This article first appeared in Union Advocate.
Minnesota employees are part of a wave of organizing activity across the U.S. that is putting the “union” back in the American Civil Liberties Union.
After a speedy organizing drive that took just two months, eligible staff at the ACLU of Minnesota won voluntary recognition from the 70-year-old civil rights organization July 2, five days after the union announced it had support from a “supermajority” of 11 eligible employees.
The same week, employees at two other state affiliates of the ACLU, Arizona and Illinois, announced union drives of their own. In all, employees of 12 state ACLUs have gone public with their unions.
Unfortunately, that spirit of cooperation has not extended to the bargaining table this summer.
Workers at Vireo Health’s Otsego growing facility and eight Green Goods cannabis patient centers across the state voted unanimously to reject the employer’s “last, best and final” contract proposal in June, a month after their previous agreement expired.
The unanimous vote by members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 came despite a charm campaign led by Vireo’s CEO, who traveled across the state to meet with workers in person and urge them to vote “yes” on a contract that would eliminate annual wage progressions, among other takebacks.
It wasn’t until the Humvees and armored trucks were fired up and began rolling out of the parking lot that the union members fully grasped that we had won the stare-down. Photo: Minnesota Workers United, cropped and adjusted for brightness/contrast
Within days of the police killing 20-year-old Daunte Wright, the streets of the Twin Cities metro area were once again filled with National Guard units.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz and other officials claim this is to protect from the threat of “outside agitators” a phrase that should be familiar to anyone who has sat through anti-union propaganda. But more and more local residents are calling it a military occupation.
critics say what they re calling the so-called ambush rules are another payback from the administration they are vowing to fight back. g.o.p. senator who is a top republican on the senate labor committee says they are one more example of how the obama national labor relations board continues to be more of a union advocate then an umpire. this latest effort is a political power pla plant half f unions making a run around employers and forces workers to make decisions without all the facts. they will have an opportunity to weigh on the rules before they become permanent. the government will take public comments until april 7. jon: and we will see with the decision is after that. thank you. jenna: now to some dash cam video of a terrifying scene in texas. a woman driving in the wrong direction on a highway slams into a car and incredibly both the officers escaping injury. the crash leading out to an all-out chase for the driver. other police cars joining the
you. opposition from both sides of the aisle now to the president s pick for a key labor position. meet craig becker, he s a strong union advocate, and he is president obama s nominee for the national labor relations board. this is called the nlrb, and it oversees critical union matters. critics of this guy call him radical and his nomination failed last month in the senate but now we are hearing president obama could still install him as a recess appointment next week while congress is on spring break and whoa, has that gotten some people upset. joining us now, mary marsh, a democratic strategist and former adviser to senator john kerry and justin safey, a republican strategist who is spokesman for former florida governor jeb bush. this guy, craig becker, all 41 republicans wrote a letter to president obama, pleading with him not to appoint this guy to the 5-member nlrb and even some democrats now are objecting to him, mary ann.