Union Bosses Going All Out to Capture Congress
During the months leading up to Election Day 2026, Big Labor bosses’ focus on politics has never been more explicit.
As even pro-forced unionism legislators in the Land of 10,000 Lakes acknowledge, in-home child care workers and in-home personal care attendants are not public employees.
Nevertheless, government union bosses are demanding enactment of a bill empowering them to force thousands of self-employed Minnesotans whose clients receive state subsidies to fork over union dues or fees in order to stay in business.
This morning the Big Labor-controlled Minnesota state Senate voted to give American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME/AFL-CIO) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) union bosses what they want. The power grab now moves on to the state House of Representatives. A report today by Jim Ragsdale of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune (see link below) recounts the latest developments in the battle over S.F.778, sponsored by Sen. Sandy Pappas (Democrat-Farm-Labor, St. Paul):
The debate is believe to be the longest ever, at least in records kept by the Legislative Reference Library. Senators and staffers and union activists remained in the chamber, or nearby, the entire time.
“This is a horrible, horrible bill — the worst bill in my 11 years,” said Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester.
Sen. Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, said if the state can get involved in child-care businesses because some accept children with state subsidies, it could expand into other businesses.
“Do we take on the grocers because they accept WIC?” he asked. “Where doe it end?”
“This is a very, very sad day,” added Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont.
During the months leading up to Election Day 2026, Big Labor bosses’ focus on politics has never been more explicit.
According to AFSCME Local 1632 President Will Harmon, Columbus Water & Power committed a grievous offense by subcontracting out the job of clearing away invasive weeds and brush spread out across two acres of its property to a tribe of roughly 40 goats without first “negotiating” with Big Labor.
On June 5, a federal jury in Kansas convicted former Boilermakers President Newton Jones, who had headed the union from 2003 until 2023, his wife, Kateryna, and two other IBB bosses of embezzling millions of dollars in union dues extracted from workers as a condition of employment.