Labor Unions

Fired Chicago Lake Liquors workers create website soliciting donations

Earlier this month, five workers at Chicago Lake Liquors were fired days after petitioning management for higher wages.THE BACKSTORY: Chicago Lake Liquors employees petition for raises; five fired two days later They haven't given up their fight to get their jobs back. Last Saturday evening, they he ... More >>

Don Samuels: Unions gave me "an envelope with a couple grand" for Vikings stadium vote

Buried in a recent Star Tribune piece about the Minneapolis mayoral race is a shocking quote from City Council member and mayoral candidate Don Samuels.SEE ALSO: Who's in the race? A guide to the six candidates for Minneapolis mayor In one passage, Samuels seems to say that a coalition of union work ... More >>

Wedge Co-op reaches agreement with warehouse workers

The Wedge Co-op reached an agreement yesterday on a three-year contract with its warehouse workers, who unionized this spring in a labor dispute. Warehouse employees at the Wedge organized through UFCW 1189 due to concerns about stagnant wages and a top-down management style. Union leader Bernie He ... More >>

Wedge Co-op holds first bargaining session with warehouse workers' union

The Wedge Co-op recently held its first bargaining session with union officials representing the co-op's warehouse employees, and both sides are optimistic about negotiations. Wedge members rebelled in April after City Pages reported that the co-op had hired "anti-union" law firm Seaton Peters & ... More >>

Wedge Co-op dumps 'anti-union' law firm: 'We made a mistake'

The Wedge Co-op has dropped Seaton, Peters & Revnew as its law firm for labor negotiations with newly unionized warehouse workers following critical feedback from members. Wedge board president Sarah Wovcha says she received numerous emails from members about the law firm's perceived "anti-unio ... More >>

Wedge Co-op hires 'anti-union' law firm for labor negotiations

The Wedge Co-op has hired an anti-union law firm to handle labor negotiations with its newly unionized warehouse employees, a labor organizer says. Wedge spokeswoman Elizabeth Archerd confirms the co-op has hired Seaton, Peters & Revnew to "advise on the legalities of contract negotiations," th ... More >>

Jimmy John's illegally fired union organizers, judge rules

Jimmy John's violated labor law when it fired six union organizers in March 2011, a judge ruled Friday.Administrative judge Arthur Amchan's ruling follows a February trial involving Miklin Enterprises, a local Jimmy John's franchisee, and the National Labor Relations Board. In 2010, several Jimmy Jo ... More >>

U of M campaign to unionize graduate workers voted down

It's a dark day for proponents of the University of Minnesota's campaign to unionize graduate student workers. After a long and arduous push, students voted against forming a union last week, according to the college's Office of Human Resources. In total, 2,999 votes were cast across the Twin Citie ... More >>

University of Minnesota graduate student workers voting on unionization proposal

​This week, for the fourth time since 1990, graduate student workers at the University of Minnesota are voting on whether to unionize. If a majority of voters support the unionization proposal, the U of M's graduate students will organize under the umbrella of United Auto Workers. Graduate student ... More >>

"Right to work" amendment advances in Senate

​The so-called "right to work" bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee earlier today, but it's unclear whether the measure has enough support to be approved by both the House and Senate.Today's committee vote was 7-6, with Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, joining ... More >>

Jimmy John's on trial for firing union organizers

Jimmy John's is on trial for firing organizers over this poster​Jimmy John's went on trial this week for firing six union organizers last March.Franchise owner Miklin Enterprises fired David Boehnke, Micah Buckley-Farlee, Erik Forman, Davis Ritsema, Max Specter, and Mike Wilkow after the workers d ... More >>

Kowalski's to get lump of coal from labor union

Kowalski's will be pesented with a lump of coal from UFCW 1189 at a demonstration this afternoon​A local labor union plans to give Kowalski's Markets a lump of coal this afternoon over a contract dispute. The union, UFCW 1189, has been negotiating its contract with Kowalski's since last Janua ... More >>

Target announces profits are up, fires union organizer

SuperTarget, super profits, not-super employee relations.​Good news for Target shareholders: Profits are up, and so's the stock price! Bad news for Target employees: The woman who tried to organize a union for Target workers in New York has been fired. Tashawna Green, the 21-year-old single mother ... More >>

Target bribed and intimidated to squash union, appeal claims

Target employees voted not to unionize.​At least now the Target employees in Valley Stream, N.Y., know how to get raises, free coffee and donuts, and a renovated lunch room: Just offer to snitch on the union trying to organize fellow employees. That's the gist of a petition just filed with th ... More >>

Wisconsin Republicans' fake Democrats exposed

Gov. Scott Walker's allies get caught in a dirty trick.​A number of Wisconsin Republicans are still trying to figure out how to survive the PR debacle birthed by their public employee union busting legislation earlier this year. One of the upshots is a series of recall drives being launched agains ... More >>

Most Wisconsin voters don't believe Gov. Scott Walker's union talk

Walker's even lost the zombie vote.​He's a hero to tea partiers, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker keeps getting bad news from statewide polls. The latest survey finds that just 31 percent of folks in Wisconsin have apparently bought into his line that he wants to strip public employees of thei ... More >>

Minnesota Republicans want to be like Wisconsin

Is it time to protest in St. Paul?​After introducing a bevy of union-busting bills, Minnesota Republicans are sure starting to look like their Tea Party-ing Wisconsin counterparts. One measure, authored by Waseca Sen. Mike Parry, calls for the state--as well as local county governments and schoo ... More >>

Wisconsin police hunt down Democratic senators over union-busting bill [UPDATES]

Photo: Mark Riechers/FlickrDemocrats abandon ship in Madison.​Republican Gov. Scott Walker wants to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights, and he's threatened to call out the Wisconsin National Guard on public employee union members if they go on strike. And now, ... More >>

Jimmy Johns about to become first fast-food union

So Unionized You'll Freak

Star Tribune byline strike begins in print and online

Whether Star Tribune readers will notice or care is anyone's guess at the moment.

Starbucks baristas union drive comes at key time

The effort to organize local latte-slingers could hurt the ailing chain

MoA Starbucks Union Goes Public

Confidential Star Tribune memo: "We continue to move forward with the Guild, but talks have unfortunately stopped with the other major unions."

Slaughterhouse workers back union

Organizers: beef-processing plant is using recent immigration raids to bust union

Slaughterhouse Rules: Is South St. Paul's Dakota Premium Foods plant "in open-warfare mode" against labor?

Labor negotiations open for grocery workers

Twin Cities janitors agree to three-year labor contract

That's not amore

Uptown Borders slated to close

A Screw Loose

Judge denies unemployment benefits to Northwest mechanics

Worker of the world divide

Sacred Unions

Remembering "Bloody Sunday" for all the right reasons

The Check's in the Mail

How a once-mighty union sold out thousands of workers on the eve of retirement

Busting the Buses

Local transit wars past and present

Wal-Mart Wants Your Job

As the Retailing Behemoth Prepares to Open Its First Store in the Twin Cities Metro, Neighborhoods and Workers Brace Themselves for the Wal-Mart Treatment: Low Wages, Union Busting, and a Big, Friendly Smile

Dispatches from the Next Newspaper War

Wounded egos, labor actions, and Powerpoint presentations at the Pioneer Press

Four-Star Feud

Workers say they can't get a fair shake from one of Minneapolis's most posh hotels

Organized Slaughter

Falling carcasses and untreated injuries: Meatpackers at Dakota Premium Foods were driven to form a union. But not even that got the company's attention.

Bohemian Blues

Conspiracies and labor angst at a Minneapolis hipster mecca

Language Barrier

Hennepin County Medical Center's interpreters decided to join a union. They were surprised to learn they were already spoken for.

Labor Drive

Twin Cities school-bus workers vote to unionize--again

Truck, Stop

Car chases, cell phones, and a smelly Super Soaker: This is not your father's picket line

Saving Private Coleman

St. Paul launches a campaign to open bidding wars on city services

Winging It

With labor unrest brewing among airline employees, Northwest's PR doctors keep spinning in the wind

Union Made

Laborers' union members, mostly low-paid black and Hispanic workers, financed their president's White House visits while the Justice Department quashed a mob investigation.

When Elections Mattered

Rotten eggs, firebombs, and the "wicked extortions of the coal kings": Local campaigns weren't always this dull.

Target: Target

"[Dayton-Hudson CEO] Bob Ulrich got a 200 percent raise after the value of the company stock doubled," says one Target employee. "We got a 2.7 percent raise. And for Christmas I got a box of candy."

Bubbaphilia

By interfering with the Teamsters, a union only just emerging from a scabrous history of institutionalized malfeasance, the Clintonoids displayed their utter contempt for union democracy and for the labor movement itself.

Union Labels

If an upcoming vote goes as expected, nurse Foluso Allison and his colleagues at the Nile Health Care Center will become the fifth local nursing-home staff to unionize in the past year

Scab Sandwich