Minnesota unions make waves with new strategy

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Unions across the Twin Cities brought their voices together in a coordinated effort last week, as workers in various industries authorized strikes.

More than 10,000 nursing home workers, janitors, airport employees, and more took part in labor protests last week, as union organizers aimed to raise public awareness.

Twin Cities labor historian Peter Rachleff called it a turning point in labor movements nationwide.

"We have a generation of new union leadership who are open to trying new things - to not doing things exactly the way things were done before," said Rachleff.

He believes the strategy of acting together is an attempt to appeal to the general public, without negatively impacting the lives of everyday people. 

"Rather than the old kind of strikes in the auto industry, steel industry, meat packing industry that might go on for months and would be about hurting the employer economically until the employer would come back to the bargaining table…. Now it's really playing to the court of public opinion."

Amid a nationwide labor shortage, many experts say unions are in a position of power for the first time in a long time.

Here in the Twin Cities, the St. Paul teachers announced it had reached a tentative deal with the district, averting a strike. While Minneapolis Public Works employees accepted a new contract which union leaders say gave them the biggest wage increase in recent history.

"We are in a very interesting new moment in terms of how the labor movement functions in the United States," said Rachleff.