Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/government/page/14/)
Protest, Washington D.C. Vlad Tchompalov @tchompalov
Hundreds of members of two Minnesota unions, the Service Employees International Union and the Minnesota School Employees Association, rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday for action on health care, education and living wages.
When it comes to National Labor Relations Board nominations, the story line may be summed up in one phrase: Here we go again.
As the 2013 Legislative session entered its second month, the Minnesota AFL-CIO announced its “Agenda for Middle Class Dignity & Fairness” as a way for state lawmakers to help level the playing field for middle class families.
Minnesota unions reacted positively to the budget proposal unveiled Tuesday by Governor Mark Dayton that raises revenue and increases funding for education and other needs.
In the wake of Minnesota’s rejection of a voter restriction amendment and remarkable voter turnout, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison reintroduced two bills to strengthen voting rights in federal elections.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who repeatedly declared herself “the new sheriff in town” on behalf of workers the last four years, resigned her position on Jan. 9, after talks with her family over the holiday break about her future.
When the Minnesota legislature convenes Tuesday everything will have changed — and nothing will have changed. What’s changed: for the first time in a generation, the DFL holds majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate and also holds the governor’s office. What hasn’t changed: the state faces structural budget deficits that the last several legislative sessions have failed to address.
Labor law reform, immigration reform and measures to make the economy work for the middle class are all on labor’s legislative agenda for 2013. But whether any or all of those causes succeed depends on success in a fourth labor priority, but the first one to come up next year: Curbing abuse of filibusters.
Amid uproar, protests, confrontations, arrests, a temporary lockout of workers from the state capitol building and a Democratic walkout, the Republican-run Michigan House passed a so-called “right to work” law.
As Congress debates how to prevent the federal budget from going over the “fiscal cliff,” a new report shows nearly 900,000 Minnesotans would be harmed if lawmakers cut Social Security.