#mplsworks

#BlackWorkersMatter? Workers occupy Minneapolis City Hall

You might remember the White House Summit on Worker Voice earlier this month, when President Obama invited some human props to the White House to tell their stories of skipping meals, going homeless, working multiple jobs and earning only $8 an hour after 20 years in the fast food business.

While the#FightFor15 movement for a $15 minimum wage isthe most visible of union demands, the president…

Laura, Minneapolis

Save the Kmart on Lake Street and Nicollet Ave in Minneapolis

    Photo taken at May 1 2015 demonstration at the corner of Nicollet Avenue and Lake Street in front of the Kmart   where immigrant rights and Black Lives Matter marches met and became one.   Two years ago I invited my Race and Public Policy class to my home for the final session. The way things worked out, a few students had not presented their policy proposals. They needed a TV to project…

Short-term memory and the fight for Working Families in Minneapolis

  I am old enough to have started my work life in Minneapolis at a time when sexual harassment on the job was not a phrase, just an everyday nothing-you-can-do-about-it reality. Gender discrimination in hiring and wages were just how people did business. Racial discrimination was rampant in both the the workplace and in unions. Race and gender discrimination was illegal, (I’m not that old!) but…