Funding for labor standards co-enforcement is approved as a Labor Standards Board proposal hangs in the balance.
Minnesota
Audio-Visual Crew for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx Win Union
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On December 10, workers from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx in-house audio-visual crew’s votes were counted and the workers won a union. With an estimated 80% of the 50 workers submitting ballots, the final vote count was 24 in favor of the union and 17 against. The workers are now a part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 745.
This win makes the Timberwolves/Lynx audio-visual workers the second audio-visual union in professional sports in Minnesota, following the unionization of the Minnesota United FC’s audio-visual crew in 2022, also with IATSE Local 745.
The audio-visual, in-house crew films and projects the Minnesota professional basketball teams’ home games within the arena, including replays and close-up shots, fan shots, promotions, graphics, and more. Their work supports the basketball team’s overall success by energizing the crowd and supporting the overall experience of fans at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. The fight is far from over, explains Josiah Wollan, a camera operator for the Timberwolves and Lynx.
Co-Ops
Workers Win Union Election at Mississippi Market Co-op
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Workers at the local organic food co-op who organized and won union representation are hoping to build a more democratic workplace.
Minnesota
Minnesota Labor Is Reviving a Progressive-Era Tool to Improve Working Conditions
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Workers are fighting for a Labor Standards Board to address conditions across industries.
Art
Still Lives of Workers in Motion
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“Archive in Motion: The ATU Workers of Metro Transit”, a photography exhibition, is on display at the East Side Freedom Library, in St. Paul, Minn. featuring the photographs of Leslie Grant and Jeffrey Skemp of the workers of Metro Transit. The exhibit features film photographs of various transit workers, represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, honoring the essential work they do and the importance of public transit in bringing people together in a shared public space.
The exhibition includes portraits of the workers while on the job, as well as still-life photographs of objects bus operators carry with them, photos and scans of archival finds and everyday transit ephemera, and the architecture that makes up the transit system—from the mundane yet necessary infrastructure, to the wooded landscapes of the Twin Cities urban parks.
Leslie Grant, a photographer and professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Jeffrey Skemp, photographer and poet, began the project on Metro Transit by contacting ATU Local 1005. The union then invited the photographers to join a meeting and present the project to the union members.
Media
“The heart of the work has been telling workers’ stories”: A Reflection on 20 Years in Labor Journalism
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A conversation with Steve Share from the Minneapolis Labor Review.
Minnesota
“I Know My Worth”: What it Takes to Unionize the Service Industry
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Despite the popularity of unions being at a record high, workers in the food service industry face an uphill battle when it comes to fighting for collective bargaining rights. Hospitality unions and workers are trying to change that.
Environment
A Taste of Working-Class Environmentalism with a Hospital Cook from Albert Lea
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A cook and farmer on climate, labor, and the community organizing ecosystem in Minnesota.
Minnesota
Minnesota Workers Strike Down Shady Provision That Restricts Their Freedom of Employment
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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. Michael Rubke, a desk attendant at La Rive condo complex in Minneapolis, is fighting for a union against a behemoth building management company, FirstService Residential of Minnesota, that has a near-monopoly on high-rise condos in the Twin Cities. It’s been a difficult battle so far. The unionization campaign is “at square one,” the 41-year-old explained over the phone after working an overnight shift. “They’re pretending we’re not there.”
But that lack of formal union representation did not stop Rubke and his colleagues throughout the Twin Cities from fighting for—and winning—statewide legislation this summer that improves the terms of their jobs, by beating back a little-known provision used to erode the job security of contracted workers.
Community
The 90th Anniversary of the 1934 Truckers’ Strike Honors Minneapolis’ Militant Labor History [VIDEO]
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Descendants Honor 90th Anniversary of Ancestors’ Militant Labor Strike from Unicorn Riot on Vimeo.This video was produced in collaboration with Unicorn Riot and Workday Magazine. On July 27, workers, descendants of the strikers, and the local labor community came together at Wabun Park in Minneapolis to honor the 90th anniversary of the 1934 Truckers’ Strike that brought Minneapolis to a standstill and served as a spark for radical and militant labor struggle across the country.
The strike lasted about three months, as Teamsters Local 574 truckers demanded a fair wage and official recognition of the union. The trucking companies had the support of the Citizens Alliance, an anti-trade union organization that sought to break the strike. The strike’s impact reverberated throughout the city, bringing much of the Minneapolis economy to a halt.
After reaching an agreement, the trucking companies did not honor the terms and workers returned to the streets. On July 20, 1934, the Minneapolis police attacked and opened fire on picketers in the streets of the Warehouse District.
Immigration
Dispatch From a Meat Packing Factory: “If We Unite as Workers, We Have the Power”
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Read a Spanish-language version of this interview here. Dina Velasquez Escalante is a poultry worker in southwest Minnesota. She spends her workdays inspecting the chicken millions of Americans eat every day. She looks for tumors, stray bones and organs, and removes bile. After six years of hard work and cultivating expertise on almost every position on the line, she’s now in the laboratory testing samples of poultry to ensure the highest quality.
As a union steward with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 663 at Butterfield Foods in Butterfield, Minnesota, Escalante is also tasked with ensuring her fellow workers receive fair treatment and safety on the line.