The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
The Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations. Please join the task force and share your thoughts about the proposed Earned Sick and Safe Time policy.… Continue reading »
It’s almost time for CTUL’s 6th annual Pancake Brunch Fundraiser! This will be the first Pancake Brunch at our new center for worker and community organizing.
This year we will be launching our Raise Workers’ Voices Campaign, a campaign to take our organizing work to the next level by winning fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace with thousands of low-wage workers. Join us to learn more and to be a part of the campaign.… Continue reading »
Hosted by Vision Duluth.
We’ll call through all our petition card signatures and a list we’ll make from the voter network.
Why is this important? The task force met last week and they are setting dates for the community input sessions, and it is IMPERATIVE that we have significant turnout and storytellers for these sessions. That means we’re gearing up for the point in the campaign where it’s all hands-on deck! Even if you can only come for an hour – please join us. It will be fun to make calls together, and we’ll have snacks.… Continue reading »
Hosted by the City of Minneapolis
The City of Minneapolis is hosting several listening sessions to gather feedback on a potential minimum wage policy for employers in the City of Minneapolis.
The City Council has directed City staff to present minimum wage policy recommendations mid-year after doing additional research and community engagement on the topic. The listening sessions will be an opportunity for community stakeholders to share viewpoints on how a change in the minimum wage would impact them.
Coordinated by our partner organization, CTUL. For more information about CTUL, please visit: http://ctul.net/
On January 20, Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, janitors who clean Home Depot stores in the Twin Cities will go on strike against their cleaning contractor to protest their poverty wages and Donald Trump’s anti-worker agenda – the first strike against Donald Trump in the country since his election.
The two founders of Home Depot have donated millions of dollars to Trump and one of Home Depot’s major investors supports Trump. Home Depot uses the Trump model of business for its janitorial services: using subcontractors that hire immigrant workers and sometimes face lawsuits for wage theft.
Janitors who clean Home Depot are paid poverty wages by their subcontractor and have been organizing for years to win fair wages and the right to form a union without retaliation. If Trump has his way, these worker’s wages will go even lower – as Trump told the country in November 2016, “wages are too high.”
You can stand with striking janitors at 5:30am at The Quarry, 1520 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55413.… Continue reading »
Come help us flip the House in November by phonebanking with J4A!
Join us for a phone bank for Take Action-endorsed candidate’s Dan Wolgamott, Zachary Dorholt, and Abdi Daisane! On October 16th we are encouraging PCA’s, home health workers, and their allies to join us for a door knock as we support the candidates who support care providers!
Join us for a phone bank for Take Action-endorsed candidate’s Dan Wolgamott, Zachary Dorholt, and Abdi Daisane! On October 16th we are encouraging PCA’s, home health workers, and their allies to join us for a door knock as we support the candidates who support care providers!
Join us for a door knock for Take Action-endorsed candidate’s Dan Wolgamott, Zachary Dorholt, and Abdi Daisane! On October 15th we are encouraging PCA’s, home health workers, and their allies to join us for a door knock as we support the candidates who support care providers!
On Sunday October 2nd, join Take Action Minnesota’s endorsed candidates Dan Wolgamott (State Senate) Zachary Dorholt (State House) and Abdi Daisane (City Council At Large) for a Sunday brunch and door knock!
Register by clicking here.… Continue reading »
Come help us flip the House in November by dooorknocking with J4A!
Come help us flip the House in November by dooorknocking with J4A!
St. Paul became the second city in Minnesota to mandate that most employers offer their workers paid sick leave with a vote by the city council Wednesday.
To heavy applause, the St. Paul City Council voted 7-0 on to approve an “earned sick and safe time” mandate that will extend to most workplaces in the city.
Estimates vary, but advocates believe some 64,000 to 72,000 workers could be affected by the new mandate.
The ordinance, which takes effect July 1, 2017, requires employers to allot their workers an hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 80 hours in a two-year period.
That time can be used to care for a sick family member or in the case of domestic assault or stalking. State and federal employers are exempt. Unlike Minneapolis, which passed a similar ordinance in May, the St. Paul rules do not exempt “micro” businesses with fewer than six employees.
Advocates called the St. Paul ordinance the strongest in the country.
“It is a win for Minnesota that means the drumbeat for statewide and, ultimately, nationwide standards grows even stronger,” said the National Partnership for Women and Families, a national advocacy organization, in a written statement.… Continue reading »
Driven by the leadership of workers and their families, we were part of an incredible coalition that won paid sick time for more than 72,000 workers in Saint Paul! Now, all workers will be able to have up to 6 days of paid sick and safe time. And you know what, every single business will need to offer this for their workers – no exceptions.
As a black woman that’s helped lead this campaign and who comes from a low-income community that too often lacks access to paid sick time, this means so much to me. And I know I’m not alone. Because of this, I want to let you know how this win was possible.
Towards the end of our long and hard fight for paid sick time in Minneapolis, we jumped into this campaign led by our partners at ISAIAH.
Driven by the leadership of workers, and alongside a powerful coalition of partners like – ISAIAH, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC), Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) and many others – we worked hard to ensure that the Saint Paul City Council recognize the crisis that many, many workers in their city are living in without paid sick time.… Continue reading »
Join us for our monthly J4A Community Member Meeting. Building stronger community and voices in the fight for criminal justice reform to create a fair Minnesota.
This is a statement we’ve put together as the TakeAction staff.
This week, this month, and this year have been incredibly painful and challenging for our country. All of us here at TakeAction are grieving and shaking with rage.
We witnessed yet another set of murders of black men at the hands of the police – Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile, a beloved father who worked with children in St. Paul Public Schools, in Falcon Heights. In that same week, four Latinos faced a similar fate. This needs to end.
In Dallas, many people joined together for a peaceful day of action and came to an abrupt stop when a lone gunman targeted 11 police officers, killing five. We mourn for the families of these officers. This is a tragedy – for all of us – and it is not a reflection of those who stand up to police misconduct. And, we can’t let it stop the conversation we’re having as a country on the rights of Black community and other people of color.
Here’s where we’re at as the TakeAction community, a historically white organization that now has a growing presence and leadership of people of color: As people of color at TakeAction, we fear for our lives and wellbeing, questioning whether or not we and our loved ones will be safe – while continuing to lead work in each of our own communities.… Continue reading »
Minnesota business groups and Republican legislative leaders are pressing for a new state law as they try to undercut a growing number of cities adopting paid-leave regulations.
The issue is a newly emerging wrinkle in negotiations for a special legislative session, as Republicans have added it as a condition for returning to St. Paul to approve unfinished funding for transportation and construction projects.
“It’s a top priority for our members,” said Charlie Weaver, executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, which includes many of the state’s Fortune 500 companies. “It feels like they’re making it as difficult as they can for businesses large and small to do business in this state.”
The proposed statewide law would undo Minneapolis’ new regulations requiring companies to provide paid leave and thwart St. Paul as its leaders work toward a similar measure.
The effort puts business leaders squarely at odds with community advocates and labor activists, who have focused on passing these changes at the city level, along with more favorable overtime guidelines for workers and a higher minimum wage.
DFL Gov. Mark Dayton said the issue is too controversial to be dealt with in what is supposed to be a brief special session. He said he’d be open to considering the proposal next year, but only if it came with a guarantee of more paid leave for all state workers.… Continue reading »
Today, Robert Jackson has dreams as vibrant as his personality. And he’s making them happen. He’s been clean and sober since Oct. 15, 2014. With the help of RS EDEN’s rehabilitation program, Alliance Housing, and his recovery community, he’s got an unmistakable brightness in his eyes.
But he hasn’t always been so optimistic about his life journey. The jovial 51-year-old St. Paul native had an arguably normal childhood, attended both Augsburg College and the University of Minnesota, and by all accounts, was forging a path towards a successful life.
But life threw him a couple curve balls.
“I acquired a drug habit in 1988, which unfortunately sent me to prison,” Jackson said.
After a couple stints in prison, the Department of Corrections released him into the world with few resources.
“They paroled me to the Salvation Army because I had no address. No housing, no nothing.” He shrugs. “Basically, I was on my own. No help.”
“I couldn’t land a job because I had a criminal record. Then I couldn’t find housing because I had no money for deposits and I had a felony,” Jackson explained. “So I’ve been living with people, girlfriends and drug addicts, for the past 20 years, basically.”… Continue reading »
Join us for the next workshop of the Campaign Leadership School. Learn about our action centers, radical hospitality and roles for volunteers.
We did it! Driven by the leadership of workers, we won earned sick and safe time in Minneapolis for more than 123,000 people. From now on, all workers will be able to earn up to 6 days of paid sick and safe time. And they will be able to use them without being penalized for it. Join all of us in celebrating this victory by sharing this image! We’ve got to let the whole city know about it.
Minneapolis has joined 25 other cities across the country that’ve passed a similar policy and it’s the very first city in the Midwest to do so. Let’s revisit the work that happened to make this possible.
Last August, with workers in the front lines, we launched #MPLSWorks – an effort to raise standards for working families by passing policies like fair workweek, earned sick time, wage theft protections, and $15 an hour minimum wage.
The Workplace Partnership Group was established in October of 2015 and tasked to create recommendations for an earned sick and safe time ordinance. Liz Doyle, TakeAction Minnesota’s Associate Director, served as Chair and the Group made strong recommendations after hearing from thousands of workers and business owners. Because of a lot of grassroots organizing those recommendations are the backbone of the policy the City Council passed today!… Continue reading »
Duluth officials continue to hear from groups that would have the city bring paid sick leave to greater numbers of people who work in the city.
With Minneapolis about to rule on sick leave reform for its workers, and St. Paul possible to follow, Duluth finds itself in the eye of a special interest campaign aimed at policy change at the city government level.
On Tuesday, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and TakeAction Minnesota of Duluth released data analysis that showed while more than half of the workers in Duluth benefit from paid sick leave, nearly 20,000 workers (46 percent) are without the added benefit. Even Duluth’s 54 percent of workers with paid sick leave would fall short of a 2015 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found 65 percent of American workers received paid sick leave.
“We are aware of the interest for a citywide ordinance,” said Mayor Emily Larson in a statement released to the News Tribune on Tuesday. “This is an important communitywide issue needing a broader community conversation, and I welcome that opportunity in the coming months.”
While men and women in Duluth benefitted at the same 54 percent rate of access to paid sick benefits, low-income and part-time workers were the most likely to go unprotected, said the new report.… Continue reading »
For Immediate Release, Contact: Eric Fought, eric@takeactionminnesota.org, 612-223-4744
New Report Shows Nearly Half of Workers in Duluth Lack Access to Paid Sick Time
DULUTH, Minn. (May 24, 2016) — On Tuesday, TakeAction Minnesota and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) released a new analysis, detailing access rates to earned sick time in Duluth, Minnesota. The new report, which can be downloaded here, breaks data down by gender, occupation, and earnings level. Overall, the report concludes that across the Duluth workforce, forty-six percent lack access to even a single day of earned sick time off. Lack of access disproportionately affects low-wage, service-sector, and part-time workers in Duluth.
Jessica Milli, Study Director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, reviewed key findings from the analysis. The report provides an update and expansion of previous research conducted in 2014 by IWPR in Minnesota with the most recent data available and focuses specifically on the Duluth workforce.
Milli said, “The findings in Duluth follow the same patterns as those in other areas of Minnesota. Workers who are the most economically vulnerable in Duluth are the least likely to have access to paid sick leave.”
The analysis found that while fifty-four percent of Duluth workers currently have access to earned sick time benefits, access is not uniformly distributed across populations.… Continue reading »
For Immediate Release
Contact: Eric Fought, eric@takeactionminnesota.org, 612-223-4744
MINNEAPOLIS (May 19, 2016) — At a press conference on the steps of Minneapolis City Hall this morning, faith leaders from throughout Minneapolis representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions urged the City Council to pass the earned sick and safe time ordinance currently under consideration.
“There is a moral crisis facing our city,” said Pastor Laurie Eaton of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. “The City Council has the opportunity to lead the way in improving the health of workers, businesses and our community overall by passing the strongest earned sick and safe time ordinance possible. We join together today as people of faith to encourage the Council to take that bold step.”
A 2015 study found that 42% of workers in Minneapolis lacked access to paid sick time. Over the past year, workers, small business owners and community leaders came forward and shared their experience of the need to pass a strong safe and sick time ordinance. Through the process, compromise was reached among the diverse membership of the Workplace Partnership Group, leading to nearly unanimous support of the group’s final recommendations.
“Many of those who have testified before the City Council and who have told their story publicly come from my community, the Somali community in Minneapolis,” said Hassan Jama of the Islamic Association of North America.… Continue reading »
Minneapolis began considering a new mandatory sick leave proposal Thursday, after months of debate about expanding worker protections in the city.
The City Council officially introduced the proposed ordinance during a morning committee meeting. It would cover most employees who work at least 80 hours a year in the city, with exceptions for independent contractors and “casual workers” who are typically on call.
Employers would be required to offer an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours an employee worked, up to 48 hours a year, although they could offer more. The mandate would require employers to allow their workers to accrue up 80 hours of sick time.
The leave could be used for mental or physical illness, care or treatment, diagnosis, and preventive care. It also allows leave for victims of domestic abuse, sex assault or stalking.
“It’s just wonderful to see us get to this point, where we have such a balanced policy in front of us, and that we have the pieces in place to really make this successful,” said Ward 12 council member Andrew Johnson. “And I’m very excited about it and I look forward to the public hearing.”
The city has scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance on May 18, and a vote by the full council on May 27.… Continue reading »
