“Never been a better time to organize”
Check our latest stories and updates from PELRA reform to Dancing in the Streets to 1934 & Now.
Hello, friends! Hello, new subscribers! It’s been a bit since Up With the Workers has been in your inbox, and if this is the first newsletter you’re receiving—welcome!
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!