As lawmakers sort out the state budget and policy details leading up to the expected June 14th special legislative session, 26 unions and labor organizations signed on to a Minnesota AFL-CIO letter to the Omnibus Jobs Bill working group, urging them to prioritize working people in the final legislation.
“Working Minnesotans are hurting. More than a year of pandemic-induced economic hardship, risks and sacrifice on the job, and civil unrest has exhausted workers and made existing racial and economic inequities even worse,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy. “The global agreement that Governor Walz and legislative leaders made last week largely provides immediate help for businesses impacted by COVID-19, providing the opportunity for lawmakers to zero in on relief and protections for workers in the Jobs Bill.”
The letter calls on lawmakers to deliver immediate crisis relief to workers and communities, preserve and expand workplace wage and safety protections, reimburse workers who took unpaid quarantine leave, and create short and long-term paid leave programs.
“While the rich and big corporations prospered during the pandemic, workers sacrificed every single day,” McCarthy added. “It’s time for lawmakers to do right by the people who kept our state moving during the worst crisis in a generation.”