In the words of Meridel Le Seuer, we have appeared in the thunder of our solidarity.

“We Are Facing a Tsunami of Hate”: Amid ICE Crackdown, Unions and Community Groups Call for Minnesota Shutdown in 10 Days

Following the ICE murder of Renee Good and an assault on the state by federal immigration forces, a labor-community coalition is calling for residents to refuse to work, shop or go to school on January 23. This article is a joint publication with In These Times.

How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Chills Organizing and Erodes Conditions for All Workers

Upticks in immigration enforcement are consistently associated with increased minimum wage violations for all workers and more dangerous workplaces. And contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, research shows that crackdowns do not create jobs for US-born workers, but actually reduce them by removing people who make other jobs possible and by reducing local consumption. The armed federal agents descending on US communities are not targeting CEOs and business owners in Trump’s circles. They are going after day laborers, janitors, airport workers, and rideshare drivers, and the effects are felt throughout the working class. This article is a joint publication with The Nation.

Metro Transit Workers Rally at Bus Stop Where ICE Abduction Took Place, Demand ICE Not Interfere with Transit Operations

Dave Stiggers, president of ATU Local 1005, said that the current protocol allows Metro Transit bus drivers to refuse to open doors for anyone they may see as a threat to the safety of the driver or passengers. If ICE agents approach a bus, Metro Transit bus drivers have the right to not open the doors, as masked and armed agents without identification pose a safety risk both to the bus operator and passengers. “If it’s better for you to keep the door closed, keep the door closed,” Stiggers emphasized.

Minneapolis Teachers, Parents Denounce Federal Agents’ Assault at Roosevelt High, Demand ICE Leave

Only a few hours after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minneapolis resident and mother Renee Good on January 7, federal immigration enforcement agents descended onto Roosevelt High School property during school dismissal as students were exiting the building. MFE members say that ICE agents tackled and detained a school staff member and union member who was working at the time. The MFE member was released, according to a union spokesperson. The agents also deployed a chemical irritant against students and staff on school grounds, MFE says. A school official, speaking to MPR News on condition of anonymity, said many students sheltered in a nearby library.

“You’re There for the Kids”: Minnesota Childcare Worker Speaks Out Amid Disastrous Cuts

“Anyone who steps into a daycare or preschool, you will see the dedication of people, how much they give of themselves to do the job,” says Eleanor Titcomb, who works for Just in Time Teachers as a substitute preschool teacher for early childcare centers across the Twin Cities metro. She is worried about how federal cuts are going to affect the children she works with, and the workers who provide for them. “Many centers are barely hanging on as it is,” Titcomb says. “This would be detrimental. If CCAP is cut, and a parent or guardian is not able to afford childcare, you will have all of these ripple effects that go into every part of society that can be connected back to early education.”

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

We are so grateful for the workers and organizers we heard from this year, and we plan to continue this coverage next year. We picked out our favorite stories that we worked on in 2025, check them out below, after catching up on our latest.

Minnesota Labor Coalition Demands Disney Subcontractor Pay Incarcerated Workers Minimum Wage

Anagram, a subcontractor for Disney, pays prisoners as low as $0.90 per hour to package balloons in prisons across Minnesota. A coalition of formerly incarcerated workers and Minnesota unions are demanding they pay workers minimum wage.

“There Is a War Against Us”: Worker Leader, Released from ICE Custody, Speaks Out

Willian Giménez González is free, but he worries about thousands of others who were abducted from the Chicago area. This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times.

“No More Terrorizing Families”: Minnesota Workers Rally Against ICE Deportation Flights

Workers organizing with SEIU Local 26’s rideshare organizing committee have been demanding that the state-level agency that owns and operates the airport, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), provide adequate facilities for restrooms and prayer. Now, they are calling out the agency as well as various companies for operating deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Our top stories of 2025

Isa’s picks

“We Cannot Water Down Our Proposals Any More”: UMN Teamsters Go on Strike

The Teamsters strike was definitely an important one because it was so visible across campus in a way that felt like it really raised public consciousness of unions. And it seemed like so many students were in support of it too!

One Grocery Worker’s Fight to Defend What Matters Most

This is also one of my favorite stories because Ryan had such a powerful and heartbreaking story. Secondly, because it was one of the more important private sector threats to strike in Minnesota this year.

Amie’s picks

Three Times Workers Resisted Fascism in Minnesota History

This spring, I was tasked with finding historical examples of the labor movement organizing against fascism, and all the examples I found were based in Minnesota. These stories feel prescient as we continue to cover working people’s responses to fascist threats today.

Get on the Job and Organize with Inside Organizer School

A highlight of the year for me was getting to meet folks from the experimental labor organizing collective, the Inside Organizer School. It was especially amazing to learn from the organizers who launched the first successful Starbucks union campaign, just as Starbucks workers were beginning their first strike, which is ongoing and growing.

Sarah’s picks

They Worked Underground in the Uranium Mines. They’ve Been Surrounded by Death Ever Since.

I want to highlight the piece I wrote about the public health harms of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation, both for the people who work underground, and for the people who live in the area, and are exposed to pollution. I’m so grateful to my sources for trusting me with their stories, and making themselves available for multiple interviews. People like Leslie Begay, who worked in the mines without being informed of the dangers, and then developed lung disease, and had to get a double lung transplant to save his life. The people harmed by a perilous industry built disproportionately in Navajo territory deserve to be heard.

Visible and Invisible: How ICE Is Terrorizing Chicago’s Working Class

I also want to highlight my reporting on how the crackdown on immigrants is affecting Chicago’s working class. From house cleaners to day laborers to poultry processing workers, working people are being abducted, and forced to hide in their homes. Unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of this climate to mistreat workers and steal their wages. Much of the oppression workers are facing is invisible, coming in the form of missed income, or constant fear.

Thank you for reading. See you next year! Up, up with liberation!

After voting earlier on August 7 to authorize a strike during move-in week on campus, Teamsters Local 320 are now on rolling strikes against the University of Minnesota. The first one began Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. on the Crookston and Morris campuses. Then the strikes continued on Tuesday at 4:00 a.m. on the Duluth, Grand Rapids, Waseca, and Austin campuses, and Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. on Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.

Stay tuned for updates, read up on some of the allegations against management, and check out this op-ed in the Minnesota Daily written by some building and grounds workers.

“What is happening at Hennepin county?” Seven Senior Janitors Let Go With No Notice

The morning of September 8, janitors represented by SEIU local 26 held a press conference outside the building where they worked, then marched together into the facility, where they delivered a letter to the office of Building Management demanding the workers be reinstated.

What Does the Land Know? Ricardo Levins Morales on Art and Organizing

“We organize first and foremost, so we can live, and second of all so we can live well,” writes visual artist and organizer Ricardo Levins Morales in his first book, The Land Knows the Way: Eco-Social Insights for Liberation. It is an ambitious tome for the social movement organizers, activists, and artists of our time who are seeking to unite the global working class against the many interlocking, spiraling systems of oppression that are exploiting people and the planet.

What It Means When Federal Union Contracts Disappear

In this joint publication with The American Prospect, Sarah reports on deteriorating services, moms forced back from maternity leave, and more as federal workers lose formal union protections.

“Workers Over Billionaires” Rally at MSP Airport for Labor Day

Workers and community members rallied at MSP airport in support of workers and against the Trump administration’s attacks on working people.

How One Teamsters Local Is Striking to Protect Immigrant Workers

A joint publication with The American Prospect, read how one union wants bosses to turn away immigration authorities unless they show a signed judicial warrant.

Hormel Allegedly Stole Paid Sick Leave Benefit From Meatpacking Workers

A landmark sick leave law passed in 2023 is paying dividends for Minnesota workers. But now, workers are alleging that Hormel refused to comply.

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

Read this piece, co-published with In These Times, on how Trump is setting up a protection racket to expand corporate power around the world.

Minneapolis Celebrates 50 Years of International Sex Workers’ Day

Minneapolis sex workers and allies dance in the streets to honor organizing within their sector.

University of Minnesota Food Service Workers Allege Discrimination and Abuse

The union says the labor relations system is in shambles, and low-wage employees are subject to severe mistreatment.

Jennifer Abruzzo Wants Workers to Fight Back

Read our exclusive conversation with the former head of the NLRB covering everything from protesting about Gaza in the workplace to taking on multinational companies challenging the constitutionality of the NLRA:

“I do feel that this is a moment and an opportunity for workers to speak up and out about their pain points and their issues at this moment in time, and to seek accountability and to go and seek support from the court of public opinion, and to use their power to withhold labor, if that’s what it takes for them to be heard and for changes to be made that’s going to inure the benefit of them and their families and the communities."

Grocery Workers VS Goliath

Kroger and Albertsons tried to merge and union organizing stopped them. But the fight for grocery workers is just beginning. This article was co-published with In These Times, and the illustrations were made by Rachelle Baker!

No Wheat, Milk, Rice, Medicines: How the U.S. and Israel Are Starving Yemen

Read this piece, co-published with In These Times, on the Trump administration’s announcement of a truce with the Houthi rebels on May 6, after the United States had already bombed critical infrastructure for importing food and fuel.

One Grocery Worker’s Fight to Defend What Matters Most

Ryan Christensen is a 52-year-old grocery worker for Lunds & Byerlys, where he has been for 38 years. His wife has been battling cancer, and he’s battling for improved working conditions—and to build power for the next contract fight.

“For the Workers, Not the Billionaires”: Minnesota’s May Day Actions

We covered the week of action held by Minnesota’s labor and immigrants rights movements. A quote from AFA-CWA international president Sara Nelson:

“Talking about a general strike is really talking about helping people understand the power we have together. I’m talking about it very forcefully. We’re preparing for it.”

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

Specialty contractors and labor brokers are among the participants reducing their own labor costs by burdening workers unfairly.

University of Minnesota Unions Say University is Capitulating to Trump Admin, Rally Against Detention of International Student

On March 31, workers, students, and allies rallied together on the steps of Johnston Hall, which contains the office of the University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham’s, to protest what they criticize as the University’s failure to forcefully object to ICE’s recent abduction of a graduate student, and an onslaught of University policies limiting the freedom of speech across campus.

Three Times Workers Resisted Fascism in Minnesota History

Historical examples of workers resisting the oligarchical forces of fascism and authoritarianism.

Postal Workers Rally Against Trump’s Proposed Privatization of the Postal Service

“Public sectors are the frontline, they will go after private sectors next,” said Tyler Vasseur, a postal worker with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Branch 9.

U.S. Postal Service workers with local branches of the National Association of Letter Carriers rallied at the Minnesota State Capitol on March 23, along with hundreds of community allies, Minnesota unions, and politicians to demand a strong contract—and oppose the Trump administration’s recent threats to privatize the postal service and reduce services.

“One Job Should Be Enough”: How 9,000 Grocery Workers Are Banding Together in Minnesota

“People just want to be able to afford to live. One job should be enough to do that,” said Monica Duque, a Cub Foods worker and UFCW Local 663 member. Duque is one of around 9,000 Minnesota grocery workers whose union contracts with 14 different companies expired in early March. Coordinated negotiations with seven employers is ongoing, and UFCW 663 is doing open bargaining, issuing broad appeals to the membership to show up for sessions.

How Healthcare Workers Are Defending Their Transgender Patients from Trump’s Attacks

Healthcare workers across the United States are mobilizing to support the young transgender and gender-diverse patients they care for, as the Trump administration unleashes a flurry of executive orders, and political attacks, aimed at limiting this population’s ability to exist openly in the world.

What Medicaid Cuts Would Mean for Disabled People and Homecare Workers

Medicaid recipients worry that cuts will take the form of disqualifying them from receiving coverage or cutting down the amount of home healthcare hours they are allotted in order to live, forcing them into nursing care facilities or impacting their ability to live independently in their own homes.

“Home healthcare is crucial to my autonomy and ability to independently live a dignified life,” said Kyle Murphy, a 32-year-old disabled man living in Aurora, Ill. in an interview with Workday Magazine.

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

Rank-and-file union members led by the St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28 are preparing to confront the policies targeting their workplaces and communities.

Starbucks Unions’ Christmas Eve Strikes Inspire Two More Minnesota Stores to Unionize

Read why workers are kicking off two new Starbucks union drives. St. Cloud workers will vote on Tuesday, February 25, and Roseville workers on Thursday, March 6.

“Don’t Open the Door”: How Chicago Is Frustrating ICE’s Campaign of Fear

In partnership with In These Times, Sarah wrote about how months of know-your-rights work has Trump’s border czar complaining. Read the Spanish language version here.

Why Delta Air Lines Workers Are Fighting for a Union

Aircraft accidents, software outages, and a global pandemic are just some of the events that airline workers have been on the front lines for in recent years. Daily working conditions are also impacting them and their families. They say the movement to fully unionize the industry with a push to organize at Delta Air Lines is closer than ever.

Political Philosopher Explains How Being a Corporate Boss Is the Perfect Training Ground for Authoritarian Rule

Sarah interviewed Elizabeth Anderson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and author of Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk About It) on how bosses exert dictatorial control over workplaces and how this shaped Musk’s role today.

TODAY: YOU BETCHA! FARMER-LABOR SOLIDARITY IS POSSIBLE, Art and History exhibit opening

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the Farmer-Labor Party and the remarkable movement of solidarity that supported it. In honor of this centennial celebration and in partnership with Monument Lab’s Re-Generation initiative, the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC) commissioned Gita Ghei to create a permanent traveling sculpture, commemorating the Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota. She and her team engaged with people throughout the state to inform permanent art that commemorates this important history in a whimsical artwork!

Tuesday, February 25: Rise Together to End Slavery in MN

Join the Labor Education Service and Minnesota Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee for food, fun, and stories of labor behind prison walls in Minnesota, and what you can do to end the practice of legal slavery in our state.

RSVP for this free event here.

February 27 & 28: Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass

On February 27, join Sarah Jones and Sarah Lazare in conversation at Haymarket House in Chicago around Jones' new book Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass.

Sarah Jones will be in Minneapolis the following day on February 28, for a book event at Milkweed Books. I’ll be there!

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

“The goal is to go from a state of fear to a state of action,” says Laura Garza, executive director of workers’ rights organization Arise Chicago, in Sarah’s new story, How Labor Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda, published in collaboration with Labor Notes. Sarah and Natascha also worked on a story with specific suggestions for contract language here.

Sarah also collaborated with The American Prospect in her latest on restrictive covenants in the building services industry: After Building Service Workers Mobilize, FTC Stops Secret No-Hire Agreements. She has been covering this incredible organizing for almost two years!

“We all have a role to play.”

Workers at the Guthrie Theater who unionized with IATSE Local 13 are headed into bargaining next week. Check out Isa’s latest story: Guthrie Theater’s Front-of-House Workers Fight for a First Contract.

Healthcare workers in Deer River are holding the picket line

After publishing Minnesota Healthcare Workers in Deer River Continue Historic Strike, we learned that healthcare workers with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa are going back to the bargaining table with their employer, Essentia Health, next week. On Wednesday they held an informational picket in Duluth, and as of today, are on day 40!

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

It’s been a while since Up With the Workers has been in your inbox. What a year 2024 was! If you’re a newer subscriber—welcome! This newsletter is from Workday Magazine, a publication of the Labor Education Service. We’re based in Minnesota and we cover labor news in Minnesota and Midwest states, along with national and international issues that affect workers, like climate change and U.S. militarism.

If you’ve been a subscriber, thank you! We’ve learned a lot about worker power and the labor movement this year. Right now, as workers have been taking collective action against some of the most powerful corporations during the holiday season and ahead of an incoming federal administration set on being hostile to workers and worker protections, we expect a lot of changes ahead. Please let us know what you want to see from us in 2025! But for now, some expression of gratitude for the work we were able to do in 2024.

Before we recap, here’s some information about an upcoming class on January 15 from 3-4:30pm with Workday Magazine editor Sarah Lazare and SEIU Local 26.

Subcontracted workers are some of the most highly exploited workers in our society, a reality that is enabled by a matrix of laws and structures that keep them isolated and vulnerable. We will look at secretive—and widespread—contractual provisions that are frequently used to keep these workers down, and we’ll examine how workers are fighting back.

This class might interest you if:

• You're a temp or contracted worker, or you organize alongside such workers.

• You're a union researcher who wants to learn more about contracts in childcare, building management, and temp agency fields.

• You're a member of a union that is trying to organize contracted workers.

This class is online. You can register here, and there is also a free option.

Thank you for another year of covering worker stories.

It is a privilege and an honor to be covering workers and their stories and struggles. Check out some of the stories we found most impactful from 2024.

Over the summer, Isa and Amie worked on the Greater Minnesota Worker Listening Project, a profile series on union and non-union workers in Greater Minnesota and other rural communities. We profiled seven workers and organizers that live and work outside of the Twin Cities Metro area.

Other notables from Amie include Minnesota’s labor spring in March when thousands of union members and a broad coalition of community groups banded together to demand better contracts, quality schools, housing and a livable planet: Across Industries, Minnesota Workers Are Harnessing Their Collective Power (co-published with In These Times). Also, a review of Sarah Jaffe’s new book, From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire.

Sarah investigated how private equity firms are taking over a vital sign language service for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing—and then using their market dominance to bust unions and erode the quality of services. She also wrote about a bold call by some leaders in the U.S. labor movement, including the United Auto Workers and the Chicago Teachers Union, for mass coordinated contract expirations on May Day, 2028, which could set the groundwork for simultaneous strikes. And she wrote a series of articles about the UAW fight in Belvidere, Illinois to use the power of a union to save their idled Stellantis plant.

More 2024 labor coverage

• Workday Magazine collaborated with Unicorn Riot on a video story commemorating the 90th anniversary picnic of the 1934 truckers’ strike in Minneapolis.

• State of the U.S. Unions 2024 from Eric Dirnbach

• Union president explains the existential threat Trump poses to organized labor—and how we fight back from The Real News Podcast

• Rideshare drivers say they’re still waiting for a pay bump after new Minnesota law goes into effect from Sahan Journal

• Labor unions are making unprecedented calls for a ceasefire in Gaza from Prism

A HUGE thank you…

…to our readers who read and share our stories. We always want to hear from you, whether it’s your appreciation, feedback, or story ideas.

…to our sources, the workers and organizers who spent time in conversation with us, answering our questions, connecting us with others, and sharing information with us. We couldn’t do this work without you!

…to the publishing partners who we’ve co-published stories with: In These Times, The Real News, The Nation, The American Prospect, and Truthout.

Shout out to the Movement Media Alliance, a new coalition of grassroots-aligned, social justice-driven journalism organizations.

More highlights from 2024

Attending the Labor Notes conference in Chicago! Isa moderated a panel and we got to meet so many folks and learn about labor history.

Our favorite local labor historian Peter Rachleff wrote about the new mural in the North Loop memorializing the Minneapolis Teamsters Truckers strike of 1934.

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

Isa has been holding down the fort at Workday Magazine while I’ve been on a study abroad trip in Europe–more on that later. 

Check out her latest stories below, and some highlights, info for Youth @ Work, and more!

How PELRA Reform has Opened the Door to New Organizing for Over 23,000 Workers at UMN

This legislative season, university workers won reform to the Public Employer Labor Relations Act (PELRA) that enables over 23,000 workers to organize into unions across the University of Minnesota (including me and Isa, who are employees of the U!)

Read more about it here: “There Has Never Been a Better Time to Organize”: How PELRA Reform has Opened the Door to New Organizing for Over 23,000 Workers at UMN.

Isa also covered the fourth annual Dancing in the Streets, held by Minneapolis sex workers and allies in early June, to commemorate International Whores Day and demand workers protections and the decriminalization of sex work. Check it out here: The 4th Annual “Dancing in the Streets” with Minneapolis Sex Workers.

1934 & Now

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the strike that made Minneapolis a union town.

If you’re making a visit to Minneapolis Central Library anytime soon, be sure to stop by the art show commemorating the Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike of 1934, organized by Remember 1934.

Each artist beautifully engaged with different aspects of the history and its legacy today: solidarity on the picket lines, capitalist greed and exploitation, fascist violence, dissent on the streets of Minnesota today, and more. Carolyn Olson, who I interviewed back in the summer of 2022 about her essential worker portrait series, painted scenes from the strike commemorating the labor of women. And Olivia Levins Holden commemorates the intersection of movements and solidarity, including the labor of truckers delivering aid to Gaza.

Another exciting part of the show is the work of Drew Peterson from Juxtaposition Arts in leading a team of ten youth artists on the installation of a mural in the North Loop of Minneapolis where the strike took place. Currently, there’s a plaque commemorating the events of Bloody Friday that Remember 1934 worked to put up in 2015.

📅 More 1934 & Now events:

This Sunday, June 23, East Side Freedom Library is screening films related to labor history and contemporary issues from 1-4pm.

On July 20, there will be a memorial wreath laying at the site of Bloody Friday at 4pm.

ESFL is also hosting a film screening and discussion on July 26.

There will be a 90th anniversary picnic on July 27 at noon at Wabun Picnic Area. We hope to see you there!

Youth @ Work

Know any high school/GED students who would like to get paid for learning about their rights at work? Attend this class on Saturday, July 13 by the Labor Education Service, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO. For information and registration call 612-625-2394 or email williac@umn.edu.

Study abroad highlights

For three weeks, I stayed in London as part of a study abroad course where I learned about the United Kingdom and Brexit. Every day we had field trips or lectures where we learned about economics, the history of global trade, and the British empire, with a bit of working class and social justice organizing history. We went on a lot of walking tours through the city of London, but a highlight for me was our visit to the Museum of London Docklands at the Canary Wharf, a social history museum that included an exhibit on the history of sugar, the slave trade and abolition. Another highlight was a day trip to Brussels, Belgium, where we visited the European Union Parliament building just before they held an election, in which far-right parties made some gains.

Thank you for reading. Up, up with liberation!

Check out our latest story below, and some highlights and recent news.

Supporting children means supporting childcare workers

On Monday, May 13, five childcare centers on the Iron Range serving over 300 children will shut down as part of a nationwide Day Without Childcare. They will hold a press conference in Mountain Iron, then travel to St. Paul to join other childcare providers and workers from across Minnesota.

Amanda Maass is a childcare provider and involved with Kids Count On Us, a worker center dedicated to worker organizing and legislative protections for the essential workers. Isa’s interview with her is the first story in a new series we are calling the Greater Minnesota Listening Project: Iron Range Daycare Worker on Organizing for Better Care for Children.

#KnowYourRights

As reports of the discovery of mass graves in Gaza made recent headlines, nine student activists, including a member of AFSCME 3800, were arrested for “trespassing” on public land as part of a protest movement that swept across U.S. universities. Since then, the student solidarity movement has grown, and students are demanding divestment from and a ban of weapons companies on the University of Minnesota campus. The university sent a statement Thursday morning in response to the demands after meeting with student representatives. The students are continuing to put pressure on the Regents after the university disclosed its investments in companies based in or doing business with Israel.

Clerical workers at the university with AFSCME 3800 put out a statement condemning the arrests. The Grad Labor Union-UE 1105 and Teamsters 320 put out a joint statement in response to building closures affecting workers. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota released a statement from executive director Deepinder Mayell: 

“Students and faculty at public universities who express political opinions, criticize foreign governments, or speak out in favor of any cause or movement have a First Amendment right to express themselves.”

Immigrant rights are workers rights

On May 1, workers and community members from over 40 organizations and unions marched down Lake Street in South Minneapolis in celebration of May Day, a day for expressing solidarity with working class movements across the globe. Read about the origins of the holiday, which are rooted in police brutality of protest, here. 

At the march, it was also announced that the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59 ESP chapter filed their ten-day strike notice, and less than 24 hours later they reached a tentative agreement. Teachers in Lakeville, Minn., also filed their intent to strike on April 30 before reaching a tentative agreement on May 6.

#LaborNotes2024

Speaking of May Day, one of my highlights from the Labor Notes conference was a tour of Chicago labor history. My personal favorite was the Haymarket Martyrs Monument at the Forest Home Cemetery, commemorating the lives lost and origins of the international holiday. I also enjoyed the Packingtown Museum in The Plant, a former meatpacking factory that is now a collaborative research center for small, local food businesses.

Check out more highlights below.

Isa from Workday Magazine facilitated a panel on some of the big contract battles of 2024, which included stories from the flight attendants who have authorized national strikes with AFA, workers at the University of California pushing for better pay and working conditions with CWA, and film and TV crew members with IATSE.

Thank you to everyone who stopped at our Labor Education Service table! It was so good to see a solid presence of labor educators from all over the U.S. 

Workers rallied for Palestine outside of the hotel Friday night, where some were arrested and released a few hours later. They continued to display their solidarity during panel discussions and speeches throughout the weekend.

Community classes

If they’re not on your radar yet, the Labor Education Service has some community classes coming up. One is on earned sick and safe time scheduled for May 14, and the other is on the history of the “right to work” for May 29. Be sure to register!

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more. Up, up with liberation!

ICYMI: Thousands of essential workers and community members took to the streets, city council, and state capitol in support of striking workers and social demands, including better union contracts, a labor standards advisory board, social housing, environmental sustainability, and better schools. By the end of the week, three more locals reached tentative agreements or voted to accept contracts, and many workers got lessons in leadership and solidarity. Read our story, co-published with In These Times: Minnesota’s Labor Spring Has Arrived. Here’s What’s Going Down.

We were very excited to co-publish Sarah Jaffe, who wrote an in-depth piece on the strategic alignment for In These Times and Workday Magazine here: The Most Important Labor Story Right Now Is in Minnesota—It Might Be the Model We All Need. Read the Spanish version here.

Isabela’s Q&A with longtime Labor Education Service media coordinator and overall legend John See is a treasure. His work reflects how the labor movement has weathered changes in politics and technology, including a business-oriented media landscape, and how media can serve as a public good when there are people doing the work to make it more accessible: An Interview with John See: Labor Historian and Video Innovator on Nearly 40 Years of Service to the Minnesota Labor Movement. Stay tuned for information about the digital archive!

“Whenever someone is being oppressed, we should stand with them.” 

Sarah’s piece on The Auto Workers Who Stand with Gaza includes an interview with UAW member Marcie Pedraza, who tells the story of how she introduced a cease-fire resolution which her union local voted to pass.

Before you leave, here’s the poem from which our signature comes from, “Paul Robeson” by Gwendolyn Brooks in case you haven’t read it in a while…

That time
we all heard it,
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning, in music-words
devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.

Thank you for reading! We are each other’s harvest.

Happy new year, friends!

As we ease back into the flow of the new year following our holiday break, we’re still reflecting on our favorite stories from 2023. We’re excited for another year of covering workers’ wins and struggles. Let us know what we should cover in 2024!

In the meantime, check out my latest conversation with the former president of the clerical workers union at the University of Minnesota, Cherrene Horazuk, where we talk about her activism journey and next steps: “We Do the Behind-the-Scenes Work”: What it Takes to Lead a Union of Clerical Workers.

Next up in our Minnesota Labor Spring series

Sarah spoke with Elbida Gomez, mother of two who works cleaning the Woodbury, Minn., location of Cabela’s. Gomez is a member of SEIU Local 26 who is fighting for a new contract, including paid sick days and holidays.

Read the story co-published with In These Times: They Clean After Holiday Shoppers. But They Don’t Get to Celebrate with their Families. And read more about the summit here.

📅 Join us next Tuesday!

On Tuesday, January 9th, 2024: 6pm EST, 5pm CST, 3pm PST, join Workday Magazine and Bargaining for The Common Good, In These Times, The Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, The Action Center on Race and The Economy, The Kalmanovitz Initiative and other partners for a webinar featuring labor and community leaders from across the labor movement, including:

• Greg Nammacher, President of SEIU Local 26

• Jennifer Arnold, Co-Director of Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia 

• Veronica Mendez Moore, Co-Director of CTUL 

• Marcia Howard, First Vice President of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals

• JaNaé Bates, Director of Communications of ISAIAH

Minnesota has inspired workers and communities across the country by building powerful union and community alignments that can win big at the bargaining table, in the community, and in the legislature.  Our speakers will give us an insider’s look at what it took to build this alignment over the last few decades, and what’s possible in this spring’s escalation. 

Register here.

See you Tuesday! We are each other’s harvest.

“The world depends on us, on our labor. And we have the right to decide what kind of world it’s going to be.”

As we enter 2024, I reflect on this quote from the late Leo Robinson, Black longshoreman and leader in the ILWU, who played a key role in organizing Local 10’s 1984 boycott of goods shipped from apartheid South Africa. 

We face a world beset with cruel injustice, from the harms of human-made climate change to mass displacement crises in Congo and Sudan to the horrific treatment of migrants and refugees here in the United States to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has killed 20,000 Palestinians. 

US workers, themselves, are under attack, facing historically low union density, the fissuring of workplaces, aggressive union busting campaigns, and soaring inequality. 

But at the same time, workers are ascendant: In the United States, union enthusiasm is surging, as are rank-and-file union movements for militancy and democracy. It’s no coincidence that the UAW, now helmed by reform challenger Shawn Fain, not only won significant gains in its strike against the ‘Big Three’ Automakers, but is also making plans to organize plants across the country, and now speaking out in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. This union is joined by growing numbers of working people in the United States who oppose Israel’s bloodshed, with more and more unions (though not all) demanding a ceasefire, their members and elected officers issuing statements, taking to the streets, and lobbying elected officials.

In Minnesota, we are seeing a cross-sectoral campaign to win broad social demands, backed by 13 unions, workers’ centers, and community groups, which is expected to escalate this spring. And there are plenty of other contract battles ahead. The struggle for workers to “decide what kind of world it’s going to be” is being waged on Amazon warehouse floors and in UPS trucks, on auto assembly lines and construction sites, in hospitals and grocery stores, in the informal economy and among incarcerated laborers, among the unemployed and excluded. 

At Workday Magazine, we try to remain sober about the challenges and overwhelming power these workers are up against, while holding on to the hope that comes with collective organizing. We strive to take both a hyper-local and international view, focusing on Minnesota and the Midwest, but also the world, premised on the principle that all worker struggles are important, regardless of where those workers happen to live or be from.

Amid a changing climate, and brutal violence enacted by our government, workers are fighting to bring into being a different vision of how the world could be, an effort that is often messy, not always unified, but nonetheless contains the hope of humanity. Here are our favorite 10 stories from 2023 that we think highlight both the stakes, and the aspirations, of this struggle.

1. “What Could We Win Together?” Labor in Minnesota Gears up for a Major Escalation

With a string of contracts expiring in the new year, Minnesota unions and community groups are gathering to unite around a strategy for a cleaner environment and better jobs, housing and schools.

By Isabela Escalona and Amie Stager

2. This Union Is Famous for Opposing South African Apartheid. Now It’s Standing With Gaza.

In 1984, ILWU Local 10 refused to unload goods shipped from South Africa. Today it’s demanding a cease-fire.

By Sarah Lazare

3. Delayed Care, Stolen Wages: The Human Cost of Worker Misclassification

Misclassification of workers may sound like a clerical error. But in the construction industry, it can lead to wage theft, intimidation, and delayed treatment for workplace injuries.

By Isabela Escalona

4. High Injury Rates Push Minnesota’s Amazon Workers to Organize for Safety

Workers are concerned about soaring rates of injury, high productivity quotas, incoherent policies, and a sudden warehouse closure.

By Isabela Escalona

5. How Biden Can End Secretive Corporate Tribunals

The president has promised not to put anti-democratic investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in future trade deals. But they are still in many existing ones.

By Sarah Lazare

6. “We Can’t Eat Prestige”: Inside the Unionization of the Science Museum of Minnesota

The NLRB recently reinstated six workers at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Workers say the museum is still breaking labor law and failing to bargain in good faith.

By Amie Stager

7. Minnesota Women Labor Journalists Uplifted Working People for Decades

Was objectivity really a historical norm? Not for these pioneering labor journalists and advocates.

By Amie Stager

8. Master Lock closes its plant in Milwaukee after 100 years

A short documentary covering the closure of the Master Lock factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, centering the stories of two long-time employees and why the union job was important for them and their community.

By Isabela Escalona

9. The Filthy Emissions of Railroad Locomotives—and the Rail Unions Sounding the Alarm

Diesel engines have gotten a sweetheart deal from environmental regulators. It’s time that changed.

By Sarah Lazare

10. They Sacrificed to Survive Bankruptcy. They Worked Through A Pandemic. Now, Autoworkers Have Had Enough.

“I want to see them return what they promised to the workers that saved the company,” says a striking Stellantis worker in Minnesota.

By Amie Stager

(Big thanks to our publishing partners—In These Times, The Real News Network, The Nation, The American Prospect, and Minnesota Women’s Press—for collaborating on these stories.)

Thank you for 2023! We are each other’s harvest.

Giving thanks should be a year-round practice. I wanted to express my own gratitude to the workers whose stories we’ve covered this past year at Workday Magazine and with our publishing partners, and to my coworkers at the Labor Education Service whose work and passion for talking to working people and challenging injustice inspires me every single day. It’s been a whole year since we relaunched! Time flies.

Thank you to our readers from me and the team at Workday Magazine and LES, for the conversation, friendship, and solidarity through all kinds of struggle. I know holidays can be a stressful time, on top of stressful news.

Since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, the Israeli military’s violence against Palestinian civilians has made life even more unbearable for many. Alongside our community members, we are mourning the killing of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and overwhelming targeting of civilian infrastructure—including hospitals and homes—in Gaza, antisemitic and Islamophobic speech and actions, and retaliation against those who are speaking out in advocacy, including the journalists in Gaza whose work has put them and their families at incredible risk. Here are some resources for building solidarity with workers in Palestine.

You can also read and share Sarah’s recent coverage of the labor movement’s solidarity with Palestinian civilians, trade unions, and workers, in collaboration with our publishing partners.

In This Union Is Famous for Opposing South African Apartheid. Now It’s Standing With Gaza, Larry Wright, a retired dockworker, speaks on a resolution passed in support of Gaza and the history of his union’s struggle against worker exploitation under imperialism and colonialism.

More from Sarah and Jeff Schurke at In These Times on The U.S. Labor Voices Opposing Military Aid to Israel. On Friday, the United Auto Workers also announced their endorsement of a cease-fire.

“All we want to do is work in an environment that doesn’t feel actively dangerous.”

Remember the nurses who were “drowning” due to understaffing this summer? They’re still drowning. Nurses at Ascension St. Joseph in Joliet, Ill., went on strike during the holiday week in order to get their employer to raise wages and stop committing unfair labor practices and staffing the hospital dangerously low. Read more in: “We Won’t Let Them Destroy Us”: Nurses at Illinois Hospital Strike Over Thanksgiving Week.

Victory for First Ave workers!

ICYMI, Isa reported on the coalitional organizing that led to the voluntary recognition of the new union at Minneapolis’s legendary music venue: First Avenue Workers’ Victory: Another Win for Union and Worker Center Collaborations.

New report shines light on worker exploitation in Minnesota’s affordable housing industry.

A new report claims Minnesota’s affordable housing developers receive millions in public funds while working with subcontractors with problematic records of worker exploitation. At least $84 million in Minnesota state and municipal funds earmarked for affordable housing projects have gone to contractors with records or accusations of worker exploitation. Read Isa’s review on the report’s findings.

Was objectivity really a historical norm? Not for these pioneering labor journalists and advocates.

In collaboration with Minnesota Women’s Press for the December Changemakers issue, I wrote about a few journalists throughout Minnesota history whose work transgressed gender norms and traditional notions about journalistic objectivity, and what learning about their lives and work has meant to me.

I am so thankful to get to talk to working people all the time, and to work with amazing people who also love doing this. Thank you for reading, for your work and your solidarity.

In March 2024, after more than 100 years of operation, Master Lock will be shutting the factory down. The closure will result in 400 lost union jobs, and also mark the end of a former industrial region of the city that once housed some 50 plants.

In collaboration with The Real News and In These Times, Workday Magazine’s senior associate editor Isabela Escalona talked with two workers, Sara Morris and Susan Thomas-Hall, about how the plant’s closure is affecting them and their community.

The story and transcript are available here.

Thank you for watching. We are each other’s harvest.

You can!

Whether you’re creating a video on a picket line, an informational TikTok for a campaign, or sharing a member’s story, video is an important part of storytelling for labor and community organizing.

In this session we will go over how to plan a video, how to produce a video with everyday equipment, how to capture a powerful interview and b-roll footage, editing, and ways to promote a video once it is produced. This class is best for beginners.

Join us to learn about video production! And please share with your friends, colleagues, and community.

Date & Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:00pm-4:00pm CT 
Facilitators: Isabela Escalona

Register here!

Check out more of the community classes offered by the Labor Education Service, including grievance handling & arbitrability by LES director Amy Livingston!

Thanks for reading, please share, and we hope to see you there!

“Unions make sense in other industries, but not mine.”

“Unions are a third party, an outside force.”

These tropes are pervasive in our media, communities, and workplaces, and they are commonly used to erode support for organized labor. However, they are easily debunked, and the process of critically deconstructing them can shed light onto why unions are so important. Let’s examine these anti-union talking points, look at how they play out in public discourse, and break down why they’re misguided.

Join Workday Magazine editor, Sarah Lazare, who is co-teaching a virtual class on anti-union talking points with Adam Johnson, media critic and co-host of the Citations Needed podcast. And please share with your friends, colleagues, and community!

Date & Time: Wednesday, November 8, 3:00pm-4:30pm CT 
Facilitators: Sarah Lazare, editor of Workday Magazine and labor educator with the Labor Education Service. Adam Johnson, media critic and co-host of the Citations Needed podcast. 

Register here!

Check out more of the community classes offered by the Labor Education Service, including one on Thursday led by Workday Magazine’s senior associate editor Isabela Escalona on video production for organizers.

Thanks for reading, please share, and we hope to see you there!

With a string of contracts expiring in the new year, Minnesota unions and community groups are gathering to unite around a strategy for a cleaner environment and better jobs, housing and schools.

They took a big step in October, when they met at the Marriott hotel at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. for a giant strategy and solidarity session.

Read our story: “What Could We Win Together?” Labor in Minnesota Gears up for a Major Escalation.

Many thanks to the folks at In These Times for collaborating on this coverage! Check out their version here, and stay tuned.

UAW reaches tentative agreements for auto workers at the Big Three

After six weeks of the “stand up” strike, the UAW has reached tentative agreements with each of the Big Three automakers, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, within the span of a few days, winning some major gains on pay and tiers. 

Notably, the tentative agreements with Ford and Stellantis give workers the right to strike over plant closures. Some of the workers at the Mopar Parts Distribution Center in Plymouth, Minn. that went on strike were sent there after the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Belvidere, Ill., was idled, which Stellantis has agreed to reopen. 

Catch up on our recent coverage below about the historic strike by auto workers in collaboration with our publishing partners at In These Times and The Nation.

• UAW’s “Element of Surprise” Strike Appears to Be Working

• “Your Body Suffers”: The Unremarkable Pain of an Auto-Assembly-Line Worker

• Stop Letting Auto Companies Pit Workers Against the Environment

• They Sacrificed to Survive Bankruptcy. They Worked Through A Pandemic. Now, Autoworkers Have Had Enough.

• Wisconsin Autoworkers Are Bundling Firewood for a Winter Picket Line

• Stop Letting Auto Companies Pit Workers Against the Environment

• Republicans Are Using Anti-China Rhetoric to Undercut Striking UAW Workers’ Demands

Connect with us over on Instagram!

Solidarity forever. We are each other’s harvest.

Sarah’s latest report in partnership with In These Times is from a rally in Chicago where Ford workers gathered in anger, pride, and hope for a strong contract ahead of the current contract’s expiration at midnight on Thursday, leading to a potential strike at Ford, Stellantis, and GM.

Why Do We Let Our Bosses Control Our Health Care?

In the past few years, the rate of Minnesota’s uninsured population has been at a historic low. Most people get healthcare insurance through their employer. But many people still lack access to affordable care in the state and throughout the U.S. Workers and their unions are tasked with fighting against increases in their healthcare plans, like Hennepin County workers with AFSCME Local 34, who have held recent actions against increases in their plans. Hennepin County contracts with United Medical Resources, or UMR Inc., a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which is currently being sued by the Department of Labor for wrongfully denying claims. For a joint article with Minnesota Women’s Press, I talked with Rose Roach, the new national coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, which is growing support in the labor movement for taking healthcare off the bargaining table by establishing a single-payer health care system in the U.S.

Minnesota Union Leadership Program deadline is tomorrow!

The extended deadline to apply is tomorrow, September 15.

MULP is an innovative educational series designed to address the most critical issues facing working people in Minnesota. Now in its 12th cohort, MULP equips participants with knowledge and skills with six in-depth sessions over the course of eight months. We are committed to emphasizing the experience of historically and structurally excluded people. We strongly encourage all people of color, women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, disabled people, and people under age 35 to apply.

Here's the 2023-2024 MULP Brochure.

Here's the 2023-2024 MULP Application.

“Housing is built with our hands.”

On Tuesday, construction workers with CTUL and allies marched through Minneapolis to demand that developers Solhem, Yellow Tree, and United Properties join the Building Dignity and Respect Program. They left plaster molds of their hands in front of HenCen, one of Solhem’s recent projects, and also printed out a version of Isa’s article on wage theft, intimidation, and delayed treatment of construction workers: Delayed Care, Stolen Wages: The Human Cost of Worker Misclassification.

Thanks for reading. We are each other’s harvest.

Anderson Economic Group, which has boasted General Motors and Ford as clients, released a study about a potential strike’s cost to “the economy,” leaving out important context readers should know about the whole purpose of strikes. Read about the insidious narrative below in Sarah’s latest hot and informed take, co-published with The American Prospect: The Conflicted Analysis of What an Auto Workers Strike Would ‘Cost’.

“What’s harmed in a strike is corporate profits, a harm that can end at any minute, when the companies, which have raked in those record profits, decide to negotiate in good faith and make concessions.” 🔥

In a Summer of Record Heat, These Striking Workers Are Making Climate Demands

Pennsylvania workers represented by United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America have been on strike since late June. They’re fighting for a green overhaul of the rail industry.

Check out Sarah’s previous reporting on UE’s “Green Locomotive Project”: The Filthy Emissions of Railroad Locomotives—and the Rail Unions Sounding the Alarm.

“We Are Drowning”: Nurses Say Illinois Hospital Plagued With Unsafe Staffing

Nurses who have been negotiating for months warn that Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet is failing to comply with a 2021 Illinois law to ensure safe staffing. They’ve been on strike this week, and Ascension has locked them out through tomorrow.

Biden Says There’s No Blockade. Tell That to Yemenis Who Need Medical Care.

There are just three flights leaving Sana’a every week. But Yemen has an estimated 71,000 cancer patients who need out-of-country care. One of those patients is 11-year-old Raneem Isa Muhammad Jaber, who suffers from a skin condition that leaves black spots all over her body and an itchy and painful black tumor-like growth that covers her backside.

Delayed Care, Stolen Wages: The Human Cost of Worker Misclassification

José Alfredo Gómez, a construction worker who was severely injured after falling two stories while building a home, poses with his wife and two children.

Isabela’s story shows how the abusive tactic of misclassification can lead to wage theft, intimidation, and delayed treatment for workplace injuries. And when companies are actually held accountable for worker misclassification, it's not for the harm caused to workers or interfering with medical treatment, but for insurance fraud.

Long live Roger

Roger A. Kieca was an Amazon worker who died while on the job in early June after suffering a medical emergency at the company’s cross-dock facility in Joliet, Illinois. Amazon denies the death was work-related, but a FOIA request of the 911 call revealed the cause may have been dehydration. Read more about the workers and organizers seeking the truth about what happened to him: Amazon Says a Worker’s Death Was Not Work-Related. But a 911 Call Appears to Contradict the Company’s Narrative.

More labor stories!

Climate justice, worker action: Racket broke the news about the Inside the Messy Union Fight at Progressive Climate Nonprofit MN350. Read more recent reporting from the Sahan Journal on how the firing and disciplining of treaty rights organizer Nancy Beaulieu and pipeline resistance organizer Andy Pearson went down.

When we fight, we win: Somali-American worker organizer Khali Jama spoke with Maximillian Alvarez on the Working People podcast about how immigrant warehouse workers took on Amazon and won. Earlier this month, Luis Feliz Leon reported for Labor Notes on how the gains won by UPS Teamsters have inspired workers at Amazon to organize and demand more.

More craven capitulation to corporations: The Sahan Journal reported on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of the Fair Rides Fair Drives Safe Rides ordinance put forth by city council members to establish better wages and protections for rideshare drivers. Rideshare drivers with Uber and Lyft are typically classified as independent contractors, who do not qualify for minimum-wage protections, so legislation like this is one thing that could have helped them.

See you tonight!

East Side Freedom Library is hosting another solidarity supper tonight from 6-8 pm. We hope to see you there!

Stay hydrated and cool. We are each other’s harvest.