TakeAction Minnesota

Category Archives: Post type

David beats Goliath!: How the little guy beat the mega-corporation

With all the Republican obstructionism and Democratic spinelessness in Washington, not to mention the distractions of the Obamacare website, it can be hard to feel good about politics at all — let alone tap into the sort of optimism that inspires and motivates many of us in the first place. Here, then, is a story of a small statewide organization that brought a multi-billion-dollar, multinational corporation to heel.

Minnesota has the worst-in-the-nation racial jobs gap. In 2011, for instance, 18 percent of African Americans in the Twin Cities were unemployed — more than three times the unemployment rate for whites in the city. This stems from broader problems in the criminal justice system in which Minnesota has historically had one of most disproportionate rates of incarceration for African Americans as compared with whites. While, thanks to criminal justice reform, that rate has fallen — from 23:1 in the 1980s and 90s to 9:1 in 2005, that still means a lot of African Americans in Minnesota have a criminal record stemming not just from their past wrongdoings but from a skewed criminal justice system that convicted and sentenced African Americans more frequently and harshly than whites.

One step in unraveling these dynamics and helping close the racial jobs gap in Minnesota would be gaining equal access to jobs for those with criminal records.… Continue reading »

Can this reality — work very hard, don’t get very far — be ended?

Rep. Ryan Winkler may be a Harvard- and Minnesota-educated lawyer and four-term DFL legislator from Golden Valley, but he’s also a guy from Bemidji who watched his hometown friends and extended family struggle as real median household income in Minnesota dropped 9.5 percent between 2001 and 2011.

That background has something to do with Winkler’s decision to take his House Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs on the road this fall. It summoned local pols and businessfolk to hearings in eight Minnesota cities, Bemidji among them, to consider how best to make work pay more.

There’s this, too: Winkler is historian enough to understand that growing income inequality is one of the biggest problems facing the state and nation, and idealistic (and ambitious) enough to believe that he and the Minnesota Legislature can do something about it.

…

The emergence of a potent minimum wage coalition in recent months makes those ideas seem more politically plausible than they were a few years ago. So does the rise of TakeAction Minnesota, which crowed last week about its role in Betsy Hodges’ successful mayoral bid in the Nov. 5 Minneapolis election.

Calling itself a “people’s network,” TakeAction is sometimes tagged as socialist. But it stands for some pretty basic American ideas: People who want to work should be able to do so.… Continue reading »

The Progressive Electoral Wave of 2013

The political and media elites obsessed only with Washington intrigue and the next presidential race thought New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s predictable re-election was the big story of the 2013 season. It wasn’t. The big story was a cross-country rejection of austerity and an endorsement of the progressive populism that Democrats must embrace if they hope to prevail in 2014. Bill de Blasio’s 73 percent landslide in the New York mayoral race, in which he ran on a platform of building a more inclusive city by addressing income inequality and taxing the wealthy, was just the topline measure of a national trend. The new public advocate of New York is Letitia James, a progressive populist first elected to the City Council on the labor-backed Working Families Party line. The City Council will have twenty-one new members, many of them elected with WFP backing. WFP executive director Dan Cantor said, in reference to de Blasio’s presence at the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, “We are living in the world Occupy made. We are the beneficiaries of what they did in terms of making this [about] inequality, which is from our point of view the core issue of our time.” What OWS did, yes—along with the organizing and electoral infrastructure patiently built by labor and community groups.… Continue reading »

Dai Thao is first Hmong-American elected to St. Paul City Council

Dai Thao, an information technology manager who moved to St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood from the North End two years ago, has defeated six other candidates to become the first Hmong-American elected to the city council.

He will represent Ward 1, which spans Frogtown, Summit-University and corners of surrounding neighborhoods, one of the most racially diverse areas of Minnesota.

…

Dai Thao, who in 2008 became a recruiter and political organizer for Hmong members of the liberal activist group TakeAction Minnesota, ran with the support of TakeAction and the St. Paul firefighters union, IAF Local 21. He previously worked on the campaigns of state Rep. Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul, and state Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, and was a staff organizer with ISAIAH, a faith-based social justice advocacy group.

Click here for the full article. … Continue reading »

Celebrating HOW we won

Last Friday, at our Annual Leadership Awards Celebration, we celebrated the concrete change we have all won that makes our lives and the lives of our loved ones – and our whole state better.

But last Friday wasn’t only a celebration of what we won, it was a celebration of how we won.  Look around you, and you will see a new grassroots movement that has taken hold of our state.

Who was in the room on Friday?

DoloresAlCorey_squareElected officials like Governor Mark Dayton, Speaker Paul Thissen, and members of the Minnesota House and Senate who acted to make our cities, our state, our nation more equitable.

Minnesotans who organized people in the streets, in government, or online. And the people who love and support someone who works so hard to make the world a better place.

Because of what we all won this spring, the future of our children is brighter, our unions are stronger, and love is the law.

The conventional wisdom used to be, that only what happened inside the state Capitol mattered.  If you weren’t there, then you should just wait to hear what was decided.

But this year – unlike any in recent memory –people all across Minnesota led with their own talent and creativity and changed the status quo.… Continue reading »

Rosenblum: TakeAction Minnesota helped Target ban the box

Target Corp.’s decision to Ban the Box is a victory for many ex-offenders, and a wise and moral move for the wildly popular discounter.

But it would be a shame to ignore the impressive back story that undoubtedly influenced Target’s evolution.

Minnesota is the third state to implement Ban the Box, which goes into effect Jan. 1. The law mandates that employers wait until a prospective employee is being interviewed to ask about a criminal past.

For nearly three years, a grass-roots effort has been building on Minneapolis’ North Side in support of the change. The effort began in April 2011 when leaders from TakeAction Minnesota, a network of people working for social justice, held a series of meetings asking North Siders to share personal stories and ideas for strengthening community and families.

Read more… Continue reading »

Betsy Hodges prepares to put vision, record to work

She’s a fan of NASCAR who wears Wonder Woman T-shirts beneath blazers, a progressive activist with a penchant for wading into messy political issues at City Hall, and a DFLer whose bid for mayor was opposed by the establishment of her party.

Betsy Hodges, the presumptive next mayor of Minneapolis, is a hard-nosed budget wonk driven by her concern for the less fortunate. She is sharp and witty in private, but careful and restrained in the public eye.

…

Hodges’ apparent victory comes after a political career spent in the trenches of progressive fights. She cut her teeth in local politics in the late 1990s as an activist for Progressive Minnesota, now TakeAction Minnesota, working on education referendums and opposing stadium subsidies. She later worked as an aide to Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman — now a supporter — and as development director at a nonprofit.

Click here to read the full article.… Continue reading »

Target initiates ban the box nationwide

In an overflow meeting at the Capri Theater, executives with Target Corporation engaged in a dialog about how corporate hiring policies prevent people with criminal arrest – disproportionately people of color – from securing a job.

The community meeting was organized by TakeAction Minnesota through its Justice 4 All, fair hiring campaign.

Jim Rowader, Target’s vice president of employee and labor relations, announced during the meeting that the company would institute a nationwide ban on the checkbox included on employment applications that screens for an applicant’s past criminal history. Officials with TakeAction said the move is a significant step in removing a key employment barrier for those with arrest records from one of the nation’s largest employers.

“Ending racism in employment demands the leadership of Minneapolis’ Northside community,” said TakeAction Minnesota’s executive director, Dan McGrath. “No matter their credentials and work ethic, the fact is that there are structural barriers in place that stop people from getting jobs. Our Justice 4 All campaign was launched by leaders from this community so that no one who has been locked up is locked out of a job and a positive future.”

McGrath said TakeAction Minnesota has worked for more than two years to build a base of leadership on the Northside to address inequities in employment…

Click here for the full article.… Continue reading »

Target To Drop Criminal Background Question In Job Applications

Target plans to stop asking prospective employees about their criminal records in initial job applications at all of its U.S. stores, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Huffington Post on Tuesday.

The Minneapolis-based company had been facing pressure to do so from grassroots advocacy group TakeAction Minnesota. Target nevertheless reserved the right to ask about criminal backgrounds after the completion of an applicant’s first interview.

Click here to read the full article.… Continue reading »

Target Bans the Box

Sanctions that make it more difficult for ex-offenders to obtain jobs, housing and even basic documents like drivers’ licenses only serve to drive them back to jail. With that in mind, a growing number of states and municipalities now prohibit public agencies — and in some cases private employers — from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history until the applicant reaches the interview stage or gets a conditional job offer. These eminently sensible “ban the box” laws are intended to let ex-offenders prove their qualifications before criminal history issues enter the equation.

Earlier this year Minnesota extended its existing law to cover private employers. Now, the Minneapolis-based Target Corporation, one of the nation’s largest employers, has announced that it will remove questions about criminal history from its job applications throughout the country. The announcement represents an important victory for the grassroots community group TakeAction Minnesota, which had been pressuring the company to change.

Click here to read the full article.… Continue reading »

What’s working in Minnesota?

Consider what life is like in our neighboring states in the upper Midwest.

To the south, in Iowa, farm and rural activists are fighting off factory farms at every turn.  Farther away, Illinois is continually facing a looming financial crisis.  To the west, North Dakota continues trying to limit a woman’s freedom to choose by passing the most restrictive anti-choice laws in the country.  And to the east, Wisconsin state government resembles that of Mississippi, restricting the right to vote and sitting idle as its health care costs skyrocket.

Meanwhile, here in Minnesota the list of populist accomplishments in the last 12 months is long and impressive… being the first state to defeat both the Voter Restriction and Anti-Gay Marriage Amendments, turning around six months later to pass Marriage Equality, passing historic Ban the Box legislation, Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, The Dream Act, increased progressive revenue and closed corporate tax loopholes, and expanded and strengthened health care coverage.  The list goes on.

What’s working in Minnesota that we are breaking through the same barriers that are holding other states back?

Kandace at summitFor one thing, nothing that has happened here in Minnesota has happened overnight.  For years, organizers and activists have laid the groundwork for what just recently emerged as a grassroots movement. … Continue reading »

Target Joins the Conversation

Last week, more than 400 people packed the Capri Theater on the northside of Minneapolis and others watched online in Duluth, Grand Rapids, Virginia, Rochester, Mankato, and beyond.

Why?

To be part of a conversation with Target Corporation about closing our worst-in-the-nation racial jobs gap, and to be there as they made a commitment to be part of the solution.

For more than two years, every day Minnesotans with criminal histories have been asking Target to be a leader in closing our worst-in-the-nation racial jobs gap. People like you made phone calls, stood in Target’s lobby, travelled to Denver for their shareholder meeting, filed complaints with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and more.

And last Thursday night, they joined the conversation and took some serious steps forward. What did that look like?

Justice 4 AllAt the meeting, Target leadership went on the record and committed to continuing a public discussion, funding a free legal clinic on the north side for people with criminal histories, and supporting hiring practices that remove barriers to employment. In a major step forward, they announced that they’ll be adopting “Ban the Box” (a policy that removes questions about criminal histories from employment applications) for all of their applications nationwide.… Continue reading »

Target to ban criminal history box on job applications

Target Corp. will roll out a national program early next year that will eliminate the box on employment applications that asks job seekers whether they have a criminal record.

The initiative, part of a budding “Ban the Box” movement across the country, calls for employers to wait until a prospective employee is being interviewed or has a provisional job offer before inquiring whether he or she has a criminal past. The idea is that ex-offenders will have a better chance at getting a job if they’re not eliminated at the very beginning of their job search.

“It’s a big deal in the sense that people with criminal records are going to be given a better chance at employment,” said Dan Oberdorfer, an employment lawyer with the Minneapolis law firm Leonard Street and Deinard. “So earlier in the process employers will have a completely open mind.”

…

Greta Bergstrom, communications director for TakeAction Minnesota, said Target’s recent actions are in response to a two-year campaign the group organized involving a 200-person public action in the lobby of Target’s headquarters, a hundred individuals with past records filing job applications at Target and being rejected, a visit to Target’s shareholder meeting and numerous meetings, e-mails and phone calls with Target executives.… Continue reading »

At Target, criminal history check box ends for job applicants

Minnesota-based Target Corp. says it’s eliminating, nationally, the box on forms that asks if job applicants have criminal histories.

A new Minnesota law requires private employers in the state to take the criminal history box off applications by the end of the year. Target Vice President Jim Rowader says the company is voluntarily expanding that approach for all U.S. applicants, while at the same time trying to make sure that only the most serious crimes show up on the background reports that hiring managers see.

…

Rowader made the comments to a north Minneapolis audience of hundreds as part of a panel to address unemployment among ex-offenders that was organized by the advocacy group Take Action Minnesota.

For two years, the group has been urging Target to hire more ex-offenders.

For the full article, click here.… Continue reading »

How Criminal Records Worsen the Jobs Gap

The Twin Cities region has one of the country’s widest racial gaps in employment, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The advocacy group Take Action Minnesota says one reason for that gap is the reluctance of employers to hire people with criminal records, who are disproportionately likely to be African-Americans.

The group has been working with Target Corp., one of the largest employers in Minnesota, to address the issue. The two organizations will engage in a public meeting tonight to discuss Target’s practices regarding job applicants with criminal records…

Click here to read more.… Continue reading »

‘We Are All Criminals’ is a Hard Look at Those Not Caught

Jeana Raines got her life back on Tuesday, as the Minnesota Board of Pardons wisely forgave and erased long-ago transgressions. The mother of three has since paid restitution for check forgery and earned two college degrees.

The story of Raines and six other Minnesotans, also pardoned, couldn’t come at a more fitting hour. Because also this week, hundreds of other Minnesotans will humbly recall past criminal acts.

We need only look in the mirror to see them.

Like Raines, these Minnesotans broke the law, some by selling drugs, others by arson or indecent exposure. Unlike Raines, they never got caught, thus granted the freedom to mature and move into full adult lives to test their infinite potential…

Click here to read more.… Continue reading »

$9.50 vs. $7.75: Looking Past the Numbers.

At the end of the 2013 legislative session, Governor Mark Dayton, Speaker of the House Paul Thissen, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk agreed on one thing: they will need to take up the minimum wage again in 2014 session.  Beyond that: they have differences.  The Governor has indicated he “would settle” for an increase to $9.50/hr.  The House has passed a bill that would raise it to $9.50/hr by 2015.  The Senate’s bill raises it to only $7.75/hr.

Rally to Raise the WageBefore the next legislative session begins on February 25, 2014 you can expect to hear a lot more about these dollar figures (as well as the rest of the minimum wage improvements being proposed.)  As you do, it’s important to place them in some context.  How high is too high?  How low is too low?  What do people need to make per hour in order to just get by?  Here is a simple guide to the minimum wage dollar figure debate:

$28.34: This is what the minimum wage would be had it grown at the same rate as the income as the top 1% since 1968 (the year in which the federal minimum wage was at its highest).

$18.72: This is what the minimum wage would be had it grown with the productivity of the U.S.… Continue reading »

Joint religious coalition organizes to support increase in state’s minimum wage

Monday, Oct. 21 saw a community forum at Grand Rapids’ Community Presbyterian Church on raising Minnesota’s hourly minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9.50 by 2015.

The forum was presented by representatives of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC), a Minnesota religious lobby for social justice that is managed by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Council of Churches, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the Islamic Center of Minnesota.

Representatives from JRLC included Brian Rusche, executive director, and Reverend Alison Killeen, director of organizing and practical theology.

Kathleen Blake was first to speak on the proposed minimum wage increase. Blake is a Grand Rapids resident and a longtime member of JRLC, as well as an organizer for TakeAction Minnesota, a grassroots organization working to engage communities on issues of social, economic, and racial justice.

If minimum wage had been adequately adjusted for inflation, said Blake, then it should now be $10.68 an hour. If it had been adjusted for companies’ average productivity gains, it would sit at nearly $22.00 an hour.

Contrary to the stereotypical portrait of minimum wage workers as teenagers, 77 percent of minimum wage workers are adults, Blake said.

Click here to read the full article.… Continue reading »

Justice 4 All: Bridging the racial jobs gap

Did you know that in Minnesota one in five people have an arrest or conviction record that can show up on a routine criminal background check for employment? Community members with a criminal or arrest record are routinely denied employment, leading to one million people within Minnesota struggling to find work. A person’s criminal record and even a person’s arrest record will follow them throughout their lives and may negatively impact their employment opportunities. By promoting changes to employer’s use of background information, it allows for access to employment opportunities for those with criminal records.

Equal access to employment opportunities benefits neighborhoods, families, the economy, and the overall societal well-being. However, for many members of our community this access has been denied. Communities of color are facing a serious employment crisis in our state. Minnesota has the worst unemployment gap in the nation, where Blacks are three times more likely to be unemployed than Whites. A contributing factor leading to this disparity are the challenges experienced by those with a criminal record who are seeking to obtain employment. Especially when, more than 92% of employers use background checks, and as many as two thirds refuse to hire applicants with criminal or arrest records, regardless of the length of time since conviction or relevancy to the job.… Continue reading »

Coming Through on Election Day

Election Day is nearly upon us — with two progressive champions locked in tight races that will go down to the wire.

In Minneapolis and Ward 1 of St. Paul, we’ll be hitting the phones and knocking on doors to make sure that Betsy Hodges is Minneapolis’ first choice for mayor, and that Dai Thao heads to City Hall as St. Paul Ward 1’s newest city council member.

These races will be close, and one-on-one conversations among neighbors about why Betsy and Dai are the right candidates to make our cities more equitable will make the difference on Election Day.

Want to be a part of making it happen? Head here to see when we’ll be with Betsy’s campaign, and here to see Dai Thao’s schedule of events.

See you on the doors!

— Steve Rogness… Continue reading »

The power of stories

I’ve always believed in the power of stories.

As a teacher of history and literature, I use personal narratives to bring lessons and lost eras home to students in the present. And recent research has shown that stories are uniquely effective at imparting shared values and empathy. But the fight for healthcare reform taught me how stories can transform the world.

Jess and her son

When my family moved to Minnesota about three years ago, we lived without health insurance for four months while we applied for MinnesotaCare. I’d saved up for a doctor’s visit to get continuous care for my fibromyalgia and depression, but the doctor I’d picked refused to follow the treatment plan I’d been on for over a decade. We couldn’t afford to “shop” for a good doctor through out-of-pocket visits, and I was forced off all my medications. I became couch- and bed-bound with pain and exhaustion. I couldn’t look for work or explore the city we’d moved to–even taking my sons swimming for an hour was enough to use up all the energy I had for the day.

I truly recovered once our MinnesotaCare coverage started, and I was able to resume life as a worker, a mom, and a member of our new community.… Continue reading »

What Babysitters Can Tell Us About Minnesota’s Fate

For the last five years my wife and I have had a string of top-notch babysitters.  Our two daughters have had the benefit of getting to spend time with young musicians, burgeoning scientists, and up & coming early childhood educators.

Talented, caring, and thoroughly underemployed: all of them were college educated.

What’s been true in my experience has also been reflected by the employment data of the recession.  According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, the rates of underemployment for recent college graduates have grown from 27.4% in 2007 to 37% on 2012.  Paired with straight up unemployment that means 1 of every 2 recent college graduates are under- or unemployed.

What underlies this trend, however, is not lazy students, bad schools, or superfluous college majors, what drives this trend is lousy jobs.  According to a 2012 report by the Center for Economic Policy Research, since 1979 the U.S. economy has lost about the one-third of its ability create good jobs.  If we were creating good jobs (meaning those that pay $18.50 an hour and have health insurance and retirement benefits) in the same way we were in 1979, 34.2% of workers would have good jobs.  Instead only a shrinking 24.6% of U.S.… Continue reading »

Uninsured Find More Success via Health Exchanges Run by States

Robyn J. Skrebes of Minneapolis said she was able to sign up for health insurance in about two hours on Monday using the Web site of the state-run insurance exchange in Minnesota, known as MNsure. Ms. Skrebes, who is 32 and uninsured, said she had selected a policy costing $179 a month, before tax credit subsidies, and also had obtained Medicaid coverage for her 2-year-old daughter, Emma.

“I am thrilled,” Ms. Skrebes said, referring to her policy. “It’s affordable, good coverage. And the Web site of the Minnesota exchange was pretty simple to use, pretty straightforward. The language was really clear.”

The experience described by Ms. Skrebes is in stark contrast to reports of widespread technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online health insurance marketplace run by the federal government since it opened on Oct. 1. While many people have been frustrated in their efforts to obtain coverage through the federal exchange, which is used by more than 30 states, consumers have had more success signing up for health insurance through many of the state-run exchanges, federal and state officials and outside experts say…

Read more here. … Continue reading »

Start Taking Action Today

Stay up to date with email

Give Now

Get Involved
  • TakeAction on Facebook
  • TakeAction on Twitter
  • TakeAction on YouTube

  • TakeAction Minnesota
    705 Raymond Ave. #100
    Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114
    651.641.6199

    © 2013 TakeAction Minnesota

  • 25 North 21st Ave. West
    Duluth, Minnesota 55806
    218.481.7290