Minneapolis Labor Review 113Th Year No
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Labor unions respond to police murder of Daunte Wright — page 6 Minneapolis Labor Review 113th Year No. 11 April 24, 2021 www.minneapolisunions.org Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO 2021 Legislature Governor and Minnesota House ready to enact labor’s legislative agenda; Any action by Senate remains in doubt —See page 5 Labor news updated daily www.workdayminnesota.org Minnesota Workers United photo Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation… Union members urge justice for George Floyd in Derek Chauvin murder trial Follow us on facebook! MINNEAPOLIS — As the Labor Review went to press April 15, closing arguments in the trial of former Minneapolis police offi cer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd were www.facebook.com/minneapolisunions about to begin. The Chauvin trial has brought the deployment of National Guard troops and an increased police presence throughout the metro area. Photo above: On the fi rst day of the Chauvin trial, March 29, union members took to the streets of downtown with other protesters to demand justice for George Floyd, including members from AFSCME Locals 34, 2822, 3800 and 3937, plus Teamsters Local 320, and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. Biden infrastructure plan proposes investment of $2 trillion in job creation PITTSBURGH — Speaking like anything we’ve seen or at the local Carpenters union done since we built the Interstate training center, U.S. President Highway System and the Space MN AFL-CIO endorses Building Trades’ Joe Biden March 31 proposed a Race decades ago.” $2 trillion investment in infra- “It’s the largest American boycott of Speedway gas stations structure and job creation. jobs investment since World “I’m proposing a plan for the War Two,” Biden said. “It will SAINT PAUL — Following the Saint Paul Building Trades’ March 28 announcement of a nation that rewards work, not create millions of jobs, boycott of Speedway gas stations based on parent company Marathon’s labor and safety just rewards wealth,” Biden good-paying jobs. It will grow practices at their Saint Paul Park refi nery, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy issued said. “It builds a fair economy the economy, make us more the following statement: “Generations of Minnesota’s union workers have safely operated that gives everybody a chance to competitive around the world, the St. Paul Park refi nery while providing for their families and supporting their community. succeed, and it’s going to create promote our national security By bringing in underpaid and poorly-trained workers from out of state, closing the doors to the strongest, most resilient, in- interests, and put us in a position Minnesota’s union tradespeople, and going as far as locking out their operations workforce novative economy in the world. to win the global competition in the name of cost-cutting, Marathon has turned its back on working Minnesotans and is It’s not a plan that tinkers around with China in the upcoming putting the surrounding community’s safety at serious risk. The Minnesota AFL-CIO supports the edges. It’s a once-in-a gener- years.” the Building Trades’ boycott of Speedway stations and urges our state’s union members and ation investment in America, un- JOBS PLAN page 7 anyone who cares about working Minnesotans to do the same.” Guest Column Yet another black man murdered by the police “A time comes when silence is be- all of my white allies, those who say they trayal.” are a friend, to take to the streets, to make — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. calls, send e-mails, hold press confer- ences, change laws, and denounce the By KerryJo Felder murder of Daunte Wright. Another black man murdered by the “I’m sorry” only means something if police. it comes with an action. If not, you do not As we sit waiting for justice for one think my children and my husband are black man murdered by the police, worth it and that then makes me not worth George Floyd, we see again, it and so you never were my the murder of another. One ally in the fi rst place. who made it just one year out For those who instinctively of his teenage years, Daunte want to know about a prior re- Wright. cord, or to wait to make a I am livid. judgment until these murdered Marathon, do the right thing To have police simply play Black men have been proven By Ari Kilgore the sky would be clear soon, and recess judge, jury, and executioner worthy enough or human I remember the smoke becoming so would be extra fun tomorrow. She gave with the lives of another hu- enough to earn your empathy thick, I was afraid to drive home later me a faint smile, and pushed her little man being is not to be ex- is wrong. And it means that that day. brother onto the bus. cused. Neither are the lies you both dehumanize Black It was late April, and at the time, I was No person should have to worry about they give when they commit murder. bodies and don’t know Black people. This almost one year out of high school, work- the safety of their family members, hud- I will not accept the lies, but it is not can be applied to every ethnicity. ing at an elementary school in Duluth, dled in the corner at work, refreshing up to me in this land we call America. It I see a few people and a few organiza- Minnesota. The teacher’s lounge was their phone waiting anxiously for bad is up to our white allies, for they are the tions out there doing the real work that needs abuzz with the news that the Superior news. Children shouldn’t have to be majority of those in power who can to be done. Just like we do for elections, ed- refi nery — the one just down the hill and herded inside to avoid smoke that makes change our laws. ucation has to be done. Conversations need over the bridge — had gone ablaze. it hard to breathe, scared that the world is If white people come out and make a to be had. People need to be “touched” at A woman stood in the corner of the ending. Workers shouldn’t be subjected line, the police think twice before ram- least three times to make it count. lounge, obsessively checking her phone. I to the disastrous outcomes of hasty deci- paging forward with their tear gas, their People need to stand up where they found out later that her husband worked sions. No communities should be sub- rubber bullets, their tanks, and eventually are for each other, no matter how uncom- near the site, they lived not too far from the jected to an explosion, worrying about and fi rstly, their real bullets. fortable it is. Otherwise, hate wins and site, and she was worried for her family. who is making it out alive, if they can go This conversation is for white people black men are murdered for various lies I felt wholly unequipped to sit with home, or if they even have a home to go to have with other white people. Like my and the murderers are protected by blue my students — ranging from kindergar- to anymore. It’s imperative we take bold black husband and I will give our chil- and we then embrace a “race” war. ten to third grade — and explain to each action to ensure that a refi nery explosion dren “the talk” as we try to ensure that Then what? Your uncle? Your son? and every one of them again and again never happens again. they live a long life, white people must Your mother? Your brother? Your grand- why their recess had to be inside that day. Workers at the Marathon refi nery in talk about valuing everyone and instill in mother? Your father? Your sister? Your That the smoke was too thick, and we St. Paul Park who are Teamsters Local those around them that all men are creat- cousin? Your aunt? Your grandfather? wanted to make sure that they were able 120 members are organizing for safety ed equal — and then stand for it, because Mad? to breathe clean air, so instead of playing and have been locked out of their jobs by we have hundreds of years of instilled I am livid. outside today, it was a movie day in their Marathon, which is prioritizing profi ts hate in many instances. classrooms. over safety. Marathon needs to do the Minneapolis almost had it right. Space “If you are neutral in situations of On afternoon bus duty that day, I re- right thing: get folks back to work and do and justice was needed. What they didn’t injustice, you have chosen the side of member a sibling set, waiting anxiously what’s right for the safety of our commu- count on is other white agitators and the oppressor.” for their bus to come. The fi fth grader nities — so what happened in Superior black haters coming in from out of town — Archbishop Desmond Tutu looked up at me and asked if the world doesn’t happen in Minnesota. to draw wedges on already tender ethnic was ending. She was anxious from the Ari Kilgore is an intern at the Minne- soil that we have been tilling for some KerryJo Felder has worked as an or- energy of the adults and the smoke in the apolis Regional Labor Federation. She is time now. ganizer for the Minneapolis Regional La- air. I gave her a hug and told her that, no, a senior in peace and justice studies at But, here we are again, and I call on bor Federation, AFL-CIO since 2013.