Friends,
Tonight, in the Special Session, we heard SF 3 a bill on labor standards. Despite giving Governor Dayton their word to send the “preemption” bill alone to Governor Dayton, who said he would veto it, they combined it with several other measures. Preemption would take sick and safe time away from 150,000 people working in the Twin Cities and end any increases in minimum wage above the state’s floor. They combined that with a fix for pensions that would have helped tens of thousands of people, employee contacts that would have provided negotiated wage and benefit increases, and provisions that would have made it easier to stop unscrupulous employers from stealing wages from their employees.
This was beyond reprehensible for me. I took the very rare step of refusing to vote on the bill and giving an explanation for why. In all my time at the legislature I’ve never been so frustrated and angry to see such a mean spirited gimmick. You can watch my speech below:
The people of our community value fairness, for work they preform, for rights they’ve negotiated and pensions they’ve worked for. We are better than this.
I’m proud to be your voice on the issues that matter to our community here at the Capitol as we finish up this special session.
Sincerely,
Peter Fischer