MRLF endorses union member Tony McGarvey for Brooklyn Park City Council special election

Primary election is scheduled Tuesday, May 9

Adapted from the Minneapolis Labor Review, March 25, 2023

By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor

MINNEAPOLIS — Delegates to the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO voted March 8 to endorse longtime union member Tony McGarvey in a special election for Brooklyn Park City Council.

McGarvey will face two other candidates in a non-partisan primary election coming Tuesday, May 9 to fill a vacancy in one of the two seats for the Brooklyn Park City Council’s West District.

The top two vote-getters will advance to the special election Tuesday, August 8

Early voting for the primary election will be available March 24-May 8. In-person early voting will take place Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Park City Hall, 5200 85th Ave. N. Voters also may request a mail-in ballot.

McGarvey, 55, is a 17-year resident of Brooklyn Park and lives in the Lakeland Park neighborhood.

He is a 21-year member of Minneapolis Painters and Tapers Local 386. He worked 13 years in the field before becoming a union organizer.

Since 2017, McGarvey has worked as director of government affairs for International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82.

Following the March 8 MRLF endorsement vote, McGarvey thanked the MRLF delegates meeting at the United Labor Centre. “This endorsement means the world to me,” he said.

McGarvey recalled how nearly 21 years ago— in June 2002 — he took an oath in the very same meeting room when he was sworn in as a new member of Painters Local 386. Growing emotional, McGarvey said, “it was a moment that changed my life and my family’s life forever.”

For many years, McGarvey has participated in the MRLF’s candidate screening process as a member of the MRLF’s Committee On Political Education (COPE). He told delegates March 8 that it was very different experience for him to be sitting on the other side of the table at a COPE screening.

“Brooklyn Park is a working class town; it always has been,” McGarvey said later in a Labor Review interview. In running for City Council, he said, “I see the opportunity to make a stand for working people.”

With the coming Blue Line Light Rail extension and development opportunities, McGarvey said he wants to serve on the City Council to lead Brooklyn Park “to use tools available to municipal leaders to implement worker protections.”

Website:
mcgarveyforbp.org

For voting information:
brooklynpark.org/elections