Commentary
Support our everyday heroes, Minnesota, support a fair budget

From the Minneapolis Labor Review, May 21, 2021

By Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, President,
Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation

As the legislature prepares to go into overtime for a special session in June, we are calling on all of Minnesota to support our everyday heroes and stop giving free passes to corporate CEOs.

For more than one year courageous frontline workers have sacrificed so much. Families have endured immeasurable struggles to make ends meet, keep their homes and provide for their children. For more than one year, too many workers have put their own safety at risk to keep our food ecosystem together and to serve on the front lines of the pandemic.

All of this sacrifice was done in radical solidarity with each other to get us to this point in time: A moment where there is a real sense of optimism in the air and a path beyond COVID-19 restrictions.

Working families are falling behind and CEOs are getting ahead

While workers and families struggled together and sacrificed together, big corporations reported record profits and CEOs got richer. CEOs were able to hide behind Zoom screens and high tech digital teams. All the while their workers were still reporting to work EVERYDAY.

In addition to serving on the front lines of our workplaces, workers have held down the front lines in the streets and led a global movement for racial justice and equity in our communities. Yet again, the struggles and the work of solidarity for a better future are falling on the working class.

It is crystal clear that education and healthcare need investments that reach frontline workers, students and patients. We need improved OSHA rights and meaningful enforcement of workplace protections. We badly need to invest in our infrastructure to keep us safe in our communities. Status quo and lip service to racial and economic justice initiatives are not enough.

Record profits and ballooning CEO wages are not going to get the needed support for our communities, workplaces and neighborhoods. It is embarrassing that we even have to beg for these things coming out of a global pandemic.

Show us a fair budget that recognizes our sacrifices, that recognizes these workers’ stories. A budget that supports the data. Workers and families are falling behind and CEOs are getting ahead. Please, Minnesota, now is not the time to ignore the voices of our workers.

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou was re-elected December 11, 2019 to a second four-year term as president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

Contact MRLF president Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou at 612-321-5670 or chelsie@minneapolisunions.org.