Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/2011/05/)
A victory for sunshine in Wisconsin, transparency in government and the nation’s labor movement, was reinforced May 26 when a Wisconsin judge said the state’s GOP-run legislature violated Wisconsin’s Sunshine/ Open Meetings Law in passing Governor Scott Walker’s law stripping state and local workers of collective bargaining rights.
Building Trades workers, teachers, government workers, hotel workers — all were represented at a “Bloomington Economic Issues Roundtable” hosted May 17 by the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation at the Bloomington Armory. About 35-40 people attended.
Members of Gas Workers Local 340 who work at CenterPoint Energy have approved a four-year contract that offers pay increases of up to 4.5 percent each year.
Working people will challenge the “meanness” and “destructiveness” of some elected officials with a renewed sense of unity and a commitment to the dignity of work, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
“That’s not the Minnesota I grew up in,” said Jean Diederich, a child support worker who joined hundreds of other Minnesotans in a vigil as lawmakers adjourned their 2011 session without a budget deal.
The budget impasse at the state Capitol couldn’t come at a worse time for Minnesota construction workers, who face the leanest job prospects in the nation.
A legislative session that began with promises of job creation ended at midnight Monday with no state budget deal and the threat of a government shutdown that would put thousands out of work.
Saying they clean grocery stores, but often can’t afford to buy food for their families, Twin Cities retail cleaning workers launched a hunger strike.
Faced with devastating cuts to education and health care in the final days of the legislative session, Minnesotans filled the Capitol rotunda Saturday to call for a responsible budget that preserves vital services and creates jobs.
Unions are urging Governor Mark Dayton to veto legislation that would undermine Minnesota’s current voting system and make it more difficult for people to exercise their rights at the ballot box.