Minneapolis Labor Review Minneapolis Labor Review

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Minneapolis Labor Review, 1907-2016: Celebrating 109 years telling the workers’ side of the story!
Minneapolis Labor Review
109th Year
No. 1
May 27, 2016
www.minneapolisunions.org
Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
In health insurance fight with Allina, nurses not backing down
May 30: New mural
at Workers Memorial
Garden to be dedicated
— see page 3
Labor news
updated daily
www.workdayminnesota.org
Minneapolis Regional
Labor Federation…
Follow us on facebook!
www.facebook.com/minneapolisunions
By Michael Moore, editor,
St. Paul Union Advocate
MINNEAPOLIS — In contract negotiations with Allina,
union nurses are standing together to defend their health insurance. And outside the health
care provider’s Minneapolis
headquarters May 18, the community showed it’s standing
with nurses.
Informational picketing of
Allina Commons drew hundreds
of nurses, who arrived in busloads from five metro-area Allina facilities. Supporters from the
community, including members
of several other unions, also
walked the picket line in solidarity.
Bill McCarthy, president of
the 300,000-member Minnesota
AFL-CIO, assured Allina nurses
they are not fighting alone. “Our
message to Allina,” McCarthy
said, “is take care of the nurses
who take care of you.”
Allina opened contract talks
with about 6,000 nurses at Uni-
St. Paul Union Advocate photo
Nurses picketed Allina May 18. Sign a petition to support nurses at www.nursesneedcare2.com.
ty, United, Abbott Northwestern
and Mercy hospitals, as well as
Phillips Eye Institute, in February. The nurses’ current contract
expires June 1.
‘It ain’t about money’
From the outset, union leaders say, Allina has sought to
eliminate four union-sponsored
health insurance plans and move
all nurses into Allina’s “core”
plans, which offer lower premiums but significantly higher deductibles, co-pays and out-ofNURSES page 14
Session ends without bonding bill
or a transportation package
Rally urges Minneapolis adopt sick time policy
MINNEAPOLIS —As the Labor Review went to press May 23, the Minneapolis City Council
was scheduled to vote May 27 on a proposed sick leave ordinance. Advocates say the
measure, which would require employers to pay a certain number of accrued sick days,
would be a concrete way for the city to advance racial equity. Nearly 42 percent of Minneapolis workers lack paid sick leave, with people of color particularly impacted. Photo
above: Supporters of the paid sick leave ordinance rallied outside City Hall before a May
11 public hearing. For an update on City Council action: workdayminnesota.org.
SAINT PAUL — The clock
ran out on the 2016 legislative session. The Republican majority
House and the DFL majority Senate failed to agree on a job-creating bonding bill or a comprehensive transportation package, both
top priorities for Minnesota labor.
As midnight of the May 22
adjournment deadline came —
and went — the media offices of
both the House and Senate began sending news releases placing the blame for the impasse on
the other chamber.
Governor Mark Dayton, in a
May 23 news conference, said
that the legislature’s inability to
pass a bonding bill and a multiyear transportation bill was “disappointing, to say the least.”
He particularly decried the
“political games” that led the
2016 Legislature
Republican House to keep
Southwest Light Rail funding
out of its down-to-the-last-minute bonding proposal, a move
unacceptable to the DFL Senate.
Labor leaders echoed Governor Dayton in expressing disapLEGISLATURE page 11
Worker centers: an integral part of
the 21st century worker movement
By Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, President,
Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation
Here in Minnesota and across the
country, union members and workers are
having hard conversations about the 21st
century workers movement.
Technology is advancing,
the “gig economy” is in motion and our demographics
are quickly changing. The
corporate elite has deregulated our financial institutions,
restructured the labor market,
divided the electorate and increased their share of the
wealth.
Our unions work hard every day to fight back against the attacks
on collective bargaining rights.
We fight to grow the ranks represented
by bona-fide, legally-recognized contracts. Yet, today’s legal confines and systemic realities mean a lot of workers are
left out of our efforts.
Despite these monumental challenges,
workers are continuing to organize in the
workplace and in their communities.
One way these workers are coming together, is in formal and informal worker
centers.
Worker centers bring workers together
to build power related to workplace and
immigrant issues and to advocate for
workers’ rights. They work with some of
the most exploited workers in our economy, usually in industries that have major
barriers to organized representation.
Some prime examples are janitors, domestic workers, day laborers, and agricultural workers.
In 2012, the national AFL-CIO initiated a Worker Center Advisory Council to
work more closely with and support the
growing worker center movement.
I just returned from participating in
the 2016 annual convening of the AFLCIO’s Worker Center Advisory Council.
Here partners were strategizing about
how to organize in new industries. From
campaigns to organize car-wash workers,
to nail salon workers fighting against
wage theft, to seafood workers fighting
for a wage floor, the energy and ideas
were abundant. These workers clearly
want to be a part of the labor movement
and they are willing to fight for it.
Minneapolis is home to a great, dynamic worker center, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha —
CTUL. Just last year, CTUL
officially affiliated with the
MRLF.
CTUL organizes low-wage
workers from across the Twin
Cities “to develop leadership
and educate one another to
build power and lead the
struggle for fair wages, better
working conditions, basic respect, and a voice in our workplaces.”
CTUL has led the efforts to organize
retail janitors and fast food workers. They
are a key partner in the earned sick time
campaign currently underway in municipalities throughout our region.
Earlier this year, the MRLF and CTUL
jointly received a prestigious national
LIFT Fund Grant: Labor Innovations for
the 21st Century. Together, with CTUL in
a pivotal leadership role, we are launching a worker-led campaign to establish
strong labor standards enforcement in the
city of Minneapolis.
As we seize the energy around earned
sick time and wage theft policies in Minneapolis, we are strategically coordinating to make sure enforcement mechanisms build power for the very workers
we are hoping to impact.
In today’s race-to-the-bottom economy, it can be easy to focus on one-time
policies that lift all workers up, but the
real change comes in using those moments to create a space for workers to
sustain their collective power.
The exploitation of low-wage workers—particularly workers of color in our
community — is extensive, and unacceptable. This exploitation hurts every
working family, both union and nonunion. CTUL is a great ally in combating
this reality. We are excited to be collaborating together with CTUL to build a
broader workers movement.
Since 1907
Steve Share, Editor
TWIN
CITIES
DULUTH
S-70
Next issue:
June 24, 2016
AFL-CIO
Deadline:
June 8, 2016
See page 23 for complete 2016 schedule
“The rights labor has won, labor must fight to protect.”
—Floyd B. Olson, Minnesota Governor, 1930-1936
Page 2 • Minneapolis Labor Review • May 27, 2016
Frank Miskowiec joins MRLF’s Labor 2016
union member outreach in north suburbs
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis SEIU Local 63 at age 20 in 1974 and
Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO spent his entire career working in buildhas hired Frank Miskowiec to work on ing maintenance for the Minneapolis
outreach to union members in the north- Public Schools.
He began doing political
ern suburbs as part of the Labor
work for Local 63 in the mid2016 political campaign.
1980s and served as Local 63’
Miskowiec,
Robbinsdale,
political director for 16 years.
will be working as “advance
Since retiring from the
team organizer” primarily in
school district in 2004, MisSenate District 36 and Senate
kowiec has continued working
District 37.
as part of the local labor moveThese districts include a
high concentration of union Frank Miskowiec ment’s political effort each
election cycle.
members and have been among
What keeps him going? “Every time I
key suburban battleground districts important to who controls the majority in watch the news,” Miskowiec replied. “I
get frustrated with what’s happening nathe Minnesota legislature.
Labor ally John Hoffman is the in- tionally, especially during [national eleccumbent in Senate District 36 while la- tions] every other political year.”
bor ally Alice Johnson is retiring from
What happens on the national politiher seat representing Senate District 37.
cal stage, Miskowiec said, trickles down
“We’ve got to keep our labor friends to the state and local level and even down
in there,” Miskowiec said.
to school board elections.
Miskowiec is a longtime union mem“All these different elections mean
ber and veteran activist.
something to the working person — it afMiskowiec grew up in a union family. fects them,” he said.
His father, Andy Miskowiec, was a mem“When you’re talking to a union perber of City Employees Local 363 and his son at the door or on the phone, they say,
mother, Mary Miskowiec, was a member ‘thank you for listening to me and my
of the hotel and restaurant workers union, concerns,’” Miskowiec said. “It makes
UNITE HERE Local 17.
them feel better and it makes me feel betMiskowiec became a member of ter that I’m out there doing this.”
The Minneapolis Labor Review Newspaper — USPS 351 120 — (ISSN
0274-9017) is published monthly for $10.00 per year in the United States
by the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO,
312 Central Avenue, Suite 542, Minneapolis, MN 55414-1077.
All other countries $5.00 additional per year.
Periodical postage paid at Minneapolis, Minnesota
and additional post offices.
POSTMASTER send address changes to:
Minneapolis Labor Review Newspaper,
312 Central Avenue, Suite 542, Minneapolis, MN 55414.
Office (612) 379-4725 Fax (612) 379-1307
[email protected]
Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
Executive Board
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, President; Louise Sundin,
Executive Vice President; Pete Lindahl, First Vice
President; Mike Zagaros, Second Vice President; Dan
McConnell, Financial Secretary-Treasurer; Julie Blaha,
Register Clerk; Paul Mueller, Deputy Register Clerk;
Grace Baltich, Reading Clerk; Joyce Carlson, Recording
Secretary; Tommy Bellfield, Sgt.-At-Arms; Martin Goff,
Kyle Makarios, Russ Scherber, Mary Turner and Jigme
Ugen - Trustees; Steve Buck, Carol Nieters, Judy RussellMartin - At Large.
Events
May 30: Mural will be dedicated at Workers
Memorial Garden on State Capitol grounds
SAINT PAUL — A newly-installed
mural at the Workers Memorial Garden
located on the State Capitol grounds will
be dedicated Memorial Day, Monday,
May 30 at 10:00 a.m. The public is welcome to attend.
Former Vice President Walter Mondale will be among the featured speakers
and the Twin Cities Labor Chorus will
perform.
The Workers Memorial Garden originally was dedicated in August 2010 as a
way to commemorate the lives lost by the
people who built America, explained
Dave Roe, president emeritus of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. For Roe, locating the
Workers Memorial on the same grounds
as memorials to military veterans was
both important and symbolic.
The new colorful mural, installed on
the south-facing wall of the memorial,
depicts workers and working life in Minnesota.
The mural is the work of Twin Cities
artist Craig David, who also created the
murals on the exterior wall of Target
Field in Minneapolis.
“It’s a cut stone mosaic,” he said. “Every piece is hand-cut. It’s basically a big
puzzle.”
“The mural is narrative but it’s not an
explicit narrative,” he continued. “My
hope is that people will come to this wall
and develop a relationship with it and
find a story…”
“I’ve left the figure images a bit ambiguous,” David noted, “so that people
can find themselves in it.”
“Everybody’s going to interpret it in a
different way,” David said.
The Workers Memorial Garden is located on the southeast corner of the State
Capitol mall, near the intersection of Cedar St. and 12th St.
For more information, contact Brenda
Waugh at 612-333-9773.
May 30: Richfield’s Honoring All Veterans
Memorial hosts Memorial Day program
RICHFIELD — The Honoring All
Veterans Memorial will host a Memorial
Day program Monday, May 30 at 2:00
p.m.
The Richfield monument has been
built by union labor and union contractors and features a statue of the late
Charles Lindberg, a member of IBEW
Local 292 who as a young U.S. Marine
was part of the original flag-raising team
on Iwo Jima during World War II.
The monument broke ground in 2007
and following years have brought continuing additions.
This year’s Memorial Day event will
mark the unveiling of additional veterans’ names at the monument.
A memorial honoring a Richfield U.S.
Civil War veteran, John O. Dolson, also
will be unveiled. This new installation
features a plaque telling Dolson’s story
and his headstone from a Confederate
army cemetery — where he was buried in
a case of mistaken identity.
Union contractor Bulach Custom
Rock, Inver Grove Heights, donated labor and materials for the Dolson memorial.
The May 30 event will feature the
Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division “Red Bull” Concert Band
and Co. A., First Minnesota Civil War
Re-enactors.
The Honoring All Veterans Memorial
is located at 6429 Portland Ave. in Richfield.
For more information, call 612-8619395.
MINNEAPOLIS — The University
of Minnesota Labor Education Service
and Workday Minnesota are teaming up
with a group of worker organizations to
host “Confronting Wage Theft” Thursday, June 2, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the
Deloitte Classroom of Hanson Hall, 1925
4th St. S., on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. The event is free and open to the
public.
The event follows up on the recent
Workday Minnesota series on wage theft
(see pages 11-14 of this issue) and is intended to keep a public focus on a crisis
that needs to be solved in a way that empowers workers and supports organizing.
Sponsors include CTUL, Minneapolis
Regional Labor Federation, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, SEIU
Minnesota State Council.
Happy 109th Anniversary to the
from
the United Labor Centre
Managed by
For leasing information, contact Brian Burg
612.305.2104 / [email protected]
June 2: ‘Confronting Wage Theft’ discussion
follows-up on Workday Minnesota reporting
May 27, 2016 • Minneapolis Labor Review • Page 3
Amy Klobuchar
OUR UNITED STATES SENATOR
Happy Labor Day and
Congratulations
thank you for all of your
to the Labor Review for a
hard work supporting
109-year
legacyworkers!
of advocating for
Minnesota
Minnesota’s working families!
Your
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More Events
June 17: Save 40 percent on groceries with
food packages from Fare for All Express
MINNEAPOLIS — If you’re looking to
stretch your grocery dollars, Fare for All
Express offers a variety of discounted grocery packages including produce-only,
meat-only, and a combo package with both
produce and meat items. Prices range from
$10 to $25 and offer a 40 percent savings.
The AFL-CIO community services
program, Working Partnerships, sponsors
one of the 30 Fare for All Express distribution sites in the greater metro area.
Working Partnerships’ next Fare for
All Express pick-up will be Friday, June 17
at the Sprinkler Fitters Local 417 union
hall, 1404 Central Ave. N.E., Minneapolis
(two blocks north of Broadway on Central).
Pick-up hours: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Other coming Fare for All Express
dates at the Sprinkler Fitters hall: July 22,
August 19.
Fare for All Express is a program of the
Food Group (formerly Emergency Foodshelf Network) and is open to everyone.
Visit www.fareforall.org for other
Fare for All Express locations and dates.
Fare for All Express accepts cash,
EBT, credit cards or debit cards. The program is open to all and has no income
requirements. No pre-ordering is necessary and there is no paperwork to fill out.
For more information, call 612-3798130 ext. 112 or 763-450-3880.
June 17: ‘Labor Movie Night’ features ‘Pride,’
story about gay support for 1984 miners’ strike
SAINT PAUL — The “Labor Movie
Night” series presents “Pride” Friday, June
17 at 6:00 p.m. at the East Side Freedom
Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., Saint Paul.
Set in Britain and based on a true story,
“Pride” (UK, 2014, 119 minutes, Rated R)
is a comedic drama about a group of gay
and lesbian activists who raised money to
help families affected by the British miners’
strike of 1984. The help is warily received,
at first, but solidarity triumphs.
Admission is free, donations welcome.
“Labor Movie Night” is sponsored by
AFSCME Local 3800, AFSCME Council 5,
AFSCME Council 5 Next Wave, AFSCME
Locals 34, 552, 607, 1164 and 2822, IBEW
Local 292, Teamsters Local 638, UNITE
HERE Local 17, East Side Freedom Library
and Minneapolis Labor Review.
June 26: March with union colors and banners
with AFL-CIO in the annual GLBT Pride Parade
MAC’S
INDUSTRIAL
SPORTS
BAR
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota
AFL-CIO invites union members to
march together in the annual GLBT Pride
Parade, coming Sunday, June 26.
The march will begin at 11:00 a.m. at
Hennepin Ave. and North 3rd St. in
downtown Minneapolis and proceed
down Hennepin Ave. to Spruce Street
near Loring Park.
Union members are encouraged to
wear their union colors and bring their
union banners.
A limited number of spots are available in the parade to the Minnesota
AFL-CIO, however, so would-be marchers need to RSVP.
For more details or to RSVP, contact
Chris Shields at 651-294-3094 or
[email protected].
Thanking union workers
for all your support.
July 24-28: Indiana University will host
We hope to continue
serving you!
312 Central Ave., Minneapolis
Phone: 612-379-3379
www.macsindustrial.com
annual Midwest School for Women Workers
NEW ALBANY — The annual Midwest School for Women Workers runs
July 24-28 this year and will be hosted by
Indiana University’s Department of Labor Studies.
The Midwest School for Women
Workers brings working women together
to develop leadership skills, understand
the challenges and issues facing the labor
movement, and learn from one another.
Presented annually since 1976, the
school equips women to be more active
and effective union and workplace leaders and to build solidarity among women
workers.
This year’s school will take place at
Indiana University’s New Albany campus, located in southeastern Indiana near
Louisville, Kentucky.
A limited number of full scholarships
will be awarded to applicants under the
age of 35.
For more information, contact info@
midwestwomenworkers.org.
Congressman Keith Ellison (left) addressed the crowd picketing a Verizon store in
Roseville in support of 39,000 members of CWA and IBEW on strike on the east coast.
Minnesotans picket in solidarity with
39,000 striking Verizon workers
By Steve Share, Labor Review editor
ROSEVILLE — About 50 Twin Cities area union members marched with
picket signs outside a Verizon Wireless
retail store May 5, showing solidarity
with 39,000 Verizon workers who are on
strike on the nation’s east coast.
The local solidarity action was part of
a nationwide day of action to support
members of the Communications Workers of America and the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who
went strike at Verizon April 13. Verizon
cut off the workers’ health benefits May 1.
“We’re here to support our brothers
and sisters at Verizon,” said Mona Meyer, president of the CWA Minnesota State
Council. “They’re striking because of
outsourcing of work — and outstating.”
Verizon has been outsourcing its U.S.
workers’ jobs to call centers in the Philippines.
Under “outstating,” Meyer explained,
a Verizon worker on the east coast might
be told by the employer, “we need you to
go to Texas indefinitely and we can’t tell
you when you’re coming home.” Verizon
has asked workers to make these moves
with almost no advance notice and with
no regard to how that would impact
workers with children and other family
concerns, she reported.
“Nobody wants to go on strike,” Meyer noted, but the workers faced unacceptable contract demands by Verizon, a
company which makes more than $1.5
billion a month in profits and whose CEO
earns more than $18 million per year, according to a CWA flier.
“They’re trying to squeeze even more
from the people who work every day,”
said Fifth District U.S. Congressman
Keith Ellison, who spoke to the crowd of
picketers.
“Solidarity is the order of the day,”
said Ellison, who pointed to members of
different unions in the crowd: not just
CWA and IBEW but also AFSCME, Machinists, Flight Attendants, and others.
“It can’t just be those workers; It’s got
to be us in Minnesota standing with people struggling for decent pay and decent
treatment,” Ellison said.
The United States today is seeing the
greatest divide in wealth and income
since the Great Depression of the 1930s,
Ellison noted. “We are pressed to the
wall and now is the time to fight back.”
The striking workers on the east coast
include call center workers and technicians and also workers at two unionized
Verizon retail stores, which allows CWA
and IBEW to mount informational pickets at other Verizon retail locations, Meyer explained.
Consumers on the east coast, she noted, are respecting the picket lines and
Verizon retail stores are becoming empty
of shoppers.
With the national day of action, “it’s
added pressure nationwide to put on the
company so we get them back to the
[bargaining] table,” Meyer said.
“The only unionized wireless carrier
is AT&T,” Meyer pointed out to the
crowd. “I stay at union hotels. I don’t
shop at Walmart. I encourage all of you
to switch to AT&T.” AT&T wireless also
offers a discount to union members.
CWA and IBEW staged a similar informational picket in downtown Minneapolis May 12 and plan continuing picketing.
For more information on the Verizon
strike, or to learn about coming local actions, visit standuptoverizon.com.
Hennepin County Commissioners
Linda Higgins
Vice-Chair
Peter McLaughlin
District 4
Thank you for advocating for Southwest and Bottineau LRT!
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Senate District 49
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Pat Guernsey, President
Tim Turrentine, Vice President
Cortney Foster, Secretary
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Representative
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• Richfield • Bloomington •
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Bloomington teachers near end of the
school year, still without new contract
The four candidates for Minneapolis School Board endorsed by the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation filed the paperwork to run for office at Minneapolis City
Hall May 17. Left to right: Bob Walser, Ira Jourdain, Kim Ellison, Kerry Jo Felder.
MRLF endorses four for Minneapolis School Board
MINNEAPOLIS — Delegates to the
Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation,
AFL-CIO voted May 11 to endo rse four
candidates for Minneapolis school board.
They include: incumbent Kim Ellison
(At Large); Kerry Jo Felder (District 2);
Bob Walser (District 4) and Ira Jourdain
(District 6).
The four previously were endorsed by
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Lo-
cal 59 and the Minneapolis DFL Party.
“For strong public schools, we need
all four of them to win,” said Lynn
Bolton, organizer for MFT Local 59.
The candidate filing period closes May
31. August 9 will be the date for a primary
election if more than two candidates file
for each seat. For the November 8 general
election, a Minneapolis school levy request also will be on the ballot.
Trades Night at Target Field
June 22, 2016
Twins vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Game time:
7:10 p.m.
BBQ picnic at the Farmer’s Market:
4:30-7:00 p.m.
Order tickets directly from
the Minnesota Twins: 612-659-3575
For more information: 612-379-4234
BLOOMINGTON— Bloomington
teachers are nearing the end of the 20152016 school year and they’re still without a new contract that should have been
in place at the start of the school year.
The school board initially proposed a
two-year contract that offered a zero percent wage increase each year to members
of the Bloomington Federation of Teachers. And they haven’t moved much above
that.
Teachers who haven’t been able to
vote on a fair contract proposal may be
voting with their feet.
“We’re experiencing an increase of
teachers interviewing outside the district,” said Wendy Marczak, president of
the nearly 900-member BFT. “There are
quite a few teachers who were committed to Bloomington who now are looking
elsewhere.”
Teachers have been showing their solidarity by grouping outside their school
buildings on Friday mornings and walking in together.
The district and BFT continue to negotiate.
Teachers felt a trust betrayed, however, when the district sent a March 31 letter to Bloomington Public School parents
giving a one-sided and inaccurate update
on the negotiations.
“They’ve put out what most people
would call propaganda,” said Scott Sieling, a teacher at Jefferson High with 18
years in the district. “They’re not telling
the whole truth.”
“This is the first time they’ve done
this,” Marczak said. “We felt extremely
hurt and upset.”
For a second month in a row, teachers
turned out en masse for the May 9 school
board meeting. Teachers and school parents spoke during a public comment period, urging a fair contract settlement..
“Two percent is reasonable and
should have been a budgeted amount,”
said school parent Julie Redlin, who got
a standing ovation from the crowd.
Outside in the hall, Tim Kaari, a 4th
grade teacher at Ridgeview Elementary
with 11 years in the district, expressed
his frustration with the board’s wage offers. “Why do we always have the same
situation where we can’t afford the number one resource, which is teachers?”
If a settlement is reached over the
summer, BFT president dMarczak said, a
vote by BFT members wouldn’t be
scheduled until this coming fall.
For more information, visit “Friends
of Bloomington Educators” on facebook.
“A friend to Minnesota’s Working Families”
Jim
Abeler
Minnesota Senate District 35
Anoka • Ramsey • Andover • NW Coon Rapids
jimabeler.com
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Steve Hunter retires, served as
state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer
Congratulations, Labor Review,
for telling working people’s
stories for 109 years!
Hennepin County
Commissioner
Randy Johnson
Bloomington •Richfield •Eden Prairie
Prepared and paid for by Friends of Randy Johnson Volunteer Committee,
P.O. Box 15747, M inneapolis, M N 55415
On behalf of the 2,850 members of
Anoka Hennepin Education Minnesota:
We thank our students, their families
and our communities for
a most successful school year.
As a Union of Professionals,
we are Proud, Strong and United.
LeMoyne Corgard, President
Jay Wilkins, Vice President
Scott Schaefer, Treasurer
Valerie Holthus, Secretary
SAINT PAUL — Steve Hunter, who
served in the number-two leadership position in the Minnesota AFL-CIO for
nearly 15 years, retired last month and
was honored at a celebration April 22.
In June 2001, Hunter was elected secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota
AFL-CIO when Ray Waldron moved up
from that position and was elected to be
president of the state labor federation.
Hunter continued to serve as secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO
under two following presidents, Shar Knutson and, most recently, Bill McCarthy.
Hunter frequently was the public face of
the Minnesota AFL-CIO, speaking at news
conferences and at rallies large and small.
Hunter spoke briefly from the podium
one last time to well-wishers at his retirement celebration at the Radisson Hotel in
Roseville.
“It’s been a long, strange trip,” he said.
“I’ve never forgotten that at the core of all
this it’s about who we represent, those people who are working every day and paying
their dues so we can do what we do.”
“As secretary-treasurer, I never forgot
it was their money and we tried to do our
best to be good stewards of that money,”
he said.
Hunter joined AFSCME (the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees) in 1975 when, bachelor’s degree in hand from the University of Minnesota, he started working as a graphic designer for the City of Minneapolis.
In the years that followed, Hunter
served in a number of elected positions
within AFSCME and elsewhere in organized labor. He was president of City of
Minneapolis employees’ AFSCME Local 9, president of AFSCME Council 14,
an executive board member of the former
Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council, a vice president of the Minnesota
AFL-CIO and AFSCME’s full-time political director in the state.
Steve Hunter addressed the crowd at his
retirement celebration April 22.
Waldron, then leading the state’s construction trades unions, said that he first
met Steve Hunter when Hunter was
AFSCME’s political director. “We
worked out agreements when the public
employees and the building trades
seemed to be fighting on election issues.”
The two men ran twice as a team for
president and secretary-treasurer of the
Minnesota AFL-CIO. “We didn’t always
agree on issues but when we left for the
evening we were still friends,” Waldron
said.
Hunter also served in a number of other
roles, including regent of the University of
Minnesota, officer of the Minnesota Fair
Trade Coalition, and board member of the
Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action.
Hunter also was a longtime advisory
committee member for the University of
Minnesota Labor Education Service,
which publishes the Workday Minnesota
labor news website.
Hunter, 65, said retirement will allow
more time with his family and to pursue
one of his passions — watching Chicago
Cubs baseball.
After taking a break, Hunter said, he expects to find a new role to continue his advocacy for social and economic justice.
—Workday Minnesota and Labor Review reporting
Apply now for MN Union Leadership Program
MINNEAPOLIS — Union organizations looking for ways to cultivate new
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Participants are drawn from a diverse
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Legislature
continued from page 1
pointment in the legislative session’s logjam.
“We are beyond disappointed that
once again the legislature failed to send
the Governor a comprehensive, longterm funding plan for Minnesota’s road,
bridge, and transit infrastructure,” said
Glen Johnson, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 49. “For years,
our transportation system has been ignored and our state’s potential has been
stifled by the lack of political courage to
spend the money to fix it. “
“Spending money on transportation is
an investment in union construction
workers all across our state,” Johnson
said. “It is unacceptable these workers
and their families were not a priority this
year. We urge the legislature to reconvene
for a special session, pass a real transportation bill, and put our members to work.”
“We’re very disappointed that a longterm, sustainable bill to fund transportation
and transit throughout the state did not get
done,” said Kyle Makarios, director of government affairs for the North Central States
Regional Council of Carpenters. “We encourage the Governor and legislative leaders to finish the negotiations on that bill and
take care of our state’s infrastructure.”
“We’re hoping everyone takes a
breath and figures out what needs to be
done to have a bonding bill and transportation bill,” said Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota State Building and
Construction Trades Council. “We have
hope.”
Bill McCarthy, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, commented on the
broader dynamics of the 2016 session.
“Unfortunately, House Republicans tried
to take resources from schools and public
services to pay for roads, ran out the
clock on an infrastructure bonding bill,
flat-out ignored paid family leave, shortchanged education, and attacked public
employees and their unions,” he said.
“House Republicans failed working
Minnesotans. We deserve better.”
East Side Freedom Library celebrates second anniversary
Former public library building finds
new life as a center for labor and
immigrant history and social justice
SAINT PAUL — Industrialist Andrew
Carnegie must be rolling over in his
grave. A historic Carnegie Library building located on St. Paul’s East Side, formerly the Arlington Hills Public Library,
now is bustling with new life as a center
for labor and immigrant history and social justice activism.
The East Side Freedom Library
opened two years ago at 1105 Greenbrier
Street, growing to become both a research
library and a community hub.
Peter Rachleff, a retired Macalester
College history professor, is one of the
co-founders.
“I don’t think anybody is combining
the attention we’re paying to both resources and programs,” Rachleff said.
“We’re trying to do both.”
Rachleff’s extensive collection of materials in labor, immigration and African
American history seeded the library’s collection, which already has grown to more
than 15,000 titles. The library’s diverse
holdings have grown from the donated
collections of local writers, musicians,
The East Side Freedom Library
educators and activists as well as immigrant groups. “Bringing in the Hmong
Archives was a huge step for us,” Rachleff noted.
“We see it all connected,” Rachleff
said. “It’s connected by the importance of
people being able to tell their own stories
and not being captive to the stories the
dominant culture tells about them.”
Bobby Kasper, president of the Saint
Paul Regional Labor Federation, has
called the East Side Freedom Library “a
labor hall for the community.”
The library has become a go-to venue
for labor events.
”We’re getting significant support
from some of the unions,” Rachleff said.
Last year, the library hosted a national
Congratulations
to the
Minneapolis
Labor Review
MINNEAPOLIS METAL WORKERS
LODGE No. 459
CHARTERED 1901
1907-2016
concert tour celebrating the legacy of
union organizer and songwriter Joe Hill.
The monthly “Labor Movie Night” series now alternates between the United
Labor Centre in Minneapolis and the East
Side Freedom Library.
The library also has been a venue for
programs in the “Untold Stories” labor
history series sponsored by the Friends of
the Saint Paul Public Library.
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota has used
the library for organizing meetings for
home care workers while SEIU Local 284
asked to use the building’s boiler for a
technicians’ training class.
The East Side Freedom Library also
has found a role as a resource for junior
high and senior high students participating in the national History Day competition. Students research and create films,
performances, display boards, websites.
“I think History Day is the coolest thing
in the world,” Rachleff said. Kids are
drawn to issues of social justice and the
stories of labor struggles, he noted.
The library’s second anniversary will
be celebrated June 2 with a showcase of
History Day projects (see below).
“I would encourage people from Minneapolis to come over here,” Rachleff
said. “We don’t want to be just a Saint
Paul institution.”
Join the East Side Freedom
Library in celebrating its
second anniversary with a
showcase of local students’
History Day Projects
Thursday, June 2
5:00-8:00 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library,
1105 Greenbrier St., Saint Paul
eastsidefreedomlibrary.org
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WAGE THEFT
Minnesotans lose millions through wage theft
By Joey Getty and Barb Kucera,
Workday Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Working people
have millions of dollars stolen from them
every day. If stolen at gunpoint, the thefts
would make headlines. But because the
losses occur at work — and they’re not
regarded as criminal — few people know
what is happening to them.
An investigation by Workday Minnesota has found wage theft in Minnesota is
larger and more widespread than most
people realize — and the problem is
growing. Over several months, we interviewed scores of workers, community
activists, union representatives, public
officials and more. We poured over five
years of data on wage theft cases from
the state Department of Labor and Industry. We searched the academic literature
and examined numerous studies.
Our investigation was spurred in part
by ideas raised by some state and local
officials to improve enforcement of current laws against wage theft. Despite
these discussions, few people are aware
of wage theft or understand its impact.
“It’s very widespread, but it’s not very
well-understood,” notes Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and assistant professor in the University of Minnesota’s
Carlson School of Management. “A lot
of people don’t even know that it’s happening to them, because it’s done in a
sneaky way or it’s done in a way that
they don’t recognize it as a violation.”
What is wage theft?
The classic case of wage theft is when
a worker simply is not paid for the work
that he or she has performed. Sometimes
it occurs when a business goes bankrupt
or a worker leaves and is not given a final
paycheck.
Wage theft is much broader than that,
however.
“Wage theft takes a lot of forms,” said
assistant professor Alan Benson, a col-
league of Sojourner at the University.
“Wage theft can take the form of
keeping inaccurate records. It can take
the form of not paying for time that was
worked, not paying for break time. It
could be that you’re misclassified as a
salaried worker when you should be paid
hourly and that means you should be eligible for overtime pay but you don’t
make overtime pay.”
Workers paid below the minimum
wage are victims of wage theft. In Minnesota, hospitality industry workers who
have tips counted toward their wages are
being cheated.
On public construction projects,
workers can be the victims of wage theft
if they do not receive the governmentrequired prevailing wage.
Advocates and researchers say the
problem is larger than the categories that
currently exist under state and federal
law. Is being required to stand in line
without pay before clocking into work a
wage theft violation? Are the many
workers not covered by overtime laws
being cheated? When is someone an independent contractor — and when is
their employer assigning them that designation in order to avoid wage and hour
laws or payroll taxes?
Who is having their wages stolen?
The wage theft problem crosses all
boundaries of income, race and gender,
but the incidence of violations is higher
among low-wage workers and people of
color. It’s also more prevalent in certain
industries; residential construction, home
health care and agriculture are all areas
where some employers have made wage
theft part of the way they do business.
A 2008 survey of 4,387 low-wage
workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and
New York found that more than twothirds of workers experienced at least
one pay-related violation in their previous workweek. Each worker was losing,
The wage theft problem
crosses all boundaries of
income, race and gender
but violations are higher
among low-wage workers
and people of color
on average, $2,634 out of their $17,616
annual earnings.
In 2014, the Economic Policy Institute generalized the 2008 survey data,
estimating that wage theft is costing
American workers more than $50 billion
a year. That’s more than three times the
$14 billion lost annually to robberies,
burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle
thefts, EPI noted.
A Twin Cities worker center, CTUL,
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha/
Center of Workers United in Struggle, recently published preliminary findings of a
survey of 173 low-wage workers.
“Half (49 percent) of the workers in
the WRD survey reported that they had
faced wage theft in their workplace here
in the Twin Cities,” CTUL reported. Sixty-six percent of respondents from the
janitorial industry experienced wage
theft, the report added.
Earlier this year, members of CTUL
won a $425,000 settlement after suing a
cleaning contractor for wage theft.
Community groups see the effect on
people of color.
Mike Griffin, field director at Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, said
wage theft is one reason that Minnesota’s
economy is split along racial lines.
“People who have a salary or high
wages, the ability to spend time with
their family when they get sick… a set
schedule — those people tend to be
white,” he said. “People with a low salary or a low hourly [wage], people who
don’t have sick time, people who have a
random schedule where they don’t know
how much money they’re making —
those people tend to be black.”
While wage theft is definitely a lowwage worker problem, it is spreading
among people in many kinds of jobs,
such as the online workers studied by Sojourner and Benson.
“We’ve had complaints from lawyers,”
said Ken Peterson, commissioner of the
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. “We’ve had complaints from medical
personnel who say they have not received
their proper pay either.”
Investigators rely on complaints from
the public and don’t have the time or resources to seek out wage theft violations,
Peterson said. “Theoretically, we could
be hearing about every one of them or we
could be hearing about less than one percent of them. We just don’t know.”
How is the law enforced?
The most commonly reported cases in
Minnesota involve the classic example of
someone not receiving a final paycheck
when leaving a job, according to the state
Department of Labor and Industry.
In fiscal year 2015, the department handled 1,229 of these “wage claims,” which
amounted to about $553,000 for 623 workers, according to Jessica Looman, deputy
commissioner of the department.
“About 50 percent of the time, we are
successful in getting those workers their
money back quickly,” said Looman.
“The rest of the time, we refer those
workers to small claims court.”
Most other cases handled by the labor
standards unit are categorized as “wage
complaints.” These scenarios include
when employers fail to pay the prevailing wage, the minimum wage or overtime wages; when employers make illeWAGE THEFT page 13
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WAGE THEFT
Wage theft: In some industries, the way some employers do business
gal deductions from employees’
paychecks (i.e. charging for uniforms or
job-related equipment); or when employers do not pay their employees for their
work within 31 days.
Wage complaints often warrant intensive investigations by the department,
Looman said. In fiscal year 2015, the department handled 435 complaints, which
amounted to $309,000 recovered for 356
workers.
Investigators must prove that there
has been a violation of Minnesota law.
“Sometimes that’s very difficult to show
with the records or with the information
that’s available, either from the worker
and/or the employer,” Looman added.
At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
investigates similar complaints in Minnesota. However, it can only investigate
complaints that apply to federal law. Depending on a worker’s complaint, he or
she may be more protected under federal
wage laws or state wage laws.
Major differences between Minnesota
and federal law include:
n The Minnesota minimum wage is
$9 an hour, compared to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Minnesota
employers with gross annual revenue below $500,000 are allowed to pay $7.25
an hour.
n Minnesota law mandates overtime
pay (1.5 times base pay) after employees
work more than 48 hours in one week.
Federal law requires overtime pay after
40 hours in one week. Both Minnesota
and federal overtime laws include a long
list of detailed exceptions.
n Minnesota law allows for certain
break time for nursing mothers, while
federal law only protects mothers who
work overtime.
n Agricultural workers who hold
H-2A visas are often entitled to a higher
wage under federal law.
n If work is contracted by the state of
Minnesota, workers may receive the prevailing wage. If work is contracted by the
federal government, workers may be entitled to a higher wage through the Davis-Bacon Act or a number of other laws.
Workers are not always able to navigate
these complex sets of laws and enforcement agencies, notes Madeline Lohman,
senior researcher for Advocates for Human
Rights, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that
has produced a report on wage theft and labor trafficking in the Twin Cities.
“Workers are confronting this really
fragmented system, on their own, basically, and having to make phone call after phone call to try to get in touch with
someone who might be able to know
what is going on,” she said.
The problem is compounded by a lack
of resources. The Minnesota Department of
Labor and Industry has six investigators assigned to the wage and hour division; in
addition, two more investigators deal with
misclassification of construction workers.
In the late 1980s, the Department of Labor and Industry had 8 or 9 inspectors for a
workforce of 1.9 million, Commissioner
Peterson said. Today, the workforce has
grown by one million but the number of inspectors has been cut by a third.
The U.S. Department of Labor has
8-9 wage and hour officers in the state
and two trainees.
“The number of cops on the beat is
very small relative to the scale of the
problem,” said the U of M’s Sojourner.
And there are virtually no penalties. If
found to have violated wage and hour
laws, employers must pay back workers
what they are owed. Sometimes they are
fined when an employee can prove that
the employer intentionally violated the
law. In a handful of cases there has been
criminal prosecution.
Wage theft plagues home health workers
By Barb Kucera, Workday Minnesota
ST. PAUL — Robin Pikala became
the face of wage theft in Minnesota
when she spoke at a news conference at
the state Capitol a year ago. She was one
of 800 workers owed a total of $1.4 million by Crystal Care, one of the state’s
largest home health care agencies.
“For 45 days, we worked without
pay,” Pikala recalls. “And about a week
later, they filed for bankruptcy… By the
time they paid the lawyers, the bank that
they owed, there was nothing left for us.”
Pikala told her story at a news conference where lawmakers announced
plans to introduce legislation to crack
down on wage theft. She joined workers
from retail and construction who also
had been cheated out of hard-earned pay.
The case of Richfield-based Crystal
Care is notable for the number of people
affected and the amount of money owed,
but it’s by no means unusual in the home
health care industry. A review of state
Department of Labor and Industry re-
cords for the past five years shows scores
of complaints and enforcement actions
against companies in the industry, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars.
In one case from 2013, Accurate
Home Care, LLC did not pay 33 employees overtime wages (1.5 times their
hourly pay) for hours worked over 48
hours per week. Instead, the company
paid employees quarterly bonuses based
on the number of extra shifts they took.
These bonuses did not add up to what
employees would have made under state
overtime law and they were ultimately
owed $94,783.64.
Home health care is a growing area
of employment in Minnesota, due to the
effort to move people with disabilities
out of large institutions and provide for
their care at home. Much of the funding
comes from Medicaid and is administered through the state Department of
Human Services, which awards money
to agencies on a per-patient basis. The
HOME HEALTH WORKERS page 14
June 2: ‘Confronting Wage Theft’ discussion
follows-up on Workday Minnesota reporting
MINNEAPOLIS — The University
of Minnesota Labor Education Service
and Workday Minnesota are teaming up
with a group of worker organizations to
host “Confronting Wage Theft” Thursday, June 2, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the
Deloitte Classroom of Hanson Hall, 1925
4th St. S., on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. The event is free and open to the
public.
See page 4 for more information.
Find more reporting on wage theft at workdayminnesota.org
These stories on pages 12-14 reporting on wage theft are two parts of a nine-part Workday
Minnesota series. Other stories in the series examine wage theft in construction, agriculture,
and on-line labor markets. The series includes stories about improved prevailing wage enforcement to curtail wage theft, what worker centers are doing to fight wage theft, and wage theft
warning signs and solutions. Visit workdayminnesota.org/special-collections/wage-theft.
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pocket costs. Allina says the move would save $10
million, according to Rose Roach, the Minnesota Nurses
Association’s executive director.
“We’ve asked Allina, is the company in trouble?”
Roach said during the rally. “Do we need to cut costs to
pay the rent or keep the lights on? They say no, the company’s doing just fine.”
“So don’t kid yourself, it ain’t about money,” Roach
added. “They’re stashing money in investment portfolios and offshore accounts, but they want you to go without good health care plans. We have fought hard for
those benefits that we have in the contract, and we’re not
going to let them slip away.”
Two members of the MNA’s bargaining team also
spoke at the rally, shedding light on the importance of
keeping the union-sponsored plans.
Angela Becchetti, a nurse at Abbott Northwestern,
said she experienced complications both times she gave
birth, resulting in medical bills in excess of $90,000.
Under Allina’s health plans, Becchetti’s family would
have paid about $12,000 in out-of-pocket costs, she
said.
“I would have had to come back to work sooner,”
Becchetti said. “I could not have spent time with my
family during that critical time.”
Becchetti’s colleague at Abbott Northwestern, Margaret Blissenbach, called herself “a living example of
why we must preserve our MNA insurance plans.” A
scriptions that cost more than $20,000 per dosage.
“Our insurance plan, thanks to our union, has been a
life-saver for me,” Blissenbach said. “Ask yourself,
‘Would a $10,000 or even a $20,000 health spending
account mean anything if one of your drugs alone cost
$23,000?”
‘Going rogue’
Allina nurses voted overwhelmingly to reject the
company’s proposal to eliminate the MNA plans in February, but the employer hasn’t let go of the demand at
the bargaining table since then.
That puts Allina on something of an island among
Twin Cities hospital systems. Allina dropped out of metro-wide negotiations that resulted in a new contract for
about 7,000 nurses at five hospital systems earlier this
year — a contract that includes MNA insurance options.
“This is a case of Allina going rogue,” said MNA
president Mary Turner, a nurse at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale.
Whether the display of solidarity among nurses and
the community convinces Allina to soften its stance at
the bargaining table remains to be seen, but Pastor Jonathan Zielske of Salem English Lutheran Church said
nurses won’t have any trouble winning public support in
their fight for quality insurance options.
“Allina is getting out of alignment with their own
name, their own calling,” Zielske said. “They’re supposed to be all about health.”
Home health workers: cheated out of hard-earned pay
agencies directly employ personal care attendants and also
serve as fiscal intermediaries for individuals who hire their
own PCAs.
About 500 companies currently provide home health
care in Minnesota. The business can be lucrative, said
Francis Hall, who has worked as a PCA for 15 years. The
state might reimburse an agency $17.04 an hour for home
care, while they pay the home care worker $10.75 an hour,
she said. The company pockets the difference.
“There are some companies out there that are very substantial and do everything by the book,” Hall said in an interview with Workday. “Then there are these other companies that really don’t care. They’re basically just out there
for the money.”
She has witnessed several cases of wage theft, including
an agency in Brainerd that operated under one name, then
re-opened under another. Along the way, it stopped paying
employees.
“It was a lot of money,” said Hall. “People were owed
anywhere from $600-$700 for part-time workers, up to
$3,000 or more for full-time workers that were working 48
hours a week.”
Now an executive board member of SEIU Healthcare
Minnesota, a union representing 26,000 home health care
workers in the state, Hall gathered information and tried to
help the workers. It was frustrating, she said.
The Department of Human Services is focused on client
care, not ensuring that workers get paid. The Department of
Labor and Industry requires workers to wait 31 days before
it will investigate.
While the workers were not being paid, many of them
continued to care for their clients. The same was true at
Crystal Care.
PCAs form strong bonds with their clients, Hall noted,
“especially if they’ve been working with them for a long
time. They’re not going to abandon their client.”
At the same time, the PCAs struggled to make rent, car
payments and other bills without a paycheck. They talked
to lawyers and appealed to public officials for help, Pikala
said. They found support at SEIU Healthcare Minnesota,
voting for union representation in August 2014.
The Crystal Care workers have never gotten back the
wages that were stolen from them, but PCAs now have a
watchdog to prevent such theft from happening in the future, said Jamie Gulley, president of the union.
“Now that we have a contract in place, the union is able
to ensure that people are paid appropriately each pay period,” filing a grievance if necessary, he said.
“It would be very difficult for a situation like Crystal
Care to occur again for workers that are covered by the
union because we would know immediately if somebody
didn’t get paid and we would be able to intervene and go to
the State of Minnesota and ensure that the state was able to
step in at an early moment.”
The union also is on the lookout for other forms of wage
theft, Gulley noted. “Agencies like Crystal Care will oftentimes tell workers they’re not due overtime that they should
be receiving or ask them to sign waivers or ask them to sign
time sheets that don’t include all of the hours they worked,”
he said. “That money is just going to the agency. That is
some agencies’ business model — screw the workers.”
While a union provides some protection, other safeguards are needed, especially in cases where companies go
bankrupt, Gulley said. The union believes home care companies should be required to post a bond or carry insurance
so that wages are paid in those circumstances.
That is one of the provisions in the wage theft bill introduced last year by Senator David Tomassoni, DFLChisholm, and Representative Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing.
The Legislature has taken no action on the bill.
PROUD OF LABOR SUPPORT…
PROUD TO SUPPORT LABOR!
CONGRATULATIONS ON
109 YEARS!
from
CEMENT MASONS,
PLASTERERS &
SHOPHANDS
LOCAL 633
Of Minnesota, North
Dakota, & NW Wisconsin
Senator
Scott Dibble
District 61
Representative
Frank Hornstein
District 61A
Prepared and Paid for by Volunteers for Dibble and Hornstein Volunteer Committee
312 Central Ave, #376, MPLS, MN 55414
612-379-1558
www.local633.org
America’s Oldest Building Trades Union
Est. 1864
Anniversary Greetings
To Our Members and
AFL-CIO Friends
Congratulations To
The Labor Review
– 1907-2016 –
•
SPRINKLER FITTERS LOCAL #417
Minneapolis Area Local
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, AFL-CIO
Office: 1234 4TH ST., N.E., Minneapolis, MN 55413
www.local417.com
Minneapolis
Labor Review
Archive
109 years of labor
history at the click of a
mouse button!
• Web-based • Searchable •
• Free Access•
New interface!
Speedier searches!
New interface, speedier searches
for Labor Review online archive
MINNEAPOLIS — Just in time for
the 109th anniversary of the Minneapolis
Labor Review, the newspaper’s online archive now features a new interface and
speedier searches.
The archive allows visitors to search
the text of all 109 years of the newspaper
by name, date or topic.
Users see the image of the newspaper
page as it actually appeared in print and
can download a pdf file of the page.
Students or scholars will find that
photos, cartoons and newspaper text in
downloaded pdf files offer high-quality
images for use in print, or video documentaries or websites.
In a change from the old archive interface, the pages of the most recent issue of
the Labor Review no longer will need to
load before a search may begin.
Instead of a pull-down menu narrowing searches to 10-year periods, searches
now may be completely customized.
The new “Issue List” pull-down menu
brings up the date of every issue of the
newspaper going back to the first issue in
April 1907. Hover over the date of a specific issue and the front page of that issue
will appear. Click on the date and all the
pages of that issue immediately will appear and you can quickly scroll from the
first page to the last page.
Access to the Labor Review Archive
is free.
Find the Labor Review Archive at
www.minneapolisunions.org.
Thank you for 109 years of bringing
important issues to the attention of
hard-working men and women in Minneapolis
For more information, visit our website at www.mft59.org
67 8th Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 • 612-529-9621
109th Anniversary Greetings
1907-2016
Photo above: Black sashes were draped on crosses
bearing the names of nine construction workers remembered at this year’s Workers Memorial Day
event. Photo inset: St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman.
St. Paul mayor Coleman highlights union role
in job safety at Workers Memorial Day event
SAINT PAUL — Twin Cities area
construction trades workers honored
their comrades who died on the job or
from work-related illnesses at the annual
Workers Memorial Day April 28.
Due to rain, this year’s event took
place indoors at the new Saint Paul Labor
Center, which recently opened in a
brand-new building at 353 West 7th St.
Workers remembered this year included:
n Jerome Connolly, Operating Engineers Local 49;
n Roger A. Englund, Heat and Frost
Insulators Local 34;
n Michael L. Fuller, Heat and Frost
n Jeramie M. Gruber, Roofers Local 96;
n Allan L. Johnson, Heat and Frost
n James A Koller, Jr., Roofers Local 96;
n Andrew B. Loyas, Sheet Metal
Workers Local 10;
n Wallace F. McGrane, Pipefitters
Local 455;
n Roger Schilz, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34.
Saint Paul mayor Chris Coleman was
the featured speaker.
“We ask people to put themselves in
harm’s way,” Coleman noted. “But you
do it. You go out. You go out in weather
like this without asking questions. You
build community.”
“But when you go to work in the
morning on a project, you shouldn’t have
to worry whether you’re going to come
back at night,” Coleman said.
“When you retire,” he continued,
“you shouldn’t have to worry about
whether or not the conditions that you
worked under for decades are going to
threaten or cut short your life.”
‘We have to do everything that we can
within in our power... to protect the safety of everyone on a job site,” Coleman
said.
At this point, Coleman’s remarks took
a turn.
“I find it little ironic that on the day
that we pause to honor those workers that
have lost their lives, we have a legislator
up at the State Capitol threatening to strip
union rights from our workers,” he said.
Coleman was referring to legislation
proposed by Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) which would attack public sector workers and curtail
their union rights.
“It seems outrageous to me, of all
days, to have Representative Drazkowski
put that in front of the state legislature
today,” Coleman said.
“I don’t think it belongs any day but it
sure as heck doesn’t belong on a day that
we recognize the danger that we all put
ourselves through,” Coleman said.
“It’s because of the unions — because of the training that our unions give
our workers —that we can say that they’ll
be safer on the job,” Coleman maintained.
“It’s because our unions stand up and
fight on behalf of working men and
women across this country that we can
say that the work that they do will be better — safer not just for them as workers
but for all people who go to our stadiums, that drive on our roads, that go to
the buildings that you build.”
“What you do as a union is constantly
under threat,” Coleman said. “We all
need to stand up and oppose the type of
legislation that we’re seeing proposed up
at the Capitol.”
msea
msea
msea
MINNESOTA SCHOOL
EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
MINNESOTA SCHOOL
MINNESOTA
SCHOOL
Congratulations
Congratulations
Labor
Review
Congratulations
Congratulations
Labor
Review
Labor
Review
on
yourReview
104th
Labor
your109th
104th
on on
your
Anniversary!
on
your 104th
Anniversary!
Anniversary!
Anniversary!
www.msea-mn.com
www.msea-mn.com
Representing public
school employees
Representing
public
into the future:
school employees
Representing
public
into the employees
future:
school
PARAPROFESSIONALS
into the future:
SECRETARIES
PARAPROFESSIONALS
DRIVERS
SECRETARIES
PARAPROFESSIONALS
DRIVERS
FOOD SERVICE
SECRETARIES
FOOD
SERVICE
CUSTODIANS
DRIVERS
CUSTODIANS
TECHNICIANS
TECHNICIANS
FOOD
SERVICE
INTERPRETERS
INTERPRETERS
CUSTODIANS
TECHNICIANS
INTERPRETERS
Do you like to
Hunt? Fish?
www.msea-mn.com
For a special Game Fair preview in
our July issue, the Labor Review is
looking for union members willing
to discuss their love of hunting or
fishing.
If you or someone you know would
like to share stories and photos,
please call the editor ASAP at
612-379-4725.
NALC food drive
cal 653 actively supported the food drive and partnered
with Cub Foods to print 100,000 paper grocery bags
with a message encouraging people to contribute.
NALC Branch 9 members distributed the bags along
their routes in the days leading up to the May 14 food
drive.
The afternoon of May 14, I set out to shoot photos
and talk with Letter Carriers as well as union and community volunteers helping with the food drive.
1:30 p.m., Southwest Minneapolis
Before I even left my own block, I saw someone in
the familiar blue United States Postal Service uniform
heading down the opposite side of the street walking
from house to house. Letter Carrier Al Hartman, St.
Louis Park, said he was “a proud member of the NALC”
and a member for 12 years.
How was the response to the food drive on his route
today? “We usually do pretty well,” he said.
2:00 p.m., Cub Foods, Knollwood, St. Louis Park
The Knollwood Cub Foods was one of many Cub
Foods locations where letter carriers could come to
empty their trucks of donated food, where waiting volunteers transferred the bags of food to larger trucks.
Here I found many hands ready to help, including
about six members of the Minneapolis Regional Retiree
Council and several members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 653.
“We’re getting the easy part of it, simply helping unload the goods. The Letter Carriers are doing the brunt
of it,” said Douglas Rigert, Minneapolis, a UFCW Local
653 member for 39 years and now a business agent.
“We’re proud to be part of it,” Rigert said. “Anytime
you can be part of something that’s helping people in
need, why wouldn’t you be part of it? That’s what we’re
on this planet to do,”
“You do everything you can to give a little back to
the community,” said Fred Nichols, owner of A-1 Moving, which brought two trucks to the Knollwood Cub for
the food drive. His trucks were being loaded with food
brought by the Letter Carriers. Later, A-1 Moving would
take the food to the Second Harvest Heartland warehouse. Nichols said his company has participated every
year since the Minnesota Transport Services Association
first became involved in the NALC food drive a few
years ago.
“I’m very pro-union,” Nichols said. “They need to
add, add, add, strengthen, strengthen, strengthen.”
One of the retired union members volunteering at the
At Blaine North Cub Foods, Danielle Hedberg of Hedberg Moving saw her truck fill completely for the first time.
Knollwood Cub was Dorothy Baker, Eagan, a member
of the Minnesota Nurses Association since 1958. Baker
said she was a first-time food drive volunteer. “It’s a
worthy cause,” she said.
3:00 p.m., Cub Foods, Brooklyn Center
A cheer arose from the large contingent of volunteers
at the Brooklyn Center Cub Foods when a USPS vehicle
appeared. Soon three Letter Carrier trucks were lined
up, which union volunteers and MTSA volunteers unloaded.
NALC member Tenzin Kekmon, who has been a Letter Carrier almost one year, said this was his first food
drive. “It’s good,” he said, as volunteers unloaded his
truck.
“I’ve been doing it ever since it started,” said Kathy
Fitzhenry, Crystal, a 29-1/2 year NALC member. “I had
one lady that gave me eight bags.” Volunteers quickly
emptied her truck full of grocery bags of donated food.
She joked, “I like the service here!”
Molly Malecki, AFSCME Local 2822 retiree, said
she had volunteered many times for the food drive.
“Hot, cold, rain, we’ve had it all. I don’t think it ever
snowed — yes it did!”
AFSCME Local 2822 member Chelsea Krantz was a
first-time food drive volunteer. “I saw a note on the table
advertising it and I thought, ‘I’m going to do that,’” said
Krantz, who works at Hennepin County’s Brookdale
service center.
Mike Shay, Plymouth, a 19-year NALC member,
helped volunteers unload donated food from his truck.
“It’s a good cause,” he said. “I don’t mind doing a little
extra work — it’s all for the benefit of humankind.”
4:00 p.m., Cub Foods, Blaine South
Robinson Moving had four trucks and nine employ-
ees available for the NALC food drive at the Cub Foods
Blaine South site.
They were joined by volunteers from Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 1005, including union members’
children. “It’s more like fun than volunteering,” said Stephen Zapata, age 15, son of ATU member John Zapata.
Local 1005 member Tim Webber was accompanied
by daughter Elisia, age 16, and son Timmy, age 8.
“They’ve done it every year,” Webber said.
4:30 p.m., Cub Foods, Blaine North
Danielle Hedberg of Hedberg Moving stood in the
back of a truck packed full with food bins, calling an
employee on her cell phone to bring another truck to the
Cub Foods Blaine North site. This was the first time donations ever filled one of her trucks, she said. “It’s a
good problem to have. We’re just glad to be a part of it.”
Staff from the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation who volunteered at the Blaine North site hardly got
a chance to sit down all afternoon, they reported, because Letter Carriers came almost non-stop all afternoon to drop off food.
5:45 p.m., Cub Foods, 60th & Nicollet, Minneapolis
Approaching 6:00 p.m., five remaining volunteers
from Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59 were
about to call it a day at the Cub Foods at 60th and Nicollet in Minneapolis.
“This is a fun event,” said Janet Kujat, a teacher at
Dowling School. “It’s a great thing for the community.
It’s overwhelming when you see the generosity of people.”
Teachers know the need. Anne Lewerenz, a school
district program coordinator, noted, “a lot of Minneapolis Public Schools students’ families access the food being donated.”
First Ward Minneapolis
City Council Member
Kevin
Reich
612-673-2201
[email protected]
Paid for by Reich for Ward 1,
3504 Architect Ave. NE, Mpls., MN 55418
Congratulations to the
on your 109th Anniversary!
May 2016 ad
1/6 page
4.7 in. w. x 3.85 in. h.
Thank you for keeping us informed about labor news
2016
From AFSCME Local 34
Hennepin County Social Services & Related
Happy 109th Anniversary!
From the Members of Local 1005
THE UNION
OF BANKING
AND COMMUNITY
We’re all in this together. That is why Union Bank & Trust has a dedicated
staff who volunteers their time, energy and resources to community building
projects. Partner with our community bank for your financing, deposit and
trust business, knowing that our community means everything to us.
Congratulations to the Minneapolis Labor Review
on your 108th Anniversary
Thank you for keeping us informed about labor news
May 2015 ad
1/8 page
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312 Central Avenue SE • Minneapolis • 612-379-3222
www.ubtmn.com • Member FDIC
COMMUNITY BANKING IN THE HEART OF THE TWIN CITIES
Anniversary Greetings to the
Minneapolis
Labor
Review
From AFSCME
Local
34
2015
1907-2016
Hennepin County
Social Services & Related
LOCAL #10 MEMBERS AND THEIR
FAMILIES CONGRATULATE THE
MINNEAPOLIS LABOR REVIEW
ON ITS 109TH ANNIVERSARY!
1907-2016
PIPEFITTERS
LOCAL UNION NO. 539
312 Central Ave., Room 408
www.pipefitters539.com
MEMBERS OF
SHEET METAL WORKERS’ LOCAL #10
www.smw10.org
BAKERY, CONFECTIONERY, TOBACCO
WORKERS, & GRAIN MILLERS UNION
LOCAL 22
For summer entertaining, please buy Local 22 made
products at your local union grocery store!
Fresh-baked cakes for special occasions
and other goodies created by Local 22
members available at:
n Almsted’s Fresh Market (Crystal, MN)
n County Market (North Branch, MN & Hudson, WI)
n Cub Foods
n Driskill’s Foods (Hopkins, MN)
n Jerry’s Foods
n Lunds and Byerlys
Boilermakers:
Paving the road to
living wage jobs through
clean coal technologies
Quality grocery favorites produced
locally by Local 22 members:
n Country Hearth & Lakeland products
(Pan-O-Gold Bakery)
n Dream Fields Pasta
n Old Dutch products
n Pearson’s Candy Company
n Sara Lee buns & bread, Ballpark buns
boilermakerslocal647.com
(Bimbo Bakeries USA)
Saluting the
Labor Review!
Providing short term mental & chemical
health assessment and daily living tools
ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTORS
LOCAL 9
for union members and their families
Minnesota • North Dakota • Wisconsin
Available 24 Hours a Day
433 Little Canada Rd. East
Little Canada, MN 55117 651-287-0817
www.local9.com
Best Wishes on Your
109th Anniversary
651.642.0182 800.634.7710
Boilermakers:
Congratulations to Minneapolis
Happy
Paving
the109th
roadAnniversary!
to
Labor Review on 109 years!
We appreciate your publication
supporting local, organized labor
livingAccurate
wage jobsMailing,
through Inc.
Complete Mailroom Facilities:
clean coal
• Dock technologies
• Handwork
• Pressure-Sensitive Labeling • Tabbing
• Automatic Inserting
• Computer Work
•
Folding
• Inkjet
boilermakerslocal647.com
From your brothers and sisters with
Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, Local 34
www.insulators34.org
Proudly representing the
Labor Review since 1985
2855 Anthony Lane So., #110
St. Anthony, MN 55418
Phone: 612.789.0044
[email protected]
www.mnguild.org
Members, Teamsters Local 4
Low vehicle loan rates
on 2007-2015
Rates as low as model
year vehicles
for
up
to
60 months
2.49%*
Congratulations to the
on your 109th anniversary!
Minnesota Newspaper &
Communications Guild
1928 W. County Rd. C, St. Paul
651-633-2488
Celebrating 103 years
of service to our members!
7100 Brooklyn Boulevard
Brooklyn Center, MN 55429
763.569.4000
www.electruscu.com
*APR=Annual Percentage Rate. Vehicle value must support loan amount. Model years 2007-2015 only for up to 60
months. Minimum loan value $10,000. At 2.49% APR your payment for 60 months would be $17.75 per $1,000
borrowed. Rates and terms subject to change. All loans subject to credit approval. Excludes all loans already financed at
Electrus FCU. Offer valid through August 31, 2015.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005:
Members ratify new
Metro Transit contract
Metro Transit workers voted May 8-9 to
accept a proposed two-year contract with
annual wage increases of 2.25 percent.
The contract covers about 2,400 members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local
1005.
As the Labor Review went to press, the
Metropolitan Council was expected to consider the contract at its May 25 meeting.
“I don’t expect that to be anything more
than a formality,” Local 1005 President
Mark Lawson said.
Once finalized, the contract will provide
Metro Transit operators and mechanics with
raises retroactive to August 1, 2015 — and
another 2.25 percent bump August 1, 2016.
Some workers will see larger increases
as a result of changes in job classifications
included in the contract.
Those terms represent an improvement
on the “final offer” rejected by Local 1005
members in a near-unanimous vote in February. This time around, about 72 percent of
voting members approved of the tentative
agreement.
Other provisions of the pending contract
include:
n Expansion of night-shift differential
—a 50-cent boost in hourly pay between
8 p.m. and 3 a.m. — to all workers in the
bargaining unit.
Local Union News
n Agreement to revisit and potentially
amend a 25-year-old list of tools mechanics
are required to buy out of their own pockets.
n Continued health care cost sharing at
“reasonable” rates, according to Lawson.
“The vast majority of members feel this
is a contract they can live with and move on
with,” Lawson said. “Because it’s a twoyear deal, we’re going to be starting to work
on the next contract, getting our proposals
ready, by the end of this year.”
“So we get a breather, and then we get to
start all over again,” Lawson said.
—Saint Paul Union Advocate
AFSCME LOCAL 3800:
Members invited to celebrate
local’s 25th anniversary June 16
AFSCME 3800 invites members to attend a celebration of the local’s 25th anniversary Thursday, June 16.
The event will run from 5:30-8:00 p.m.
at the Humphrey Forum, located in the
Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 301
19th Avenue South.
Hors d’oeuvres, cake, wine, beer and
drinks will be provided.
A program beginning at 6:00 p.m. will
reflect on the local’s history and future.
The program also will recognize members active since Local 3800 first organized
in 1991.
Local 3800 members should RSVP by
e-mail to [email protected] or by
phone to 612-379-3918.
APWU Minneapolis Area Local:
Jerry Sirois retires, Peggy Whitney
becomes new local president
Peggy Whitney has succeeded Jerry
Sirois as president of the Minneapolis
Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union, effective May 1.
Sirois had served as president of the
APWU local since first winning election
in 2001. He won re-election as president
for five consecutive terms.
Sirois began his U.S. Postal Service
career in Nashville in 1973, transferring
to Minneapolis the following year. He
became a union steward in 1986 and
served the local in several leadership positions prior to becoming president.
Although Sirois retired from the Postal Service in 2007, he continued to serve
the local as president.
Whitney, 55, became a member of the
APWU in 1986 when she was hired as a
clerk at the downtown Minneapolis main
post office. With support from Sirois,
who became a mentor, she became a
steward two years later and in 2000 first
was elected as a full-time business agent.
With Sirois retiring, Whitney ran unopposed to win election as the local president.
“Jerry and I have been in office as the
local’s president and business agent for
15 years working together and I have
learned many leadership qualities and
Retiree Meetings
If your union local’s retirees group wishes to
list your meeting notices here, please contact
the Labor Review at 612-379-4725 or e-mail
[email protected].
Minneapolis Regional Retiree Council:
Next meeting June 16
The next meeting of the Minneapolis Regional Retiree Council, AFL-CIO will be
Thursday, June 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30
p.m. Lunch to follow the meeting. We will
preview the Labor 2016 plan for the elections
in November. While this will be the last meeting until September, events will be happening
throughout the summer.
The meeting will be at the United Labor
Centre, 312 Central Ave., Room 218.
We will validate parking at the St. Anthony Public Parking Ramp (at the corner of 2nd
St. SE and University Ave. SE), across University from the United Labor Centre building. Just park and when you come to the
meeting we will give you a parking voucher.
For more information about the Council,
contact Graeme Allen, community and political organizer for the Minneapolis Regional
Labor Federation, at 612-321-5672 or e-mail
[email protected].
ATU Local 1005 Retirees:
Meet North, South, and St. Paul
Here is the schedule for the Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 1005 retiree meetings:
Minneapolis North: Second Tuesday of
each month, 8:30 a.m., Coon Rapids Ameriwww.minneapolisunions.org
can Legion, 11640 Crooked Lake Blvd. NW,
Coon Rapids (intersection of Northdale Blvd.
and Crooked Lake Blvd. near the Coon Rapids water tower).
Minneapolis South: First Wednesday of
each month, 8:00 a.m., VFW Post 5555, 6715
Lake Shore Drive, Richfield.
St. Paul: Second Wednesday of each
month, 12 noon, Mattie’s, 365 N. Concord
St., South St. Paul.
CWA Local 7200 Retirees:
Next meeting in September
The Retired Members Club of Communications Workers of America Local 7200 will
be taking a summer break: no meetings
planned for June, July, August. For more information, call the CWA Local 7200 hall at
612-722-7200.
IBEW Local 292 Retirees:
‘Senior Sparkies’ meet June 14
The IBEW Local 292 retirees — “Senior
Sparkies” — will meet Tuesday, June 14 at the
United Labor Centre, 312 Central Avenue, Minneapolis, in the Guy Alexander Conference
Room (second floor). Refreshments will be at
12:00 noon. The meeting begins at 12:30 p.m.
Save the dates:
n Wednesday, June 22, Retirees summer
picnic.
n Thursday, July 21, Streetcar boat ride.
Information and reservation requests regarding both events have been mailed.
We will be having regular business meetings
during the summer, July 12 and August 9, at the
regular time and place.
For any questions, contact the IBEW Local
292 office at 612-379-1292.
Plumbers Local 15 Retirees:
Meet the third Tuesday of each month
All retired Plumbers Local 15 members
are invited to attend retiree meetings, continuing the third Tuesday of every month at 1 p.m.
at Elsie’s Restaurant, Bar & Bowling Center,
729 Marshall St. NE, Minneapolis (corner of
Marshall and 8th Ave.).
For more information, contact the Plumbers
Local 15 office at 612-333-8601.
Pipefitters Local 539 Retirees:
‘Fazed Out Fitters’ meet third Wednesday
Pipefitters Local 539 retirees — the “Fazed
Out Fitters” — meet the third Wednesday of
each month at 11:00 a.m. at Elsie’s, 729 Marshall St. NE, Minneapolis. New members welcome.
Sheet Metal Workers Local 10 Retirees:
No meeting until September
The Sheet Metal Workers Local 10’s
“Rusty Tinners” retirees club will not meet in
June, July or August. Meetings will resume in
September.
U of M Facilities Management
and Maintenance Retirees:
Meet last Tuesday of month
Retirees from the University of Minnesota
Maintenance Department meet the last Tuesday of each month at 10:00 a.m. for breakfast
at Elsie’s, 729 Marshall St. NE, Minneapolis.
skills having Jerry as my mentor,” Whitney wrote in the local’s newsletter. “His
influence on our local and on me as his
union sister and teammate for the last 30
years will be his legacy.”
Boilermakers Local 647:
Motorcycle run coming July 30
Boilermakers Local 647’s eighth annual “6-Card Stud Motorcycle Run” will
be Saturday, July 30. The event will start
at 9:00 a.m. at the Spirits Restaurant &
Bar in Carlton, Minnesota. Riders will
travel to Ely and enjoy northern Minnesota’s scenic roads. The entry fee is $30.
For more information, all Dale Lais at
612-219-6317 or Steve Radzak at 218393-4028.
Elevator Constructors Local 9:
Fishing tournament set for June 18
Saturday, June 18 is the date for Elevator Constructors Local 9’s 2016 Mille
Lacs Fishing Tournament at Hunters
Point Resort.
Each two-person team must include
one current or former Local 9 member.
The entry fee is $80 per team and includes a tournament sweatshirt and Saturday night dinner. Cash prizes will be
awarded for the top three teams.
A mandatory meeting and morning
check-in will be at 6:45 a.m. Each team
must check-in by 4:15 p.m. to qualify for
weigh-in. Current lake regulations will
LOCAL UNION NEWS page 22
Minneapolis Regional
Labor Federation…
‘Like’ us on facebook for:
• News Updates • Action Alerts •
• Links • Photos of Union Events •
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Main Event Signs
Locally Owned
Union Sign Shop
Banners
Parade Banners
Magnetics
612.627.9251
Main-Event-Signs.com
be in effect.
Sign up at the Local 9 hall. For questions, call Dave Morin at 763-486-7522.
IATSE Local 13:
Cancer relief benefit dinner planned
June 4 for member Sterling Callandar
A cancer relief benefit dinner and
fundraiser is planned Saturday, June 4 for
Sterling Callandar, a member of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 13.
The event will run from 5:00-10:00
p.m. at Lord of Life Church, 14501
Nowthen Blvd. NW, Ramsey.
Admission is $15 and includes a spaghetti dinner. The event also features fun
games, live bands, and silent auction.
Callander was diagnosed with Stage 3
Small Cell Lung Cancer earlier this year.
Callandar, 53, has been a member of
IATSE Local 13 since 1989 and currently
works at the Minneapolis Convention
Center as a production technician and
lighting designer. For the past 10 years,
he also has worked with students at Anoka Middle School, Anoka High School
and Anoka Children’s Theatre as their
lighting designer.
For more information, e-mail [email protected].
IBEW Local 292:
Fish June 17, golf July 18
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 plans two upcoming events for members.
Register by June 5 to join Local 292
members for a fishing outing on Mille
Lacs Lake at Fisherman’s Wharf. Limited to 50 members. Cost is $25.
Register by July 11 to join Local 292
members for a golf tournament at Fox
Hollow Golf Club in St. Michael. Limit-
Pipefitters Local 539
PIPERS
Contracts ratified
All Local 539 contracts were ratified. Wage
rates are on the website located under links.
Wage cards will be sent out when they are
received in the office.
Condolences
Condolences are sent to the family of Bryce Monson,
who recently passed away.
Website: www.lu539.com
Pipefitters Local 539 has a website for
members to look at information and upcoming
events: www.lu539.com.
If you would like something added to the Pipers section
of the Labor Review, call the office at (612) 379-4711.
Paid for by Pipefitters Local 539 • www.pipefitters539.com
More Local Union News
POCUM members phone-bank for Prior Lake school levy
MINNEAPOLIS — With the vote on a school levy for Prior Lake Schools coming up May 24, members of
the People of Color Union Members (POCUM) caucus of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation took
part in a phone-bank May 18. The school district is experiencing rapid growth and the additional funding
would support more space for students, technology for teaching and learning, and security for schools.
POCUM members also plan to work to support the coming levy question for the Minneapolis Public
Schools, which will be on the November 2016 ballot. Photo above: Volunteers at the phone-bank included Edwina Patterson, Mounds View, POCUM member and three-year member of Laborers Local 563.
ed to 200 members. Cost is $25.
Registration forms were included in
the April issue of the Local 292 newsletter, which also is online at ibew292.org.
For more information, contact the Local 292 office at 612-379-1292 or [email protected].
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers:
Michelle Weise wins election as
MFT’s next president
In a three-way race, Michelle Weise
narrowly won election as president of
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59.
Weise succeeds Lynn Nordgren, who
did not run for re-election after serving
eight years as president.
The election featured two competing
slates of candidates, each slate with a
website and facebook page, as well as independent candidates.
The slate led by Weise, which was endorsed by Nordgren, won three of the
four officer positions and six of ten seats
on the MFT executive board.
Wiese has worked 18 years in the
Minneapolis Public Schools, currently at
Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning
Center, where she is a classroom teacher
for grades one, three and four and also a
math resource specialist.
Wiese has been a MFT executive
board member and negotiations team
member. She also chairs the MFT 59 Educators of Color group.
In a campaign statement in the MFT
newsletter, Wiese wrote: “Our platform is
about striving to bring more members into
interactive union work, strengthening our
parent and community partnerships, diversifying our teacher ranks, and strengthening
our professional voice so that we can get
education right in our district.”
Operating Engineers Local 70:
Local newsletter moves to online-only
Beginning in July 2016, the monthly
Onsite/Insight newsletter for members of
Operating Engineers Local 70 no longer
will be mailed to jobsites or home addresses. The newsletter will be available
only online at the Local 70 website:
iuoe70.org.
All members, not just full members,
can visit the website and register to access the “Members Only” section to view
the newsletter.
For questions, contact the Local 70
office at 651-646-4566.
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota:
To win union election, workers at
Golden LivingCenter stood strong
against union-busting effort
When workers at Golden LivingCenter
in St. Louis Park voted March 10 by a margin of 88 to 19 in favor of joining SEIU
HealthCare Minnesota, they had prevailed
against a management campaign to pressure
workers to reject the union.
“We have a lot of staff there who are
honest, good, hard-working people,” said
Mary Reiland, LPN, who has worked three
years at the skilled nursing facility.
The workforce at the St. Louis Park facility numbers about 145 people: LPNs,
RNs, nursing assistants, dietitians, others,
many who had worked there 10-15 years.
Still, they experienced rare wage increases and frequent double shifts.
When a co-worker approached Reiland
about organizing, “I said we can maybe try
to make this place better,” Reiland recalled.
Reiland had worked previously at another healthcare facility where she was a union
steward for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and
helped negotiate contracts, but she had never been in an organizing drive before.
She and other workers met with a SEIU
Healthcare organizer early in December
2015 and began talking with other workers
about organizing —cautiously and quietly.
The workforce included several different
immigrant groups — Kenyans, Ukrainians,
Asians. “They all know each other. They all
networked,” Reiland related.
By February 18, the organizing drive
was able to present 92 signed union authorization cards to the National Labor Relations
Board. “It was amazing,” Reiland said.
Management had gotten wind of a possible union effort and called a staff meeting
for the same day at 7:00 a.m. — “to discuss
pros and cons of the union.”
“We organized about 20 of us to meet
down the hall,” Reiland said. “We all gathered and we walked down to the conference
room… We showed up in that room with
buttons on — ‘Stronger Together. SEIU.’”
The executive director asked everyone to
sit down. They refused and told him that he
would be receiving a notice from the NLRB
that they had filed for a union election. “We
all walked out of there,” Reiland reported.
By the following Monday, Reiland said,
a team of eight union-busters came on site
and the executive director soon was gone.
The three weeks until the union vote
brought chaos and stress at work and verbal
abuse. “It was a terrible, terrible situation,”
Reiland said.
“It’s hard for me to feel intimidated by
anyone,” Reiland said, “but the people who
came… they were rude.”
“It was a real, real hostile place,” Reiland said.
“The week before voting was when it got
really abusive with the union busters,” she
recalled.
But the workers stood firm.
They put union stickers on the
union-busters’ posters.
“Anything they were saying we had to
keep counteracting,” Reiland said. “You
have to keep talking to people.”
The day of the March 10 vote, “the parking lot on that day was full,” Reiland said.
With the lopsided vote for the union,
Reiland reported, the management’s tone
changed. “Now we’re treated with respect.”
Workers now are forming a bargaining
team to negotiate a first contract.
For Reiland, the whole experience became “empowering and very exciting.”
Sources: Local unions, Labor Review
reporting. To submit a news item or suggest a story idea, contact 612-379-4725
or [email protected].
SELL, BUY, RENT
DEPARTMENT
$5.00 FOR 25 WORDS
An exclusive service for subscribing
Union members only. Next deadline for
Sell, Buy, Rent Ads: June 10. Copy
must be mailed or delivered. NO TELEPHONE ORDERS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
Ads must be accompanied by payment in
check or money order. Each ad must include your union affiliation and your
telephone number, along with your mailing label. Over 25 words — 15¢ each extra
word. Your ad runs in one issue only.
This reader service is provided for Labor Review subscribing Union members who are in good standing
with their locals. No commercial ads of business firms or any sidelines or hobbies of union members who
are selling products or services can be advertised in these columns. For display advertising, please contact
the Labor Review. Mail or deliver your ad and payment to: Sell, Buy, Rent Department, Minneapolis Labor
Review, 312 Central Ave., Suite 542 (Fifth Floor), Minneapolis, MN 55414. NEXT DEADLINE: JUNE 10.
NOTICE
NEXT EDITION OF
LABOR REVIEW:
June 24
Next Ad Deadline is June 10
For Sale: Handyman special
in Andover, 23-ft. Aluma-Lite
Holiday fifth wheel, $2,500,
hitch available for additional
$1,100. Kirk, 763-742-4807.
For Sale: New Franchi 912
Variomax 12-gauge, semi,
26-in. barrel, 3-1/2-in. chamber, black synthetic, $800;
Double power recliner, $200;
Four tires, 275-55-20, $50 for
all. 612-710-8782.
For Sale: Two Penn 620
downrigger and assorted
tackle, $125 each. Call Shell
at 952-884-5831.
For Sale: 2004 Lund 1700 Explorer boat, 2004 Evinrude
115-h.p. motor, Shoreland’r
trailer, 4 seats, trolling motor, Lowrance Graph, excellent condition, $16,000. 763370-5783.
Be sure to list a price
for your ‘For Sale’ items!
For Sale: Remington 1100
3-in. auto shotgun with slug
barrel, $400; Wicked Ridge
Invader crossbow by TenPoint, $450; Excellent condition Brothers commercial
sewing machine, $400. 763370-5783.
For Sale: 1982 Chevrolet For
Sale: 10 x 10 pop-up canopy, used once, $35; 11 x 11
screen shelter, used once,
$40; Two Coleman camp
stoves, $10 each; Home dehumidifier, $40. Marty, 612382-9257.
For Sale: 2 cemetery lots,
Glen Haven Memorial Gardens, Garden of Masonic
Lot 17-A, Space 1-2, value
$2,625 each, selling BOTH
for $2,500 (or make offer).
763-226-5236.
For Sale: KitchenAid trash
compactor, $150; Johnson
4-h.p. outboard motor, $400.
763-489-8080.
Caprice Classic, 2-door,
one owner, California car
(mom’s), never in snow or
salt, 46,000 actual miles, all
original excellent condition,
$6,500. 763-498-0010.
For Sale: Price reduced for
king-sized platform bed with
3 large storage drawers on
each side, plus matching
headboard with bookshelf
and matching night table
with drawer, all with dark
wood stain, excellent condition, $300/b.o. buys all. 612715-2667.
Coming
Sell, Buy, Rent
Deadlines
for 2016
Subscription Instructions?
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changing, if your household is receiving more
than one Labor Review, or if you would like to
cancel your subscription.
Cut out or photo-copy your mailing label from
the front page of the newspaper and mail it to us
with your instructions:
Attn: mailing list
312 Central Ave. Suite 542
No phone calls, please, to report address changes,
stop duplicates, or cancel your subscription. Thanks!
June 10
July 15
Wanted: Old coins, collections,
bullion, paper money, gold
coins, proof sets, m int sets,
etc. Anything from pennies to
paper. Best of all, I’ll pay cash
and come to you. Please call
Dick at 612-986-2566.
September 16
Wanted: Guitars and amplifiers made in the USA
pre-1980. Also interested in
drums and some other instruments. Bob, 612-521-4596.
December 2
Wanted: Old and broken
outboard motors, old gas
engines and chainsaws, also
engine-related items like old
spark plugs, tools, gas and oil
cans, etc. Tom, 763-785-4031.
Address Change?
August 12
October 14
November 4
Advertise in the Business Directory and
reach nearly 58,000 households monthly!
Call 612-379-4725
Don’t forget to cut out
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send it in with your
Sell, Buy, Rent ad!
2016 Publication Schedule
June 24
Deadline: June 8
September 30
Deadline: September 14
July 29
Deadline: July 13
Primary Election Issue
October 28
Deadline: October 12
General Election Issue
August 26
Deadline: August 10
Labor Day Issue
November 18
Deadline: November 2
Holiday Shopping Guide
December 16
Deadline: November 30
Holiday Issue
Next Special Issue:
August 26, 2016
Labor Day Issue!
Discounted ad rates available
For more information, to suggest a story idea, or to advertise,
contact the editor at 612-379-4725 or [email protected]
IBEW Local Union 292
Minneapolis Electrical Workers
Retirement
Continuing Education Administrator Linda Leger of the Minneapolis Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee retired after 24
years of dedicated service. Linda handled the continuing education for the Journeyman of Local 292. She also played an
instrumental part in assisting, guiding and advising thousands
of apprentices throughout her career. Congratulations Linda,
you will be missed.
Worker’s Memorial
Nine Union members who died as a result of work-related
injuries or illnesses were honored on April 28, 2016. Every
year members of the Building Trades pause to honor the dead
and then continue to fight for the living. St Paul Mayor Chris
Coleman, the event’s featured speaker, called for a moment of
silence to remember the lives lost.
Condolences
Brother Dennis Niemi’s Mom, Margaret Niemi; Brother Cameron
Strand; Brother Ronald Bucholz’s Wife, Deanna Bucholz; Brother
Gerald DeGidio; Brother Myron Bipes’ Wife, Carol Bipes; Mildred
Mickelburg, Wife of Brother Clarence Mickelburg (deceased); Nancy Kinkel, Wife of Brother Byron Kinkel (deceased); Brother Brian
Peterson’s Mom, Velma Peterson; Brother Joseph Swierczyk, Jr.
See you at the General Membership Meeting,
7:00 p.m. on the Second Tuesday
Paid for by IBEW Local 292 • www.ibew292.org
Area Letter Carriers’ food drive on track to top one million pounds
MINNEAPOLIS — With blue skies
and mild temperatures, Saturday, May 14
couldn’t have been nicer for the “Stamp
Out Hunger” food drive organized by the
National Association of Letter Carriers.
Across the Twin Cities, people left
bags of donated food near their mailbox
for their Letter Carrier to pick up.
The total reported collected still was
growing when the Labor Review went to
press. “I look for us to get to 1.2 million
pounds,” reported Darrell Maus, NALC
Branch 9 vice president. “It’s a lot of
work but we got ’er done.”
The NALC food drive takes place
across the United States and is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, replenishing the stock at local emergency foodshelves.
This year NALC welcomed a new national food drive sponsor: the United
Food and Commercial Workers.
In the Minneapolis area, UFCW LoNALC FOOD DRIVE page 18
Photo above: 19-year NALC member Mike Shay unloaded
donated food from his truck at the Brooklyn Center Cub
Foods. “It’s a good cause,” he said. “I don’t mind doing a
little extra work — it’s all for the benefit of humankind.”
Photo left: Al Hartman, “proud member of the NALC,”
collected donated grocery items along Abbott Ave. So. in
southwest Minneapolis. “We usually do pretty well,” the 12year member said.
Labor Review photos
For more photos from this event:
facebook.com/minneapolisunions
Photo above: First food drive for Tenzin
Lekmon, one-year NALC member. “It’s
good,” he said, as volunteers unloaded
his vehicle at the Brooklyn Center Cub.
Photo above: First food drive for NALC member Kari Belevender, a new city carrier
assistant, who has been on the job not quite one month. She brought food from her
route to the Cub Foods at Knollwood Mall in St. Louis Park. She shared: “My first
day solo!”
Photo above: Members and family from Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59
volunteered at the Cub Foods at 60th and Nicollet in Minneapolis. Left to right: Rebecca
Miller, Janet Kujat, Anne Lewerenz, Ashleigh Long, Caroline Long.
Photo above: Douglas Rigert, business
agent for UFCW Local 653, which this
year helped sponsor the food drive.
“We’re proud to be part of it.”
Photo above: The Blaine North Cub Foods was a drop-off point staffed by Ashley
Novak from Working Partnerships (left) with Casey Hudak (center) and Kerry Jo
Felder (right) from the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation.

Minneapolis Labor Review Minneapolis Labor Review

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