Labor History Month kicked off in St. Paul Monday with a discussion of history in the making, as panelists offered insight into public-sector workers’ recent push to breath new life into their unions and defend their right to a voice on the job.

The public forum, titled “The Friedrichs Case and the Future of the Labor Movement,” opened Untold Stories(link is external), the labor-history series staged annually in May by The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, with support from a number of unions.

At the forum, held at the new St. Paul Labor Center, leaders of three Minnesota unions that represent public-sector workers reviewed recent legal and legislative challenges to their organizing rights – and talked about the ways their organizations are responding.

Debbie Prokopf, attorney and business agent for the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees(link is external), said corporate-backed politicians and anti-worker legal funds seemingly come up with new ways to “chip away” at public-service workers’ rights every day.

“They’re trying all these wacky, right-wing theories to see what sticks,” Prokopf said, pointing to measures that would require unions to hold recertification votes every year and to negotiate in public, or would severely limit the scope of their contract talks.

Labor History Month kicked off in St. Paul Monday with a discussion of history in the making, as panelists offered insight into public-sector workers’ recent push to breath new life into their unions and defend their right to a voice on the job.

The public forum, titled “The Friedrichs Case and the Future of the Labor Movement,” opened Untold Stories(link is external), the labor-history series staged annually in May by The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, with support from a number of unions.

At the forum, held at the new St. Paul Labor Center, leaders of three Minnesota unions that represent public-sector workers reviewed recent legal and legislative challenges to their organizing rights – and talked about the ways their organizations are responding.

Debbie Prokopf, attorney and business agent for the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees(link is external), said corporate-backed politicians and anti-worker legal funds seemingly come up with new ways to “chip away” at public-service workers’ rights every day.

“They’re trying all these wacky, right-wing theories to see what sticks,” Prokopf said, pointing to measures that would require unions to hold recertification votes every year and to negotiate in public, or would severely limit the scope of their contract talks. Read More