It’s been two years since we started calling frontline workers “essential” as they kept our state running during the pandemic. They showed up every day, including without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for most of the first year of the pandemic. These nearly 700,000 health care workers, educators, food service workers, janitors, security officers, government employees, meatpackers, and more risked their lives to go to work, while hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans have gotten sick and nearly 10,000 have died.
Most of these workers, however, have not been compensated for the sacrifices they continue to make and the risks they continue to face. That’s just plain wrong – and it doesn’t have to be that way.
That’s why essential workers and a coalition of organizations, including TakeAction Minnesota, are holding events at the Capitol and across the state this week to push several bills that will #MakeItRight for essential workers:
Frontline Essential Worker Pay
With a $9.25 billion budget surplus in Minnesota, it’s clear that we have enough to compensate essential workers, the same people who made the surplus possible in the first place by risking their lives to keep our state going.
Last year, the legislature passed a bill to give $250 million to essential workers. A nine-member Frontline Worker Pay Working Group could not agree which workers would receive a check and how much they would receive. DFL members in the group argued for a more inclusive definition of what makes a worker essential. Under the DFL’s equitable definition, each worker would have received approximately $380 each. At the same time, GOP members argued for a more exclusive definition of what makes a worker essential, proposing that 160,000 workers each receive approximately $1,500.
This year, however, a bill from Rep. Cedrick Frazier and Sen. Erin Murphy would appropriate $1 billion to provide $1,500 checks to an inclusive (rather than exclusive) definition, distributing those much-needed funds among 667,000 frontline essential workers. The House passed the bill nearly three weeks ago while the Senate has failed to act. Under the Frazier/Murphy bill, the following frontline sectors would be defined as essential:
- Long-term care and home care
- Health care, excluding physicians
- Emergency responders
- Public health, social service, and regulatory service
- Courts and corrections
- Child care
- Public schools, including charter schools, state schools, and higher ed
- Food service, including production, processing, preparation, sale, and delivery
- Retail, including sales, fulfillment, distribution, and delivery
- Temporary shelters and hotels
- Building services, including maintenance, janitorial, and security
- Public transit
- Ground and air transportation services
- Manufacturing
- Vocational rehabilitation
Earned Sick and Safe Time
In Minnesota, every working person deserves paid time to care. No matter where we live, Minnesotans are united by the aspirations we share and the love we have for our families. But too many hardworking people are being left behind and forced to make impossible choices. We need a family-friendly Minnesota that works for all of us. We need paid time to care.
The pandemic has made clear that our health and well-being is tied together, and we all benefit when workers have access to paid sick time. Three Minnesota cities— Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Duluth—have paid sick day ordinances for workers. Across Minnesota, about 36 percent of workers don’t have access to paid sick days.
Under this bill from Rep. Liz Olson and Sen. Pappas, workers can accrue up to 48 hours of paid sick time per year. Paid sick time means you don’t need to go to work sick. It also means a worker can take care of a sick child, go to the doctor, take time to address domestic abuse, get a COVID test, or seek safety without having to worry about losing pay or getting fired.
Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) is good for working people and our communities. It upholds the dignity of Minnesota workers and protects people from losing their jobs or facing workplace discipline when they need time to care.
Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act
Nurses are fiercely dedicated to their mission, and there is no shortage of nurses who want to provide safe, high-quality care for their patients. Rather, conditions being imposed by hospital CEOs are leading to the understaffing of nurses because they care more about the bottom line – and raking in millions in compensation and benefits. This bill, from Sen. Erin Murphy and Rep. Liz Olson, would address the hospital short-staffing and retention crisis while improving the quality-of-care that patients receive in Minnesota hospitals.
Under the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act, all hospitals in Minnesota would be required to establish a staffing committee made up of nurses, staff, and management to put together a core staffing plan to meet the needs of patients. At least sixty percent of each staffing committee would be made up of nurses. The committee would then set a maximum number of patients that each nurse can safely care for while providing flexibility.
To meet care needs across the state, the bill would invest additional resources to recruit and train more nursing students by broadening an existing student loan forgiveness program. Further, a new student loan forgiveness program would be created to help even more nurses working at the bedside. And because we must take care of those who take care of us, this bill would invest in mental health support for nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Worker warehouse safety
A December 2021 report from the National Employment Law Project found that Minnesota workers in Amazon facilities are more than twice as likely as other warehouse workers to be injured on the job. Using Amazon’s own data, one injury for every nine workers occurred each year from 2018-2020. These rates of injury are being driven by productivity quotas, which are often not disclosed to the workers. The quotas are enforced through intense surveillance with a constant threat of discipline or termination.
In addition to an unsafe workplace, the report found that Black warehouse workers’ pay was 63 percent of white warehouse workers’ pay. Amazon’s unethical practices have driven turnover rates of more than 100 percent, wage declines for workers, the exploitation of seasonal workers, and high costs to the public.
There is a bill from Rep. Emma Greenman and Sen. Kari Dziedzic to implement practical and common-sense policies to protect warehouse workers. Under the bill, large warehouse employers like Amazon would be required to inform workers of quotas and performance standards to which they’re being held, as well as a duty to inform workers when those standards change.
While many of us take for granted workplace rights like breaks to have a meal, use the bathroom, or sit for a moment, too many workers are often denied these basic rights. This bill would ensure these rights for workers.
If it weren’t for large studies like the one discussed above, we may not be aware of the systemic exploitation of workers occurring daily across the state. Under this bill, workers would have access to some data that companies like Amazon collect to discern how fast work is being done and how well the work is being performed.
