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Minnesota

Minnesota

How One Minnesota Union Is Helping Members Survive the Federal Siege

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This article is a publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—When Feben Ghilagaber delivers food to fellow union members hiding from the thousands of federal immigration agents swarming Minnesota, the lights to their homes are often off when she gets there. 

“People are scared for their lives,” she tells me as we drive to UNITE HERE Local 17 office in Minneapolis, a labor union representing more than 6,000 workers in hotels, stadiums and convention centers in the Twin Cities metro area. It also represents many of the workers at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and Ghilagaber, an airport food service worker and steward for the union, says the people she delivers food to “are sitting in the dark.”

“ICE,” she says, “is attacking everybody.”

The majority of Local 17’s members are immigrants and/or people of color, which puts them at risk of being detained for merely being in public where border patrol and ICE are present. And they’re present everywhere. 

Under its so-called Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal agents to Minnesota, where they have raided homes, schools and daycares, detaining school-aged children and violently attacking many of those resisting their presence. An ICE agent shot and killed poet and mother, Renee Good, on January 7 and she has become a rallying cry for the efforts to push ICE out of the area.

Midwest

How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Chills Organizing and Erodes Conditions for All Workers

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The Nation. In late 2025, federal immigration authorities detained a non-union janitor who had recently—and publicly—accused contractors for Minnesota’s Ramsey County of mass wage theft. “Despite a bunch of intimidation and threats to his job by his non-union employer, who was trying to pay less, he came forward at a press conference launching these allegations,” Greg Nammacher, the president of SEIU Local 26, told me. 

The courage of this worker, who has been released but is now in deportation proceedings, played a vital role moving the case forward, according to the union, and it supported a similar wage theft case against Hennepin County contractors, which was also announced at the press conference where he spoke. The effort delivered for workers. The case against Hennepin County contractors resulted in the disbursal of nearly $400,000 in back pay to more than 70 subcontracted workers in December 2025, and the case against Ramsey County contractors is ongoing and has already led to some internal policy changes. 

When someone who fought so successfully for workers—both immigrants and non-immigrants—is detained, “it sends a chill through all the workers in the non-union companies that are trying to stand up and get their rights enforced,” Nammacher said.

Minnesota

“We Are Facing a Tsunami of Hate”: Amid ICE Crackdown, Unions and Community Groups Call for Minnesota Shutdown in 10 Days

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This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. Unions and community groups gathered in front of the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota this morning to announce a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” on January 23 to oppose the ferocious assault on the state by federal immigration authorities. “We are facing a tsunami of hate from our own federal government,” Abdikarim Khasim, a Minnesota rideshare driver, told the crowd. “We’re going to shut it down on the 23rd. We’re going to overcome this.” 

JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC., told the crowd that the joint action will be “a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state—who loves the idea of truth and freedom—will refuse to work, shop and go to school.

Community

Minnesota Teachers and Grocery Workers: ICE Out of Our Workplaces

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Teachers, families, community groups, and grocery workers are calling for federal immigration authorities to stay out of their workplaces, and out of Minnesota, one day after an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident and mother Renee Good. 

“On the day of Good’s murder, federal agents deployed chemical irritants and abducted an educator overseeing safe dismissal from Roosevelt High School grounds (who has since been released),” reads a January 8 statement from Minneapolis Families for Public Schools, TakeAction Minnesota, Minneapolis Federation of Educators, and ISAIAH, a coalition of educator unions, workers, and community organizations. “ICE is putting our freedoms, our futures, and our lives at risk,” the statement continues. “Immigrant families, allied families, and educators are standing together to say ICE OUT now,” continues the statement, which announces a press conference the following morning. Laura Proescholdt, communications director for TakeAction Minnesota, emailed Workday Magazine a list of the coalition’s demands. They include, “ICE out of our schools, ICE out of Minnesota.

Minnesota

Food Service Workers at MSP Airport May Go On Strike Before Thanksgiving Holiday

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Food service workers with UNITE HERE Local 17 and union allies gathered in Terminal 1 at Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) Airport on November 17 for a press conference to announce their intent to strike if a deal is not reached between the workers and HMSHost, the company that operates food and beverage outlets across MSP terminals. The potential strike would coincide with the busiest travel days of the year, and could begin as soon as November 24. 

The demands include wage increases and affordable healthcare plans for the 250 food service workers, who have not seen a wage increase since before the pandemic, according to the union. A November 14 press release from UNITE HERE Local 17 says, “HMSHost food prep workers earn as little as $15.98 an hour, among the lowest wages at the airport. Workers say the company took advantage of the pandemic and has yet to make them whole.”

The strike would impact over a dozen restaurants and fast food establishments at MSP: Shake Shack, Chili’s, Starbucks, Auntie Anne’s, Moe’s, Firehouse Subs, Smashburger, Chick-fil-A, Bottle Rocket, The Cocktail Room, and Hissho Sushi Bar in Terminal 1; and The Wild Sports Bar, Starbucks, and The Market Place in Terminal 2. 

Isabela EscalonaVictor Arreola, UNITE HERE Local 17 member at a November 17 press conference at MSP Airport.