to unions. The Alliance hired goons to augment the police. These people were deputized, provided with clubs made by a local woodworking shop and during the May strike physically clashed numerous times with strikers and pickets in the streets of the Market District.

In the latter part of May, a truce was reached and a tentative agreement signed. But by mid-July, the Citizens Alliance and the trucking owners reneged on the agreement and the strike resumed. On July 20, what has become known as “Bloody Friday,” unarmed strikers were confronted by police, who opened fire with handguns and shotguns. When the confrontation ended, 67 strikers were shot and two, Henry Ness and John Belor, died of their wounds.

By this point, support for the Teamsters had grown, not only among other trade unions but by the public as well. The strikers held strong and remained unified. Victory finally came on Aug. 21.

On that date, federal mediators were notified by the Citizens Alliance of their acceptance of a settlement proposal agreeing to the union’s major demands.

Riehle, a retired locomotive engineer and local labor historian, said the idea for a memorial has been discussed for a couple of decades. Finally, after the observation last year of the 80th anniversary of the strike, a committee was formed with the sole purpose of raising funds, commissioning an artist and making sure the memorial would become reality.

Keith Christensen, an award-winning professor of art and graphic design at St. Cloud State University, has designed the memorial. It will be erected at street level on the iconic 1913 Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. building. It was in front of this building on Bloody Friday that striker Ness was shot and killed by Minneapolis police.

The plaque will be 30 by 22-inches, comprised of porcelain enamel in a steel frame and will have text and visuals about the strike and its historical importance.

“Anything which memorializes our fallen brothers and sisters in the struggle for union representation and collective bargaining is a good thing and this memorial is a good thing,” said Paul Slattery, organizer and political director for Teamsters Local 120.

Speakers at the ceremony will include Tom Keegel, general secretary-treasurer emeritus of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, whose grandfather was a 1934 striker; and Linda Leighton, a shop steward in Service Employees Local 284 and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Leighton is a granddaughter of strike leader VR Dunne, an early member of the IWW.

Further information on the project is available by visiting http://www.gamechange.ampstudio.org. Persons or groups wishing to make a contribution to the project can send their donation to: Remember 1934, P.O. Box 8115, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, Minn. 55408.

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Teamsters at Supervalu’s Hopkins facility ratify new contract

June 8, 2015 by

9bc7c-120One week after voting 468-0 to authorize their leadership to call a strike if necessary, warehouse workers at Supervalu’s Hopkins distribution center ratified a new three-year contract June 4 that will raise wages and improve working conditions.

The contract covers 723 members of Teamsters Local 120, who voted by an 8-1 margin in favor of ratifying the new deal.

In addition to wage increases in each year of the contract, workers secured benefits and improved scheduling procedures during hard-fought negotiations that led the union to call a strike vote May 29. A work stoppage could have impacted dozens of Supervalu retail locations – a prospect the union alerted the company’s shareholders to with a website, corporatetransparency.org.

“This is a good contract,” chief shop steward Mike Irrgang said. “We did what we needed to do as a committee, developed a strategy with the international union and our Local 120, and it worked out great.”

Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson credited the warehouse workers for standing strong for the contract they deserve. “It was all about them showing unity, sticking together and staying focused on getting a good contract,” he said.

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