The Break Room
Lawsuit continues against racial preference in MPS teacher layoff policy — and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. A lawsuit challenging a new policy that would shield Minneapolis teachers of color from seniority-based layoffs will proceed after the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday overturned a lower court’s decision to throw out the case. The policy […]
Health care unions fight stagnant pay and rising burnout — and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. More than 350 Essentia Health nurse practitioners and other advanced practice providers could vote to unionize with the Minnesota Nurses Association after workers filed a petition for an election with federal labor regulators on Monday. The group includes […]
Wage theft cases remain unresolved years later — and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. Two years ago Javier Mendez Velasco and dozens of other construction workers on the Viking Lakes development in Eagan filed wage theft complaints with state regulators. Velasco, who worked for the subcontractor Property Maintenance & Construction, estimates he’s […]
Government tax subsidies go to construction contractors with labor abuse records
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. North Star Policy Action, a union-backed Minnesota think tank, documented 33 construction projects that have received over $84 million in taxpayer subsidies while employing contractors tied to proven or alleged worker exploitation. For example, they look at Absolute […]
3M fined $312,000 following worker’s death at Wisconsin plant and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. Maplewood-based 3M could have prevented a worker’s death at its southwestern Wisconsin manufacturing plant, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The worker, Trisha Jones, died in May after being caught in a machine’s rotating rollers while helping […]
Non-union workers see pay bump following UAW victory, and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. Toyota told workers they would be getting raises across its U.S. plants — all non-union — after the United Auto Workers union reached historic tentative agreements with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The pay raises, first reported by […]
Advocates say Amazon is not complying with Minnesota’s new warehouse worker safety law
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news. Amazon has not complied with Minnesota’s new warehouse worker safety law, which requires large warehouse distribution centers to tell workers what productivity quotas they’re being held to and to turn over individual performance data. That’s according to Abdi Muse, executive director of […]
Wage theft cases pick up and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news. The Attorney General’s Office doubled the size of its Wage Theft Unit this year — adding two more lawyers and one more investigator — with additional funding approved by Democrats in control of the Legislature. The unit was created in 2019, the […]
Doctors vote for union at Allina Health clinics and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news. Hundreds of Allina Health doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners voted to unionize on Friday in a historic election. The group of more than 550 clinicians across 61 primary and urgent care clinics will be the nation’s largest private-sector union of advanced […]
Hormel reaches tentative agreement with union workers, and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, the Reformer’s weekly roundup of labor news in Minnesota. Union meatpackers and Hormel reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract for plants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Georgia, the union announced on Thursday. The union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, did not release details of the […]
Deadline nears for governor’s Uber and Lyft task force
Take a seat in the Break Room, the Reformer’s (new) weekly roundup of labor news in Minnesota. The Governor’s Committee on the Compensation, Wellbeing, and Fair Treatment of Transportation Network Company Drivers — also known as the Uber/Lyft task force — met for the fourth time on Tuesday to discuss unfair terminations, or “deactivations.” The […]
Worker advocates push for nation-leading labor standards board in Minneapolis
Take a seat in the Break Room, the Reformer’s (new) weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota. Labor advocates continue to pressure the Minneapolis City Council to create a nation-leading Labor Standards Board that would have immense influence over wages and working conditions across industries. The board — made up equally of workers, industry representatives […]