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Minneapolis

Minneapolis Strikers Demand A Living Wage For The Lowest-Paid Educators

Labor is on fire in the Twin Cities. Educators in Minneapolis are wrapping up their second week on strike, and cafeteria workers are poised to join them. St. Paul educators came close to walking out as well; the unions fed off one another as they built their contract campaigns. “St. Paul has the experience,” said St. Paul special ed teacher Jeff Garcia. “Minneapolis has the energy. They are really fired up.” The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and the St. Paul Federation of Educators both announced February 18 that their members had voted to authorize strikes. MFT members walked out March 8. The strikers are in two bargaining units: 3,000 teachers and 1,000 education support professionals (ESPs), such as teacher’s aides.

‘We Got Your Back’: Student Protest In Solidarity With Teachers’ Strike

Dozens of Minneapolis public school students organized a march and a sit-in to stand in solidarity with public school educators who entered their second week on strike. The students gathered at North High School and many held homemade signs, as well as some of the union signs speaking about the need for smaller class sizes, hiring more BIPOC teachers, and more. The action had been called the night before — a rally called at 5 p.m. for an action at 11:30 a.m. A student walkout in solidarity with teachers had been called and then canceled before the strike began. “We just had to do something for our teachers,” one student explained. After a crowd of a few dozen gathered, they took to the streets, walking on the road, crossing puddles of melted snow, and chanting into megaphones as a sound car followed.

For The First Time In 50 Years, Minneapolis Teachers Are Out On Strike

On March 8, around 3,500 Minneapolis teachers and educational support professionals went out on strike, effectively shutting down a system of 35,000 students. The action, led by Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) Local 59, is the first walkout the city has seen in over 50 years. Educators are demanding caps to class sizes, higher wages and more mental health support for students. While the school district is claiming a budget shortfall, union advocates have pointed to the state’s record $9.3 billion surplus as a potential untapped resource. We sat down with Beth Dill, a 5th grade teacher at Whittier International Elementary School and an active union member, to talk about the strike, which is entering its second week.

Minneapolis Teachers And Support Professionals Strike Enters Week Two

Minneapolis MN - Teachers and education support professionals at Minneapolis Public Schools began a strike on March 8, shutting down the Minneapolis school system. Today, March 14, the strike continues as the schools remain closed for a second week. Over the weekend a series of events were held by the striking educators; there we also several actions called by community and labor supporters in the area. On Saturday, March 12, a car caravan called by the Minnesota Immigrants’ Rights Committee (MIRAC) wound its way through Minneapolis streets to end at the Davis Center where the Minneapolis Public Schools office is located. The car caravan began on Lake Street in a predominantly Latino working-class neighborhood of South Minneapolis.

Strike Day Four: Teachers And Education Assistants Holding Strong

Minneapolis, MN – The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) strike entered its fourth day on Thursday March 11 as Minneapolis Public Schools remained closed. Picket lines continued to have large crowds with many schools reporting 100% turnout to their picket lines every day of the strike, and the others reporting nearly all educators on their lines. Each day of the strike so far has featured morning pickets at schools starting at 7:30 a.m. and a large unity action happening mid-day or early afternoon. On Tuesday at noon a large rally of around 7000 educators and supporters was held at the Davis Center where the Minneapolis Public Schools office is housed. On Wednesday the unity rally was at the Minnesota State Capitol and again several thousand showed up to hear speeches shouted from the stage to large chants from the giant crowd.

Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike Is A Struggle For Black Lives

The Minneapolis teachers’ strike kicked off this week with a huge turnout. Over 4,000 teachers and Educational Support Professionals (ESPs) are on strike for the first time in 50 years. The teachers are demanding smaller class sizes, increased wages (especially for ESPs who are mostly people of color), increased mental health support for students, and retention of educators of color. Students, parents, and community members have joined these educators in this strike. The Teachers’ Demands Are Anti-Racist With the George Floyd uprising, Minneapolis saw the rebirth of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The police violently repressed community members and people burned down the 3rd precinct. A few months later, on November 4, 2020, over 600 community members and BLM activists were arrested during a protest on the 1-94 freeway, the largest mass arrest in Minnesota’s history.

Massive Turnout On Day One Of Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike

For the first time in 50 years, Minneapolis public school teachers and educational support professionals (ESPs) went on strike yesterday to demand better wages, smaller class sizes, mental health support for students, and retention of educators of color. The last time Minneapolis teachers went on strike was in 1970 when it was illegal for public employees to strike. The strike began at seven o’clock in the morning on Tuesday. Teachers, students, parents, and their supporters picketed outside their schools and made speeches. Supporters brought coffee, snacks, and hand warmers. Many of the picketers carried signs calling out Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) superintendent Ed Graff for dismissing the demands of students or teachers.

Twin Cities Takes To The Streets For International Women’s Day

Minneapolis, MN - Around 60 people gathered in Mayday Plaza on Sunday, March 6, for an International Women’s Day protest organized by the Twin Cities district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Demands for reproductive rights and healthcare for all, justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and two-spirit people, an end to gender-based violence, queer and trans liberation, and justice for all stolen lives were raised. The demonstrators also stood in solidarity with Twin Cities educators preparing to strike, signs reading “Victory to the educators!” dotted the crowd gathered in the square, and similar phrases frequented the speeches given. As the demonstration began, chants demanding an end to the oppression of women and attacks on reproductive rights and trans rights echoed around the neighborhood.

Educators In St. Paul And Minneapolis May Go On Strike Soon – Here’s Why

In a Feb. 24 announcement, teachers with the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which includes both teachers and Education Support Professionals, announced an intent to strike. Filed with the state of Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation, the intent to strike was authorized by the board in a vote counted Feb. 17 and provides a legally-mandated, 10-day warning to the school districts about a possible strike. The demands from both unions to their districts have been similar. They are asking for limits on class sizes, wage increases, and better mental health support for students. According to reporting from Minnesota Public Radio, the districts have said that the teachers’ demands are not feasible due to budget shortfalls.

Students Protest Fatal Police Shooting Of Amir Locke

Hundreds of Twin Cities-area students walked out of class Tuesday to protest the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Amir Locke, a Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police serving a no-knock warrant at a downtown apartment. Locke was not the subject of the warrant. The demonstration, organized by the student organization MN Teen Activists, began at St. Paul Central High School at noon. Students from across the Twin Cities gathered for the rally and march, including pupils from Lakeville, Hopkins, St. Louis Park and Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis. The activists said they are demanding the resignations of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman and Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, as well as the demilitarization of Minneapolis police.

SWAT Officers Involved In Locke Killing Have Violent, Checkered Past

Amir Locke was a 22-year-old registered gun owner with no criminal record. He was killed before 7 a.m. on February 2, 2020, when SWAT officers with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) executed a no-knock search warrant for the St. Paul Police who were doing a homicide investigation. Body camera footage showing the killing was released the next day. It showed a SWAT unit of police enter a downtown Minneapolis apartment with a key, shout “police search warrant,” kick a couch that Locke was sleeping in a blanket on, and kill him within two seconds. Locke had a handgun next to him as he was sleeping and rolled over to grab it after being startled awake. Locke never fully raised the gun and his finger never reached the trigger.

Minneapolis Voters Could Change How The City Approaches Public Safety

Last year after George Floyd’s murder, community organizers spurred a national conversation on the role of policing and public safety. The collective outrage and sustained protests led to democracy in action. In Tuesday’s election, Minneapolis voters have a chance to change the way the city handles public safety.  Organizers like Miski Noor want voters to embrace the opportunity to change how the city deals with public safety and vote in favor of the public safety amendment known as Question 2. Noor, an organizer with Black Visions, spoke with NewsOne over the weekend in between get out the vote events. Reflecting on the energy of early voters in line to cast their ballots Saturday, Noor says Minneapolis has been waiting for this change.

Minneapolis Is About To Vote On Whether To Dismantle The Police

It was a cool Friday in Minneapolis, made cooler by the shadows of the skyscrapers towering over People’s Plaza. In the brick-lined courtyard between the Hennepin County Government Center and Minneapolis City Hall on September 17, the Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign and its allies held a rally whose purpose had come undone the day before. Yes 4 Minneapolis is working to amend the Minneapolis City Charter by removing a mandate for a mayor-controlled police department with a certain number of officers per resident (0.0017, to be exact). In its place, the amendment establishes a Department of Public Safety under the joint control of the mayor and the 13-member Minneapolis City Council. The radical restructuring would allow for future revisions.

High Rise Window Cleaners Enter Second Week Of Strike

In Minnesota, a strike by unionized high rise window cleaners at two companies has entered its second week — an example of the tensions growing across the country as workers seek to collect on promises that employers made to them before the pandemic. Around 40 cleaners are on strike, representing about half of the city’s entire work force in the specialized industry. They are members of SEIU Local 26, a vocal and politically active union with 8,000 members in the Twin Cities. Though the window cleaners are few in number, they have been able to generate outsized attention locally thanks to the union’s well-honed ability to pull off visible strikes in and around Minneapolis. Since the beginning of last week, the workers have rallied and held picket lines at major buildings in downtown Minneapolis and at the city’s airport, where some of them have worked cleaning handrails, walkways and glass.

Driver Plows Into Protesters In Uptown Minneapolis

One person was killed and three injured Sunday night after the driver of an SUV drove into a crowd of protesters in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, near the site where Winston Smith was shot by sheriff's deputies earlier this month. A witness said the eastbound SUV was moving at a high rate of speed as it approached just before midnight, and that the driver appeared to accelerate as they got closer to demonstrators who had blocked off Lake Street near Girard Avenue. The driver struck a vehicle parked across one of the traffic lanes on Lake Street, apparently positioned to protect the crowd. That second vehicle then hit people.
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