Workday Magazine

This community has already faced structural racism and disinvestment. A two-week blackout unleashed a humanitarian disaster.

What Two Weeks without Power in Gary, Indiana Tells Us About Our Worsening Climate Crisis GARY, INDIANA – Ruben Chavez was in an elevator at his high-rise apartment in Gary, Indiana, on August 11, when severe storms knocked out the power. He got stuck between the fourth and fifth floors, and according to a staff member who helped retrieve him, workers at the building called 911, operat...

Read our latest on how Minnesota labor and community organizations are taking action in defense of workers, and their demands for corporations in the state.

“A Manufactured Conspiracy”: Minnesota’s Labor Movement Denounces Federal Surveillance Operation Leaders and workers respond to the federal government’s surveillance of organized labor and community in Minnesota.

One morning, when Jacob started his 9 a.m. shift as a UPS driver in Minnesota, he noticed it was hazy outside. It was July 16, and wildfires raging across northeastern Minnesota and southern Canada had unleashed acrid, hazardous smoke across much of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was urging people to stay indoors. But Jacob was expected to work an estimated 9- or 10-hour shift, getting in and out of his vehicle delivering packages.

Management hadn’t provided any protective measures, like masks, he says, and he was inhaling the toxic smoke for hours. “The worst part about driving and working outside is we don’t have air conditioning or anything,” he says over the phone. “On that day it was extremely hot as well as humid, so we drove with both doors open on the highway or just in our delivery area. We were exposed to the air.” (Jacob is a pseudonym, and I’m not identifying his specific work location within Minnesota, to protect him from retaliation.)

Three hours into his shift, he felt a tightness in his chest. “I didn’t pay it no mind until I started to get light-headed,” he tells me. Determining it was unsafe to keep driving, Jacob sought medical attention. After hours of observation and tests, he was eventually cleared for release, but the experience left him unsettled. Wildfires are growing larger and more destructive due to human-made climate change. “It’s a little scary knowing that you’re breathing in toxic air and still needing to service your community, and that there isn’t anything in place that protects you or your wellbeing,” he says.

As climate change intensifies, worsening fires and extreme weather are creating increasingly hostile conditions for workers like Jacob. Alongside fighting for healthcare, wages and better treatment, these workers now find themselves fighting for protections from dangerous heat, smoke and storms—the severity of which is only expected to worsen if the status quo continues. Our warming planet, in other words, is defining the terrain in which workers must organize.

Read our latest.

Smoke, Heat, Storms: How Climate Change Is Making Bad Working Conditions Even Worse One morning, when Jacob started his 9 a.m. shift as a UPS driver in Minnesota, he noticed it was hazy outside. It was July 16, and wildfires raging across northeastern Minnesota and southern Canada had unleashed acrid, hazardous smoke across much of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency....

These workers are fighting for the first-ever union contracts for in-house workers in high-rise residential buildings in the Twin Cities. If their concerns haven't been addressed by August 14, they say they will go on strike.

“We Are Fighting for a Comfortable Life”: High-Rise Condo Workers in Minneapolis Threaten to Strike High-rise condo workers rallied in the rain at the River Towers in downtown Minneapolis on the morning of July 31 to send a message to their employers: They have set a deadline of August 14 for a strike over unfair labor practice alleging management is refusing to turn over information needed for ba...

A labor watchdog is requesting an investigation into a Minnesota nursing home due to concerns about transparency regarding union avoidance activity.

Researchers Say Employers Are Failing to Adequately Report Spending on Union Busting In 2025, Cassandra Thomas and her coworkers at Chapel View Nursing Home in Hopkins, Minn., formed a union in order to improve pay and address what they say are consistently low-staffing issues that hurt both workers and the residents they care for. Speaking at a Minnesota Senate Labor Committee hear...

In Whiting, Indiana, 800 BP workers have been locked out for four months, and they say the survival of their union is at stake.

Locked Out Refinery Workers Say BP Is Trying to “Starve Us,” Crush Union This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. WHITING, INDIANA—Elizabeth Piña has been at her union hall since 4:00 a.m., checking in picketers, organizing the food pantry, and chatting with her coworkers. She is wearing a black t-shirt, and sitting behind a t...

Nurses at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Center City, Minn., say they “have been pushed to the breaking point.” They are in negotiations for their first union contract.

Nurses at Hazelden Betty Ford are Striking for a First Contract Nurses who work in addiction treatment are fighting for patient and worker safety in their first union contract.

After a fierce contract fight, transit workers celebrate the City of Rochester’s decision to terminate the contract with Transdev in favor of a new transit company following concerns over union busting, rider experience, and AI surveillance of workers.

Rochester Transit Workers “Cautiously Optimistic” About Non-Renewal of Transdev’s Contract On July 6, Rochester, Minn. City Council voted unanimously to award Via Transportation with a contract to manage Rochester Public Transit (RPT)—replacing Transdev, the former management company. Transdev faced strong opposition from transit workers for alleged mismanagement, union-busting, and con...

Those speaking in solidarity with the 15 indicted were overwhelmingly from the labor movement, and they argued that the conspiracy charges are a form of political repression for the widespread response to Operation Metro Surge, are intended to silence dissent, and are an attack on unions’ and workers’ rights to freedom of speech, protest, and organizing.

“An Attack on All of Us”: Labor Rallies at Courthouse for the Minnesota 15 Ahead of the first hearing for the 15 activists and community defenders charged with conspiracy by the federal government, a crowd full of supporters gathered and demonstrated in solidarity.

The national AFL-CIO held its 30th quadrennial constitutional convention in Minneapolis, where less than a week later, several unionists were arrested for their activism on charges of conspiracy.

As Labor Celebrates Minnesota’s Resistance Against ICE, Federal Indictments Raise the Stakes