Minnesota’s Labor Spring has arrived. Thousands of essential workers and community members are taking part in a Week of Action in the Twin Cities to fight for a host of social demands they hope will build worker power and strengthen communities. They are calling for better union contracts and a labor standards advisory board, alongside social housing, environmental sustainability and better schools.
The alignment of unions, workers’ centers and community organizations, and the broad scope of their aims, is being heralded as a model for social movement unionism, or bargaining for the common good. The effort, which emanates from more than a decade of organizing and movement building, is uniting under the motto, “What could we win together?”
March 2 saw a kickoff event and also marked the deadline that many of these groups set to see action on the issues they are fighting for. Several unions — representing janitors, nurses, retail workers and educators who have all been working without contracts — are striking or planning to strike. They’re also forming picket lines and rallies at workplaces, in downtown Minneapolis and at the state capitol in St. Paul.
On March 4, thousands of janitors with SEIU Local 26 began a three-day unfair labor practice (ULP) strike in downtown Minneapolis. Property workers with Local 26 are also on a ULP strike against FirstService Residential.
Many of these workers on strike filled a conference room to capacity for a listening session with the Minneapolis City Council on a proposed ordinance to create a cross-sectoral Labor Standards Advisory Board. Workers say the board will give them a voice in their workplaces and opportunities for businesses and workers to problem-solve together.
Michael Rupke is an overnight building attendant at FirstService Residential who is on strike today. He handed Minneapolis City Council members a petition with 150 property workers’ signatures. “It’s difficult to talk to a company that doesn’t want to listen to you. … They dismiss us, they wave their hands at us and shoo us away,” he says. “A labor standards board would do so much, not just for the people in my company but the working class in general.”
Maria Palacios testified alongside her daughter Jaqueline Flores. Both are members of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha (CTUL), a worker-led group that primarily organizes in Latino communities. “There are often times when we are fired and we don’t get the dignity of an explanation,” says Palacios in Spanish through a translator. Flores, who was holding her baby close in a fuzzy blanket, also spoke about the need for a labor standards board. She was fired by her employer after giving birth. “They didn’t give an explanation; they just gave me a piece of paper and said I was terminated,” says Flores.
Joseph Bryant, the executive vice president of SEIU International, also gave last-minute testimony after flying in from California to see what’s going down in Minneapolis. “How is it right, in 2024, that my sister gets pregnant and is fired from her job? How do we accept that?” he says.
On March 5, nurses with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa will begin a one-day ULP strike across the Twin Cities.
On Thursday, construction workers with CTUL will march to urge developers to sign on to a worker-driven social responsibility model.
Essential workers at the front lines of industries, who have faced pay cuts and heavy workloads before and during the pandemic, are utilizing a moment of expired contracts across multiple sectors to escalate their fights at the same time. This kind of cross-sectoral organizing is unique in the United States and has been in the works for more than a decade.
This article is a joint publication of In These Times and Workday Magazine, a nonprofit newsroom devoted to holding the powerful accountable through the perspective of workers. Workday Magazine and In These Times will be updating this piece throughout the week to document this historic convergence.
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