Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/policy/page/37/)
As the Minnesota unemployment rate climbed to a 25-year high, manufacturing workers and Sierra Club members delivered more than 5,000 messages from Minnesotans calling on Governor Pawlenty to implement a comprehensive green jobs plan that puts people back to work in a clean energy economy.
President Barack Obama last month signed into law a $787 billion economic stimulus package that invests heavily in sweeping clean-energy and energy-efficiency programs. Proponents of the stimulus, including labor unions, say the investments will create the middle class jobs – the so-called “green jobs” – necessary to rally a slumping economy.
Progressive organizations, elected officials, labor leaders and advocates in Minnesota have joined the national campaign to pass President Obama’s budget and rebuild America through major investments in health care reform, education, clean energy and other important priorities.
The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation added its voice to the chorus of labor and community organizations calling on lawmakers to pass the so-called Minnesota People’s Bailout, a bill making its way through the Legislature that would strengthen – not cut – public services during these tough economic times.
In late January, International Paper, the world’s largest pulp and paper company, announced plans to shutter its Roseville plant. At the time, the container-board production facility employed 106 workers, including 88 members of United Steelworkers Local 264.
An infusion of federal stimulus dollars will trim the state’s projected biennial deficit from $6.4 billion to $4.57 billion, but lawmakers still face a daunting task in balancing the budget.
The Minneapolis DFL Party will conduct precinct caucuses Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. to begin the process of endorsing candidates for local office.
What can we do to resolve Minnesota\’s impending budget crisis? In the next couple weeks, legislators will hold a series of public meetings across the state to hear from you.
Unions and their allies, working both through ground troops and over the air, are pushing senators of both parties to approve the giant economic stimulus bill now moving through Congress.
The Star Tribune\’s move to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy puts 1,400 local workers\’ jobs in limbo.