Resolution of Park Workers Strike is a Win for Workplace Democracy

Striking Minneapolis park workers announced a tentative agreement on July 26th, three full weeks after the strike began on July 4th. Details, including when striking workers will return to work, will be made public in the coming days. Workers Confluence is proud to have partnered with LIUNA (the laborers union), to provide staff support at several public actions during the strike. These brave workers have not only won a fair contract for themselves, but also pushed back powerfully against the erosion of workplace democracy.

The striking workers are represented by LIUNA Local 363, and as a result the pay and stability of these jobs has long provided a foothold in the middle class for many park workers and their families. This was the first strike in the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s 140 year history, but the park workers struck for reasons familiar to many workers today: inadequate staffing, pay that hasn’t kept up with inflation, and workloads that have grown to include more difficult and dangerous tasks. 

But management responded with an unusually aggressive set of demands, including removing seasonal workers from the bargaining unit and drastically cutting back the number of union stewards. The steward is the day-to-day face of the union in any given workplace, and workers know to turn to their steward for support in understanding and defending their rights on the job. 

By trying to shrink the bargaining unit and reduce the number of union stewards, Park Board management appeared set on eroding workers’ ability to come together and exercise their power. Kale Severson, a former park worker and a former Park Board commissioner, observed in a public statement: “I’ve never seen more blatant union busting. The financial disagreements between park board employees and the board are not great and could be easily solved. The insistance of the Park Board to insert poison pills in the contract that forever weaken the union’s ability to advocate for fair and dignified labor conditions is simply horrendous.” 

Weeks of pickets at parks throughout Minneapolis culminated in a July 24th march and a 3-hour protest outside and inside the Park Board Commissioners’ meeting. Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation President Chelsie Glaubitz-Gabiou took the megaphone at that protest to put things in perspective:

“Our state is having a workers’ renaissance that’s bringing us all together to share our values and promote pro-worker legislation, expansion of bargaining rights, expansion of workers’ rights, while also fighting tooth and nail to preserve our democracy. The city is doing the same. The park board is an outlier in terms of still insisting on this language.” 

We at Workers Confluence applaud the worker-leaders who stayed strong through this strike, and the many union and community members who stood with them. This story is a valuable reminder of the importance of a strong and deeply connected worker justice ecosystem, so that we can come together not just to win new victories but also to defend what has previously been won.