A Worker for Vice President

By DAVID McCALL

Many of Cliff Tobey’s friends and neighbors struggled over the years to get their children to doctor’s appointments or pick them up when schools closed early during Minnesota’s brutal winters.

Lacking paid sick and family time, the United Steelworkers (USW) activist recalled, they used vacation days to cover family emergencies even if that meant working themselves to the bone the rest of the year without a real break.

That all changed this year because of Gov. Tim Walz. He signed a paid family leave act and other legislation that’s not only making Minnesota the “best state for workers”—as his administration declares—but showing working people across the country the kind of ally he’d be if elected vice president in November.

“What you see is what you get,” Tobey, the joint efforts and benefits coordinator for USW Locals 1938 and 2660, said of Walz, whose everyman sensibilities continue to fuel growing voter support for his campaign with presidential candidate Kamala Harris. “He’s just a regular guy.”

Walz’s grasp of the challenges facing working families led directly to Minnesota’s groundbreaking “sick and safe time” law, which took effect Jan. 1.

It enables workers to accumulate at least 48 hours a year to use for doctor’s appointments or to pick children up at school, attend a funeral or meet other obligations. Workers also may use the time because of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

“This is amazing,” stressed Tobey, one of many taconite miners on Minnesota’s Iron Range who have worked with Walz for years, noting it especially helps families without the benefits and protections of a union contract. “You’ve probably never seen in your life a law written to the worker’s advantage like this one is.”

But Walz went even further to promote work-life balance, healthy families and workers’ well-being.

The same legislation that enacted sick and safe time also created a separate family and medical leave law, to take effect in 2026, providing extended and paid time off to workers facing a serious medical condition, a relative’s long-term illness, a loved one’s military deployment or other pressing needs.

In addition, the legislation implements new, life-saving protections for workers in the warehouse, meatpacking and other industries and sets pay standards for workers in the state’s growing gig economy.

And it empowers workers to opt out of the captive-audience meetings that some employers hold to try to thwart union drives in their workplaces.

That change particularly resonated with Dave Smith, a trustee for USW Local 2660 and the chair of the Itasca County Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, whose efforts to unionize a previous workplace many years ago died when management retaliated with the help of hired-gun union-busting consultants.

“He’s a schoolteacher. He knows what working people go through,” said Smith, referring to Walz’s previous career as an educator who belonged to a union and coached youth football. “He can relate to us.”

Walz knows that empowering workers also means building a stronger economy. For example, he pointed out that family and medical leave “is about investing in the people that made our state and economy strong in the first place”—and that a healthier, more stable work force sets the stage for more growth.

Minnesota consistently ranks among the top states both for living and doing business. Walz has proven a staunch supporter of core industries like manufacturing and mining, while insisting workers have a seat at the table and a fair share of the wealth they create for employers.

After attending a groundbreaking ceremony for a new U.S. Steel new production facility in 2022, for example, Walz visited an informational picket line set up by USW members in the middle of a contract fight with the company.

Walz spoke with the workers and listened to their concerns. He called the USW members the “world’s best work force” and told the media that he’d reminded U.S. Steel’s CEO of that. And he said he fully expected the workers to win a fair contract, which they ultimately did.

“It’s great to have a governor who takes our views into account before the company’s,” Smith said of the union’s close rapport with Walz.

Walz also took groundbreaking steps to support health care workers, lift up their voices and involve them in guiding one of Minnesota’s growing and essential industries.

He launched a program last year providing bonuses to long-term care workers, helping to keep a light shining on those who put their lives on the line during the pandemic, noted Marketa Anderson, president of USW Local 9349.

Although the health crisis faded, workers continue to do difficult jobs and sometimes experience violence at the hands of elderly and ill patients who don’t understand the harm they cause, explained Anderson, who represents about 500 union members at nursing homes and other facilities.

Anderson also praised Walz’s creation of Minnesota’s Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board to improve working conditions, promote stability and ultimately create better environments for staff members and patients. The board includes workers and unions, ensuring a seat at the table for people on the front lines of care, while also providing representation to state officials and facility operators.

In one of its first significant actions, the board voted to set wage floors for nursing home workers—a key step in building the work force of the future. Anderson said the board’s collaboration is the kind of forward-looking step needed to make Minnesota the “best state” not only for workers but patient care.

“It got everyone talking to each other,” said Anderson, calling Walz the vice president working people need. “That’s a great start.”

David McCall is International President of United Steelworkers. See the blog at USW.org.

From The Progressive Populist, October 1, 2024

Populist.com