Workers

Across Industries, Minnesota Workers Are Harnessing Their Collective Power

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. MINNEAPOLIS — Collective power is rising in Minnesota. Thousands of union members and a broad coalition of community groups banded together to demand better contracts, quality schools, housing and a livable planet. Unions in Minnesota have been aligning with community groups for more than a decade, participating in actions to build solidarity and worker power. 

On Tuesday, March 5, around 1,000 nursing home workers filled the Minnesota Capitol grounds to picket for better wages and working conditions in what was the industry’s largest strike in the history of the state. 

“I’ve been in the field 25 years and don’t have a retirement plan because they don’t pay me enough,” says Nessa Higgins, a member of both SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa and UFCW Local 663. In addition to her nursing assistant duties, Higgins also works as a medication aide and culinary worker.

Workers

Minnesota’s Labor Spring Has Arrived. Here’s What’s Going Down.

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This article is being jointly published by Workday Magazine and In These Times. MINNEAPOLIS—Minnesota’s Labor Spring has arrived. Thousands of essential workers and community members are taking part in a Week of Action in the Twin Cities to fight for a host of social demands they hope will build worker power and strengthen communities. They are calling for better union contracts and a labor standards advisory board, alongside social housing, environmental sustainability, and better schools. The alignment of unions, workers’ centers and community organizations, and the broad scope of their aims, is being heralded as a model of social movement unionism, or bargaining for the common good.