Management and labor advocates at odds over Minneapolis Labor Standards Board proposal

Reb Roth works at the front desk of an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis, helping residents access the building's amenities and keeping an eye on people coming and going. He said he's faced a number of challenges in recent years, including concerns about workplace safety and having to adjust schedules.

“We do have some vacation time, but it's very hard to find people to fill in for missed shifts,” Ross said. “It would be great if there was a way to ensure people had access to vacation, sick time and safety periods.”

These are issues that Ross believes could be addressed by a city labor standards commission. Ross has campaigned for the commission with his union, SEIU Local 26, and the idea has long been supported by the Minneapolis City Council.

After a lengthy process, council members have shared language establishing the commission and say they plan to vote on it soon, but even before that happens, business leaders and labor advocacy groups are at odds over the idea.

What will the board do?

Specific details are still being worked out, but in general, the commission, if created, would be able to look into certain industries in Minneapolis, such as real estate services and restaurants.

The Commission will create industry-specific subcommittees comprised of local stakeholders, including workers, business owners, consumers and academics. The subcommittees will develop recommendations for new regulations to be presented to the City Council for consideration.

The Standards Committee cannot make regulations on its own: its recommendations must still go through the Council's full legislative process.

City council members voted last winter to draft the committee's design, and are still working with city staff to refine the language, but business owners and labor advocates have not yet seen a draft of the resolution.

Council member Aurin Chowdhury, one of the drafters of the resolution, said workers needed the forum the commission would provide to talk to their employers.

“Workers are dealing with a rising cost of living, and wages often don't keep up,” Chowdhury said. “Many workers have come forward and told us how they are struggling in different ways.”

Opposition from management

But the proposal has raised alarm bells for some employers, and several Minneapolis restaurateurs have banded together with Hospitality Minnesota to block the standards board.

Chef Gustavo Romero is the owner of Oro by Nixta, a Mexican tortilla and taco restaurant in northeast Minneapolis.

Romero said he is concerned that further regulations could emerge from the Labor Standards Commission, creating further challenges for an industry that has struggled during the pandemic.

“It seems like restaurants are finally getting some momentum and people are coming back. They're waiting for us to bounce back and bring people back,” Romero said.

Romero was one of 120 restaurateurs who signed a letter to the commission in June in opposition to the new rules, and the letter's authors said one-third of the signers were people of color who would be hardest hit by the new rules.

Romero said that like many minority restaurateurs who struggled to get their businesses off the ground in the first place, he is operating on thin margins and worries that more regulations could mean higher expenses and making more money won't be easy.

“We can't charge $6 a taco today and $10 tomorrow,” Romero said. “We're realistic and we know that's not going to work.”

He worries that city labor standards commissioners won't understand that.

Awaiting draft text

Municipal council vice-chair Aisha Chughtai said the committee was set up to avoid such misunderstandings, and as such, its investigations into specific industries will include employers and employees, she said.

Chughtai said he believes much of the backlash is due to misinformation and that the committee is working to include as many voices as possible in setting up the labor standards committee.

“Local residents, local workers, local entrepreneurs are either left out of policymaking around labor standards or feel left out of that policymaking,” Chughtai said. “I think the reason support for these policies comes in the first place is because people feel like their voices are not being heard.”

The idea of ​​a labor standards commission was first proposed two years ago when a majority of the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey, in solidarity with labor unions, supported it.

Brian Elliott, executive director of the Minnesota State Council of SEIU, said he thinks negotiations with employers will be easier once stakeholders see the draft language, which he said has taken longer to work through than other city policies he has worked on.

“When people don't know, they really assume the worst-case scenario, so one of the challenges we face is actually getting an ordinance drafted,” Elliott said. “We're all waiting on the draft on this policy.”

City council members said they hope to be ready to consider the resolution within the next few weeks.

The labor committee is part of a larger effort to give workers a forum in Minneapolis and across the nation. Unionization efforts have gained momentum in recent years, including at several Minneapolis restaurants. Kim's in Uptown recently unionized after owner Ann Kim called on workers to oppose unionization. Workers at four Colita and Cafe Ceres locations announced their intention to unionize last month.

Reb Ross says they want that seat.

“The pushback I've heard has been from employers who claim they know best what their employees need. I can't imagine that employers know what their employees need better than the employees,” Ross said.

City council members say they will schedule more meetings with employees and employers to hear their thoughts on the commission as they continue to draft the resolution.