Posts tagged Minnesota
20 healthcare strikes in 2026
September 28, 2026 // Union activity in healthcare continues in 2026, with 20 reported strikes since the beginning of the year. Some of these actions involve healthcare workers and leaders across hospitals and clinics in multiple states.
150 Allina Health doctors start four-day strike after contract negotiations fail
September 15, 2026 // Allina is also in the midst of a hospice nurses strike that began Friday and will last through the week. Sutter Health, a California-based health nonprofit, says it is planning to acquire Allina Health in a deal that was announced in March.
Report: The Battle for Worker Freedom: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws
September 10, 2026 // Union executives are prioritizing recruitment. The fastest-growing category of public sector labor legislation expands collective bargaining into new workplaces. On the strength of these new laws, union executives are slowly replacing their membership losses since 2018. From 2018 to 2025, the country’s four largest government unions report a net decline in membership of 87,919, or 1.3 percent. However, they also report a collective gain of 232,502 members, or 3.5 percent since 2024. This report awards full letter-grade increases to Idaho (now A) and Louisiana (now B) due to their adoption of pro-worker labor reforms this past legislative session. However, the drops in grades—Nebraska (D), Nevada (D), and Rhode Island (F)—are the result of these states prioritizing union executives over workers and enacting laws helping unions recruit, politick, organize, and strike. Thirteen states now have an “A” or “A+” grade—up from twelve in the previous edition of this report—while six states earned an “F”—up from five over the same time period. Overall, the research finds 25 states fall below a “C.”
Teachers union launches Target boycott over ICE operations in Minnesota
August 30, 2026 // The American Federation of Teachers calls its campaign “Shop Smart, Support Working Families.” AFT President Randi Weingarten says supporters should shop elsewhere if Target does not take the stronger public stand the union has requested.
NY drops union deal on latest I-81 contract to better chances with Trump
August 19, 2026 // New York state will not require contractors on a $2.1 billion Interstate 81 contract to hire union workers for the first time on the largest ever transportation project in the state. The DOT has dropped the project labor agreement it used for the first half of the I-81 project as a preemptive measure to get approval from President Donald Trump’s administration, state and federal officials said.
Unions Are Coming for Your Uber Driver
August 4, 2026 // The sectoral-bargaining approach made headway in 2022, when California signed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Act, or FAST, into law. The act was replaced by a compromise agreement before going into full effect. But under the original provisions, it would have established a 10-member Fast Food Council appointed by the governor and state Legislature to set labor rules for the Golden State’s fast-food industry. The FAST Act marked a pivot toward sectoral-bargaining strategies in America, importing the tactic from Europe and Australia. For decades before the FAST Act, the United Auto Workers used tactics like “pattern bargaining” in negotiations with the Big Three automakers.
Opinion: Sneaky new teachers’ union plan to indoctrinate our kids: classroom AI
August 3, 2026 // Their objective is to indoctrinate, not educate. That misguided mission is largely to blame for the past decade of drastic learning loss in K-12 schools: Too much indoctrination, too little emphasis on the basics of math and reading. It’s a bad omen for our country.
Opinion: Sizable sick leave payouts cost Minnesota county $2 million each year
June 29, 2026 // The high payouts are a vestige of past labor agreements with the handful of unions that represent the county's 1,850 employees. "If you're maintaining an antiquated policy that's really kind of a leaky sieve in terms of generosity—and you're paying out some really excessive payouts in this kind of regard—that's by choice," said Leonard Gilroy, vice president of government reform for the Reason Foundation, a national Libertarian policy group.
Target Field concession workers go on strike ahead of Twins/Dodgers series
June 22, 2026 // Target Field concessions workers went on strike Monday, ahead of the Minnesota Twins hosting a three-game series against the L.A. Dodgers. Crowds are expected to be as big as they have been all season, with Shohei Ohtani in town. UNITE Here Local 17 says more than 500 employees will strike at 4 p.m. on June 22 if demands aren’t met for better health insurance, higher wages and more job protections.
Minnesota Business Owner Warns Against California-Style Attacks on Freelancers
June 15, 2026 // VanDerBill said she knew she had to try to make sure Minnesota’s task force wasn’t completely biased against independent contracting, so she applied to sit on it. To her surprise, she ended up securing a seat. She said she was shocked she was the only voice on the task force representing business owners or independent contractors who opposed increased regulations on their work. VanDerBill said that while she doesn’t want to throw labor unions under the bus, she believes they are partly to blame for the attacks on freelancing. Union membership has been falling over the last few decades, and unions requiring workers to be classified as full-time employees rather than freelancers could be one way to reverse that trend.