Workday Magazine (https://workdayminnesota.flywheelsites.com/author/tsuperadmin/page/148/)
Just before CEOs from Minnesota’s wealthiest corporations gathered for an annual luncheon celebrating their successes, janitors and security officers who clean and protect their buildings stood down the hall at the Minneapolis Hilton to discuss their fight for a fair contract.
Saying the move would save $2 billion and lessen red ink, Postmaster General Patrick Donahue announced Wednesday the Postal Service will kill virtually all Saturday service – pickups and deliveries – six months from now. Only parcel deliveries would remain, and some post offices would stay open on Saturdays.
Rogue Citizen artist collective is working with the Service Employees International Union and CTUL, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, on an effort to win living wages and basic benefits for thousands of Twin Cities janitors and security officers.
Minneapolis union members Anne and David Winkler-Morey spent 14 months bicycling 12,200 miles around the perimeter of the United States, talking with people, taking photos and documenting workers’ lives. They will discuss their trip at a program in Minneapolis Thursday, Jan. 31.
As the 2013 Legislative session entered its second month, the Minnesota AFL-CIO announced its “Agenda for Middle Class Dignity & Fairness” as a way for state lawmakers to help level the playing field for middle class families.
More than 6,000 janitors and security officers, frustrated with takeback demands by employers, plan a Feb. 9 strike vote. They demonstrated their determination with a march through Minneapolis skyways Thursday.
The number of union members nationwide declined by 398,000 from 2011 to 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. But there are many qualifications and caveats, the BLS economist who analyzes the data adds.
Minnesota unions reacted positively to the budget proposal unveiled Tuesday by Governor Mark Dayton that raises revenue and increases funding for education and other needs.
U.S. Sen. Al Franken has been at the forefront of congressional efforts to push the Obama administration to negotiate strong labor standards into the free-trade deal Obama has declared his top trade priority. Those efforts drew recognition Jan. 17 from the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, which presented the senator with its Fair Trade Leadership Award.
In the wake of Minnesota’s rejection of a voter restriction amendment and remarkable voter turnout, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison reintroduced two bills to strengthen voting rights in federal elections.
