Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/author/filiberto/page/46/)
Backed by community and labor allies outside Amazon’s Eagan facility, workers spoke publicly about the increasingly dangerous working conditions inside the warehouse, and of management’s refusal to accommodate workers who fast during Ramadan.
Common ground between Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature was in short supply at the Capitol this year, but lawmakers were able to compromise on two bills that union members lobbied hard for during the recently ended session.
The AFL-CIO today announced a major, national print and digital ad campaign calling on workers to join together in the face of continued corporate assaults on the freedom to join together in union.
Across our region, our community is grappling with what to do with the low supply of housing, rising housing costs, and a decreasing quality of life for those struggling to make their rent and mortgage payments. The crisis that our community faces directly impacts our members who struggle with affordability—Yes, even union families face barriers to affordable housing. Across the labor movement, we’ve been working to raise wages by bargaining for pay increases in our contracts, improving industry standards and increasing the minimum wage at the state and local level — but almost all of these gains are offset by the historically high cost of housing. Many of our cities and counties are looking for sustainable ways to grow their tax bases and to provide more multi-family housing options. That means our elected leaders are making major decisions around funding and zoning that will have lasting economic implications that affect revenues, student enrollment and livability across our seven-county region.
The region’s late season snowstorm April 14-15 brought much of the Twin Cities to a halt — but not volunteers from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292. They were scheduled Sunday, April 15 to complete needed electrical work on Cabin 4 at the former Anoka State Hospital. There a nonprofit called Eagle’s Healing Nest has been renovating the buildings to create housing for homeless veterans. State Senator Jim Abeler has been one of the driving forces behind the project and has helped attract donations of all kinds — including donated labor from area Building Trades unions. Cabin 2 was renovated last year, with the help of several Building Trades locals from many different crafts.
Beer truck drivers and helpers at J.J. Taylor Distributing in Minneapolis voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract last night, ending their seven-week strike.
Workers walked off their jobs on Monday May 22nd over AT&T’s refusal to negotiate the application of the Minneapolis sick and safe time ordinance.
For speakers and assembled guests, the memories of that day began with the sound of helicopters, which descended on the rural Iowa town of 2,200 to detain nearly 400 immigrant workers of the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant.
“Our outreach is to our next generation. Our next generation does not look like our current workforce in the construction industry. We are reaching out to individuals of color, immigrant populations, vets, and women,” Wagner said. “One of our goals is that our future construction workforce represents our communities.”
At least 20,000 North Carolina teachers, in #RedforEd T-shirts, descended on the state capital building in Raleigh on May 16.
They demanded more funding for schools so they can teach their kids, better pay for themselves and support staffers, and an end to the corporate tax cuts that robbed Tar Heel state schools of money for at least the past decade. So many North Carolina teachers walked out, went to Raleigh, or both, that half the schools in the state, covering two-thirds of the students, had to close. Other unions, led by the state AFL-CIO, supported the walkout – which really was the lobby day of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), a National Education Association affiliate.
“What they’ve been doing to our public schools is not right,” NCAE President Mark Jewell said of the state legislature. Carolina teachers thus became the latest in a lengthening line of teachers who have taken matters into their own hands and taken to the streets in red states, demanding more funding for schools, better pay for themselves and staff, and guaranteed funding streams for education – including an end to state corporate tax cuts that robbed schools of needed cash. West Virginia’s teachers started the parade when they were forced to strike for nine days after the GOP-run legislature refused to raise their pay and planned to cut their pensions.