Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/author/hkling/page/3/)
Now that their first contract is in effect, Minnesota home care workers are taking the next steps to build their union. They are knocking on doors to recruit more people into the union and joining the national discussion on the future of home care.
Workers from over 50 Twin Cities stores staged a one-day strike Tuesday for better wages and conditions against employers like Capital Building Services Group that provide cleaning services for large retail corporations like Macy’s.
Fast-food workers and allies rallied outside the McDonald’s on Stinson Boulevard Friday to support a likely New York victory for $15 per hour and to call on Minnesota to follow suit.
Still wearing hardhats and bright neon safety vests, hundreds of construction workers walked from their jobs building the new Senate Office Building and renovating the State Capitol to attend Tuesday’s Workers Memorial Day ceremony at the Capitol.
A bill that would require two-person crews aboard Amtrak and most freight trains operating in Minnesota passed out of two Senate committees last week. The safety measure is a top legislative priority of theUnited Transportation Union, which represents about 70,000 workers in North America.Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope) introduced the legislation in the Senate, and the measure received bipartisan support in the Judiciary and Transportation committees. But Republican leaders in the House have refused to take up a companion bill introduced by Rep.Frank Hornstein (DFL-Minneapolis).UTU Minnesota Legislative Director Phillip Qualy said railroads are lobbying hard against the bill, making false claims that crew-level requirements fall under federal law or under the domain of collective-bargaining agreements – and are outside the Legislature’s jurisdiction.“Unfortunately, the railroads are misleading the Legislature with inaccurate and erroneous information,” Qualy said.Carriers are playing a dangerous game. The oil boom in North Dakota’s Bakken region has increased freight-rail traffic in Minnesota, which has the eighth-largest rail network in the U.S.The timing is right to take a look at the implications that spike in traffic has on public safety, Rest told the Senate Committee on Transportation March 16.“We know that not only are the derailments becoming an increased concern, but we also know that the number of cars that are used to transport crude oil have exponentially increased in just the last few years,” Rest said.In testimony before the committee, Qualy characterized requiring the railroads to maintain two-person crews as a matter of “corporate citizenship.”“The carriers’ practice to remove more and more persons from the right-of-ways of American railroads endangers the general public,” he said.How? Nick Katich, a trainman for Canadian National Railway in northern Minnesota, offered an example.
Thirty-five members of MN Young Workers are in Chicago this weekend for the 2015 AFL-CIO NextUp Young Worker Summit. Young workers, students and progressive activists from across the U.S. have come together for four days to learn, share, and strengthen organizing and leadership skills in the workplace, in their unions and in their communities.On Friday attendees heard a rousing speech from another Minnesotan, U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison, who spoke about the important broad movements being lead by young people and the connections between the economics of low wages and poverty – union issues – and the blacklivesmatter movement, the fight for $15, education and immigration.AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also addressed the crowd.The Summit is about action and the interconnection between knowledge, skills, networking and vision that inform and inspire that action. Over 60 workshops and sessions will provide opportunities for sharing knowledge and experience and the challenge to translate these into action items back home. State-basedbreakout sessions will allow participants to identify and discuss opportunities to build the labor movement in their states and communities. Sunday, March 22, 2015
Delta Airlines’ decision to fire a veteran baggage handler for speaking out in support of low-wage workers has elicited widespread criticism and drawn national attention to working conditions at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The Minnesota Nurses Association held a candlelight vigil at the Minnesota Capitol to draw attention to the lack of adequate safety procedures for dangerous viruses like Ebola at hospitals throughout the state.
Members of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) announced a strike deadline of November 28, “Black Friday,” for retail janitors who work for cleaning companies throughout the Twin Cities area.
It’s hard to imagine a beautiful flower has anything to do with the ugly side of free trade and globalization. But Colombians who provide bouquets for U.S. and world vases have experienced falling pay, growing health problems and human rights violations.