Minnesota workers who lost their lives on the job site will be honored with a new memorial on the state Capitol grounds. Union leaders, elected officials and other supporters broke ground on the memorial in a ceremony Oct. 5 on the Capitol grounds, just off the intersection of Cedar Avenue and 12th Street. Dave Roe, former president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, presided over the ceremony.

The incoming president of the state's largest labor federation, with more than 300,000 members and 1,000 affiliate unions, talks about the challenges facing working families and her goals upon taking office Oct. 1, 2009.

Union members, religious leaders and other advocates of health insurance reform traveled to UnitedHealth Group headquarters in Minnetonka on Sept. 22, looking for CEO Stephen Hemsley, who holds $744 million in company stock options, to answer the question: "How much is enough?"

 

Union members in Saint Paul talk about the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would level the playing field for workers and employers during oranizing drives. Union members also respond to misleading TV ads produced by anti-union special interest groups about the Employee Free Choice Act.

As the company, the City Council and community stakeholders try to reach agreement on a fuel source that will keep the state’s largest paper recycler open for years to come, the 500 men and women who work at the Rock-Tenn plant in St. Paul's Midway district can do little more than wait and wonder. In this Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation production, Rock-Tenn workers talk about their jobs, their concerns and their employer's search for a long-term fuel source.

 

John McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, held a town-hall meeting with “undecided” voters June 19 at the Landmark Center downtown St. Paul. Outside, a handful of union members demonstrated their opposition to McCain’s anti-worker economic policies.

The AFL-CIO officially unveiled its campaign to "Turn Around America" on May 17, when labor activists nationwide – including about 125 in the Twin Cities – knocked on thousands of union members' doors to find out what concerns they want addressed during the 2008 election.

Labor activists in St. Paul rallied outside the downtown post office April 15, urging taxpayers to reject Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s plan to fix the nation’s health care crisis by giving billions of dollars in tax breaks to the nation’s largest insurance companies – and by taxing working families’ health benefits.