McCollum focused on keeping workers, families safe during crisis

May 6, 2020 by

The global pandemic has elected officials spending less time shaking hands and more time taking calls – so much time, in fact, that Congresswoman Betty McCollum recently treated herself to a pair of Apple AirPods. 

“I am on the phone from about 8:30 in the morning to about 6:30 at night, then on and off a little bit on the weekends,” she laughed. “It’s not the most efficient way for us to legislate, but we’re figuring out how to do it.” 

After being endorsed by the Minnesota AFL-CIO last month, the 10-term DFLer from the state’s 4th Congressional District carved out 30 minutes of phone time for this interview with The Union Advocate, featured in our May 2020 edition.

The interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, took place before April 24, when Congress passed a $484 billion relief package with funds for small business loans, hospitals and testing. 

UA: Federal lawmakers have so far passed three sweeping measures to address the public health and economic crises caused by COVID-19. Where have you directed your focus during this process? 

BM: My focus first and foremost has been on working people and their families, and on making sure we have health care facilities that are open and able to run. That meant having the personal protection for frontline workers in our hospitals, as well as in our community clinics. 

And then we needed to make sure that we have testing, which the president has failed miserably at. In order to open up our economy, in order to lift some of these stay-at-home orders, we have to have tests. People need to be able to be diagnosed quickly and effectively … so that we can work on the next phase, which is coming up with treatment and coming up with a vaccine.  

So my focus has been on what we need to do to keep our families safe… 

UA: We’re still hearing alarming accounts from health care and other frontline workers about lack of PPE and medical equipment. Is there more Congress should do, or is it now a supply-chain issue that falls more on the executive branch and states? 

BM: This is a supply-chain issue that I have been concerned about since we had our last epidemic, with H1N1 and SARS. When I was in the Minnesota statehouse, I had the opportunity to work with (former state epidemiologist) Dr. Michael Osterholm. He has been a mentor to me on this. When we were going through the anthrax situation in Washington, D.C., I learned we don’t keep enough of a stockpile or manufacture enough of the things we need… Masks, gowns, syringes, the cotton swabs they need to do the tests – there are so many things we don’t manufacture in this country. When trade shuts down because of war, trade shuts down because of disruption or trade shuts down because of pandemic, we as a country make ourselves vulnerable.  

It’s something a lot of us in Congress have been talking about for years. Then the crisis goes away, and everybody doesn’t want to deal with it. We have to deal with it this time. I hope we’ve learned our lesson. 

UA: Congress has allocated a lot of money to make sure workers remain employed during the crisis, with access to paid leave if they need it. Are you confident that’s happening as the bills are being implemented? And is there proper oversight to ensure corporations benefiting from the stimulus are using that money to pay their workers? 

BM: Two great points that you bring up… With the CARES Act, we knew there were going to be a lot of people who would not be able to go to work. You look at the restaurants right now, they had to close down because of all the contact. We put in place unemployment insurance, and the State of Minnesota … had money in hand to get the money out the door even faster. Sure there’s been hiccups with that, but I feel confident a lot of these issues will get smoothed out and money will get out to families… 

But you also asked about oversight. And for the president of the United States to say (Congress) didn’t need any oversight, with the way he’s been firing people who have been in place for years to work with Congress on oversight of taxpayers’ dollars? Just because he doesn’t agree with them, he’s firing them. That’s wrong. Democrats in the House are going to do our very, very best to make sure these funds are spent the way they were meant to be: to save lives, to keep families from suffering more than they already have and to get our economy back up and running. 

UA: The Postal Service says it’s likely to run out of cash by September. Cities and other local governments are looking at historic shortfalls. Is there a chance Congress would act to address some of these things in a second stimulus? 

BM: I’m on the Appropriations Committee, and we were working with our authorizers on a major infrastructure bill, which, on and off, the president has been interested in working with us on. We could get people back to work, we could get people off the bench, building roads, bridges, broadband, energy efficiency in our schools. But we found out Mitch McConnell was not interested in doing that. 

We still know that our hospitals need money, and we need money for vaccine work. And we know social distancing works; we need to figure out a way to get the economy moving safely. So while these businesses lay in wait for that moment when it’s safe for workers to go back, we have to keep those small community businesses – the hair salons, the restaurants, the plumbing and electric companies – able to keep their employees on hold in a way that provides them some stability and security. 

UA: I know you’ve been a strong supporter of our postal unions here in St. Paul. What does Congress need to do to keep the post office open? 

BM: Well there are bills out there the postal unions have been talking about for years, we just need to pass them. Just think, in a presidential election year, as we’re slowly starting to recover from a pandemic, if we don’t have letter carriers out there delivering ballots. We know what the weather can be like here in November, to ask people to social distance and stand in line outside to vote like they did in Wisconsin? That would just be wrong. 

UA: You will once again be the labor-endorsed candidate on the ballot in the 4th district this year. Has the COVID-19 crisis heightened the stakes of our choice this November, not just locally, but nationally? 

BM:  I think it really has. When I saw what was happening in China in January, it took my breath away. That’s a communist government. We don’t hear about those things as fast as if it had happened in Canada or Australia. So when we hear about it, you know it’s been going on a long time. COVID-19 is an invisible enemy – that’s that only thing the president has said that I’ll agree with him on. His job was to work with world leaders, to work with the WHO to collect the information, to start gearing up and buy ventilators and PPE, to get what we need to keep America safe – and he just failed to do it.  

His comments speak for themselves. It’s just like the flu, or it will all be gone this spring. None of them were based on science; they were all based on wishful thinking. When the health and safety of the people that look to you for leadership is on the line, that’s not the time for wishful thinking. That’s the time for hard thinking. And he failed us miserably. 

UA:  The labor endorsement came despite positions you’ve taken on mining in northern Minnesota that are at odds with some Building Trades unions. What do you say to tradespeople who want an opportunity to work those jobs? 

BM:  First off, I’m not opposed to mining in northern Minnesota, the way it’s often stated generally. I’m a member of the Steel Caucus. I’m on the Defense Committee. I know how important it is to our national security that we have the ability to make it in America. And I’ve carried a lot of language in the interior bill so that steel for taxpayer-funded projects, we make it in America. 

In the early days of taconite mining we learned that it caused some great harm to our waterways, and we’ve been cleaning that up since then. We’ve learned how to be respectful of our environment and not damaging our water quality anymore when taconite mining. The sulfide-ore copper mining in northern Minnesota is a different type of mining than taconite. The waste product kills everything in the water. There is no second chance, no do-over. 

The Superior National Forest has 20 percent of the fresh water in our U.S. Forestry system. All the water adjacent to the Great Lakes on the Minnesota side is in the Boundary Waters area. We are known for fresh water. We are known for clean water. You need fresh, clean water in order to survive… We have a moral responsibility to protect clean, fresh drinking water for our children and future generations. 

I think jobs are important. I think jobs in northern Minnesota are extraordinarily important. The only thing I asked is … prove it to me scientifically that we can do this safely. And 20 months into a 24-month study, the Trump administration stopped the study. They will not show me one piece of paper from it, not one scrap. I’ve repeatedly asked for it. It was paid for with taxpayer money. And before the study was completed, they started removing the moratorium on the leases. I think a reasonable person could say, why did you stop the study? It should bring great concerns to all of us, including my brothers and sisters in northern Minnesota, why we can’t see the study. What don’t they want us to know?  

UA: Finally, how has COVID-19 impacted your office’s work? 

BM: We are here to serve you. Our office is open for business, and we are really anxious to help people navigate their way through COVID-19. 

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

Teamsters cite ‘shady business practices’ at Finish Line Express

December 2, 2016 by
web-lme-teamsters-scene

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.

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.
Steve Satterlee said he doesn’t know how he’ll afford medication for his wife, Wanda, who is disabled.
Teamsters Local 120 “passed the hat” to support out-of-work LME drivers.

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.

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

Unions praise Dayton’s approach to building a ‘state that works for everyone’

March 10, 2016 by

MNSTOSIn his State of the State Address last night, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton called on legislators to join him in addressing the state’s racial and geographic disparities, and in making needed investments in public education, transportation and infrastructure.

Afterward, union leaders from across the state praised Dayton’s speech.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht called Dayton the “Education Governor.” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said he “demonstrated his commitment to ensuring that Minnesota is a state that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”

“Hardworking Minnesotans have always formed the backbone of our economy,” AFSCME Council 5 Director Eliot Seide added. “We applaud Gov. Dayton’s focus on infrastructure, transportation, and expanding economic opportunity for all Minnesotans. Those smart investments will help build a better Minnesota that works for all of us.”

Supporting workers left behind

Early in the address, Dayton reiterated his support for extending aid to Iron Range workers suffering from a slowdown in the mining industry and to minority communities that have yet to reap the benefits of Minnesota’s economic recovery.

Illegally dumped foreign steel has flooded the U.S. market, leading Iron Range mining companies to lay off an estimated 2,000 workers in the last year. The slowdown has impacted an additional 4,700 workers in mining-related jobs.

A relief package would extend unemployment benefits for about 2,750 workers, but Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, insist on pairing the relief package with tax breaks for businesses.

“To hold $29 million of desperately needed unemployment benefits hostage to $272 million in fund cuts is unnecessary,” Dayton told Republicans. “And it’s cruel.”

Dayton also cited several sobering statistics regarding racial and ethnic disparities in the state. Compared with Minnesota’s white families, he said, U.S.-born African American families’ annual income is 55 percent less, and their poverty rate is more than 4 times greater. Mexican-American, Ojibwe and Somali families also have fallen behind.

“We cannot resolve these disparities in one legislative session, but we must begin now,” Dayton said, pledging a “significant initiative” to increase economic opportunities for Minnesotans of color.

He also called on the state’s businesses to increase its outreach into minority communities and set a goal of doubling the percentage of minorities working in state government by the time he leaves office.

Modest investments, targeted tax cuts

As for how to approach Minnesota’s $900 million budget surplus for the next two years, Dayton said he would support pairing “modest spending increases” with tax cuts targeted for middle-class families, like an increase in the child-care tax credit.

But the governor, who faced a $6 billion budget shortfall when he took office in 2011, emphasized the importance of keeping the state on firm financial footing.

“Some people are proposing permanent tax cuts, which would put our state’s budget, once again, on a fiscal precipice,” he said.

“What we have been doing is working,” Dayton added. “Minnesotans are working. Minnesota is working. How could we stop now, when there is more work left to do?”

Investments in statewide broadband access, clean energy, rural water-treatment facilities, infrastructure, roads and bridges would create jobs and expand economic opportunities statewide, Dayton said. And he renewed his call for greater investment in early education to “prevent achievement gaps before they appear.”

Specht, president of the statewide educators’ union, praised Dayton’s support for learners at all levels.

“Gov. Dayton understands the foundation of our state is a great system of public education that prepares all students for successful lives,” she said. “His commitment to expand access to high-quality preschool and to support public colleges and universities will reduce the opportunity gaps which hold back too many of our students.”

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House Republicans play politics with unemployment extension for steelworkers

March 4, 2016 by

capitolSteelworkers pleaded with members of a House committee yesterday to pass a clean bill extending unemployment benefits to workers impacted by the Iron Range mining slowdown, but they couldn’t convince Republicans, who continued holding the relief package hostage for $271 million in tax cuts for businesses.

“Believe me, this is not an easy thing for us proud Iron Rangers to do,” Cliff Tobey, president of United Steelworkers Local 2660, told members of the House Job Growth and Energy Affordability Committee.

Tobey and another laid-off Steelworker traveled to St. Paul to testify in favor of extending benefits by 26 weeks for workers impacted by the crisis, which was triggered by an influx of cheap foreign steel that flooded the U.S. market and left ore prices at a 10-year low.

Most of the region’s 11 mining outfits have issued layoffs in the last 12 months, and by the time the legislative session starts Tuesday, about 1,200 Iron Range workers will have exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Toby urged committee members to pass the extension “without attaching unnecessary demands,” but Republicans couldn’t resist including a tax rebate for businesses that pay into the state’s unemployment insurance fund.

The bill passed the committee over objections from members of the DFL minority, who said the two issues – extending benefits for steelworkers and reforming the state’s unemployment insurance system – deserve separate consideration.

Rep. Jason Metsa, whose District 6B includes the heart of taconite mining country, choked up as he appealed to his Republican colleagues.

“These guys gotta go back to their families and their friends and tell them we didn’t get it done,” Metsa said of the Steelworkers who testified. “Let’s do the right thing and set these (issues) on two different tracks.”

The committee’s vote cast doubt on whether lawmakers will be able to pass an extension of benefits during the first week of session, a goal set by Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates mining companies have laid off 2,000 workers since March 1, 2015, and the slowdown has impacted an additional 4,700 Iron Range workers in mining-related jobs.

DEED has crafted a relief package to extend benefits for about 2,750 workers at a cost to the unemployment insurance trust fund of $29.7 million. The Republican tax break would siphon nearly 10 times that amount from the state’s unemployment trust fund, leaving its balance below federal guidelines, DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said.

“We know that a recession can deplete reserves quickly,” Sieben warned.

In 2009, for example, the unemployment fund paid out $1.7 billion – more than its current $1.57 billion balance. Faced with $1.4 billion in claims in 2010, the fund was forced to borrow from the federal government to meet its obligations, a debt that took almost three years to pay back.

“Putting the future solvency of our unemployment insurance trust fund at risk is unconscionable,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy told the committee.

But with each additional day Republicans play politics with the issue, more Iron Range families see their benefits disappear.

Tobey, a third-generation miner, said his local has 360 members “out on the street right now trying to feed their families, trying to pay their mortgages, trying to get by.” He questioned whether Republicans would insist on business tax cuts before providing flood relief or assistance in the wake of a bridge collapse.

“We have no more control over other countries flooding our market (with cheap steel) than the people of Minnesota have over falling bridges and flooding rivers,” he said.

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

Steve Hunter: Labor agenda includes investments, tax fairness, new jobs and workplace dignity

January 24, 2013 by

mug-hunter-webThe 2013 legislative session presents Minnesota’s labor movement with opportunities we haven’t seen since 1990, the last time we had a pro-labor governor and labor-friendly majorities in both the House and Senate. After 22 years of playing defense, we finally have an opportunity to accomplish positive change for working people. The Minnesota AFL-CIO, working with our affiliate unions, has assembled an agenda for this session that focuses on new investments, tax fairness, job creation and workplace dignity and fairness.

Our No. 1 priority is the state budget. We need to make new investments in our roads and bridges, schools and colleges – and provide care and dignity for our senior citizens. To make these important investments, there needs to be new tax revenue. We need to increase revenue by reforming our tax system to ensure fairness and stability. We have witnessed years of cuts to state and local government services, education, higher education, health care, human services, transportation and public safety. At the same time we’ve been asked to pay more in fees, property taxes and tuition. To protect the wealthiest Minnesotans from paying their fair share, previous governors and legislators have resorted to spending down reserves and borrowing from schools and endowments. It’s time to balance the budget without gimmicks while providing the additional funding needed to invest in our future.

We can also increase revenue by putting Minnesota back to work. The state AFL-CIO supports the Mall of America expansion, and we also support a significant bonding bill to put people back to work improving our state’s infrastructure, which will support and facilitate future economic growth.

Feb. 1 will mark the 18th month of the American Crystal Sugar lockout. As I write this, both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra remain locked out, and the NHL has only recently resumed games after a prolonged lockout. Locked out workers in Minnesota qualify for unemployment benefits, but cases like Crystal Sugar show that lockouts can linger well beyond the length of those benefits. That’s why we are proposing legislation to extend unemployment benefits for the duration of a lockout, and also add a penalty to the employer’s unemployment tax after the beginning of a lockout’s second month. Half of that penalty would go to the UI Trust Fund; the other 50 percent would support the Workforce Development Fund.

We will also support initiatives to protect workers’ right to organize, raise minimum wage and limit employers’ use of credit checks related to terms of employment. We will soon announce our complete agenda to the public.

The election was only the first half of ensuring pro-labor policies become law; the other half is holding elected officials accountable. We need union members to contact their legislators concerning these issues. For more information on labor-related legislation, contact our offices, visit www.mnaflcio.org or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

– Steve Hunter is Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the statewide labor federation representing over 300,000 workers.

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UNITE HERE Local 17: Bottom line is Vikes stadium will create jobs

June 20, 2012 by

The Vikings Stadium deal is done, and the members of UNITE HERE Local 17 are happy about that. We are happy about the jobs that it will provide over the next few years while it’s being built and about the jobs it will provide over the next 30+ years for our members.

Local 17 represents workers in the hospitality industry, including sports arenas. When Target Field opened, there was no doubt what that did for the hospitality industry in downtown Minneapolis, with people eating at restaurants, shopping, and staying in hotels. Our union, which was hit hard in a bad economy, regained members, saw wages rise and people called back from layoff. Target Field employs as many as 800 of our members at each game, many of them coming from inner city neighborhoods where unemployment is high.

As we listened over several months to the endless debates, opinions, and commentary about the jobs that would be created once the new stadium was built, we also heard a lot of misconceptions and untruths about the type of jobs these would be. Some politicians and some labor people described them as “dead end, low wage jobs.”

We need to respect all workers and not allow politicians to look down their nose and create “jobism.” We should not be taking a position that working in a stadium or a hotel is somehow less important. Not everyone will be a teacher or a lawyer or a skilled professional, and some who are will continue to vend the beer, sell the hotdogs and work in the bars, restaurants and clubs that will be part of the new stadium.

The fact is, for each of the jobs created at the site, many more are truly created; it’s a ripple effect that could hardly be quantified. Think of it this way: for every hotdog sold, not only is the cook and the server of the hotdog working, but the person who delivered the hotdogs to the stadium. There’s a person that keeps that person’s truck running and in good tires and brakes, which someone else makes, and then there’s the farmer who raised the pigs or cows to make the hotdogs and the people who make and print the bags they come in and the makers of mustard, ketchup, pickles and onions. And let’s not forget the bakers of the buns. We could go on and on.

This is how the economy is built. One job relies on the job of another and then expands to create more jobs. It is shallow and shortsighted to claim that we are giving billionaires millions. We are giving ourselves millions in pride in our community that cannot be estimated in dollars.

– Nancy Goldman is president of Twin Cities-based UNITE HERE Local 17. Martin Goff is senior vice president of Local 17. For more information on their union and the workers it represents, go to www.uniteherelocal17.org.

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