Holding Out for Fairness

St. Paul, Minnesota

On Nov. 19, five of the six Minnesota state-worker bargaining units represented by Council 6 ratified a new two-year pact by a margin of almost five to one. The victory follows months of negotiations culminating in an overwhelmingly successful 14-day strike honored by some 90 percent of the state’s employees.

The settlement involves 30,000 employees — 19,000 represented by AFSCME. It calls for 3.5 percent increases in each year, adjustments for pay inequities and much better provisions on health care. (The corrections unit, which rejected the agreement, will go to arbitration.)

Labor solidarity raised striker morale and strengthened their resolve. New York City EMT Israel Miranda from Local 2507 (DC 37) and New York state highway maintenance supervisor James McHugh, from Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 1000, came to Minnesota to support their union brothers and sisters. They were joined at a St. Paul rally by Air Line Pilots Association president, Capt. Duane Woerth.

State construction sites were closed when the building trades refused to cross picket lines. Garbage piled up at prisons and community colleges when the Teamsters honored the strike.

Two Minnesotans, separated in age by decades, exemplify the meaning of solidarity. In St. Paul, a teacher brought her fourth-grade class to a struck facility. A student said it was wrong to go in there, explaining that her mother had told her about respecting picket lines. The teacher called the mother. She left the decision to her daughter, who stayed out. The teacher had to make other arrangements.

And just north of Little Falls, a railroad engineer had a lonely decision to make. His route crossed Camp Ripley, which was being picketed by employees in the state’s military affairs unit. He refused to cross the line, choosing instead to stop the train. A manager had to take the controls to drive the train across struck territory. Then the engineer resumed his work.

Local 2181 member Russ Scheidler provided support in a very different way. An enrollment representative for MN Care, Scheidler wrote a song about wrestler-Gov. Jesse Ventura that he sang at rallies and on picket lines. It was played by radio stations across the state.