Former SEIU organizer Abdi Muse is Mayor Hodges’ labor liaison
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A few days after the November 2013 election, Mayor-elect Betsy Hodges visited the delegate meeting of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation and made a promise.
May 4: 40th annual MayDay Parade will include themes inspired by city’s 1934 Teamsters strikes
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The annual MayDay Parade and Festival presented by the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is known both for celebrating spring and for honoring people’s struggles against rampant capitalism.
May 3: Local and national musicians team up for concert to celebrate life of folksinger Pete Seeger
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The music of American folksinger Pete Seeger, who died January 27, will be celebrated at a concert May 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. Tickets for the concert, “For Pete’s Sake,” are available for $30 plus fees at the Fitzgerald box office, at ticketmaster.com or at 800-982-2787.
Should family caregivers have protected status? Conferees discuss Women’s Economic Security Act provision
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If you’re a family caregiver should you be protected against discrimination in the workplace? This is the question the conference committee on the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA) seeks to answer as it considers expanding protected classes within the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
Faculty at two Twin Cities colleges organizing into unions
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With students and community members showing their support, contingent faculty at Macalester College and Hamline University announced they are seeking to unionize.At a student-sponsored news conference Thursday in St. Paul, Macalester contingent faculty said they had filed for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board that morning. Then a Hamline faculty member announced he and his colleagues would be filing for an election Friday.Both groups appealed to their respective college administrations to remain neutral and not interfere with the workers’ right to decide.“Adjunct, contingent faculty do great work every day,” said Carol Nieters, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 284, which would represent the workers. “They encourage young minds to grow.”SEIU is organizing adjunct and contingent faculty across the country through its “Adjunct Action” campaign.Increasingly, universities and colleges are depending on contingent faculty who have no job security, earn less than tenure-track professors and often have no health coverage or other benefits. Half of Macalester’s faculty – 119 people – is contingent, speakers at the news conference said.“We work very closely with our students to support their learning, often going beyond our official job descriptions,” said Brendan Miller, who teaches physics and astronomy at Macalester.Typical pay is $3,000 – $5,000 a course and contingent faculty often must cobble together several classes – sometimes at multiple institutions – to make a living. Continue Reading
Postal Service actions jeopardizing security of the mail, demonstrators say
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A Postal Service decision to open postal counters in Staples stores will compromise service to customers and jeopardize the security of the mail, employees and community members said at rallies held nationwide Thursday.
Telling – and considering – ‘Untold Stories’
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April and May 2014 mark the fifteenth year that the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, with the support of labor and community organizations, libraries, churches, bookstores, and foundations, has sponsored a series of labor history programs called “Untold Stories.” Each year a volunteer committee (in which this writer participates ) has organized talks and panel discussions, dramatic readings, films, tours, and singalongs, all free and open to everyone. Continue Reading
New NAACP Labor Chair Tee McClenty is ready to fight for jobs
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Labor activist Tee McClenty, originally from Camden, New Jersey, has a long history of service and of representing labor interests. As she tells it, “I’ve been a labor activist for a very long time. I worked at a long-term care facility, where I was a union steward. My last 17 years I spent at a hospital in Maplewood, where I was a union steward representing members.
Lost and found: My Minne-Mex journey
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The following is the story I shared last month at Sanctuary’s first story telling event: “The Story” Continue Reading
Will Scott Walker seal the border as Wisconsin’s low wage workers find jobs in Minnesota?
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One of the Republican talking points during the legislative floor debate on raising the minimum wage was that businesses near Minnesota’s borders would flee to neighboring lower wage states. Continue Reading