In the News
VIDEO: League of Women Voters speaker believes felons need second chance at jobs, voting
Justice 4 All, a Twin Cities-based organization, promotes giving the thousands of Minnesotans with criminal records a second chance at becoming productive members of society.
Justin Terrell, program manager for Justice 4 All, gave a presentation Monday at Bethel Lutheran Church on behalf of his campaign.
“We want to make sure people are stepping out, rather than stepping back into their old ways,” Terrell said during Monday’s presentation during a League of Women Voters meeting.
A total of nearly 60,000 people were turned away from polls in the 2014 election due to felony convictions, according to a New York University study.
Unclear voting laws prevent even more felons from voting in Minnesota, said Jessica Rohloff, leader of League of Women Voters.
A Push for Sick Leave: “Everyone Benefits When Minnesota Benefits”
A new push for earned sick leave could mean more employees get “Minnesota Benefits.”
According to TakeAction Minnesota, 1 million state workers – four in 10 – can’t take time off without risking their jobs or paychecks.The new Minnesota Benefits coalition wants legislators to change that.
An increasing number of families are living paycheck to paycheck, said Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction, who added that he thinks the whole state would benefit by helping them. “No one wants someone who’s preparing food to be ill. No one wants kids to have to stay home and take care of a younger brother or sister, so that mom can go off to work,” he said. “You know, we all do better when we all do better.”
Campaign Wants Guaranteed Sick Days For Workers
A statewide coalition of labor, faith and community organizations are kicking off a campaign called “Minnesota Benefits.”
Workers Organize to Push for Paid Sick Time, Hold Event in Duluth
Workers advocating for paid sick time have kicked off a campaign to back proposed legislation in Minnesota.
The employees call their coordinated effort “Minnesota Benefits” and held an event Tuesday in Duluth.
Minnesota workers organize to push for paid sick time
Workers advocating for paid sick time have kicked off a campaign to back proposed legislation in Minnesota.
The employees call their coordinated effort “Minnesota Benefits” and held an event Tuesday in Duluth.
Campaign for paid sick leave and safe time kicks off in Duluth
There’s a reason Duluth was chosen as the location to kickoff the “Minnesota Benefits” campaign. The Duluth-Proctor-Hermantown metropolitan area ranks as the worst place in Minnesota for workers having access to paid sick time leave.
Group Pushes for Paid Sick Time for All Minnesotans
It can be an impossible choice. Going to work, or caring for a sick child, but without pay. Or going to work sick, so you don’t miss out on wages.
A group of concerned citizens from all walks of life have joined together to launch the campaign, “Minnesota Benefits.” They held their kickoff event at the Depot on Tuesday.
State campaign for paid sick days launched in Duluth, where fewest receive benefit
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the organizers of a statewide campaign to provide earned sick and safe time benefits to all Minnesota workers chose Duluth for their kickoff.
Workers in southeast St. Louis County apparently have the unfortunate distinction of being among the least likely to have access to paid time off in the state. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that between 2011 and 2012, only 49.6 percent of people employed in the area in and around Duluth and Hermantown had the ability to earn paid sick time.
DFL legislators introduce bill guaranteeing paid sick time
A coalition of labor, faith and community groups is hoping to make Minnesota the fourth state in the country to guarantee paid sick time off for workers.
“For those of us who have had paid time off, we often take it for granted,” said Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minesota, one of the groups backing a bill introduced by DFL lawmakers this week. “But there are a million working people in our state who don’t have that option.”
Earned sick time for workers is overdue
Did you catch the State of the Union on Tuesday? President Obama talked about what life is like for working families who don’t have earned sick and safe time:
“Today, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave. …Think about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home.”
One million of those workers are right here in Minnesota. In fact, in Southern St. Louis County, less than half of workers can earn paid sick time, the worst percentage in the state, according to a recent study conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Tiffany McDonald knows these realities too well. She came to our office at TakeAction because she had to make the choice between a paycheck and caring for her child. She worked three part-time jobs to keep the family afloat. None of the jobs offered paid sick time, which was a challenge when any of her children, or she, was sick. She even got behind on her well-child visits and immunizations because the clinic was never open after work hours and she couldn’t afford to take the time off from work. As any parent can imagine, these choices are indeed gut-wrenching…
Voters want paid leave, paid sick days, poll shows. Obama, too. Will Congress oblige?
The United States is the only advanced economy with no paid parental leave policy, no paid sick days. The cost of child care outstrips tuition for public universities in many states. Women still earn less than men, in many cases, for doing equal work. The minimum wage traps families in the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said it was time to change all that.
“Really,” he said. “It’s 2015. It’s time.”
And a poll of likely 2016 voters being released on Wednesday by the Make It Work campaign, an advocacy organization pushing to make these working family issues central to the 2016 campaign, found that Democratic, Independent and even Republican voters overwhelmingly agree.
Large majorities of voters of all persuasions said they are in favor of paid sick days, equal pay for equal work and affordable child and elder care, and 73 percent say the government has a responsibility to ensure employers treat employees fairly by providing them with such policies. About 70 percent said that workplace laws and policies are out of synch with the changing realities of modern families, and with the changing roles of men and women at work and at home.
Click here for the full article, featuring TakeAction Minnesota member, Jesske Eiklenborg.
What is “Ban The Box”?
In a movement gaining steam across the country to help ex-convicts find employment, ‘Ban the Box’ prevents businesses from asking about arrests and criminal records in the first stage of a job application.
Click here for video featuring TakeAction Minnesota staff and members.
Study confirms what Minnesota low-wage workers know: life is tough
A new study on “The Future of Work in Minnesota” confirms what low-wage workers have been saying in their demonstrations for weeks: wages are too low. And wage theft, erratic scheduling, and lack of paid sick days are serious problems.
The report was done by Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and announced by Working America, an organization of some three million workers, including 300,000 in Minnesota. Though the new study is Minnesota-specific, Working America’s findings could easily cover low-wage workers nationwide.
Labor group wants new job protections
After last session’s passage of a minimum wage increase to $9.50 an hour by 2016, labor union members are now calling on Minnesota lawmakers to pass requirements for sick time and predictable schedules.
The groups Working America, an affiliate organization of the AFL-CIO, and Take Action Minnesota jointly released a report today that shows just 35 percent of the state’s non-union service industry workers are getting paid sick days. It also highlights that a growing number of workers face work schedules that are “unsustainable and unpredictable”
Report Says Future Of Low Paid Workers Is Bleak
Despite the recent success in raising Minnesota’s minimum wage, a new report paints a bleak outlook for the state’s lowest paid workers. The worker rights groups, Working America and Take Action Minnesota, say a lot more is still needed to lift 622,000 Minnesotans out of poverty.
Their report titled, “The Future of Work in Minnesota,” cites unpaid sick time, erratic scheduling and out-sourcing as three of the major hurdles employees face in getting ahead.
But the groups are also celebrating a recent breakthrough for some of the workers they represent.
That breakthrough involves Target Corporation’s Responsible Contractor Policy.
How Did Minnesota Stay Blue in the Midterms? By Embracing, Not Running From, Progressive Values
Minnesota bucked the nationwide swing to the right. The national Democratic Party could learn a few things from how they did it.
In the land of Lake Wobegon, progressives still reign.
Republicans gave Democrats a national wholloping during Tuesday’s midterm elections, seizing the Senate, expanding their lead in the House, and gobbling up governors’ mansions in Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois.
But Minnesota bucked the rightward trend. In the upper Midwestern state known for progressive politics, Scandinavian sensibility and high voter turnout, Al Franken easily held onto his U.S. Senate seat (winning 53 percent of the vote), Governor Mark Dayton convincingly won reelection (by 5.5 percent), and the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party (DFL) held onto five of its eight Congressional seats.
Franken’s and Dayton’s landslide victories were particularly noteworthy because each of them had to endure statewide recounts in their initial runs for office. Franken won in 2008—a “wave year” for Democrats—by only 312 votes. (He later jokingly called that “the most efficient Senate race in history.”) Dayton won his first gubernatorial election in 2010 by less than 9,000 votes.
Republicans did regain control of the State House by ousting 11 DFL incumbents, mostly in rural Minnesota: they now have a four-seat majority (Democrats control the State Senate, which was not up for reelection this year). But the GOP failed to win seats in all but one of the first-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities, despite several tight races. In typical midterm election years, House seats in the suburbs of Eagan, Edina, Shoreview and Minnetonka would typically swing red. This year, they all remained blue.
The DFL’s successful defense of the suburbs around Minneapolis and St. Paul, and convincing victories for Dayton and Franken, could offer valuable lessons for progressives nationwide as they lick their wounds and try to develop an effective political strategy for 2016.
How did Minnesota Democrats do it? By focusing on women’s issues, fair pay and raising the minimum wage, and by championing—not running away from—progressive accomplishments such as workers’ rights and President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
The community organizing group TakeAction Minnesota has focused much of its attention on building infrastructure and forming relationships in those first-ring suburbs, and bringing conversations about economic inequality and gender inequity to people’s doorsteps…
For support of women and families
We are days away from the election & there is a lot at stake for the women and families in northeast Minnesota. Almost half of those working in our area do not have access to a single paid day off. What this means is too many parents can’t take a sick day for themselves or have to make the awful choice of caring for a sick child or getting a paycheck. These are choices no parent should have to make. The fact is we all get sick and the modern workplace needs to catch-up with this reality. Who we elect on Nov. 4 can change this. For example, Congressman Rick Nolan was not only a champion for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, he also believes large corporations should offer paid time off for their employees. We have the opportunity to elect champions for women and families, like Rick Nolan.
Last session was historic for women and families in Minnesota. As a state, we raised the minimum wage and passed the Women’s Economic Security Act. The Women’s Economic Security Act enacted on Aug. 1 provided workplace protections for pregnant and nursing mothers, expanded protections for victims of domestic violence, and required state contractors to pay women and men equally for similar jobs. We still have lots of work to do. In fact, our area has the worst pay gap in the state between men and women and we still fall far behind the rest of the world in our family leave policies. That’s why these elections matter to us as women. We know in order to fully get ahead we need our lawmakers to push for policies that support women and families. One of those people is Governor Mark Dayton. He supported and proudly signed the Women’s Economic Security Act in to law on Mother’s Day. We know Governor Dayton will continue to work for women and families in Minnesota.
We know our votes will be cast in favor of candidates who support women and families in our area. Thankfully we also have great advocates in Representative Tom Anzelc and Carly Melin. Last session they were champions for the middle class, women and families. They worked hard to raise the minimum wage, pass the Women’s Economic Security Act & restored funding for our schools, which lead the way for all day kindergarten. As women, these issues deeply matter to us and those around us. We want to keep building a better Minnesota for everyone, not just the wealthy. We know Tom Anzelc & Carly Melin will be champions for women and families this legislative session working on continued policy improvements. On Nov. 4 we will be casting our votes for a brighter future for Minnesota. We hope you will do the same.
Join with us in supporting Congressman Rick Nolan, Governor Mark Dayton, Representative Tom Anzelc and Carly Melin at the polls this Nov. 4, 2014.
TakeAction MN Itasca Area Women’s Action Team
To Build a New Economy, a New Government Comes First
On a crisp autumn day in 2012, I joined a group of pastors and community leaders from the Illinois-Indiana Regional Organizing Network (IIRON) at a church on the south side of Chicago. We talked about the way corporations and the wealthy systematically hoarded political power over the last forty years to make our country work for them—instead of people like us. They built elite think tanks, bought the media, and took over universities. They fought back against the wave of pro-equality reforms that had been achieved in the 1950s and 1960s, and turned the tide in their favor.
That corporate-conservative movement transformed our political and economic landscape over the last 40 years, and the resulting shift has left us with growing economic and racial inequality, a broken democracy, and a planet on the verge of catastrophic climate change.
Together, that day we recognized that the solutions our elected leaders had proposed were wholly inadequate to the scale of the crises we faced: We’d seen massive bailouts for banks, while thousands of homeowners in our neighborhoods faced foreclosure and were getting little help staying afloat; We faced a massive jobs crisis without a proposal for the kind of public jobs program we needed.
So, we began thinking about the transformations that could serve as the pillars of an economy that worked for people in our communities, instead of simply padding the pockets of bankers and shareholders.
Grassroots Campaign Seeks Family Friendly Candidate
s the Minnesota elections near a group is taking to the streets in a grassroots effort to try provide information to voters about candidates they believe will fight for issues like paid sick leave and paid maternity leave and other family matters.
Member, Rachel Chafee said, “I have learned how important it is spending time with the little one and so to be able to have paid maternity leave or parental leave, so that you don’t have to make a decision about whether you get to spend time with your kid or whether you pay your bills.”
New report details statewide access to earned sick time benefits in Minnesota
TakeAction Minnesota and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research released a new statewide analysis recently, detailing access rates to earned sick time leave across the state of Minnesota. The new report breaks down data by gender, race and ethnicity, occupation, hours worked and earnings level. Overall, the report concludes that 41% of Minnesota workers lack access to even a single day of earned sick time off.
On the morning tele-conference briefing with reporters and policymakers, Jessica Milli, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, reviewed key findings from the statewide analysis. Milli said, “This data indicates that Minnesota workers who are least able to lose pay when they are sick are also the least likely to have employer-provided earned sick days. Earned sick time gives workers the ability to seek health services or stay home with sick children or other family members, helping reduce the spread of illness in schools and workplaces. It provides more economic security for families across the board, but most especially for those struggling in lower-wage and part-time jobs.”
Minneapolis Has Long Been Fractured by Racial Inequity. Can a New Mayor Change That?
The Bethany Lutheran Church sits in the center of the Seward neighborhood, southeast of downtown. It’s the kind of neighborhood where a non–hierarchically run cafe jostles up against a radical bookstore and co-op grocery, and the local representative belongs to the Green Party. Before learning about Minneapolis’s deep poverty and racial inequity, this was the city of my imagination, a sort of radical utopia where the only oppression was inflicted by the winter weather.
The church, however, offers a different narrative. Bethany Lutheran serves as the headquarters for Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, or CTUL (pronounced say-tool). Inside, there is a bulletin board covered with photos of men and women protesting; a piece of butcher paper lists the sueldos robados—stolen wages—the group recovered in 2011. While the contractors listed are mostly small and unfamiliar, in recent years CTUL has moved up the supply chain, waging a campaign against the retail giant Target, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, hoping to organize the subcontracted janitors who clean the company’s stores.
“Lots of people said these workers were impossible to organize,” says Veronica Mendez, CTUL’s fiery co-director. “Those people were wrong.”
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The seeds that grew into Minnesotans for a Fair Economy were planted out of frustration. It was the mid-2000s, a dark time for anyone in the state who cared about economic justice or racial equity. Paul Wellstone was dead, replaced by Republican Norm Coleman. Tim Pawlenty was governor. And a state senator named Michele Bachmann was planning a run for Congress.
In response, SEIU, TakeAction Minnesota and ISAIAH began to meet, holding long conversations about what it might mean to build something together. In 2011, when SEIU launched a nationwide initiative to support community/labor partnerships, those early years of building trust paid off. While many SEIU-sponsored efforts didn’t last, Minneapolis added two more partners, CTUL and NOC, and began forging an alliance based on moving an aggressive long-term agenda. “What you have are a set of very ambitious organizations that don’t just want to win stuff,” says McGrath of TakeAction Minnesota. “Republicans are not our only obstacle—our [main] obstacle is unmitigated corporate power. It’s very unifying and keeps you from getting trapped in short-term political stuff.”
Honoring the work of our ‘Rosies’
Labor Day constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The American worker is the core of our high standard of living and great production in the world. Evidence of this can be found in the history of a workforce that has had dramatic impact on the success of this nation.
There is one group in particular whose mark on the nation’s workforce history was pivotal yet greatly overshadowed by the events of the time. And appreciation for their work is deserved and long overdue.
More than 70 years ago, Irene Weller and Adeline Stoskopf, both of Grand Rapids, were among the millions of women who answered the call to enter the industrial labor force in tough jobs left vacant with widespread male enlistment during World War II.
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Earlier this month, Weller and Stoskopf were recognized as “Rosie the Riveters,” in the Tall Timber Days parade with Take Action Minnesota, a network working for racial and economic equity across the state. In pushing equal pay for men and women, Take Action is shedding light on the fact that despite the advancements made by women over the past decades, difficulties like pay disparities make it hard for women to get ahead. As it was in 1943 when women may have made $.65/hour compared to men’s pay of $1.00/hour, a discrepancy remains with Minnesota women earning 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Take Action Minnesota hopes to influence legislative leaders to help change this and both Weller and Stoskopf were happy to promote the cause by participating in the parade.
Stoskopf said she didn’t make much money during her factory days but believes “if women are doing the same job as men, they shouldn’t be paid less.”
The Bad Boss Tax
Can you name the worst job you’ve ever had? For Cliff Martin, that’s not an easy question. All three of his current jobs—delivering newspapers, delivering magazines and working as a janitor—are strong contenders. Taken together, they pay so poorly that the 20-year-old Northfield, Minnesota, native relies on MNsure, the state Medicaid plan, for healthcare and lives at home with his father to save money. But what if Martin’s bosses had to fork over a fee to the state for paying him so badly? That money, in turn, could be used to help support Martin and his fellow low-wage workers in a variety of ways, from direct subsidies for food and housing to social programs such as Medicaid or public transportation.
TakeAction Minnesota, a network that promotes economic and racial justice in the state, wants to make that fee a reality. It’s developing the framework for a bill that it hopes will be introduced in 2015 by state legislators who have worked with the network in the past. As conceived, the “bad business fee” legislation would require companies to disclose how many of their employees are receiving public assistance from the state or federal government. Companies would then pay a fine based on the de facto subsidies they receive by externalizing labor costs onto taxpayers.
TakeAction Minnesota’s plan is one prong of a larger national effort. As progressive organizations grapple with how to turn years of public outrage over income inequality into policies for structural change, a network of labor and community organizing groups has seized upon the bad business fee as a solution that might take off.
Locked Up, Locked Out: Community event covers daily effects of a criminal record
TakeAction Minnesota hosted a community conversation on July 12 with the Minneapolis Urban League called Locked Up, Locked Out to give a personal voice to the everyday challenges faced by individuals with a past criminal record.
One in four Americans have either an arrest or criminal conviction on their record – a majority are drug-related or other nonviolent offenses. In addition, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the disparity between African-Americans and Caucasians with criminal records in Minnesota is four times higher than the national average. Yet the stigma not only continues to shadow over those who have served time, but over their families as well. Having a history with the criminal justice system affects everything from job applications, to obtaining adequate education and housing. Even if a criminal record has been expunged, it can still appear on a background check.
Why Target Stopped Asking Job Applicants If They’ve Been Convicted of a Crime
Kissy Mason understands the importance of second chances. As she grew up in Minneapolis in the ’80s and ’90s, she watched her family members move in and out of prison and saw the discrimination they faced as a result.
“People in my family were being locked up, and then they were locked out of a right to live, a right to employment,” she said.
Mason decided early on that she wouldn’t follow in their footsteps and end up in the prison system. After moving around Minnesota, she returned to Minneapolis to earn her associate’s degree in criminal justice. But in 2006, a domestic argument got out of control and led to a conviction. Mason was offered probation—but her record was no longer clean.
Because of a background check that brought up the incident, she no longer qualified for low-income, or Section 8, housing and struggled to find employment. “At that time,” she said, “I had three children, and I was trying to provide for them.”
“Sometimes people bar you from jobs forever because of one incident, and I don’t think that’s fair,” Mason said. “People should be given another chance. It shouldn’t be one time and you’re out.”
It’s Business as Usual for SCOTUS
The Hobby Lobby and Harris v. Quinn rulings handed down by the Supreme Court’s conservative and male majority lay bare exactly what they value. And it’s not caring for each other. Nor is it a woman’s right to make her own decisions. Instead, these justices value ever-expanding corporate power at the expense of working people and believe that women, and the professions they lead, are worth less than others. In ruling as they did on two very disparate topics, these five men have launched an assault on women in the workplace. But it’s workers and their families who should be concerned.
Delegation of women attend summit in D.C.
It started with the Women and Family’s Economic Security Summit in Duluth this May, said Kathleen Blake, a Grand Rapids resident who recently traveled to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of women from around the state who attended the White House Summit on Working Families.
The delegation was sent by TakeAction Minnesota, a statewide progressive organization that organized the Duluth summit.
As Ikea raises minimum wage, pressure mounts for others
As home retailer Ikea announced plans to raise the average, hourly minimum wage at its U.S. stores to $10.76, the pressure is mounting for other big brand businesses to lift pay for their workers.
Large companies, from retail to food—as well as many states—have hiked their hourly rate, or are considering such a move.
Gap in February said it would set $9 as the minimum hourly rate for U.S. workers, and raise the minimum to $10 next year. Chipotle Mexican Grillhas said an increase to $10 an hour could be absorbed. Starbucks says it would support efforts to lift wages, but hasn’t taken a stance on any specific proposal.
Ikea’s announcement is “a significant step nationally in moving the wage from where it is now,” said Greta Bergstrom of TakeAction Minnesota, which has lobbied to raise wages in the state. Minnesota lawmakers in April approved lifting the state minimum wage to $9.50 an hour over three years.
Ikea’s decision “will put pressure on other big box retailers to raise their wages,” Bergstrom said.
Gloria Coles at White House Summit
On June 23, TakeAction Minnesota member headed to the White House for a summit on women and working families. Channel 12 spoke to her about why she made the trip.
Organizing Where We Have the Most Leverage: in the Cities
George Goehl is the executive director of National People’s Action Campaign, a network of metropolitan and statewide organizations that are building independent political power to advance racial and economic justice.
In Democratic Promise, his landmark account of the populist movement, historian Lawrence Goodwyn describes achieving collective self-confidence as a critical benchmark for powerful democratic movements. He rightly argues that reaching this psychological tipping point allows social movements to grow exponentially.
Congressional gridlock and austerity have not just expanded inequality in our nation; they have constrained people’s sense of possibility, undermining faith in politics as a means for creating change and in the idea of government as an equalizer in our society.
As a result, these days progressives can build collective self-confidence by starting where we have the most leverage: in the cities. Twenty-seven of the nation’s thirty largest cities voted blue in 2012. In itself, this does not constitute transformative change, but it does present a battlefield for creating next-generation policies and for recruiting candidates to run on a “people and planet first” agenda. And as citizens benefit from this agenda, their faith in politics and in good government will grow.
Our work in cities needs to be part of a plan to shift the politics of state governments, which control too much money and too many rules to ignore. If we can energize a sizable base in a state’s major cities, we are positioned to flip the politics of that entire state.
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To win such victories, we’ll need a new people’s politics that combines street heat with electoral power. This requires an independent movement accountable to a constituency and a set of principles, not simply to a political party.
This movement has already begun. TakeAction Minnesota, for instance, has 54,000 supporters and raises more than $500,000 annually from its members. In 2012, it defeated a constitutional amendment requiring state residents to have a photo ID that once had 80 percent support in the polls, and it has elected members to the State Legislature and to local city councils. Recently elected Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges is TakeAction’s longest dues-paying member. Organizations with similar ambitions are taking shape across the country.
Just imagine this: in 2015, campaigns are launched in forty US cities that advance a progressive economic, racial and climate-justice agenda. Simultaneously, a thousand movement candidates win races for mayor, city council and other local offices. These fights galvanize a new base that shifts the nature of state politics. Working from one narrative, we connect our policy and electoral wins into a unified story that captures the public’s imagination. Heading into 2016, we could constitute a powerful independent force in American politics. This would change the political calculus for candidates in both parties, while generating the self-confidence that the movement needs to keep on building.
