Day two of a strike by members of Laborers Local 563 who work for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) began like the first day, with a pre-dawn picket line at MPHA offices on Washington Ave. N.

"You're doing great -- let's stick together," said Tim Mackey, financial secretary-treasurer for Local 563, addressing picketers with a bullhorn on Wednesday.

Seventy-six service and maintenance employees, who perform a variety of jobs from shoveling snow to unclogging toilets, walked off the job Tuesday. Their previous contract has expired in March.

Mackey told the Labor Review later in the day that he had no new developments to report.

"We did our part," he emphasized, stressing that workers took required classes and did their class homework with the expectation of promised pay increases from MPHA. "They won't pay us our training increase," he said. "We want to know who's responsible."

Mackey said plans for Thursday call for strikers to go directly to picketing locations at MPHA sites across the city, rather than meet first in the morning at MPHA's Washington Ave. offices.

Three members of Laborers Local 563, all MPHA service maintenance specialists, picketed outside MPHA headquarters. They are (from left) Al Champagne, a 25-year employee; Gary Aspnes, a 30-year employee; and Ervin Locke, a five-year employee. Locke is awaiting a kidney transplant and has been undergoing dialysis for four years. Labor Review photo

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