Minneapolis - St. Paul Metro

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Harris-Walz fail to win back working-class voters; most pro-worker ballot initiatives pass; construction workers better off in Minnesota than neighboring states; Minneapolis Labor Standards Board unveiled; and Boeing workers end two-month-long strike.

Harris-Walz fail to win back working-class voters

Running as the successor to the president who aimed to be the most pro-union in American history was not enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to continue Democrats’ 2020 gains with working-class voters after they defected for Trump’s camp in large numbers in 2016.

In 2016, just over half of union households voted for Hillary Clinton, which increased to 56% for Biden in 2020 and then sunk to 53% for Harris, according to exit polling data. The trend with voters earning less than $100,000 and those without college degrees was similar, but more pronounced, especially with white men.

Exit polls are imprecise and the picture could change as more data is released in the coming months, but the results are not surprising nor out of line with trends going back decades: Democrats are losing the trust of working-class voters, paradoxically jeopardizing their agenda to strengthen unions, invest in manufacturing and construction and reduce economic inequality.

“The irony is that no one has done more to help create jobs for construction workers, to protect and raise their wages, and to secure their pensions than Joe Biden. And yet he was not very popular with our members,” said Kris Fredson, director of public affairs for LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota.

Harris’ campaign in many ways focused on reaching these voters. Her pick for running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, is a former union teacher and staunch labor ally. They both made frequent campaign stops at union halls across the industrial Midwest. She had charismatic union leaders like United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain stump for her, while unions ran field operations to turn out their members to vote for Democrats. She rolled out populist economic policies like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, banning price gouging and expanding the child tax credit.

Trump matched those with his own: ending taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. He promises to increase tariffs across the board to, in theory, promote American manufacturing and raise money for public programs. While targeted tariffs can protect American jobs in critical industries, they have also led to manufacturing job losses by raising costs and instigating retaliatory tariffs. He also had Teamsters President Sean O’Brien speak at the Republican National Convention, and the international union declined to endorse either candidate.

Harris’ campaign faced criticism for not speaking forcefully enough about economic inequality and corporate power and allowing economic concerns to be crowded out by other issues — like Trump threatening democracy. Ultimately, it was not a campaign won or lost on policy ideas but on vibes.

The high price of groceries and everything else was likely too much to overcome for Harris, who shouldered the incumbent’s blame for the economy. Even though wages have outpaced inflation on average, workers living in a perpetual state of sticker-shock have not felt economic optimism. Harris is not alone: Incumbents around the world and across the political spectrum have suffered defeats on the heels of pandemic-fueled inflation.

“People did not feel like anything was improving for them,” said Katie Gregg, senior national campaigns director for the AFL-CIO affiliate Working America, which canvassed millions of voters this election. “The cost of everything in life is going up, and they just did not see the economic gains of the Biden administration.”

That seems to have translated into both more support for Trump and lower turnout among those who might have voted for Harris.

“The piece of information that I’m finding most persuasive in terms of a big explanation for what happened was simply the overall turnout numbers,” said Brian Elliott, political director for SEIU Minnesota State Council, with the caveat that no election can be understood by a single data point.

While voters consistently say economic issues are most important to them, other issues might win out when they put pen to ballot (or chose to stay home): immigration, guns, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza or free transgender surgeries for people in prisons, the latter of which Trump bet millions on.

Fredson said LIUNA members trust the union to fight for wages, health care and benefits. Their members consistently show up to pressure lawmakers to support union-backed legislation. But their political endorsements are often not breaking through.

“(For) the labor movement as a whole this has to be a priority moving forward … to understand why there is a disconnect,” Fredson said.

Pro-worker ballot initiatives pass

Voters across the country backed a wide array of pro-worker policies even as they rejected the Democratic politicians championing them.

Alaska and Missouri residents voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide earned paid sick leave. Trump demurred when asked during a McDonald’s campaign event if he supported raising the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for 15 years, while Harris backed an increase to $15 per hour.

Nebraskans also voted to require employers to provide paid sick leave, while Arizona residents defeated a ballot measure allowing tipped workers to be paid less than minimum wage.

Voters in Massachusetts rejected a measure that would increase the minimum wage for tipped workers, while supporting an initiative to allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize.

Arkansas voters approved a measure to allow state lottery proceeds to fund vocational and technical training scholarships.

Minnesota construction workers better paid than peers

Minnesota construction workers earn more money, are more productive and are less likely to be killed on the job than their peers in neighboring states, according to a report from the union-backed North Star Policy Action.

Minnesota construction workers made $83,300 on average in 2022, higher than their peers in Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Wages were 35% higher in Minnesota on average than the lowest-paying state of South Dakota even after accounting for the lower cost of living.

Health and retirement benefits are also better for construction workers in Minnesota. Over 90% of Minnesota construction workers have health insurance and half have a pension, more than any other neighboring state.

The report’s author notes two factors driving these differences: unions and their Democratic allies. Nearly 30% of Minnesota construction workers are union members, which is significantly higher than in neighboring states. Research shows that unions raise wages for all workers, not just their own, when a significant portion of workers are unionized in a given industry.

Since the Great Recession, Democrats have largely held majority control of Minnesota state government while Republicans have largely been in charge in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. That matters because Democrats have passed laws in Minnesota more favorable to workers and unions, which have helped raise wages and improve safety.

Nonunion builders say Minnesota’s higher labor costs drive up the state’s construction costs, meaning the state’s residents are shouldering the burden of higher wages for construction workers through higher taxes and prices. Road construction is not particularly expensive in Minnesota and actually cheaper than Wisconsin and Iowa. Housing is more expensive to build in Minnesota, and the higher costs are better explained by strict energy standards, zoning rules and land prices. Not much housing is built with union labor, and even though unions may push up wages across entire industries, there’s still often a wide gulf in labor standards and pay.

Unions also argue their workers are often better trained and more productive, offsetting the higher labor costs. Research is mixed on how construction costs and quality are affected by prevailing wage laws, which require builders on publicly funded projects to pay a union wage.

Minneapolis labor standards board introduced

Three Minneapolis City Council members unveiled a proposed ordinance creating a Minneapolis Labor Standards Board, after it was first endorsed more than two years ago by a majority of council members and Mayor Jacob Frey.

The draft ordinance would create a board with 15 members divided equally, with representatives for employers, employees and community stakeholders. Twelve members would be appointed by the council and three by the mayor. Subcommittees dedicated to specific industries such as child care, property maintenance or restaurants would develop proposals for regulations that would be referred to the board and then the City Council for consideration. Proposals would have to have majority support plus at least one vote from the employee, employer and community stakeholder representatives to advance.

The board would replace the city’s Workplace Advisory Committee, which has a similar role but is not industry-specific and has failed to secure significant participation from employers. There are currently four vacant positions for business representatives.

Labor standards boards have been rising in prominence as a tool to raise working standards across entire industries, especially those that are difficult to unionize. Minnesota created a statewide Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board in 2023, which this year voted to increase the average minimum wage to $23.49 by 2027.

The proposal in Minneapolis has drawn fierce resistance from business owners, particularly restaurant owners, who say any added regulation will be their death knell as they continue recovering from the pandemic and a surge in public disorder. Council Member Michael Rainville also warned it would scare off new businesses from opening in the city, which is already confronting high office and retail vacancies.

“This will do nothing to decrease the amount of empty storefronts in Uptown or downtown. The business community has made it clear that when their leases are up, they’re going to leave Minneapolis and/or just simply close the business,” Rainville said during a Wednesday committee meeting.

Frey said he would support a “fair and balanced” labor standards board but said the City Council’s isn’t.

Boeing workers end strike

Thousands of Boeing employees agreed to end a nearly two-month-long strike on Monday after voting to approve a new contract that will raise wages 38% over four years. The deal will push average pay to nearly $120,000, while workers will also receive $12,000 ratification bonuses and boosted retirement contributions from the company. In exchange for the deal, which was supported by just 59% of voting union members, workers gave up their demand for the company to bring back a defined-benefit pension program.

“Through this strike and the resulting victory, frontline workers at Boeing have done their part to begin rebalancing the scales in favor of the middle class,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 and Brandon Bryant, president of IAM District W24, in a joint statement.