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“Never been a better time to organize”

By Workday Magazine · Up With the Workers · · 5 min read

Hello, friends! Hello, new subscribers! It’s been a bit since Up With the Workers has been in your inbox, and if this is the first newsletter you’re receiving—welcome!

Isa has been holding down the fort at Workday Magazine while I’ve been on a study abroad trip in Europe–more on that later. 

Check out her latest stories below, and some highlights, info for Youth @ Work, and more!

How PELRA Reform has Opened the Door to New Organizing for Over 23,000 Workers at UMN

Crowd of people kneeling and standing in 3 rows in a rotunda on top of the Minnesota state seal
UMN workers and other PELRA advocates pose for a photo together at the Minnesota State Capitol. Photo courtesy of Jackson Kerr.

This legislative season, university workers won reform to the Public Employer Labor Relations Act (PELRA) that enables over 23,000 workers to organize into unions across the University of Minnesota (including me and Isa, who are employees of the U!)

Read more about it here: “There Has Never Been a Better Time to Organize”: How PELRA Reform has Opened the Door to New Organizing for Over 23,000 Workers at UMN.

Isa also covered the fourth annual Dancing in the Streets, held by Minneapolis sex workers and allies in early June, to commemorate International Whores Day and demand workers protections and the decriminalization of sex work. Check it out here: The 4th Annual “Dancing in the Streets” with Minneapolis Sex Workers.

a woman in short shorts and a white cowboy hat holds up a sign reading "support sluts" while three men in white tshirts kneel behind her on the a bridge, a girl in a disco cowboy hat walks toward them
A protest sign reads “Support Sluts” while the parade made its way across Father Hennepin Bridge. Many allies, including the spouses and family members of sex workers, were in attendance to show support for their loved ones. Photo by Isabela Escalona.

1934 & Now

a newspaper graphic with details about the 90th anniversary of the Minneapolis Truckers Strike
7 people pose in the middle of an art gallery with white walls and lights shining down, one man with a blue jacket and white sneakers sits in the middle on a bench
Artists Keith Christensen, Mike Rivard, Brooks Turner, Drew Peterson, Carolyn Olson, Olivia Levins Holden, Mike Alewitz. Not pictured: Rachel Breen.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the strike that made Minneapolis a union town.

If you’re making a visit to Minneapolis Central Library anytime soon, be sure to stop by the art show commemorating the Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike of 1934, organized by Remember 1934.

Each artist beautifully engaged with different aspects of the history and its legacy today: solidarity on the picket lines, capitalist greed and exploitation, fascist violence, dissent on the streets of Minnesota today, and more. Carolyn Olson, who I interviewed back in the summer of 2022 about her essential worker portrait series, painted scenes from the strike commemorating the labor of women. And Olivia Levins

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