Labor

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher is getting her second union endorsement for governor in as many days (and her third so far), this one from the 43,000-member Greater Minnesota American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 65, Minnesota Public Radio’s Polinaut reports.

The Chisholm cultural institution known until last summer as Ironworld will lay off 26 full-time staff members Friday and on Satuday close its doors to visitors. The Minnesota Discovery Center, originally a state-funded effort now struggling as a private nonprofit, has suffered in the economic downturn. But like the mines that anchor the Iron Range [...]

State House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s gubernatorial campaign landed another labor union endorsement today, from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49. The “49ers” credit Kelliher with engineering the 2008 override of Gov. Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill — giving life to what the union terms “the largest job-creating bill in decades.”

AFSCME Council 5, the state’s largest union for public employees, has endorsed former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for governor.
“Mark Dayton has won statewide elections — twice,” said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, in a press release announcing the endorsement. “Minnesotans know and like Mark. That’s because he listens more than any other candidate. [...]

The three incumbent St. Paul school board members up for re-election this year have been endorsed by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers in past campaigns. But concerns about budget shortfalls, school restructurings and contract negotiations have caused the teachers’ union to withhold its support this year.

Tarryl Clark continues to roll up the union endorsements. The latest is from the Service Employees International Union’s state council. About the only politically influential union that hasn’t yet backed Clark in her quest to unseat U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is Education Minnesota.

Tarryl Clark has received endorsements from the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council in her campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann. The state senator has been garnering widespread support from organized labor. Among the other union endorsements: AFSCME Councils 5 and 65, Teamsters Joint Council 32 and the North Central [...]

A new study says the net economic impact of the 2008 Republican National Convention on Minnesota’s economy was $170 million, Minnesota Public Radio reports. (The research was done for the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee by the University of St. Thomas’ Center for Retail Excellence, so you know it’s good.) But when the St. [...]

Tarryl Clark continues to rack up labor endorsements in her bid to known off U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann. The latest union to lend support is the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters. The organization has 13,000 members across the state, with nearly 2,500 in the 6th Congressional District.

State Sen. Tarryl Clark has picked up another endorsement from organized labor for her congressional bid. Yesterday, Teamsters Joint Council 32 officially gave the St. Cloud Democrat the nod in her challenge to 6th district incumbent Rep. Michele Bachmann. Joint Council 32 has 62,000 members, many in Bachmann’s district.