By email, (CONTACT: Luchelle Stevens, 651-271-7881), this message: Tarryl Clark Earns Local Prominent Union’s First Endorsement in 2010 Election Cycle
St. Paul, MN (September 29, 2009) Citing her support for working families as a Minnesota legislator, and her leadership as the Assistant Majority Leader in the State Senate, SEIU Minnesota State Council today announced its endorsement of Tarryl Clark to represent Minnesota's 6th Congressional District in the United States Congress. The Service Employees International Union is the fastest-growing union in the country with 2.1 million members nationwide and 30,000 members in Minnesota.
"Tarryl has worked hard in the Senate representing working people in her District and now finally the 6th Congressional District has an opportunity to have a Congresswoman who works for the District and not for cable TV," said Carol Nieters, a resident of St. Cloud and Secretary Treasurer of the SEIU Minnesota State Council. "I volunteered for Tarryl in her Senate race. When I went door to door in the District for Tarryl, one thing was clear: voters really like her. She's proven she can win in a Republican leaning district."
"Whenever Minnesota's workers have needed her, Tarryl has been there," said Julie Schnell, President of the SEIU Minnesota State Council. "Whether inside the Capitol or alongside workers in the field, Tarryl has always stood up for the best interests of hard-working Minnesotans. We're proud to stand with her, and ready to get to work to win this election."
SEIU unites 30,000 healthcare workers, public school employees, and property service workers across Minnesota, and as the state's fourth largest union is a powerful voice for Minnesota's working families.
Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent, reports the endorsement.
Interestingly, there is one comment from a persistent Reed supporter there:
Well I’ll repost the comment I posted earlier today:
Tarryl Clark has done great work for the DFL. However, what that means is that she has voted for many major tax increases and has a very partisan voting record. It’s going to be impossible for her to run and win in the 6th District with her voting record.
If we want to unseat Michele Bachmann the candidate to back is Dr. Maureen Reed. Reed just had an editorial in the SCTimes and recently updated her website.
maureenreedforcongress.com
Reed has broad and extensive experience in Health Care, Business, Education, Environmental Issues and the Arts. She’s is able to tackle health care reform as a Doctor, Health Care Administrator, Medical Director, and Small and Medium Business CEO who had to purchase health insurance for all her employees. Reed is a middle of the road, Minnesota DFLer with the experience to be an effective legislator and a great candidate.
Whoa. If that's meant to convince me of anything, "Reed is a middle of the road, Minnesota DFLer," it convinces me further that Tarryl Clark is more appealing.
I don't want a middle of the road, IP, Tinklenberg type clone. I want a progressive. Clark could be a little more that way for my liking, but the district is behind times and too unresponsive to progressives, beyond ones like Amy Klobuchar, who carried it handily against the former GOP district Rep., Mark Kennedy.
By the way, I like Clark's voting record. It's too bad Maureen Reed lacks one, to measure her against Clark.
Finally, Clark has indeed stood with SEIU. In the cold. Reported ten months ago, this link, Paul Demko again the reporter.
Employees at Regina Medical Center walked off the job today, commencing a two-day strike to protest the hospital’s current contract proposal. The 230 employees, represented by Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota, include nurses’ aides, custodial workers and X-ray technicians.
The current three-year contract expired at the end of October, and there are no additional contract negotiations planned. Unlike most recent labor disputes, the chief stumbling block here isn’t health-care coverage, but rather employee retirement accounts.
“We are here to save our pensions,” said Jan Salo, (pictured at right) who has sterilized surgical tools at the facility for 20 years, at a rally this afternoon in front of the facility in Hastings. “Management wants to slash our pensions. We want to be able to retire with dignity and security, and we’re here to fight for it.”
Currently Regina Medical Center pays the equivalent of 8 percent of an employee’s salary into a pension plan if the worker has at least five years of experience and 4 percent for more recent hires. Under the medical center’s proposed change, the company would automatically contribute 2 percent into each employee’s retirement fund. If the worker then chooses to put part of his or her own salary into the plan, Regina would match that commitment up to an additional 6 percent of the individual’s wages for people who have worked there more than five years and 3 percent for newer employees.
To put this in concrete terms, if an employee currently makes $31,408 annually (a typical wage for a housekeeper), the company contributes $2,512.64 toward a retirement fund for anyone who has been working there for at least five years and half that amount for more recent hires. Under Regina’s proposed change the company would automatically contribute $628.16 to the worker’s pension plan each year. If the employee then chooses to put in additional money, the medical center would match it dollar-for-dollar up to an additional $1,884.48 for workers that have been there five years.St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark (pictured), along with a handful of labor leaders from other unions, showed up at the rally to show support for the workers. “You’re just trying to hold on to your basic pension,” Clark told the crowd. “The administration needs to come back to the table. They need to be looking at other alternatives.”
Curbing medical care operating costs does not mean having to press harder on the employees in the system at the low end of the totem pole. There are better answers, as a recent Maureen Reed op-ed in the St. Cloud paper indicated.
However, Reed to my knowledge has never been out in cold weather in support of any striking workers.
Clark has.
Union rank and file, unfortunately in too many cases, do not pay sufficient attention to such things, i.e., to what is best for their bottom line, while employers pay attention to little else.
Rank and file inattention to their best interests, as in voting stupid, happens often more in line with what the NRA tells them instead of what their own leadership suggests.
The NRA wants to maximize profits selling firearms and ammo, it is their ownership's bottom line. And their GOP bias is staggering. How rank and file can be so stupid, and constistently so, amazes me.
Pitch the orange cards this cycle, the ones saying "BACHMANN," and try something different, guys. THINK.
With that screed over: Clark can duplicate the Klobuchar showing, in the district, and can do so without her own people calling her "middle of the road" about anything.