Minnesota
The seven dismissed janitorial workers, with a combined 180 hours of service among them, standing outside Hennepin County Government Center, where they worked.

“What is happening at Hennepin county?” Seven Senior Janitors Let Go With No Notice

By |

Mercedes Ponce is in tears outside the Hennepin County Government where she worked as a subcontractor for 12 years doing janitorial work before getting the news last week that she’d be getting let go with no prior notice. Ponce is one of seven janitors with a combined 180 years of experience who received a letter informing her she doesn’t work there anymore at the end of August. The janitors, all senior employees who have devoted their careers to cleaning the Hennepin County Government Plaza, are alleging age discrimination. The workers are members of SEIU Local 26, which represents 8,000 building management and janitorial workers across the Twin Cities. The morning of September 8, they held a press conference outside the building where they worked, then marched together into the facility, where they delivered a letter to the office of Building Management demanding the workers be reinstated.

Government

What It Means When Federal Union Contracts Disappear

By |

This article is a joint publication of The American Prospect and Workday Magazine, a nonprofit newsroom devoted to holding the powerful accountable through the perspective of workers. Jason was elected to represent unionized workers at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in New York state. But on August 8, he got the same notice as 400,000 colleagues across the VA: their union contracts were being abruptly eliminated in response to a Trump administration executive order. It was a Friday, and by the following Tuesday he had to clear out the union local’s office, which was housed in a VA facility. “I had to have a moving company show up, box up all of our equipment, all of our files, all the employee files,” says Jason, who requested I use a pseudonym and not identify his facility or specific profession to protect him and his colleagues from retaliation.

Unions
Abdiqani Ali, a rideshare driver with the Rideshare Driver Organizing Committee of SEIU is met with applause from the crowd after speaking about his experience working at MSP.

“Workers Over Billionaires” Rally at MSP Airport for Labor Day

By |

On Labor Day, hundreds of workers from over 20 Minnesota unions and community organizations rallied at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport. They called for improvements to the lives of working people, and slammed policies that favor billionaires and corporations. The rally was held at the airport in order to highlight Delta’s lack of worker protections while donating millions of dollars to the Trump inauguration. 

The rally was accompanied by a live brass band called Unlawful Assembly, and several hundred community members marched through a drop-off area of Terminal 1. Many rally-goers held homemade signs expressing anger towards the Trump administration and demanding better working conditions for airport workers across sectors. 

According to a statement from the coalition, the rally’s demands include fair wages, healthcare, and union rights for airport and rideshare workers, corporate accountability from companies like Delta, healthcare for all, fully funded schools and social services, an end to immigrant scapegoating, workers’ right to organize and bargain, and taxing billionaires. 

Workers from various unions throughout the airport were present at the rally, including flight attendants, security workers, baggage handlers, wheelchair agents, janitors, and rideshare workers.