Guest Editorial: MN AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham - All Eyes on Minnesota
The AFL-CIO Convention showcased Minnesota as proof that when workers organize together, they can build stronger communities, win meaningful reforms, and inspire a national movement.
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While politics is often analyzed from the outside, BNB’s Guest Editorial Series aims to flip that perspective by highlighting the firsthand experiences of those working inside the political and policy arena. This includes lawmakers crafting and ushering legislation, candidates navigating the campaign trail, career civil servants implementing public programs, and political operatives shaping strategy behind the scenes.
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Below, is a guest editorial from Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham.
Sometimes you don’t realize how special something is until you have the opportunity to see it through someone else’s eyes.
Earlier this month, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) brought its 30th Constitutional Convention to Minneapolis. Every five years, delegates from across the country gather to chart the future of America’s Labor Movement. This year, thousands of union members, leaders and activists came to Minnesota.
What they found here was something remarkable. The speeches and presentations surrounding the convention often focused on Minnesota’s response to Operation Metro Surge and the wave of federal immigration enforcement actions that traumatized families and communities across our state. Those stories mattered, and they deserved attention.
When immigrant workers and their families came under attack, Minnesota’s Labor Movement stood up. Union members joined faith leaders, community organizations and neighbors in defending our communities. We spoke out and took action because solidarity isn’t simply a word. It is our movement’s guiding principle. When we say an injury to one is an injury to all, we mean it.
However, our historic resistance to Metro Surge was part of something even larger and something we communicated to convention delegates. The reason Minnesota workers responded so quickly and effectively is because we have spent years building something stronger than a moment. We have spent years building relationships, coalitions, and a culture of solidarity that reaches across job, race, religious, and regional and backgrounds.
The delegates who came to Minneapolis did not just see resistance. They saw what we collectively built and continue to build. They saw a state where workers organized for years to win universal paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe time, expanded union rights and protections, and some of the strongest labor laws in the nation. They saw unions organizing new workplaces and growing membership. They saw new construction projects across the state and apprenticeship programs preparing the next generation of skilled tradespeople. They saw public and private sector workers fighting together for stronger communities.
They saw a Labor Movement that understands economic, social and racial justice are inseparable. That’s why the AFL-CIO awarded Minnesota’s Labor Movement the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award during the convention. The award recognized our collective response to attacks on immigrant workers and our commitment to defending human dignity. While we are honored by the recognition, the truth is that Minnesota union members were simply living our values.
The convention also offered a reminder that Minnesota’s successes didn’t happen by accident. Every gain working Minnesotans won is because we organized, voted, negotiated, and stood together.
Just like our state was ready to resist when ICE came to town, we must prepare for the very real possibility the Trump administration will use the same tactics to disrupt our election this November. This administration didn’t care whether they detained US citizens in ICE raids, so there’s no reason to believe they won’t try to prevent us from exercising our fundamental right to vote. Whatever happens, know that Minnesota’s Labor Movement will be there every step of the way – standing in solidarity to protect our Democracy.
Across the country, workers are demanding a greater voice on the job and a fairer share of the wealth we create. Here in Minnesota, we have an opportunity to continue leading by example. That means organizing more workers into unions, electing leaders who stand with us, and continuing to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
For one week in June, all eyes were on Minnesota. What visitors saw was not perfection. They saw a state still grappling with challenges. But they also saw something many people thought had become a thing of the past: people choosing solidarity over fear, community over division and hope over cynicism. That is Minnesota’s Labor Movement at its best. I hope that is what America remembers.