Stand with Sugar Workers!
This is a cross-post by AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fisher.
For generations, the sugar beet industry has been the lifeblood of northwest Minnesota’s Red River Valley.
Sugar workers always have stood shoulder to shoulder with American Crystal Sugar Co. and farmers to protect and advance the sugar industry.
Together, the workers, company and growers have helped to build the local economy, support families and have made communities flourish. Now, American Crystal has put all of this in jeopardy by locking out workers.
Sign our petition telling CEO Dave Berg: Don’t turn your back on the community!
Deal Reached to End Minnesota Shutdown
The Republican shutdown of the Minnesota government that closed the doors on vital services and locked out most of the state’s 38,000 public employees likely will end in the next few days after Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and Republican leaders reached an agreement late yesterday.
The shutdown began July 1 after Republican lawmakers rejected Dayton’s proposal to impose a small tax on the state’s wealthiest 2 percent—along with significant budget cuts—to balance the state’s s two-year budget. Republicans demanded an all-cuts budget that included slashing 15 percent of the state workforce—5,700 workers.
According to news reports Dayton agreed to drop his call for the small tax on the state’s 7,770 millionaires and Republicans agreed to withdraw their job-cut demand. Dayton said he agreed to drop the millionaires’ tax because:
I am willing to agree to something I do not agree with in order to spare our citizens and our state from further damage… But the real solution for Minnesota and for the nation is for the state and national economy to improve and put more people to work and therefore paying taxes. Read the rest of this entry »
Minnesota Shutdown’s Effect Felt at Families’ Dinner Tables
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends this report on a food drive to help Minnesota families hurt by the Republican shutdown of the state government.
Minnesota’s millionaires aren’t likely feeling any impact of the Republican shutdown of the state government and vital state services. But after nearly two weeks, the shutdown is starting to be felt in households and around dinner tables in Minnesota.
The Emergency Community Help Organization (ECHO) is a food pantry that provides emergency assistance to people in Blue Earth County and North Mankato, Minn. ECHO normally serves an average of 55 families per day. But since the shutdown, more than twice as many families are showing up, each looking for help. The local union movement has stepped up with food and cash donations.
The Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council in Rochester organized a food drive this week to help replenish ECHO’s shelves. Union members—many of them public employees who have been tossed of work because of the shutdown—and local lawmakers have raised enough money to provide 5,000 meals and collected nearly 250 pounds of food. Says council field organizer Audra Waylett:
Working Together to Elect Gov. Dayton: Coalition Campaigns in Minnesota
For the rest of the week, I’m with Tula Connell at the Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis. You can follow the conference on Twitter at #nn11.
In many ways, the big difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin is Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Gov. Mark Dayton, who has fought tirelessly to beat back Republican attacks on workers’ rights. His victory in a very difficult electoral environment was truly incredible—especially given that, until his election, there hadn’t been a DFL governor in the state in 24 years.
A key to Dayton’s 2010 victory in a difficult election year—a year where the Tea Party was making the headlines—was an unprecedented coalition called the Alliance for a Better Minnesota. The coalition involved labor, progressive organizations, women’s groups and environmental groups.
Union and Progressive Activists Join Forces at Netroots Nation
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Netroots Nation, the annual conference for online activists, is on next week, June 16-19, in Minneapolis. The union movement has a big presence there, as we seek to work more closely with our progressive allies in the netroots community. Here are some highlights:
• AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is taking part in a June 17 lunch panel to talk about breaking down economic barriers that keep many Americans from moving ahead, especially young people, women and communities of color. She is joined by communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio and hip-hop artist Rha Goddess.
• Minnesota local labor and progressive activists will showcase how they created strong coalitions to elect a Democratic governor in 2010 and move key progressive priorities, including Tax the Rich legislation. ”Working Together: How Coalition Campaigns Saved the Day in Minnesota,” The panel offers a spot of sun in this ugly state legislation session and an opportunity to meet local activists.
• A group of stellar bloggers are joining on a panel, “Countering Hate Speak that Villainizes Workers and Unions,” and offer suggestions for proactive strategies to build a new understanding of unions and collective power. Panelists are Read the rest of this entry »
Union Members Aid Minneapolis Tornado Victims
Doug Flateau, from Working Partnerships in Minnesota, sends us this first-hand report of union assistance to victims of the tornado that ripped through North Minneapolis.
The region in North Minneapolis affected by Sunday’s tornado is mainly residential, with few businesses and no union halls in the area. Click here for a map of the tornado “exclusion zone,” along with its path through the neighborhood.
Some basic facts about the tornado (via Minneapolis Star Tribune):
Toll of the devastation so far: at least $166 million and likely to rise. More than 600 buildings will need major repairs and 35 homes were so badly damaged that they can no longer be occupied. About 2,000 trees also were destroyed, leaving once-shaded city blocks looking vulnerable in the sunlight.
The AFL-CIO Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation and its community services program, Working Partnerships, are responding to the need in North Minneapolis by: Read the rest of this entry »
Republicans Aiming to Take Away Voting Rights in 36 States
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More evidence that Republicans are determined to grab as much power as they can at the expense of everyone but the rich. Not satisfied with attacking the rights of workers, Republicans in 36 states are going after the most sacred American right—the right to vote. The We Party reports that through a myriad of proposals, they are trying to suppress the votes of traditionally Democratic voters, including minorities, the poor, people who live in rural areas, seniors and students.
Last week, the Wisconsin Senate added another chapter to its anti-democratic record by passing a voter ID bill that the non-partisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau says would disenfranchise 20 percent of the state’s voters, especially in rural areas. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimates that 11 percent of voters nationwide do not have official IDs that would pass muster for these new and proposed state laws.
Solis Tours ‘Green’ Minnesota Company
This is a cross-post by Barb Kucera, editor of Workday Minnesota.
Viking Drill & Tool employee Doug Sachs says the transition to more environmentally friendly production at the St. Paul company has benefited management, workers—and their wallets. “When you say green, people think cash,” he said.
With training provided through the GreenPOWER program, workers are reducing waste, increasing recycling and cutting energy usage in many areas of the production process. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis toured the plant to learn more about the changes. Solis said, “Viking Drill & Tool is doing what it takes to improve their bottom line, become more energy efficient and prepare its workers for a changing landscape of American manufacturing.”
That’s what I call a triple win.
Minnesotans Declare: ‘We Are One’
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Barb Kucera, editor at www.workdayminnesota.org, sends us this from Minneapolis.
Chanting “We Are One,” thousands gathered at the Cathedral of St. Paul Monday evening, then marched to the state Capitol to show their support for worker rights and a strong middle class.
The event was one of hundreds nationwide organized by the national AFL-CIO, affiliated unions and community organizations. They honored the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated April 4, 1968, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn.
Wisconsin State Employees Inspire Other Workers
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The strong stand for the middle class by workers in Wisconsin is drawing support and inspiring workers across the country. In Detroit, members of the striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra linked their protest last night at Mayor Dave Bing’s State of the City address to the struggles in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and other states.
”It’s pretty clear there is a war on the middle class, from musicians of the Detroit Symphony to city workers in other unions,” violinist Joe Goldman told the Associated Press.
The only way to fight back is for people to join a union and work together.
Hundreds of workers, community and religious activists joined in a “We Are One” rally at the Wisconsin governor’s office in Washington, D.C. in solidarity with the teachers, firefighters, nurses, construction workers and all who are under attack by governors and state legislatures. Click here to see photos from today’s protest.
