Posts tagged Minnesota
Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber and Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize
October 7, 2025 // California is the second state where Uber and Lyft drivers can unionize as independent contractors. Massachusetts voters passed a ballot referendum in November allowing unionization, while drivers in Illinois and Minnesota are pushing for similar rights.
Sun Country and its fleet employees reach tentative agreement on first union contract
October 7, 2025 // Sun Country Airline’s 240 ground workers who handle luggage and guide airplanes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are on track to ink their first-ever union contract. The Minneapolis-based leisure airline and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement Thursday. Workers soon will vote on whether to ratify it.
Federal appeals court dismisses challenge to Minnesota ban on captive audience meetings
October 2, 2025 // The law largely leaves enforcement to employees, who have the power to sue their bosses if they are forced to attend captive audience meetings. Blissenbach and Ellison said they never threatened to enforce the ban and had no “present intention” to. Gov. Tim Walz was later added as a defendant after he told a packed ballroom at the North America’s Building Trades Unions conference that, “Those captive, anti-union meetings … You go to jail now if you do that in Minnesota because you can’t intimidate people.”
Electric Utility Worker Asks Trump NLRB to Prosecute IBEW’s Restrictive Policies That Compel Workers to Fund Union Politics
September 24, 2025 // Electric utility worker asks NLRB General Counsel to seek Board ruling against union policies that force nonmembers to fund union political spending
Farm Aid 40 Will Go on as Planned Following Labor Strike Resolution
September 16, 2025 // Farm Aid has an epic event planned for its 40th anniversary. Artists like Margo Price, Dave Matthews, Billy Strings, and Sierra Ferrell will take the stage Sept. 20 at the University of Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Organized in 1985 by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp, the benefit concert raises both awareness and funds for struggling family farmers in the United States. Unfortunately, the event’s status looked unclear earlier this week following an ongoing union strike at several University of Minnesota campuses. Fortunately, Farm Aid organizers took to Instagram Saturday (Sept. 13) with good news.
AFSCME’s Beverly Hansen Charged with Theft by Swindle
September 4, 2025 // On August 4, 2025, in the Seventh Judicial District Court of Minnesota, Beverly Hansen, former Finance Director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) State Council 65 (located in St. Cloud, Minn.), was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of theft by swindle, in the amount of $63,031, in violation of Minnesota Statute 609.52.2(a)(4). The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Detroit-Milwaukee District Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Rhode Island Employer-Sponsored Meetings Ban Law Now in Effect
August 25, 2025 // The new law prohibits employers from holding mandatory worker meetings to explain what unionizing will mean for the business from an employer’s perspective. This also means labor organizers will have an unchallenged narrative on unionization. Identical laws in Connecticut, Minnesota, and other states face legal challenges citing the law is superseded by the National Labor Relations Act as well as federal labor law precedent. Rhode Island’s new law is likely to face a similar challenge, something NFIB and other organizations warned when lawmakers considered these bills
Workers in Missouri and Minnesota Challenge Union Bosses’ Scheme to Coerce Workers into Funding Union Political Activities
August 15, 2025 // Cases against AFSCME, Guards Union, are latest to argue federal law prohibits “window periods” that trap nonmembers in full union dues payments
MINNESOTA: Union representing U of M service workers files strike notice
August 10, 2025 // "The University is not immune to those challenges. The University has plans in place should a strike occur and is fully committed to minimizing any disruption this action might cause for our students, faculty, staff, and community." If workers walk off the job, enhanced strike benefits were approved by the union, including $1,000 a week, which reportedly exceeds the weekly pay of some workers across the university system.
Minnesota Teamsters unanimously vote to authorize a strike
August 5, 2025 // “Teamsters Local 120 represents hundreds of Sysco workers who deliver across the state of Minnesota, and a work stoppage at the company’s Mounds View facility would have a direct impact on the company’s operations in Duluth,” explained a representative from Local 120. The union further stated that Sysco is one of the largest and most profitable food service companies in the United States. They say, in 2024, it reported $1.95 billion in net profits, which is up more than 10 percent from the year prior.