Latest news with #DFL-Hermantown
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Laid-off miners will receive year of unemployment under legislative deal — and other labor news
The Hull Rust Mine View in Hibbing that overlooks Hibbing Taconite. Photo by Jerry Burnes/Iron Range Today. Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: laid off miners likely to receive a year of unemployment; lawmakers still deadlocked over noncompete agreements; nurses union accuses health systems of skimping on charity care; and Colorado governor blocks repeal of right-to-work-style law. Some 630 idled workers at two northern Minnesota mines will be eligible for a full year of unemployment benefits under a bipartisan agreement between the House and Senate announced on Thursday. Workers are typically only eligible for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, which cover about half their earnings while they look for new jobs. But six-figure mining jobs won't be easy to find in the area until Cleveland Cliffs restarts operations at Minorca Mine in Virginia and Hibbing Taconite, raising the prospect that workers would have to move out-of-state. 'We have to make sure that the steelworkers that are laid off at our mines stay in our communities on the Iron Range … for when our mines are ready to get back up and operational,' bill author Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said on the Senate floor last month. Doubling unemployment benefits for miners was never in doubt even as Republicans looked to repeal all unemployment benefits for bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other hourly school workers. Republicans championed their own bill extending benefits to laid off miners, and the Democratic version passed off the House floor on Monday 132-0. That underscores the importance of miners as much to the local Iron Range economy as the state's identity as the country's largest producer of iron ore and taconite. It also reflects the rightward shift of the Iron Range, which now sends mostly Republicans to St. Paul to represent its interests. The number of mining jobs have been steadily eroded by automation, but those that remain are some of the highest paid in the region and support numerous adjacent industries. Mining giant Cleveland Cliffs announced in March that it would temporarily layoff about 630 workers, who are unionized with the United Steelworkers, as demand for steel in the auto industry cratered under worsening consumer sentiment, high interest rates and tariffs from the Trump administration. Trump's trade war has not seemed to dent enthusiasm for tariffs among the laid off steelworkers or Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Gonclaves. The Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates the additional benefits will cost the state about $15 million, assuming 630 workers receive $914 a week on average. Unemployment benefits for hourly school workers cost around $57 million in 2024, helping workers who earn around $17 an hour on average make ends meet through the summer. The state Legislature passed a bill this year that would give school districts an additional $100 million to pay for the benefits, while a Republican effort to repeal the benefits in 2029 failed. Democrats also hope to extend unemployment benefits to federal employees who are laid off as part of the Trump administration's assault on the federal workforce. There were only about 200 federal jobs lost in Minnesota last month — many of Trump's layoffs have been reversed or paused — but state officials said they expect to see a large drop at some point. Lawmakers deadlocked, again, on Thursday over a Republican push to roll back the state's 2023 ban on noncompete agreements. Repealing the ban for white collar workers is a top priority for the Minnesota Business Partnership, which includes more than 100 executives of the state's largest companies. They argue the ban undermines companies' right to protect valuable trade secrets, even though proprietary information is already protected under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The ban's author Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, said large companies are pushing to restore noncompetes to stifle competition and push down wages. 'It gives them power to restrict their employees from leaving, from going to a competitor, from starting a small business … Trade secrets are actually very well protected,' Greenman said during a meeting between House and Senate members of the jobs 'working group' on Thursday. About one in five American workers — in jobs ranging from medicine to child care — are bound by a noncompete agreement, which costs workers more than $250 billion per year by decreasing competition, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC proposed a national ban on noncompetes under the Biden administration. Workers in California have famously been able to hop from employer to employer because the state doesn't enforce noncompete agreements, which Berkeley political scientist AnnaLee Saxenian and other experts have cited as a key factor that fueled the immense, wealth-creating innovation of Silicon Valley. Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, proposed the working group adopt a proposal in their larger jobs bill that would allow companies to enforce noncompete agreements for employees making more than $120,000 and whose primary duties include 'research and development or the creation, analysis, or modification of confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information.' Greenman said the proposal's vague language was 'trojan horse' that would effectively allow companies to require any worker earning more than $120,000 a year to sign a non-compete agreement. She asked Baker if he could define 'confidential' and 'proprietary.' Baker said it was 'extremely technical,' and then called for a recess, during which he conferred with a lobbyist from the Minnesota Business Partnership in the hallway. The proposal failed to get enough support to be adopted, as did a Democratic proposal that would have raised the income threshold and required companies to pay the full salary of employees during the enforcement period of the noncompete. Without a deal, the issue will likely be sent to legislative leaders and the governor to find a compromise; lawmakers are already working past Monday's adjournment to pass a two-year budget. Without a budget by July 1, swathes of the government shutter. The largest hospital systems in the Twin Cities and Duluth areas receive tens of millions more in tax exemptions than they give back through charity care, according to a report released this week by the Minnesota Nurses Association. The union estimates seven hospital systems — Allina, Children's, Essentia, Fairview, HealthPartners, North Memorial and St. Luke's — received $3.9 billion in federal, state and local tax exemptions between 2018 and 2022 but only spent $607 million in free or reduced cost care for poor patients. The union also estimates hospitals' spending on charity care relative to their overall budgets has fallen by nearly half on average over the past decade, from .78% in 2013 to .41% in 2022. 'The nation's earliest hospitals were founded principally by religious and charitable organizations to tend to the sick and poor. Today's not-for-profit hospitals and systems, often monumentally wealthy and glittering institutions, are their distant cousins,' the report says. The union is currently negotiating new labor contracts on behalf of some 15,000 nurses with the seven large hospital systems scrutinized in the report. The nurses are seeking higher pay and staffing levels ,and the report serves as a response to health leader's assertions that their demands are unaffordable. As during the last round of negotiations, the union also takes aim at sky-high hospital executive compensation. Hospitals will point out that charity care represents just a small fraction of the community benefits they provide, including research, education, contributions to community groups, and losing money on Medicaid patients. Earlier this year, the state Office of the Legislative Auditor released a report finding that Minnesota's 104 nonprofit general hospitals appear to give back more to their communities than they receive in tax breaks, although it depends on what is counted as a community benefit, and with the caveat that tax benefits are difficult to estimate. The OLA report looked at individual hospitals' finances, whereas MNA analyzed health systems as a whole, which include many hospitals in addition to clinics, pharmacies, assisted living facilities and more. Unlike the MNA report, the OLA report does not account for indirect benefits of hospitals' tax exempt statuses like being able to issue bonds and receive charitable gifts. The health care reform think tank Lown Institute used a more limited definition of community benefit when it estimated that 90% of Minnesota's hospitals receive more in tax breaks than they give back to the community, adding up to a $1.1 billion loss for the state. Nonprofit hospitals are exempt from taxes on income, property and sales with the expectation that they reinvest those savings back into the community. Minnesota and the federal government require hospitals to report this spending, at least in vague terms, but don't require a minimum amount of spending in exchange for their tax-exempt status. The nurses union has sought legislation requiring greater disclosure and more restrictions on community benefits from hospitals. Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a bill this month that would have repealed the state's unique anti-union law that effectively makes it a right-to-work state. Under Colorado's 80-year-old Labor Peace Act, unions must win a second election with 75% support in order to collect dues from all represented workers. The law was passed before the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which enabled states to pass right-to-work laws banning unions from collecting mandatory dues from all workers represented by their collective bargaining agreements. Repealing the requirement was a key priority for unions in Colorado, and it passed with wide margins along party lines in the state Legislature. Polis said he wanted unions and businesses to find common ground, and that there should be a 'high threshold of worker participation' for mandatory dues. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute noted that Colorado's union density of 7.7% is closer to the 6.2% average for right-to-work states than the 15.8% in non-right-to-work states. In Minnesota, which does not have a right-to-work law, 14.2% of workers are union members. Minnesota state lawmakers have made it easier in recent years for public sector workers to join a union. Under a 2023 law, a public union may be certified once a majority of workers sign cards in support of unionizing without the need for an election as required in the private sector. Resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare and the University of Minnesota were able to quickly unionize using this 'card check' process. Those workers may not be required to pay union dues, however, because of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that bars public-sector unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers they represent.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cabins destroyed as 750-acre wildfire continues to spread
A fast-growing wildfire about 35 miles northeast of Duluth has nearly tripled in size and reportedly destroyed several cabins, authorities said Monday. The Camp House fire began Sunday afternoon near the remote town of Brimson. With abnormally hot, dry and windy conditions persisting in the region, the fire grew to roughly 200 acres Sunday before nearly tripling in size to an estimated 750 acres, which is more than one square mile, by late Monday morning. The fire forced evacuations Sunday and more evacuations could soon be ordered. St. Louis County officials are urging anyone in the area to sign up for emergency alert text messages and be aware of evacuation maps. St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay told MPR News the blaze may have started with a campfire. However, the cause has not been confirmed as the investigation continues. According to Northern News Now, Ramsay confirmed the fire has destroyed at least three cabins and one garage. No injuries have been reported as of early Monday afternoon. Officials have named the fire after the camp and retreat center in Brimson operated by Green Lake Lutheran Ministries. "As crews continue to respond to the wildfire near our Camp House site in Brimson, Minnesota, our prayers are with the firefighters, first responders, and neighbors affected by the fire," the organization shared Monday. "While no one is currently on site, we remain mindful of the impact on the surrounding community." Anthony Coughlin, the owner of a local dog sledding business called Endurance Kennels LLC, wrote on GoFundMe that one dog born at the business' kennel in 2022 died early Monday morning "due to the immediate evacuation and stress of the Camp House Fire." In a Facebook post, the business said heat exhaustion caused by the weather and the stress of the evacuation led to the dog's death at the emergency vet in Duluth. The page is raising support for the dog's owner, Soph Mintz, as she temporarily relocates with her 25 sled dogs and four cats to her parents' cabin in Finland. Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, in a Facebook post thanked fire crews for their efforts in battling the fast-moving wildfire. "But here's the reality: recent federal cuts have made wildfire response even harder," he wrote. "The Forest Service has been hit with layoffs, and key prevention efforts have been frozen. That means fewer people and fewer resources on the ground when these disasters strike." Hauschild continued: "This should be a wake-up call. We need to fully fund wildfire prevention and response—before more communities are put at risk. Stay as safe out there, and thank you to all the first responders on the front lines." Record-breaking heat, low humidity and gusty winds have produced dangerous fire conditions across most of Minnesota. As of Monday, red flag warnings are in effect in 80 of the 87 counties. For crews battling the Camp House Fire, cooler conditions and potential rain are not expected until Wednesday.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Blue Dog' Democrats vote to roll back paid sick leave for workers at small farms and businesses
Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, talks with Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, before a committee hearing on Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo by A.J. Olmscheid/Senate Media Services) Six self-described 'Blue Dog' Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Tuesday to weaken the paid sick leave law they supported just two years ago and repeal the benefit for tens of thousands of workers at small farms and micro-businesses. The bill would need to pass the House and win the signature of Gov. Tim Walz — neither assured — before becoming law. Still, the vote marks a significant departure from the past two years, when Senate Democrats voted in lock-step to pass a sweeping pro-labor agenda with a single-seat majority. 'It's okay to pass laws and vote yes and then learn more information and make changes,' Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said during Tuesday's debate. 'That's not a shameful thing. That's not weak. That's strong.' Democrats passed the sick and safe time law in 2023, entitling workers to one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work up to 48 hours — i.e. six paid sick days a year for full-time employees. The bill (SF2300) carves out farms with five or fewer employees and other businesses with three or fewer employees. The bill also allows employers to request proof of an illness or safety emergency after two consecutive days, down from three under current law. Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, who represents a purple district in the east metro suburbs, led the effort to pass what she called 'modest, common sense improvements' that help small businesses while maintaining sick leave protections for the vast majority of the state's 3 million workers. 'I'm proud of the earned sick and safe time law we passed because I've experienced what it's like to be a worker without it,' Seeberger said, ticking off her experiences as a waitress, lawyer, small business owner and paramedic. But she also said she needs to be responsive to constituents and has heard from many employers about workers abusing the law by using sick leave to extend a vacation or a weekend. Other Democrats blasted the bill and pointed out that no matter the size of the farm or business, workers are just as likely to get sick or have to care for a sick child or be a victim of sexual assault or stalking. Senate Labor Committee Chair Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said it was 'shameful' that the farmworker carve out received support from members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, putting the emphasis on 'farmer' and 'labor.' 'These farmworkers are some of the least protected, powerless workers in our society,' McEwen said, noting that farmworkers are excluded from many of the same rights guaranteed to other workers like the right to form a union. The small farm exemption would affect between 5,000 and 27,0000 workers, McEwen said. The carve-out for micro-businesses would affect between 50,000 to 80,000 workers, Seeberger said. 'No one — not a farmworker, not a tradesperson, not a nurse, not a teacher — no worker in our economy should be fired or disciplined or risk the ability to provide for their family because of a short-term illness that they have, because of the need to care for a sick family member, or because they've suffered domestic abuse or sexual abuse or stalking,' McEwen said. Supporters of the exemption for small farms said it was critical to protecting family farms as they fend off corporate consolidation and confront myriad other regulations. 'We are losing our family farmer,' Hauschild said. 'Family farms are dying.' DFL Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato co-authored the bill with Seeberger and Republican Sens. Jordan Rasmussen and Gene Dornink. DFL Sen. Matt Klein, who announced Tuesday he's running for Congress in the 2nd District, voted with DFL Sens. Robert Kupec, Aric Putnam, Frentz, Hauschild and Seeberger for the bill. Sen. Jim Abeler was the lone Republican to vote against the bill. Frentz has also authored a bill with Republicans watering down the state's paid family leave program slated to begin next year. Seeberger was also an author but recently had her name stricken. The term 'Blue Dog Democrat' and the related 'Yellow Dog Democrat' have their origins among moderate, southern Democrats who retained loyalty to the party despite its shift left but often voted with Republicans to help pass the agenda of President Ronald Reagan, for instance.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass purge of federal workers creates chaos across agencies — and other labor news
President Trump's purge of federal workers has gutted the ranks of wildland firefighters. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Mass firings create chaos across federal agencies; HealthPartners office workers announce three-day strike; confirmation uncertain for Trump's secretary of labor pick; and Rep. Michelle Fischbach looks to repeal Biden's nursing home staffing levels. The federal civilian workforce of 2.3 million people is in chaos as the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by world's richest man Elon Musk, rips through agencies with indiscriminate firings of upwards of 200,000 employees. The U.S. Department of Agriculture laid off workers responding to the bird flu but is now trying to 'swiftly' rehire them. The Department of Energy laid off about 325 workers who maintain the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal and then rescinded most of the notices. The Department of Health and Human Services laid off 950 Indian Health Services employees before rescinding those notices. A Minnesota worker for the Small Business Administration was fired, then rehired, then fired again in a matter of days, the Star Tribune reported in a story featuring terminated workers at the Voyageurs National Park, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the General Service Administration. The Trump administration has also said 'You're fired' to firefighters, aviation safety workers, disaster response workers and cybersecurity personnel, among thousands of others. Some workers who accepted DOGE's suspiciously generous buy-out offer were fired instead with no severance. It's unclear how many of the roughly 18,000 federal employees in Minnesota have been laid off. The Office of Personnel Management did not respond to a request for data on layoffs affecting Minnesota workers. Unions have tried to intervene, but their lawsuit aiming to block the firings was unsuccessful. The purge of federal workers — which has included many Trump supporters — is worrying some Republican lawmakers, though not enough to do anything more than pleading. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said 'indiscriminate workforce cuts aren't efficient and won't fix the federal budget,' while Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said he supports downsizing the government but not by firing new FBI agents. The cuts have disproportionately hurt veterans because the federal government is the nation's leading employer of veterans: About 30% of the federal workforce are veterans compared to less than 6% in the private sector. State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, sent a letter to President Trump asking him to reverse the cuts to the U.S. Forest Service in the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 'The decision to cut these positions does not merely affect numbers on a budget sheet — it affects real people, real families, and entire communities that rely on these jobs. It undermines the efforts of those who have committed their lives to public service, often at the cost of personal sacrifice, and diminishes the well-being of the very communities they serve,' Hauschild wrote. The union representing some 1,000 HealthPartners office support workers announced a three-day strike beginning March 3 at approximately 30 facilities unless they reach a deal on a new contract. Front desk workers and other office support employees with OPEIU Local 12 voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike earlier this month, citing 'drastic' increases to workers' health care costs. Other unions have said their members could refuse to cross picket lines, potentially disrupting deliveries and other operations at the health system. The union is seeking to protect workers' health care benefits and seniority protections, along with pay raises and adding Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth as holidays. OPEIU Local 12 President Devin Hogan said workers have struggled with low wages: 'It is unacceptable for one of the largest companies in Minnesota to pay such low wages to frontline workers that they have to rely on food banks to feed their families.' A spokesman for HealthPartners said they are 'committed to staying at the bargaining table to reach a fair and financially responsible agreement with the union' and noted they will meet again next week. Trump's pick for secretary of labor Lori Chavez DeRemer faces an uncertain path to confirmation in the Senate after appearing not quite anti-union enough to lock in unified Republican support, but not pro-labor enough to win enough Democratic votes to make up the difference. Chavez DeRemer, a Republican and daughter of a longtime Teamster, hopes to be a bridge connecting the Republican Party's traditional pro-business coalition to its growing base of working-class supporters. Her nomination brought together strange bedfellows: Teamsters President Sean O'Brien and Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Mullin once challenged O'Brien to a fight in a Senate committee hearing, but the pair united behind Chavez DeRemer. The three appeared in a video together on Wednesday, with Mullin saying they have a good relationship — adding that if he and O'Brien were in a relationship, he would be 'the man.' During her single term representing Oregon in the House, Chavez DeRemer was a rare Republican co-author on the labor-backed Protecting the Right to Organize Act — PRO Act — which would weaken red states' 'right-to-work' laws, which bar unions from charging fees to non-members who are covered by their collective bargaining agreements. The bill would also add penalties for employers who violate labor law and make it easier for workers to unionize. But during her Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing, Chavez DeRemer walked back her support for the bill while not fully disavowing it, which did not seem to satisfy ardent supporters or opponents of the bill. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, previously said he'll vote against her and predicted more than a dozen other Republicans will join him, though he later said he may reconsider given her disavowal of eliminating right-to-work laws. Chavez DeRemer also defended Trump's unprecedented firing of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, whose term was supposed to run through 2028. She is challenging the ousting in a case that tests Trump's executive authority. Her termination has paralyzed the NLRB, which has been a target of his billionaire supporters including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Trump has appointed more traditional business-side leaders elsewhere in the labor department. He named David Keeling, a former safety executive at UPS and Amazon, to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Amazon, notably, has a sordid safety record and faces citations in Minnesota for allegedly violating the state's new warehouse worker safety law. Keeling did receive support from the Teamsters, which represents UPS drivers and are trying to unionize Amazon employees. U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach introduced a bill to halt a Biden-era rule, which has not yet taken effect, that would set minimum staffing levels at nursing homes. The bill is symbolic since President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services is unlikely to finalize the rule that the Biden administration argued would improve worker recruitment and retention as well as resident care. Opponents of the rule said it set unrealistic standards that would have forced nursing homes to shutter, while pointing to a report commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that said there's 'no single staffing level that would guarantee quality care.' Fischbach's proposal won praise from the Minnesota nursing home lobby. 'In a time when we face ongoing workforce shortages, tying the hands of providers to meet an unattainable standard will not have the intended impact of increasing quality. Rather, it will only jeopardize already-limited access to care for seniors,' said Kari Thurlow, President and CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, in a statement. Meanwhile, nurses at North Ridge Health in New Hope and Episcopal Church Homes in St. Paul announced their intention to unionize with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa by interrupting manager meetings and calling for better staffing, higher wages and safer working conditions.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Labor and business leaders push for faster environmental permitting — and other labor news
Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, speaks in support of his bill that would speed up environmental permitting alongside Republican lawmakers and business and union leaders on Feb. 13, 2025. (Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer) Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: a bipartisan push to speed up permitting; masonry contractor pleads guilty to tax evasion; construction worker pleads guilty to rape on job site; Minneapolis marks $2 million milestone in recovered wages; and First Avenue workers ratify first union contract. Trade unions and business leaders have unified around a bipartisan bill aimed at speeding up the environmental permitting process, which they say has choked off investment and cost the state thousands of good-paying jobs in construction, manufacturing and mining. 'We're doing nothing to change (Minnesota's) environmental or labor standards with this bill. What we're doing is we're trying to make it easier for applicants to go through the process,' said Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, during a news conference on Thursday. The coalition of business groups and unions — including those representing laborers, carpenters, operating engineers and ironworkers — say Minnesota's current laws allow opponents to delay projects to death. For example, Minnesota's air permitting review takes about six times as long as Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, according to a study by the Minnesota Chamber Foundation. Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, pointed to a proposed OSB board factory in his district that was expected to create 150 jobs. Huber Engineered Woods scrapped plans for the plant in Cohasset because of lengthy permitting delays following objections from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe over potential pollution. 'If they were still in this state, they would still be in permitting. And they are open in another state right now operating,' Eichhorn said. The Minnesota Chamber Foundation estimates the state could gain $260 million to $910 million in economic activity if it operated like other states. The bill (HF8/SF577) would speed up the permitting process by creating more stringent deadlines for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to approve or deny permits, requiring the agency to issue separate permits for construction and operations, and limiting local governments to one 60-day extension in making wetlands conservation determinations. The bill also creates an 'ombudsman for business permitting' and requires petitions for environmental reviews to include 100 people who live or own property near the proposed project. (Currently, petitions can include signatures from anyone who lives in the state). Last year, Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill that shortened and streamlined permitting for clean energy projects and power transmission lines. That bill enjoyed broad support among Democrats, but some appear skeptical of the new, more comprehensive effort to speed up environmental reviews. During a committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, voiced opposition to the provision putting geographic limits on who can petition for environmental reviews, even for projects on public lands. 'We're talking about land that is owned by the people of Minnesota,' Jordan said. 'It feels very upsetting to hear that we feel like they should not have a voice on their land, the water that they drink and the air that they breathe.' Environmental groups called the bill 'a solution in search of a problem,' pointing out the vast majority of permitting decisions on priority projects already meet statutory timelines, and when they don't, it's because of changes to the project, incomplete applications or other deficiencies. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi claimed victory on Wednesday in the first major wage theft case his office has closed since hiring a dedicated wage theft investigator in 2022 — though no one was actually charged with or convicted of wage theft. Todd Konigson, the owner of Stillwater Masonry Restoration Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and will pay $70,178 to the Minnesota Department of Revenue for failing to file a quarterly withholding tax return in 2018. Konigson, who now lives in Florida, will be on probation and barred from operating a construction business in Minnesota for up to three years or until the debt to the state is repaid. At that point, the felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor. Choi's office originally charged Konigson with 16 counts of tax evasion and fraud in December 2023 following a criminal investigation by the state Department of Revenue. Prosecutors allege Konigson pocketed money withheld from workers' paychecks instead of sending it to the Department of Revenue. They also alleged Konigson misclassified workers as independent contractors but claimed them as employees to receive a Paycheck Protection Program loan. Konigson's company was a union contractor at the time, and the president of the bricklayers' union, Doug Schroeder, said there were workers who were shorted pay and cheated out of health insurance, pension payments and vacation money for years. The union-related benefits fund was able to recoup fringe benefits for about a dozen workers through third parties such as general contractors. Konigson's lawyer, Thomas Beito, rejected prosecutors' portrayal of the guilty plea as a triumph over wage theft. 'He didn't plead guilty to any wage theft nor was he charged with any wage theft because there wasn't any wage theft,' Beito said in an interview. 'If they had the evidence to go after him for wage theft, you can be darn sure that they would have.' Choi said his office pursued tax charges rather than wage theft as 'the path that would be most favorable for a conviction.' During the Wednesday news conference he also said they have 'a lot of cases in the pipeline.' 'We want to put contractors on notice that we are out there investigating,' Choi said. Minnesota made wage theft in excess of $1,000 a felony in 2019. There have been no convictions since then, although charges are being pursued in at least two cases in Hennepin and Stearns counties. A construction worker pleaded guilty on Thursday to raping a co-worker in an apartment bathroom during construction of Viking Lakes, a sprawling multi-use Eagan development built by the Wilf family, owners of the Minnesota Vikings. Juan Diego Medina Cisneros, a 31-year-old Mexican citizen, was charged in Dakota County two-and-a-half years ago but wasn't apprehended until last June by border patrol agents at the Gateway International Bridge in Texas. Medina Cisneros will serve 36 months in prison followed by 10 years probationary release. The assault came to light as the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters union was helping workers report allegations of wage theft on the Viking Lakes development by two subcontractors — Absolute Drywall and Advantage Construction. Absolute Drywall employee Norma Izaguirre told her supervisor about the rape in an apartment bathtub she was cleaning, but the company determined it was a consensual relationship and owner Dan Ortega fired Izaguirre soon after. Izaguirre watched Thursday's court proceeding over Zoom, wiping away tears as Medina Cisneros admitted to the assault in Spanish through an interpreter. She also has filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which is investigating her allegations of sex discrimination, and could bring a lawsuit against the contractor. The city of Minneapolis announced it had reached an important milestone this week in its effort to crack down on wage and hour violations, recovering $2 million for workers through various enforcement actions since 2018. The city highlighted $145,000 settlements with Unparalleled Parking and Unparalleled Security for alleged sick leave violations, a $43,000 settlement with Amigos One Stop for alleged overtime pay violations and a $22,000 settlement with Plymouth Academy preschool for allegedly paying subminimum wages. Two of the cases highlighted were brought to the city's attention by the nonprofit worker center Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL). Some 230 unionized service and event workers across First Avenue's seven Twin Cities venues ratified their first union contract over the weekend. UNITE HERE Local 17 said the three-year contract includes 'big raises' — 25% or more for non-tipped workers over the life of the contract — plus longevity pay and improved scheduling. The contract also requires the company to use workers' stated names and pronouns, which the union touted as protections for LGBT workers.
