Keith Ellison: Time to address wage theft is now

April 25, 2019 by

Frankly, I was shocked.

Here I was, listening to a man through an interpreter describe how the paycheck that he worked so hard for at fairly low wages was delivered to him in a debit card. He didn’t get a regular paycheck or a check stub of any kind: he was told that this debit card represented his pay and that the pay had been deposited for him.

It was hard for him to figure out how much he had actually gotten paid. When he did, he found that he had lost as many as three days’ wages even though he had worked hard every single day.

He’s not alone. Kevin’s restaurant didn’t pay him for the time he spent setting up and cleaning his work station as a cook. Emilio was told that his Sunday shift at a convenience store was “volunteer time.” Marfa’s employer withheld her wages and her passport; when she got her passport back, she was tricked into signing a document that said she had been paid when she hadn’t been.

Gonzalo, a construction worker, has had at least $1,000 a year stolen in wages – for each of the last eight years. Now, he just budgets for it.

These folks are all victims of wage theft. Wage theft takes many forms: having hours shaved off your paycheck; being forced to work off the clock; not getting paid for overtime; being paid at a lower rate than promised, sometimes below minimum wage; being paid in cash or other forms, with no Social Security, unemployment, or worker’s comp withheld; being misclassified as an independent contractor; and more.

I was shocked for two reasons. First, I honestly didn’t know wage theft happens. As much solidarity as I felt with hard-working people, I had never spent a day working hard for which I didn’t get the pay I was promised.

I was also shocked at the frequency with which wage theft happens. Reputable studies from several years ago estimate that two-thirds of all low-wage workers in the country have experienced at least one form of wage theft. The amount of wages stolen each year in Minnesota may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars: nationally, the Economic Policy Institute has estimated that $50 billion a year is stolen in wage theft. That’s more than three times the value of all the goods stolen through robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft combined.

Those estimates are 5-10 years old now. In an economy that’s gotten more and more predatory, it’s surely only gotten worse.

One reason people don’t know wage theft happens is because employers often retaliate or threaten to retaliate against people who report it. Another reason is that wage theft commonly happens in the shadows, to the most vulnerable among us, especially immigrants, people of color, and young people. African American workers are three times more likely to have had their wages stolen than white workers, and Latina/o workers are four times more likely. The predators who steal from these folks do so because they figure they’re the least likely to report it.

Too often, wage theft is connected to criminal abuse. According to human-rights advocates, every case of human trafficking also involves wage theft. If you find people being trafficked, you’ll find people whose wages are being stolen. That’s happening right here: in Hennepin County, a contractor has been charged with human trafficking, insurance fraud, and undocumented wage theft. The charges claim that “he knew the men that he had employed were undocumented workers and used that knowledge as leverage to force them to work long hours for less than market pay and without adequate safety protection,” and that “when workers were injured, he told his employees that they would lose their jobs and be deported if they sought medical attention.”

If you do get paid every penny you’ve earned – and I hope you do – wage theft still affects you. We’re all paying higher payroll taxes to cover this fraud. Legitimate companies who play by the rules and the people who work for them lose business because they can’t compete against companies that steal money from their workers and the government. Every dollar these thieves don’t pay in taxes is a dollar that isn’t going to pay a teacher or a nurse or a laborer building a road that benefits of all of us. And the money being stolen from workers is money that’s not going back into the local economy.

In short, if American workers are a ship trying to sail forward in ever rougher seas, wage theft is a dragging anchor holding them back.

Fortunately, we can do more to help. I strongly support a bill at the Legislature – HF 6, authored by Rep. Tim Mahoney, a union pipefitter, and SF 1933, authored by Sen. Bobby Joe Champion – that will give us more tools and resources to charge people with the crime of wage theft and prosecute it more aggressively. It also creates protections for workers who come forward, and imposes higher penalties on unscrupulous employers. And because wage theft is often a sign of other abuse, this bill will also make it easier to uncover and prosecute criminal behavior like denial of medical treatment, fraud and human trafficking. I encourage you to contact your legislators and ask them to support it.

In addition, I’m starting a new unit in the Attorney General’s Office that will focus exclusively on investigating and prosecuting wage theft and other abuse of workers. If HF 6 passes, it will give us many more tools to protect workers, recover wages and hold offenders accountable.

The principle that you should get paid for every hour you worked and every penny you earned is common sense. No one should be against that. But as the Minnesota Legislature heads into the final stretch, one of the biggest problems we face in fighting wage theft is that too many people still don’t believe it actually happens.

Our job is to speak the truth about wage theft and how it hurts all of us. That’s what I’m doing. I’m asking you to join me.

– Keith Ellison has been serving as Minnesota’s Attorney General since January 7, 2019. As the People’s Lawyer, his job is to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity and respect. Before becoming Attorney General, he represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , ,

Bill to stop wage theft advances in Minnesota House

February 6, 2019 by

Supporters of House File 6, a bill to crack down on wage theft, staged a press conference at the Capitol.

A labor-backed bill to protect Minnesota workers from wage theft advanced out of its first committee hearing at the Capitol today. The bipartisan measure would crack down on employers that don’t pay workers what they are owed – and create an even playing field for employers that do.

“Those good employers are getting burned by these criminals – and that’s what they are,” said Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul), the bill’s lead author and a member of Pipefitters Local 455.

Working people nationwide lose billions of dollars to wage theft each year. They include an estimated 39,000 workers in Minnesota, according to an estimate from the state’s Department of Labor and Industry.

CTUL, a worker center based in the Twin Cities, has helped workers recover over $2 million in lost wages in recent years.

Wage theft can take a number of different forms. Employers who fail to comply with minimum- or prevailing-wage laws commit wage theft, as do employers who don’t pay overtime.

Sometimes, wage theft is obvious, as it was when Lakeville Motor Express abruptly shuttered its Roseville terminal in November 2016, claiming it had no money to pay 95 members of Teamsters Local 120 for their prior two weeks of work.

The same thing happened in 2014 to Robin Pikala, a personal care assistant from Fridley and member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. She was among 800 workers who lost a combined $1.4 million when Crystal Care, one of the largest in-home service provider in Minnesota, filed for bankruptcy – after stringing employees along without pay for 45 days.

“Wage theft is real, and it’s hurting too many families in our state,” Pikala said at a press conference staged in advance of today’s committee hearing by the Minnesota Coalition to End Wage Theft, which includes several of the state’s largest unions.

Other workers who spoke at the press conference described how wage theft can be embedded within an industry’s culture, or built into a complicated web of workplace relationships, like construction workers misclassified “independent contractors” to circumvent wage and benefit standards.

“In the restaurant world, wage theft isn’t the exception,” Kevin Osborn, a line cook in Minneapolis, said. “It’s the norm.”

Osborn said it’s “standard procedure” for cooks to set up their workstations before punching in and continue cleaning them after punching out. Sometimes employers will move hours around between pay periods to avoid paying overtime, he said; other times they don’t bother paying at all.

And if a worker complains? “We don’t call it retaliation,” Osborn said. “We call it getting your hours cut.”

New penalties for employers who retaliate against employees, commit wage theft or deny workers access to their payroll information are among the provisions of Mahoney’s bill, House File 6. In addition, the bipartisan measure would require uniform payroll record keeping, and empower the Department of Labor and Industry to subpoena those records if a worker brings forth a wage-theft claim.

Mahoney has 34 co-authors on House File 6, although there is currently no companion bill in the Senate.

House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, who attended the press conference, said addressing wage theft was a top priority in the DFL caucus. Winkler said he is confident the measure would pass the House, potentially as part of a larger “omnibus jobs bill.”

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

Twin Cities workers launch campaign to stop construction industry abuses

December 18, 2018 by

Supporters of the “March for Dignity and Respect” make their way down Lake Street in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood.

With a dramatic rally in the streets of south Minneapolis today, Twin Cities construction workers launched a new movement to improve labor standards in their industry and guarantee dignity for all workers.

“I don’t want to see any more injustice in construction,” Yimer Iriarte said at the start of a rush-hour march along Lake Street in Uptown. “We’re tired of seeing our brothers and sisters tired or hurt because of the way these contractors act.”

Iriarte is part of a group of local construction workers – mostly from residential projects – who began organizing with the Twin Cities-based worker center CTUL two years ago.

CTUL’s efforts to document abuses in the industry led to the arrest of a local construction contractor in September on criminal charges. The case exposed serious problems – wage theft, dangerous working conditions, labor trafficking – that are rampant in the industry’s web of contractors and subcontractors, workers allege.

Yimer Iriarte speaks at a rally before the march, alongside CTUL’s Veronica Mendez Moore.

Iriarte said he experienced wage theft and trafficking firsthand when a contractor refused to pay him and other immigrant workers for their labor.

“We were promised so many things that didn’t happen, and in the end we were threatened with immigration,” Iriarte said. “And I know it’s not just me.”

To raise industry standards, CTUL’s construction members are taking cues from local janitors, who recently won major improvements in the retail cleaning industry after a 6-year-long fight.

Janitors won by pressuring big-box chains like Target and Best Buy to sign Responsible Contractor Agreements, guaranteeing janitors employed by the store’s cleaning contractors have safe working conditions and a voice on the job.

Construction workers want large developers in the Twin Cities area to meet a similar demand: participation in the “Dignity and Respect Standards Council.” The council establish higher standards in the industry, and it would  create a process for monitoring construction sites to ensure all subcontractors are in compliance.

Workers first target is a big one: Lennar Homes. A nationwide firm, Lennar is the Twin Cities’ largest home-builder, and it stands to gain even more work under the City of Minneapolis’ ambitious new rezoning initiative, Minneapolis 2040.

According to CTUL, Lennar has seen a litany of reported abuses on its projects locally and across the country, including the labor trafficking charges filed in Hennepin County earlier this year and a jobsite fatality in Lakeville in 2016.

During the march along Lake Street, CTUL members stopped at a Wells Fargo branch to point out the bank’s history of lending to Lennar despite the allegations stemming from its projects.

And the march involved a bit of street theater. Actors performed an updated take on a centuries-old tradition throughout Spanish Central America, “Las Posadas.” The story alludes to Mary and Joseph’s difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a warm place to stay the night, with an emphasis on its moral and political message.

The march drew over 100 people, including representatives of the Carpenters, Laborers and other Building Trades unions, who stood in solidarity with CTUL members.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

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.”

Teamsters Local 120 President Tom Erickson spoke at a rally against wage theft at Finish Line Express in 2018.
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.”
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.”

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.

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

Mayor’s race divides St. Paul unions

October 24, 2017 by

R to L: Melvin Carter, Pat Harris and Dai Thao.

It was no coincidence that Republican majorities in the Minnesota Legislature last session made stripping power from local governments one of their top priorities.

Frustrated by political gridlock at the state and federal levels, working people in Minnesota and beyond are building powerful coalitions to make their voices heard in local government, and their elected officials have been paying attention.

Municipalities across the country are taking action on issues where state and federal progress has stalled, like raising the minimum wage, expanding access to earned sick time and combating wage theft.

The momentum behind these local organizing efforts has prompted at least one Minnesota union to recalibrate its focus.

“We can’t count on federal lawmakers to help us with any of our issues, and the state is real iffy,” Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said. “So our interest has been turned onto city races.”

The MNA took a big step this year when it endorsed a candidate for mayor of St. Paul. It marks the first time in the union’s history that it has endorsed a candidate for office in the city.

Several other labor groups, including AFSCME Council 5, the Building and Construction Trades Council, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers and Teamsters Local 120, have endorsed candidates in the Nov. 7 election to succeed outgoing Mayor Chris Coleman.

After taking office in 2006, Coleman enjoyed broad labor support in two re-election campaigns, including the endorsement of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, with over 100 affiliate unions. The federation has not endorsed a candidate for mayor this year, but it’s not for lack of good options, President Bobby Kasper said.

“Our federation hosted one of the city’s first mayoral debates last spring, and I was encouraged to see unanimous support among the candidates for a $15 minimum wage and other measures that will lift up working people,” Kasper said. “Labor may not be united behind one candidate this year, but whoever wins can be sure we will be united with our faith and community partners at City Hall next year.”

Candidates for mayor who have won union endorsements include:

Melvin Carter

A former member of the City Council representing Ward 1, Carter resigned to take a job advising Gov. Mark Dayton on education policy. That work was a big reason Carter won endorsement from the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, president Nick Faber said.

“The heart of what we’re pushing for is full funding for racial equity in our schools, and we can’t do that without a mayor who understands the issue,” Faber said. “Even if the mayor’s relationship to education is distant, having an ally in that office is going to mean a lot.”

For members of AFSCME Council 5, which represents people who work City of St. Paul’s parks, libraries, permitting offices and beyond, the mayor’s race has a much more direct impact. Denna Thurmond, a member of AFSCME Local 2829 who lives in St. Paul’s North End, said she supports Carter, in part, because he has been a “champion for workers and public employees.”

“His dad was a public worker,” she added. “I’ve been canvassing with his campaign, and Melvin is a very down-to-earth individual who relates to working people, who understands and sympathizes with people because he’s been there. His experiences make it easy for him to identify with people like us.”

Pat Harris

Another former council member, Pat Harris represented Ward 3 from 2000 to 2012. He currently serves on the Metropolitan Airports Commission and works as a vice president for BMO Harris Bank specializing in government banking.

Harris’ expertise in public finance – a critical part of urban development that puts union tradespeople to work – attracted support from the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council and its affiliate craft unions.

“What put Pat over the top for us was his ability and understanding of businesses and financing and getting projects done,” Brian Winkelaar, political director for Local 110 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said.

Winkelaar pointed to Harris’ push for project labor agreements that ensure labor peace on construction projects at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. “There’s a lot of building going on at the airport, and those agreements are extremely helpful for our members,” Winkelaar said.

In his role on the MAC, Harris also helped pass an airport-wide minimum wage $1 higher than the state’s, and he pushed for a labor-peace agreement with the airport’s concessionaires. That impressed Paul Slattery of Teamsters Local 120, which pushed in vain for a similar agreement governing organized trash collection in St. Paul.

“Organizing workers under a labor-peace agreement is a lot easier,” Slattery said. “And all the candidates say they’re behind $15 in St. Paul, but Pat actually did something at the airport.”

Dai Thao

Ward 1 Council Member Dai Thao picked up the nurses’ endorsement, MNA President Turner said, because of his leadership in passing the nation’s strongest earned sick and safe time ordinance last year.

Nurses also asked mayoral candidates to offer ways they could support efforts to improve staffing at hospitals and protect nurses from violence in the workplace – two of the union’s top legislative priorities.

“Dai Thao was the one who said even though the city can’t write new laws, as mayor he can bring together people and organizations that could be instrumental in helping educate the community on these issues,” Turner said. “He was the only one who came up with a plan rather than just checking the box saying, ‘Yes, I agree with you.’

“That made a difference.”

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

Five reasons workers are fighting Trump’s pick for labor secretary

January 30, 2017 by
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members (L to R) Pam Ganser, Amy Pauly and Jodi Klembrook delivered a petition opposing Andy Puzder as labor secretary to Sen. Al Franken's office in Minneapolis.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members (L to R) Pam Ganser, Amy Pauly and Jodi Klembrook delivered a petition opposing Andy Puzder as labor secretary to Sen. Al Franken’s office in St. Paul.

Working people aren’t waiting for fast-food CEO and robotics enthusiast Andy Puzder’s confirmation hearings – twice delayed because he’s having difficulty completing the required ethics paperwork – to oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee for Labor secretary.

Last week fast-food workers led a demonstration outside Hardee’s, a chain operated by Puzder-led CKE Restaurants, in St. Paul. And this morning, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota delivered a petition to Sen. Al Franken’s office in St. Paul with nearly 5,000 signatures opposing Puzder’s nomination.

Similar actions have popped up across the U.S., with more coming as Puzder’s confirmation hearing, set for Feb. 7 (if he can wrap up that pesky paperwork), draws nearer.

Why can’t working people stomach Puzder at the helm of the Department of Labor, an agency charged with enforcing and administering federal labor laws, from health and safety protections to overtime and discrimination rules?

1. As an employer, Puzder’s company has a disturbing track record of violating laws designed to protect working people.

An analysis of Department of Labor data by The Century Foundation found that since Puzder took over as CEO in 2000, at least 1,563 CKE workers have been exposed to wage theft, unsafe working conditions or other violations uncovered by the agency’s inspectors.

Combined, OSHA and Wage-and-Hour inspectors have closed 166 investigations of CKE facilities since 2000, leading to more than $156,000 in civil penalties and an additional $145,310 in back pay to 877 employees. In one case, Hardee’s restaurants in the St. Louis area were “having workers punch-in to work later than when they arrived to work, not paying them overtime for double shifts, and even striking hours off of time cards,” the Century report’s authors, Michael McCormack and Simon Glenn-Gregg, wrote.

Additionally, workers at 13 CKE restaurants in 10 states last week filed 33 new complaints alleging sexual harassment, unfair labor practices (union busting) and wage theft.

2. Last year, Puzder earned more in one day than his company’s minimum-wage workers earned in the entire year. Yet he not only opposes raising the wage, he spends his fortune financially backing efforts to stop it.

According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, Puzder donated $10,000 to a campaign trying to stop Nevada voters from passing a ballot initiative raising the state’s minimum wage by a mere $1, from $5.15 to $6.15. (Voters eventually approved the increase.)

Opponents of Andy Puzder's nomination to lead the Labor department rallies last Thursday outside Hardee's in St. Paul.

Opponents of Andy Puzder’s nomination to lead the labor department rallied last Thursday outside Hardee’s in St. Paul.

3. Puzder’s low-road approach to employment forces taxpayers to pick up the tab – to the tune of an estimated $247 million per year.

The National Employment Law Project ran the numbers in a report released last week, coming up with the jaw-dropping price tag for government services accessed by CKE employees. The report draws on an analysis by University of California Berkeley economists who found that low wages and lack of benefits force 52 percent of fast-food workers to rely on public assistance to make ends meet.

4. Puzder’s company outsourced jobs to the Philippines.

In 2010, according to a report by the Associated Press, CKE laid off 20 Americans employed in its restaurant information technology department, which later reopened in the Philippines. The decision also resulted in layoffs at a staffing firm in California.

5. His public statements reveal contempt for working people, particularly those people most vulnerable to the kinds of mistreatment the Department of Labor is supposed to police.

In a 2011 address to students of Westmont College, Puzder described his hiring practices by saying, “In fast food, you sort of compete for the best of the worst.” And in an interview with Business Insider, Puzder openly fantasized about replacing fast-food workers with robots because they “never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.”

And who could forget Puzder offering a stirring defense of his company’s advertising campaign that showed scantily clad models wolfing down Thickburgers? “I like our ads,” Puzder told Entrepreneur magazine. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American.”

American, indeed. Just like low wages, outsourcing and corporate welfare. It’s no surprise working people are raising hell.

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

Victory in New York strengthens workers’ resolve for $15 in Minneapolis

September 11, 2015 by
The Minneapolis Works Coalition rallies outside McDonald's in Dinkytown.

The Minneapolis Works Coalition rallies outside McDonald’s in Dinkytown.

 

Fast-food workers in New York state won their fight for $15 yesterday. Workers in Minneapolis intend to be next.

“If New York can do it, then Minneapolis and Minnesota can do it,” Guillermo Lindsay, a McDonald’s worker and CTUL organizer, barked into a megaphone at a rally outside the Dinkytown McDonald’s yesterday.

Fast-food workers, Working America members and other stakeholders in the Minneapolis Works Coalition organized the rally to celebrate New York’s victory – and keep pressure on Mayor Betsy Hodges and city council members to pass a slate of policies that would lift low-wage workers out of poverty.

“We deserve justice,” McDonald’s worker Lizbeth Garcia said through an interpreter. “We need $15 an hour. We need paid sick days. We need fair scheduling. We need an end to wage theft.”

The Minneapolis City Council today announced it would consider ordinances guaranteeing workers access to earned sick time and fair schedules, an “important step in the right direction and great news for Minneapolis workers, public health and work productivity,” Minneapolis Works said in a press statement.

Shenda Kazee joins a rally outside her workplace, the McDonald's in Dinkytown.

Shenda Kazee joins a rally outside her workplace, the McDonald’s in Dinkytown.

Shenda Kazee, who works nights at the Dinkytown McDonald’s, said her productivity and work-life balance suffer as a result of inconsistent scheduling. Because she earns just $9 an hour at McDonald’s, Kazee picks up hours at a second job to make ends meet.

“It’s been three days, and I have not had any sleep,” Kazee said before the rally yesterday. “I’m going off espresso right now.”

Employers, she said, should provide workers with notice of their schedules “at least a week or two in advance.” They should also pay higher wages.

“McDonald’s is a billion-dollar company,” Kazee said. “They can afford it, and I think we deserve it.”

The victory in New York comes three years after workers at McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s walked off their jobs in New York City, sparking a nationwide movement for a $15 minimum wage and union rights.

The new policy, finalized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday, will gradually raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 over the next three years in New York City and over the next six years statewide. An estimated 200,000 workers will see higher wages as a result.

“Now it’s our turn,” Kazee said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

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

Bobby Kasper: This Labor Day, let’s commit to a Raising Wages agenda

September 4, 2015 by
Bobby Kasper

Bobby Kasper

Whether you celebrate with a backyard barbecue, a trip to the cabin or by marching alongside fellow union members at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, Labor Day is our opportunity to celebrate the everyday heroes who make our country great.

American workers are the backbone of our economy, and hard work is deeply embedded into the fabric of our society. Our productivity as a workforce has increased 64 percent since 1979. It’s a big reason the U.S. economy, despite its ups and downs, remains a model for countries around the world. On a level playing field, American workers can compete with anyone.

Just as there’s no shame in working hard, there’s also no shame in demanding fair compensation for our labor. That’s why I’m excited that St. Paul is one of 13 communities targeted by the AFL-CIO’s Raising Wages campaign. Because despite our steady gains in productivity since 1979, American workers’ hourly wages have increased by just 8.8 percent.

The reasons why our wages aren’t going up are well documented. The share of workers who belong to unions is trending downward. CEOs and the richest 1 percent of Americans are capturing a larger share of profits. Free trade agreements like NAFTA shipped middle-class manufacturing jobs overseas. The bottom line? Between 2000 and 2013, income for the typical U.S. household fell from $64,800 to about $58,448.

In Minnesota our economy is continuing its recovery from the Great Recession. We’ve seen job growth, but much of it is happening in sectors of the economy that traditionally offer low pay and few benefits – service jobs, long-term care and retail, for example. Despite our lower unemployment rate, negative corporate trends are hurting workers. To combat those trends, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation is teaming up with our community partners – faith communities, nonprofit agencies, immigrant groups and others – to launch a new campaign: St. Paul Works.

St. Paul Works is our response to the AFL-CIO’s call to make Raising Wages a priority, to build an economy based on shared prosperity that lifts families up and strengthens our nation. We’ll focus on local elections in the City of St. Paul this fall, and we will hold our elected officials accountable for passing laws that empower working people to not just survive, but thrive.

Our campaign has four policy priorities: guaranteeing workers access to earned sick and safe time, ensuring fair scheduling practices, boosting enforcement efforts targeting wage theft and raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.

It’s true that as union members, most of us already realize most of these benefits. But as a labor movement, we can’t afford merely to cling to what we have. We must broaden our horizons in order to grow. We must reach out into our communities and partner with organizations that share our commitment to economic justice.

The St. Paul RLF will lead the St. Paul Works campaign, bringing together union leaders and our community partners to build power for working people in St. Paul. We will plan the campaign work. We will build political support for our policy objectives. And we will build support for a $15 minimum wage. We need to organize small business owners, engage with our affiliate unions and prepare our response to the opposition – which will be fierce. And we need to align our campaign with statewide efforts and campaigns in other cities.

On Labor Day, let’s refocus on doing what is best for our families, our communities, our state and our nation. Working people everywhere are standing up and speaking out for fundamental, lasting change, regardless of whether they work in manufacturing, engineering, service or retail. Every day, they work hard and sacrifice to make our country stronger. This Labor Day should be a celebration of working families, because we are ready to speak up together, change the rules and bring lasting economic balance so every family can pursue the American Dream and work for a better life. That’s what St. Paul Works is all about.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

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

St. Paul unions weigh support for campaign to pass citywide $15 minimum wage

August 12, 2015 by
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler leads a discussion about the Raising Wages Agenda at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler leads a discussion about the Raising Wages Agenda at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

 

Backing the emergent campaign for a $15 minimum wage in St. Paul is the right thing to do, labor leaders said in a meeting with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler last night. But as unions look to reverse the trend of declining density, joining the fight to raise wages is also about remaining relevant.

“We want the union movement to be seen as out there fighting for working families beyond just our members,” Shuler said. “It’s our job to make the labor movement relevant to everyone who works for a living, and I think that’s what raising wages is all about.”

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler listens to St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper's remarks.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler listens to St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper’s remarks.

Shuler, the second-ranking officer in the nation’s largest labor federation, joined St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper at the East Side Freedom Library in leading a frank discussion about the AFL-CIO’s Raising Wages Agenda. St. Paul and Minneapolis are among the 13 cities targeted by the AFL-CIO’s campaign.

Shuler emphasized there’s no “cookie-cutter approach” cities must follow, but what most campaigns have in common is a focus on electing candidates who pledge to support working families – and holding them accountable.

Kasper said the St. Paul RLF, which unites more than 100 local unions in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties, aims to do more than increase the city’s minimum wage. The RLF and its community partners – including faith-based, progressive, minority and immigrant-rights groups – plan to form a St. Paul Works coalition to advocate for policies stepping up enforcement of wage theft, guaranteeing access to earned sick time and supporting fair schedules.

About 30 union activists and labor leaders join the Raising Wages discussion.

About 30 union activists and labor leaders join the Raising Wages discussion.

A similar coalition is gaining momentum in Minneapolis. And St. Paul community groups launched a 15Now campaign earlier this month.

15Now’s push to raise the minimum wage and improve working conditions in cities across the country, Kasper said, “is a golden opportunity to get together with community groups and work on common goals, common interests. But we need buy-in from the unions.”

That investment will pay off for unions in the long run, Kasper added. “We need to have the community working with us. We’re a small speck in the community. But if we can take the lead and not be ashamed of who we are … then when we run organizing or political campaigns in the future, we’ve got the community on our side.”

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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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