Minnesota: Rank-and-file union activists hold "Building Worker Power Under Trump" teach-In

Minneapolis – On Saturday, January 18, around 40 workers gathered at the Lucy Parsons Institute in Minneapolis to hear from a panel of experienced labor movement figures on the issue of the incoming Trump administration, as well as attend workshops addressing common questions and workplace concerns. Minnesota Workers United hosted the event to educate labor and union activists, both new and old, about the challenges the incoming Trump admin will pose for our shop floor movements.

Emceeing the panel was MWU member and longtime labor activist David Gilbert-Pederson. Panel speakers included Max Vast, president of AFSCME Local 3800, and Neil Radford, an ESP with MFT/ESP Local 59, speaking on behalf of Natasha Dockter, first vice president of MFT Local 59, who was unable to attend the event.

Siobhan Moore, UPS Teamster and a steward in Local 638, explained that “Fighting Trump’s reactionary agenda also must involve defending our Immigrant siblings, who are a large part of our class and our unions. We need to raise immigrant rights, the fight against racist attacks and for LGBTQ and women’s and reproductive rights as union issues and tell Trump that we won’t go back on any of it.”

The panel speakers expressed the need for labor to build a fighting rank and file that can be mobilized to combat the variety of attacks to come from a Trump administration.

After the panel, the group was divided to attend one of two workshop options led by MWU members. One group attended “How to be an Effective Organizer”, led by Anthony Taylor-Gouge and Rajan Nayar. During this workshop, Taylor-Gouge proposed that a good organizer is, “not only friendly and knows how to talk to people, but is also good at their job. People look to leaders they trust, and that trust will be gained by consistently carrying your own weight and demonstrating that you care about your co-workers.”

The second group attended, “Labor Under Attack”, led by Nuala Cacek and Jasper Nordin, that focused on Trump’s proposed labor policy. Among his proposals are waivers granting states exemption from federal labor law, unilateral contract changes for management, gutting enforcement of the civil rights act, and appointing union-busting corporate lawyers to federal labor office. In response to these attacks, Nordin urged attendees to focus on the immediate needs of the workers on the shop floor and, “build up a rank-and-file labor movement capable of carrying out and winning the struggle against Trump and the billionaire oligarchy he represents. That struggle takes place one workplace, one company, one state at a time.”

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