What messages move working-class voters and other labor news • Minnesota Reformer

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly roundup of job news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: workers vote on the economy; Minnesotans can take time off work to vote early; Trump’s McDonald’s Visit Highlights Minimum Wage Debate; Missouri elementary school named after janitor; and Boeing workers reject the second tentative agreement.

Workers vote on the economy.

Union leaders in Minnesota are leaning into pro-worker policies passed by Democrats who control state government for the past two years as they knock on doors and call on members to get workers to the polls.

“The trifecta gave us a lot to talk about,” said Hannah Alstead, political director of Teamsters Joint Council 32, which represents more than 85,000 workers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas.

She rattled off a list of new state laws that include unemployment insurance for hourly school workers; the Warehouse Worker Safety Act, which aims to protect employees at Amazon and similar warehouses; the Refinery Safety Law; the prohibition of so-called captive audience meetings, when management forces workers to listen to anti-union speeches; earned sick and safe time; and paid family medical leave.

The Teamsters are focusing their efforts on competitive state House races, endorsing Democrats in the Twin Cities suburbs like Zack Stephenson, Brian Rains, Jen Fox and Lucia Wrobleski.

But they’re also making sure their members know they backed the Harris-Walz ticket. Teamsters International refused to endorse a presidential candidate and released polls showing majority support for Trump among its members. But that announcement was followed by numerous Teamster locals and joint councils supporting Harris.

Alstead said they are reminding their members of Gov. Tim Walz’s record of supporting unions and President Joe Biden’s signing of the bill that prevented cuts to retirement benefits for about 350,000 Teamsters.

SEIU Minnesota State Council Executive Director Brian Elliott said they are on track to have 300 employees and members knocking on doors or working the phones in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They’re talking about protecting the gains they’ve made with the Nursing Home Labor Standards Board, which will increase wages for all nursing home workers as well as paid sick leave.

“I get more questions from our organizers about earned sick and safe time than anything else,” Elliott said.

Polls suggest that these economic messages resonate the most with voters, perhaps even popular enough for a former union leader and independent populist will win a U.S. Senate seat in ruby ​​red Nebraska.

The Center for Labor and Jacobin Politics published results of a recent survey of Pennsylvania voters and found that Vice President Kamala Harris’s most popular hypothetical message talked about lowering prices, standing up to corporate interests and taxing billionaires.

The populist economic message outweighed messages on immigration and abortion, while the least popular message focused on Trump being a convicted felon and a threat to democracy. That line of attack occupies a prominent place in the Harris campaign – and for obvious reasons with two four-star generals who served in the Trump administration (John Kelly and Marcos Milley) calling the former president a “fascist.”

Grain of salt: The ideological group poll concludes that the ideological group’s message is the best, but the findings of this poll (based on a survey of 1,000 eligible Pennsylvania voters) are in line with many other voter surveys showing that The economy is voters’ top concern, although a Gallup poll found democracy was the top issue. for the democrats.

Dustin Guastella, a research associate at the Center for Working Class Policy and chief operating officer of Teamsters Local 623, wrote in the Guardian who worries that Harris’ campaign is wasting the final days of the election focusing on Trump rather than a message that will resonate more strongly with voters.

“Every ad or speech dedicated to intimidating the Trumpian threat is one less opportunity for Harris to focus on her popular economic policies,” Guastella wrote.

Minnesota workers can take time off work to vote early

Minnesota workers are right to leave work vote on Election Day this November 5 or, due to a 2023 law change, vote early. Workers can only take as much time as they need to vote, while employers cannot deduct workers’ wages, personal leave or vacation for this time.

Employers cannot refuse or interfere with a worker’s right, even when they decide to vote, according to the Secretary of State.

Minnesota has one of the most voter-friendly laws in the country (allowing early voting, same-day registration, and no-excuse absentee voting), helping to boost the state’s voter turnout. the tallest in the nation Nearly 80% of eligible voters voted in 2020.

Trump’s visit to McDonald’s highlights low minimum wage

Former President Donald Trump spent about 15 minutes putting on an apron and serving fries at a McDonald’s in suburban Philadelphia over the weekend in an effort to burnish his image among working-class voters (and sell more merchandise).

Then a reporter asked Trump if supported the increase in the minimum wagewhich has been stuck at $7.25 per hour federally and in Pennsylvania for 15 years. He objected: “Well, I believe this. These people work hard. They are great. And I just saw something… a process that is beautiful.”

To critics, he was classic Trump: working-class optics, plutocratic policies.

That led Vice President Kamala Harris to come out in supportt to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

During the election campaign, Harris has often emphasized her middle-class roots when talking about his own experience in college working at McDonald’swhere 1 in 8 Americans will work at some point according to the fast food giant.

A majority of Americans said they supported raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in a Pew Research study. survey in 2021 – before inflation became a central issue in national politics – and minimum wage ballot measures have consistently passed, even in red states.

Elementary school named after the janitor.

CBS News reported a moving story about an elementary school in Swedeborg, Missouri, named after the school’s dedicated custodian, Claudene Wilson.

For the past 30 years, Wilson has mopped the elementary school floors but has also driven the school bus, supervised lunch, mowed the grass and changed light bulbs. Doing all of this often led to her working 12-hour days, which she said was worth it for the children.

“Children, children are in his heart,” he said.

Students say she is a beloved presence and role model.

“That’s what everyone should want to be, you know?” said student Alex Lein. “That’s what I would like to be.”

Boeing workers reject contract offer, expand strike

Unionized Boeing workers, now on strike for nearly six weeks, rejected a second tentative deal Wednesday that would raise wages more than 35% over four years but did not include restoring their defined-benefit pension plan that was frozen a decade ago.

“How do they expect someone to stay in the company if they don’t have some type of pension plan or better investments?” Darryl Shore, Boeing worker he told the New York Times.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents about 33,000 striking Boeing employees, said 64% of those who voted voted rejecting the offer and sending the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Bloomberg reported The strike has forced Boeing to suspend work on its most popular plane, the 737, as well as the larger 767 and 777, putting further pressure on the airline still reeling from the fiasco of a door that exploded in the air at early this year. Hours before the union vote, the company reported $6 billion in losses and earlier this month said it would have to cut its workforce by about 10%.

The impasse has attracted the Biden administration. Secretary of Labor Julie Su traveled to Seattle last week to meet with union and Boeing leaders.