This is St. Paul, not Madison.

Minnesota workers send a message at their own Capitol

UPDATED WITH VIDEO (scroll down)

Story and photos by Michael Kuchta

In one of the largest rallies in the Capitol in recent years, Gov. Mark Dayton and as many as 2,000 union
members made it clear Tuesday that Wisconsin-like attempts to destroy collective bargaining will not
succeed in Minnesota. Continued…

In St. Paul, union members and supporters jammed the Rotunda, its balconies and many of its stairways
in what was pitched as a solidarity demonstration with workers in Wisconsin. They beat drums, waved
signs, sang, and jeered mentions of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
They roared when LPN Katie Lynch, of SEIU, said it was greedy Wall Street bankers and corporate
CEOs – not public workers – who crashed the economy and the budgets of state and local governments.
They roared with AFSCME Local 920’s Yvette Young, who quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning
about so-called right to work laws: “It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor
unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.”
They roared when Council 5 executive director Eliot Seide said: “We are not going to stand idly by while
Scott Walker and cheap-labor conservatives bring authoritarianism and tyranny back.”
They roared when Gen DuPlessis, a Minnesota Nurses Association member at Hennepin County Medical
Center, said: “We are in the fight of our lives for the soul of our nation…. You may try to stop collective
bargaining, but you will never, never, never stop collective action.”
And they roared when Dayton said: “Drastic, extreme measures will not become law here. They won’t
become law – because I’m here.”

Drawing the line
AFSCME’s Seide said the fight that union members are taking on “is not about money – it’s about
respect.”
Citing pivotal stands taken in history by railroad employees, Auto Workers, Steel Workers, Teamsters,
teachers, public employees and others, Seide said workers have struggled in the streets, been beaten
and died for their right to bargain. “We will not let that right die,” he said. “….We are the trade union
movement. We are unified. We are one.”
Collective bargaining has brought all Americans the 8-hour day, weekends, equal pay for women, the
minimum wage, affordable health insurance, and an end to child labor, among other accomplishments,
Seide said.

AFSCME members (from left): Kellie Charles, Hennepin County Local 2938; Laura Askelin, MnSCU Local 4001; Jen Guertin, St. Paul Local 2508; Scott Steffens, Faribault Corrections Local 3607; and John Hillyard, Stillwater Corrections Local 600.

Neighbors, not enemies
Dayton pledged that the basic rights of working men and women “to organize, to bargain collectively for
their wages, benefits and safe working conditions will not be taken away here.”
In an apparent reference to the Koch brothers, who are financing much of the right-wing agenda, Dayton
said: “We will not, in Minnesota, let right-wing billionaires … divide worker against worker. We will not
let them divide middle-class families against middle-class families. We will not let them divide neighbor
against neighbor.”
Dayton said public employees already have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice during the state’s
economic struggles. Public employees, he said, are not the enemy, but “dedicated, hard-working,
contributing members of our society” who deserve “to be treated with respect.”
“You should be proud to be a public employee,” the governor said. “I’m proud to be a public employee.”
“We’re all in this together,” Dayton said. “The financial challenges we face are not going to be solved
by destroying people’s basic rights. It’s not going to be solved by taking away people’s livelihoods and
opportunities to provide for their families. It’s not going to be solved by dangerously and drastically
denying people what they’ve worked and earned and bargained for collectively.
“This is going to be Minnesota. We’re better than that.”