Fight For Living Wages Ends In 26 Black Friday Arrests in St Paul, MN. ( great video, 1000 protest)

[annm4peace]

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(sorry, this isn't on youtube so didn't post in Video)

http://www.theuptake.org/2013/11/29/fight-for-living-wages-ends-in-26-black-friday-arrests-in-st-paul/#more-65153


(I had to work till noon today and when got off the freeway, the police had shut down the Snelling 3 blocks from this action and 3 blocks on either on either side of University also, I had to go 3 streets over and around a barracked to get near Snelling. I got to the corner just has police started to arrest the activists. Thankfully the police did it one at a time and slowly. I think it took about 1/2 hour and then off marching past Walmart and Target, all in 20 degree weather.)

Story for The UpTake by Sheila Regan/Video by Bill Sorem

One of those arrested at University and Snelling was Jessica English of Take Action Minnesota, who said she once became homeless working in retail as a single mom. “I’m here to fight to make sure that doesn’t happen to other moms,” she said.


Twenty-six people were arrested Friday during the “March to end Poverty Wages,” the culmination of a week of Black Friday actions pressing for better pay and working conditions and the right to organize for retail, janitorial and other low-wage workers in Minnesota. Friday’s afternoon’s march along University Avenue, which circled the Midway Super Target and Walmart stores, drew a crowd estimated at anywhere between 400 to about 1,000 people who marched to the intersection Snelling and University Avenues — the busiest intersection in the Twin Cities. It was in the intersection, on the busiest shopping day of the year, that 26 workers and supporters locked arms and sat in the street, waiting to be arrested by the St. Paul police.

The arrests marked a dramatic end to a week of actions fighting for low-income workers, including a Walmart strike earlier in the week in Brooklyn Center, worker-led demonstrations at a St. Cloud temporary hiring agency on Tuesday, a protest at the airport for people who work for contract cleaning firm and a picket in front of the downtown Minneapolis Target store Friday morning demanding better pay and the right to organize for Target janitorial workers who are hired by contracting firms. Organizations involved in the week’s activities included SEIU, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), OurWalmart, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and TakeAction Minnesota, all of which are organizing to raise wages for workers across the state.

One of those arrested at University and Snelling was Jessica English of Take Action Minnesota, who said she once became homeless working in retail as a single mom. “I’m here to fight to make sure that doesn’t happen to other moms,” she said.

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http://advocate.stpaulunions.org/2013/11/29/call-to-end-poverty-wages-rings-out-at-twin-cities-black-friday-protests/

Call to end poverty wages rings out from Black Friday protests in Twin Cities
November 29, 2013 by Union Advocate

Hundreds of people flocked to the Midway Walmart in St. Paul today, but it wasn’t deep discounts or door-buster deals they wanted. It was justice for workers who make the holiday season happen.

Members of the non-union worker group CTUL who clean area retail stores march in St. Paul. They picketed outside Target in Minneapolis earlier in the day.

Black Friday protests in the Twin Cities took on a renewed vigor this year, as activists from labor, faith and community groups capped off a week of demonstrations calling out low-wage employers like Walmart and Target – and building momentum for a legislative push to raise the state’s minimum wage.

The protests began early this morning, when janitors who clean Target stores throughout the metro area went on strike. Picketing outside the company’s flagship store downtown Minneapolis drew more than 100 supporters.

The action then shifted to University Avenue in St. Paul. Demonstrators marched past Target and Walmart stores on their way to the Snelling Avenue intersection. As hundreds of supporters cheered from the sidewalk, 26 people linked arms and sat down in the middle of the intersection. They were arrested, one by one, in acts of civil disobedience.

[pinboy3niner]

1. K&R

[rurallib]

2. kick - glad to see they got support.