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Anoka County Board,
District 7
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Mandy Meisner:
‘A resource for the people’ |
Adapted from the Minneapolis Labor Review, October 22, 2022
By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor
FRIDLEY — “I view the role of county commissioner as being about our own backyard and being a resource for the people,” says Mandy Meisner. “That’s what I focus on.”
The first woman of color elected to the Anoka County Board, Mandy Meisner is running for re-election for the District 7 seat with the endorsement of the AFL-CIO.
District 7 includes Fridley, Columbia Heights, and Hilltop and is the most diverse Anoka County commissioner district.
“At the county board, I see the value and function unions do for our labor workforce,” Meisner says. “One of the benefits of unions is having that excellent standard of work.”
“Because of unions, my family was able to have a good living, a good life,” Meisner adds. “My entire personal history has been afforded to me because of unions.” A grandfather worked as a union member in Cloquet, Minnesota’s paper mills and her father was a CWA member working for Northwestern Bell and U.S. West. A splicer, “he climbed the telephone poles,” she relates.
A community activist who first was elected to the Anoka County Board four years ago, Meisner serves on the Anoka County Workforce Development Board. She has worked to promote careers in the skilled trades and reports that many Anoka County employers are searching for workers. “We are in a workforce crisis right now,” she says.
Meisner notes that Anoka County government is one of the biggest local employers. “How can I make sure Anoka County is a good employer, pays a living wage, and the employees feel good coming to work?”
In seeking a second term on the Anoka County Board, Meisner says, “I’m just getting started — one term is not enough for the work I want to do.”
Website:votemandy.com
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