Michael Moore

Peanut butter or jelly? Juice or coffee? Dry spaghetti or ravioli in a can? Those aren’t decisions Rep. Jason Metsa usually wrestles with in the grocery store, but the Iron Range DFLer is tightening his belt this week after signing a pledge to live on Minnesota’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for five days. Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, issued the minimum-wage challenge to state lawmakers in the hopes of drumming up support for a House bill that would raise Minnesota’s minimum wage to $9.95 per hour.

Working to change a state law denying them the right to form a union, home health care workers “made it rain” at the Capitol yesterday, streaming more than 1,000 purple cutouts – each representing a home-care worker who has signed up for the union – from the second level onto the rotunda floor. It was a powerful backdrop for a rally that drew home-care providers and their clients. Together, they called on lawmakers to pass legislation granting workers who provide so-called “self-directed” care the right to decide for themselves if they want to form a union.

U.S. citizenship isn’t something Mitch Azarcon takes for granted – not after watching her Filipino-born mother wait 25 years to move her family to the United States. Now Azarcon, a surgical core technician at Rochester Methodist Hospital, is exercising her rights as a citizen, taking action through her union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to change federal law and make it easier for people like her mother to realize their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens.

Fallout from Hostess Brands’ decision to cease operations has extended to about 20 union workers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, who face layoffs as the bankrupt baker begins liquidating its assets. Hostess’ bakery outlet stores, which sell day-old Wonder Bread, Twinkies and other Hostess products, have been shuttering operations gradually since last Friday, when the company announced plans to close after bakery workers nationwide refused to end their strike.