Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond.

Wage theft cases drag on for years

Two years ago Javier Mendez Velasco and dozens of other construction workers on the Viking Lakes development in Eagan filed wage theft complaints with state regulators. Velasco, who worked for the subcontractor Property Maintenance & Construction, estimates he’s owed more than $15,000.

Yet neither Velasco nor any of his colleagues have been made whole, and the investigation by the Department of Labor and Industry is still ongoing.

Part of the delay was caused by Property Maintenance & Construction owner Leopoldo Pimentel, who allegedly threatened workers and instructed them not to cooperate with state investigators. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sued Pimentel for obstructing the investigation, and settled the case last month.

Still, the glacial pace has frustrated workers, who sacrificed their jobs to file complaints with state regulators, as well as members of the carpenters’ union, which organized the workers.

“I feel a little frustrated that it hasn’t been resolved even though we’ve participated and shared information with DLI and the attorney general,” Velasco said in an interview in Spanish. “‘I’d like to think that they’re going to recover what they are able to.”

Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach declined to comment on open investigations.

Velasco is now a union member with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters and earns a higher wage and can count on being paid all that he’s owed including overtime.

He and other construction workers testified before the Minnesota attorney general’s task force on misclassification on Monday, relaying how they were instructed to obtain fraudulent work permits and threatened that they would be “taken care of” after they filed complaints with labor authorities.

Minnesota has among the strictest wage theft laws in the country. In 2019, state legislators made wage theft in excess of $1,000 a felony, like other theft. Yet few charges have been filed under the new law. Part of the problem is a lack of investigatory capacity and know-how by local law enforcement, which is responsible for investigating cases to turn over to county prosecutors.

Jonathan Ferris, a special agent for the Department of Commerce, said the issue wasn’t on his radar until around 2017, when a lawyer for the carpenters’ union asked him to look into labor trafficking and workers’ compensation premiums evasion.

“To say that my eyes and mind have been blown in the last six years would be an understatement,” Ferris said. “The pervasiveness of this issue cannot be understated.”

Last year, the Legislature gave the state Department of Commerce new powers to conduct criminal investigations of white-collar crimes including wage theft. Yet Ferris said the agency has just 21 law enforcement officers and six analysts to investigate all insurance fraud and financial crimes across the state.

Nearly 900,000 union workers won double-digit raises

Nearly 900,000 unionized workers in America won immediate pay increases of 10% or more in the past year, CNN reports.

That includes high-profile victories by the Teamsters at UPS, where part-time workers saw starting pay increase 29%; and the United Auto Workers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, where workers won immediate 11% pay increases.

In Minnesota, roughly 20,000 home care workers represented by SEIU will get a 24% pay bump in the new year — their largest in history — and a smaller raise in 2025. Roughly 470 public defenders across Minnesota secured historic pay raises ranging from 26% to 72% depending on seniority. Thousands of hospital nurses unionized with the Minnesota Nurses Association got 18% raises, split over three years. That’s just three examples, and other unions will be looking to match those gains in their next labor contracts.

“I would say this is the best run of wage increases won by labor since the period right after the end of World War II,” Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told CNN.

Non-union workers — especially in low-wage service jobs — are also seeing significant pay gains, albeit smaller on average than union workers.

Twin Cities big box cleaners don’t get holiday pay

Twin Cities workers who clean big box stores like Best Buy, Ikea and Target are often required to work on Thanksgiving in preparation for Black Friday but don’t get a pay bump for working on the holiday.

Getting paid holidays off and premium pay for working on holidays will be a key demand when Twin Cities commercial custodians and security officers, represented by SEIU Local 26, negotiate a new contract early next year.

“Most of us are immigrant workers and we love to spend Christmas time with our families and enjoying our traditions,” Deyanira Rodriguez, a custodian with Carlson Building Maintenance, said in Spanish during a news conference on Tuesday. “Us working during the holidays brings a lot of income to the stores and to our companies, but I wonder why they don’t invest that money in us, the workers.”

Shake up at nurses’ union

Union nurses elected a new president of the Minnesota Nurses Association and a new board controlled by nurses who ran as a reform slate of candidates, promising to bring greater transparency and accountability to the union.

The union elected Chris Rubesch, a cardiac nurse at Essentia in Duluth and member of the Minnesota State Executive Board. Rubesch ran unopposed and was not part of the reform slate that swept seven out of 10 board seats.

He replaces Mary Turner, the union’s longest-serving president who led MNA members in the largest private-sector nurses strike in U.S. history. She reached term-limits as president but will continue in union leadership on the government affairs commission.

The union has been grappling with internal strife, since nurses won historic wage increases across seven of the state’s largest health systems in 2022. The union suspended one of its stewards, Kelly Anaas, and sent her a cease and desist letter for raising concerns about allegations of sexual impropriety against the union’s new executive director, Karlton Scott.

Shiori Konda-Muhammad, who was elected first vice president as a reform candidate, said the new board majority will ensure Anaas is reinstated. Konda-Muhammad said the board will also examine the investigation into Scott that dismissed complaints against him.

Konda-Muhammad said the new, reform-minded board wants to ensure the union is member-driven and has a culture of accountability after the union suffered two significant losses: failing to get passed their signature legislative priority under a Democratic-trifecta and having nurses in Mankato vote to leave the union by a wide margin.

“When somebody dropped the ball … we cannot just move on just saying, ‘Well, it didn’t work,’” Konda-Muhammad said. “Okay, why did this not happen? And what can we do to move forward next time?”

Minneapolis teachers’ union courts controversy

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers received both praise and criticism for issuing a statement on the conflict in Israel and Palestine, the Star Tribune reports.

In a resolution posted to social media earlier this month, the teachers’ union condemned the role of the United State in supporting “Israeli occupation and apartheid.” The union also called on the Minnesota Legislature to repeal a law prohibiting the state from doing business with the companies that boycott Israel.

Wading into a foreign conflict dividing Americans comes at a critical time for the union. The teachers’ contract expires next year, and the union will turn to parents and community members for their support in bargaining for higher wages and better classroom conditions.

Planned Parenthood to picket over unfair labor practices

Workers at Planned Parenthood North Central States will picket on Tuesday outside clinics in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska over what they say are unfair labor practices by the non-profit as they negotiate a first labor contract governing wages, benefits and working conditions. The demonstration is not a strike.

Over 430 workers unionized with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa in July 2022 and began bargaining in October. Since then, over half the original bargaining team are no longer with the organization, according to the union. That includes Grace Larson, who the union says was illegally fired, in retaliation for her union efforts. PPNCS says no worker has been disciplined or terminated for union activity and the issue is before federal labor regulators.

Chicago’s Berlin Nightclub closes amid union boycott

The owners of the famed queer nightclub Berlin in Chicago announced they were closing shop after 40 years amid a contentious standoff with their newly unionized bar staff. Workers called for a boycott of the club a month ago and went on strike over two nights in the summer, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In an open letter, Berlin’s owners said the union was asking for raises of $10-$13 per hour as well as fully paid health care and a $635 monthly pension contribution for all workers who work one day a week. The proposals would have cost the club over half a million dollars, according to the bar owners.

“It would be nice to pay the employees what the union wants. Unfortunately, agreeing to the union’s demands will make Berlin non-competitive,” the letter said.

The union, Unite Here Local 1, said in a statement that they made clear their original proposal was not final.

“We were negotiating in good faith to reach an agreement that was financially practical for the business,” Unite Here Local 1 said. “We continue to believe that businesses that refuse to value our work above minimum wage do not belong in our community.”

Madison McVan contributed reporting.

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