By Casey Holmstrom and H. Jiahong Pan

Saving our hospital. Voting on a strike. Fighting for immigrant rights. Saving the planet. Addressing the proliferation of tech. 

These are some of the reasons workers throughout Hennepin County decided to rally on May Day. The Hennepin County Medical Center is in danger of closing if it does not have a sustainable funding source. Though the Minnesota Senate passed a bill including a $149 million carveout for the hospital over the next two years, advocates say it’s not enough long-term. 

Meanwhile, Target Field workers also voted to strike for the first time since the stadium opened in 2010. Affordability remains a concern, as well as the lack of health insurance and nonprofits sending volunteers to work the stands for free while raising money for their cause. 

Two of your fellow members decided to visit several rallies being held throughout the Twin Cities to understand what issues are important to your fellow workers.

Clergy gather to pray for HCMC

Clergy members, led by faith group ISAIAH, held a 24-hour vigil outside of the Hennepin County Medical Center leading up to May Day. As the hours went by, members sang, recited litanies, and walked around the hospital, holding prayer breaks in between. 

With two weeks to go before the legislative session ends, clergy members are pushing for a long-term solution to keep HCMC open, which is facing a $50 million operating deficit. HCMC is a safety-net hospital that provides uncompensated care, its costs of which more than doubled between 2020 and 2024. 

HCMC is also one of five Level 1 trauma centers in the state of Minnesota, and one of three in the Twin Cities, the other two being North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale and Regions Hospital in Saint Paul. 

“I don’t think we even fully understand the magnitude of how our other hospitals and emergency departments across the city would be so overwhelmed by the number of patients seeking care. People will die, ultimately, is what that means, and we cannot allow that to happen,” said Sydney Hobart, who works in healthcare, as clergy members recited litanies in support of healthcare workers.

Two proposals would increase the Target Field Stadium ballpark tax and redirect much of its revenue to fund the hospital. Other proposals involve appropriating money from the general fund.  

On April 29, the Minnesota Senate passed their Health and Human Services bill (SF 4612) which hopes to earmark $149 million for the hospital over the next two years, along with an additional $500,000 for an advisory committee to recommend potential ownership, governance and financing changes. The Minnesota House is debating a bill (HF 4841) that would increase the ballpark tax to 0.75% and grant HCMC $150 million to stay afloat, as well as restructure the HCMC governing board.

Hobart believes the health care system needs to be reformed. “(We need to) expand healthcare for all, that healthcare is a basic human right. What continues to happen is that people continue to be taken advantage of, so that others can profit,” added Hobart. 

Until then, HCMC has already begun reducing services to fill the budget gap, including closing its chiropractic and acupuncture services and its sleep clinic. They will begin to close the rest of the hospital in June if the Legislature does not reach a solution.

Saving the environment through diverse portfolios

Jane Buckley is an AFSCME retiree who last worked in recycling at Ramsey County. She participated in an action with the Sunrise Movement, who gathered to softly sing and march on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge to demonstrate against ICE and the Iran war, as well as for climate justice. Minneapolis Police arrested six demonstrators for staging a sit-in on vehicle lanes on the bridge. 

Though Buckley would prefer people reduce, reuse and recycle their waste, she was skeptical about whether the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center should be shuttered.

“I have tried for forty years to educate people on recycling and reducing and waste, the 3 Rs, it’s been impossible, it’s been so frustrating! So if they think they’re gonna shut down the incinerator, great, but where are you going to put the garbage? And it has to get shipped to places that have landfills. That takes fossil fuels! Fossil fuels burn and pollute,” said Buckley, adding that incinerators such as HERC are a lot more regulated than crematoriums, which can incinerate mercury and chemotherapy chemicals. (Minnesota Statute 149A.95, which regulates cremation, makes no mention of required filters for crematoriums.)

Hennepin County wants to shutter the downtown Minneapolis incinerator by 2040, however, the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, a consortium of activists and north Minneapolis community members, want it closed sooner and recently staged a 12-day hunger strike. 

She also has been trying to get the Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest their holdings from fossil fuels. “My pension is invested in fossil fuels! And for me to pull my deferred comp stuff out costs me money to reinvest, why are they charging me a fee to pull my money to invest in green technology? The government has a big responsibility to be a leader in not investing in fossil fuels, providing us good benefits, and retirement benefits,” said Buckley. 

Buckley also has a cabin on the shore of Lake Kabetogama, close to Voyageurs National Park. She is concerned about a recent act of Congress led by 8th district Rep. Pete Stauber to overturn a mining moratorium affecting the Boundary Waters. 

“I cannot get ahold of Stauber. He will not hold town halls, I made an appointment to see him, they said ‘no,’” said Buckley as she expressed frustration. She hopes to support Trina Swanson, who is running against Stauber and has the DFL endorsement.

Hospitality workers striking, with possibly more to come? 

Workers at the Hotel Ivy and the Normandy Inn, both in downtown Minneapolis, went on strike after months of failed contract negotiations. 

However, workers at the Normandy Inn may be negotiating soon. “It took us going on strike to actually make dates,” UNITE HERE Local 17 President Christa Sarrack said as strikers marched and banged drums outside of the Normandy Inn. Sarrack says the contract has been open for negotiations since February and the employer never came to the negotiating table. 

“The workers have been ignored by the owner for the last several months, and they demanded to bargain, and the owner has simply just not responded at all,” added Sarrack. 

Workers with Delaware North, which provides concession services for Target Field, voted to authorize a strike on a sunny afternoon. One of them is Devante Boyd, who grew up playing football and basketball in Hopkins and works as a runner, relaying food from cooks to ballpark guests.

“We want more for the work that we do,” Boyd said in an interview before his Target Field shift started. “Just giving us a wage where it will help us be able to cover all of our expenses.” Many stadium workers work second jobs, often at other stadiums.

Their demands include a $20 minimum wage for all positions, plus a $3 raise for each role, whichever is higher. They also do not want nonprofits to have their volunteers work the stands for free to raise money for their organizations. 

Meanwhile, SEIU Local 26 canceled a strike action at the Minneapolis Institute of Art after workers reached a tentative agreement. 

Fighting for immigrants, fighting for workers, fighting against greed and fascism

Later in the afternoon, about 2,000 people gathered on Lake Street between Park and Chicago Avenues for the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee’s 20th annual May Day march. The annual tradition, addressing the rise of fascism and greed, as well as the struggle of workers and immigrants, kicked off with dancing from Aztec dance troupe Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue, along with speeches from organizers with different organizations. It culminated with a march eastward towards the East Lake Target, demonstrators chanting, joined by an array of brass bands based here, as well as in Madison and San Francisco. 

Minneapolis Federation of Educators Educational Support Professional President Catina Taylor participated in May Day to fight for the dignity of our immigrant neighbors. “Everyone should be welcomed. They should feel safe, and they shouldn’t have to worry about getting picked up from ICE. These folks are working, they are taxpayers, their kids are in school, they are contributing to the communities that they live in and they work in,” Taylor said.

Andy Willey thinks immigration should be addressed differently. “Give the best service, ask them to go back to their country if possible, and see if they can work on problems in their country and then come back,” said Willey. “The best thing to do is work on human rights in the countries where they’re coming from so they don’t have to leave.”

Meanwhile, Erica Ortega participated in May Day to fight fascism. “That’s kind of where we’re headed here. It’s gonna take away everyone’s freedoms. The attack on people’s First Amendment rights, people are being targeted by the federal government, people are dying in detention centers and just in really terrible conditions,” Ortega said, adding anti-fascism means not being persecuted for their political and moral beliefs, as well as having housing, food, and income equality. 

Cookie Cupcake, a volunteer with Minnesota 50501, thinks our descent to fascism will be challenging to undo. “I think we need aliens at this point to come and help us,” Cookie Cupcake said.

Several people also showed up on May Day to bring awareness to big tech’s role in greed, fascism, and the environment. Sandy Tang, a software engineer who descended from ethnic Chinese immigrants from Vietnam, wants to ensure big tech serves humanity instead of being used to generate profit. 

“Surveillance and computer vision, great use would be for fighting wildfires, for delivering aid. Not great for being able to target civilians or having unmanned drones or even using generative AI,” Tang said at the rally. 

Two Edina Middle School students also participated in the demonstration by distributing pamphlets calling attention to a May 21 Minneapolis City Council vote to halt data centers until a study on its environmental impacts can be conducted.

AFSCME Hennepin workers rally for contract ahead of negotiations

Finally, our union gathered with five other AFSCME Hennepin locals, as well as members of HCMC AFSCME Local 2474, at the base of Government Center to show unity ahead of contract negotiations in 2027. With HCMC in dire straits, along with federal funding cuts, Hennepin County is facing a grim 2027 budget which they are attempting to balance. 

Amanda Gustafson is President of AFSCME Local 2864, one of six Hennepin locals that participated at the rally. She is worried about how the contract would be affected by the county’s budget challenges. “That’s why we wanted to put this together. We want to go into it really strong together,” Gustafson said. 

Meanwhile, the federal funding cuts have impacted our ability to do our work. “We have a federal government that is attacking Medicaid and that is really attacking our ability to serve the residents and our neighbors. We should be taking resources and reallocating them based on need and based on what people have an ability to pay, not going after people that are elderly, who are just trying to pay the taxes on their homes, going after the working class, and people that are trying to save for their future,” AFSCME Local 34 Vice President-elect Kenneth Winslow Garnier said in a speech.