FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 2, 2011                                                 download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544

AFSCME Council 5 director Eliot Seide issued the following statement in response to another divisive constitutional amendment proposed today by tea party extremists, state Senator Dave Thompson (R-Lakeville) and state Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa), who want to make Minnesota a “right to work” state with fewer jobs and lower wages:

“Right to work for less is wrong for Minnesota. Minnesotans desperately need good jobs, not the right to work for $5,500 less. We must stop this attack on everyday people who deserve a decent job, health care, and a secure retirement. Until we do that, big money bullies will never get enough.

Our struggle for good jobs and economic fairness continues. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely cautioned in 1961: “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped.”

The facts:

• Wages for all workers are driven down. The average worker in a right-to-work for less state earns $5,538 less per year than a worker in a free-bargaining state like Minnesota, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Benefits are reduced. Employers in right-to-work for less states are less likely to offer benefits and residents of those states were 89 percent more likely to be uninsured than Minnesotans were in 2009, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

• Workplace safety suffers. The rate of workplace deaths is 50 percent higher in right-to-work for less states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Less education for students to succeed in life. Minnesota invests more per student on education than 20 of 22 right-to-work for less states, and more of us graduate from high school and college, according to the U.S. Census

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 26, 2011                                            download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt , 651-357-8544

AFSCME Council 5 director Eliot Seide issued the following statement in response to a bogus study released today by the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative think tank backed by secret corporate donors who want to make Minnesota a low-wage “right to work” state:

“Right to work for less is wrong for Minnesota. Minnesotans desperately need good jobs, not the right to work for $5,500 less. We must stop this attack on everyday people who deserve a decent job, health care, and a secure retirement. Until we do that, big money bullies will never get enough.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely cautioned in 1961: “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped.”

The facts:

• Wages for all workers are driven down. The average worker in a right-to-work for less state earns $5,538 less per year than a worker in a free-bargaining state like Minnesota, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Benefits are reduced. Employers in right-to-work for less states are less likely to offer benefits and residents of those states were 89 percent more likely to be uninsured than Minnesotans were in 2009, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

• Workplace safety suffers. The rate of workplace deaths is 50 percent higher in right-to-work for less states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Less education for students to succeed in life. Minnesota invests more per student on education than 20 of 22 right-to-work for less states, and more of us graduate from high school and college, according to the U.S. Census

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2011                                       download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt , 651-357-8544

AFSCME Minnesota Council 5 director Eliot Seide issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight.

FOR RELEASE: December 14, 2011                                                             download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544

Child care providers call for a voice and a vote

On Thursday morning, Minnesota child care providers will speak out against the scare tactics being used by Republican legislators to persuade them to vote against a union. In the latest attempt to scare and bully child care providers, Republican legislators sent a letter to child care providers in their districts that contains false information and misrepresents Gov. Dayton’s Executive Order.

FOR RELEASE: December 1, 2011                                                                 download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544

Child care providers are preparing to win the upcoming union election by calling eligible voters this weekend. While AFSCME providers talk with their peers to get out the vote, the Free Market Institute will be holding a rally to deny them their democratic right to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 1, 2011                                                 download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt , 651-357-8544

(St. Paul, MN) – Today the Minnesota Senate Committee on Rules and Administration is meeting to attack Gov. Dayton for issuing an executive order giving certain child care providers the right to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 28, 2011                                                download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt , 651-357-8544

(St. Paul, MN) – Today, union opponents announced a frivolous lawsuit to block child care providers from voting on whether or not they want to join together in a union. Below is a response from Eric Lehto, organizing director for AFSCME Minnesota Council 5.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 22, 2011                                           download PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544

Today, Minnesota Management and Budget released a report about the cost of the state government shutdown that lasted July 1-20, 2011. Below is a statement from Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, Minnesota’s largest union of public workers, including 10,000 state employees who were laid off by the shutdown.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 15, 2011                                                   download PDF
CONTACTS: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544 / Eric Fought, 612-223-4744

(St. Paul) – Today Gov. Dayton issued an Executive Order authorizing a union election for licensed in-home family child care providers who participate in the Child Care Assistance Program. The child care providers listed below are available to speak with the media about why they want to unionize. Please call them to arrange an interview.

FOR RELEASE: October 23, 2011                                                                    download PDF
CONTACTS: Jennifer Munt, 651-357-8544 / Brian Elliott, 612-703-4987

Parents and providers will speak with the media about why they support unionizing child care. Pro-union news conferences in Rochester and Waite Park will precede public hearings held by state House legislative committees at both locations.